alexwritesdragons

[alexwritesdragons]

[alexwritesdragons]

I spend way too much time on my fandom account. I'm even posting about my og novels there. I'm going to start posting on here AT LEAST once a week, especially WIP Wednesdays.

[alexwritesdragons]

[alexwritesdragons]

This is your friendly reminder that the last few years have been hard, and if your writing has taken a toll as a result, that doesn’t make you any less of a writer. Maybe you went on hiatus. Maybe you got burnout. Maybe life gave you shit and other things took priority. It doesn’t matter. Writing is hard, so when life is hard, you might end up slacking in the writing department. And that’s okay. There’s no rule that says you have to write even when life is shitting on you. You’re allowed to take a break, and you can start writing again when you feel ready.

[alexwritesdragons]

First photoshoot pic of my debut novel: “The Coward’s Emblem”

photo credit @ketolic who is the best friend a person could ask for <3

[alexwritesdragons]

Spoiler question: What is the relation between the person and the emblem? Can anyone use an emblem and become a dragon?

Oof, this is not how the emblem works! The emblem is the human word for "rohh".

A rohh is a dragon's soul.

In brief:

1- person and emblem? depends on the person you mean.

2- can anyone use it? hmmm, yes and no. also depends on the person.

More in depth explanation below the cut:

If you take the rohh, you don't become a dragon, you are a dragon's Chosen. Or, if you're a terrible villain, there are other things you can do with it...

If a dragon willingly gives you their rohh, their emblem, you are Chosen. You can live longer, you're stronger, faster, an augmented human. If you're a magic caster, your magic is more powerful. If you're not, well, surprise, now you are! You can tap into the dragon's innate magic and use it yourself almost instinctively. (The more connected you are, the better your relationship, the more you understand magic, etc, the better mage you are.)

In brief:

1- person and emblem? depends on the person you mean.

2- can anyone use it? hmmm, yes and no. also depends on the person.

[alexwritesdragons]

How has your fan-fiction writing background influenced your writing style compared to a more academic, MFA in creative writing background?

Well, firstly, I don't have an MFA and neither of my BAs (I double majored) are in writing either. So I don't think I can make a fair comparison.

However, as I think about it, I don't think there's ever a fair comparison between the two. It's comparing apples and oranges, and leans into an elitist idea that "good writers" have degrees in writing. I'm sure going to school for writing does help a lot, but writing is about ideas and motivation and love of what you're writing.

Fanfiction makes it easier for me to confident. It taught me that no matter what I write, I write for me first (or maybe my friend first, since TCE was thought up as a birthday gift). And hopefully, along the way, someone else will like it, too. Whatever an MFA could teach me, I think this lesson in confidence and joy is the most important.

[alexwritesdragons]

Did you know you can make fake tweets from your characters?

This is so much fun. You can even pick the profile images and usernames. I was originally going to use an incorrect quote generator, but I realized that real quotes from the book are perfectly good!

[alexwritesdragons]

[alexwritesdragons]

the funniest dnd trope is when people ask in character "if you were to visualise your health as numbers what would you say your maximum is and how much would you say, out of that, you still have?"

[alexwritesdragons]

Microsoft announces it will shut down ebook program and confiscate its customers' libraries

Microsoft has a DRM-locked ebook store that isn’t making enough money, so they’re shutting it down and taking away every book that every one of its customers acquired effective July 1.

Customers will receive refunds.

This puts the difference between DRM-locked media and unencumbered media into sharp contrast. I have bought a lot of MP3s over the years, thousands of them, and many of the retailers I purchased from are long gone, but I still have the MP3s. Likewise, I have bought many books from long-defunct booksellers and even defunct publishers, but I still own those books.

When I was a bookseller, nothing I could do would result in your losing the book that I sold you. If I regretted selling you a book, I didn’t get to break into your house and steal it, even if I left you a cash refund for the price you paid.

People sometimes treat me like my decision not to sell my books through Amazon’s Audible is irrational (Audible will not let writers or publisher opt to sell their books without DRM), but if you think Amazon is immune to this kind of shenanigans, you are sadly mistaken. My books matter a lot to me. I just paid $8,000 to have a container full of books shipped from a storage locker in the UK to our home in LA so I can be closer to them. The idea that the books I buy can be relegated to some kind of fucking software license is the most grotesque and awful thing I can imagine: if the publishing industry deliberately set out to destroy any sense of intrinsic, civilization-supporting value in literary works, they could not have done a better job.

https://boingboing.net/2019/04/02/burning-libraries.html

[alexwritesdragons]

What was the most difficult scene for you to write? Conversely what was your favorite scene to write

OOF here's a doozy, especially since it'll involve spoilers for my debut novel (May 1 2022!!), so maybe I'll just keep it a bit more vague...

The most difficult scenes to write are definitely the action/battle scenes, though they are the most satisfying to finish. In TCE, there's a scene of a knight v GIANT DRAGON and I was just like... how does this work?? I read Robin McKinley's Hero and the Crown and rewatched Dragonheart (Dennis Quaid, Sean Connery, amazing nostalgic movie!) for some help. Then, I spent a lot of time in deep ~imagination~ basically making a movie in my head and trying to get the style of writing to reflect the pace of the fight. Tough? Yes. Satisfying? VERY YES.

I'm a total romance shill, monster/alien love interest trope is a longtime fave, so the teases and baits of the different connections between characters was probably the most fun. The best scenes, though, were the scenes with Arash, the snarky b*tch dragon being his snarkiest b*tchiest self. One of my favorite lines ever is said by him.

[alexwritesdragons]

My favourite type of movie is “period piece romance but fantasy-horror hijinks happen and now everyone has to adapt to the new genre or die,” ala Curse of the Black Pearl, Anastasia, The Mummy (1999)

[alexwritesdragons]

I recently read Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards! where he presents some unorthodox style dragons. What are some other unique representations of dragons you've read and how have they influenced your work?

I've really only read a few Pratchett stories (which a major failing on my part) but I go5chu here

I think my biggest influences are:

Patricia C. Wrede (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles)

Tamora Pierce (esp her The Immortals Quartet)

and a little bit of Elizabeth Kerner (Kolmar series)

I like dragons being mages with full sentience and their own cultures, all but immortal, and gender being a thing they barely care about. And, as Kerner wrote them, sexy. While I can appreciate dragons written more like magical beasts (ex. I did really love GuardsGuards and the dragons were interesting!) than "people", I do hard-core HATE when dragons only have two hind legs and little clawsies on their wings. they are not bats. they are not wyverns. they are DRAGONS, four legs or bust.

[alexwritesdragons]

There are places that declare the identity of the landscapes that inhabit the soul itself.

Joni Baltar

[alexwritesdragons]

[alexwritesdragons]

dark green is a nice color. underrated