#7thkarma

[vivilove-jonsa]

Hello,

Since you've published a book I was wondering if I may ask a couple question?

Does it feel different from writing fanfictions?

Do you find your self relating to GRRM's pace of writing like the long years between books?

How did you like your covers for your original works? Did it take long to pick out?

This is just crack question but any chance there's a minor red headed character with her dark haired partner? You know as a little Easter egg jk. But in all seriousness we always knew you could sell your works and I'm glad you took the chance!

Hello!

Wow, I'm flattered that you want to know this stuff so thank you for asking! I'll happily answer each one below the cut :)

Does it feel different from writing fanfictions?

Yes. The joy of writing is still very much with me but there's some major differences and things I've had to adapt to when looking to sell books as an unknown author versus writing fanfic for a pairing that people are seeking out. The biggest is the wait for validation. Can't post a chapter of an idea, see how people respond and start crafting a story from there. You write the whole damn novel with little to no input from anyone else and then put it out there for critique before publishing.

It may sound weird but I've found more freedom writing original works in some ways and more restrictions in others.

The restrictions involve more planning, outlining and plotting. I have to stay on track instead of indulging in Side-Character B's backstory or a secondary romance, etc. Also, I would hop from genre to genre with my AUs and, while there are authors doing that I'm sure, it's not a safe bet for a newbie looking to make money. So, I found a niche in contemporary romance that I enjoy reading and writing and I dove in. I'll probably tackle another niche with a new pen once I've got ten or so books under my belt with the current pen name to try it out.

The freedoms involve making my characters whoever they tell me they are. No one will scream 'that's OCC!' because these are my characters. There's no trappings of canon or expectations in that sense either although romance readers tend to have favored tropes, etc and they expect you to stick to the 'formula of romance.' Also, I miss talking fic with other writers and fans of my Jonsa works as there's more distance between me as an author and people who read my books. Don't get me wrong, I love interacting with some of them who have reached out but the gap is there and it can feel lonelier.

Do you find yourself relating to GRRM's pace of writing like the long years between books?

No, lol. This is a side hustle for me but a romance writer would starve going at his pace unless you had that miracle hit right off the bat (which is soooooo rare) and even then you need to keep producing product to keep from becoming obsolete. I started my first novel February 1st last year. I will have FIVE completed by February 1st of this year. I'm shooting to average a book every 3 months this year at least. It takes me roughly six to eight weeks to write it and the remaining time goes into editing, formatting and submitting for ARC reviews. Quality AND quantity are the name of the game to earn money. In GRRM's defense though, my books average 75k words and one of those five was a novella at 40k words. And my books are romance centering on two individuals which are far less complicated to tell than his enormous fantasy opus with a cast of hundreds.

How did you like your covers for your original works? Did it take long to pick out?

Yes, I love them! The cover of your book is the single most important part of your passive marketing and you want your book to be as to-market as possible to attract readers in your genre and niche. My niche involves hot guys in suits on the covers and my dear friend made them for me except one which I paid a graphic artist $75 to do an illustrated cover for. Anyway, we would tinker and talk about the color or font, the placement of the title, etc. but, for me at least, this was a simple process. Some self-published folks spend far more time working on theirs or might pay hundreds of dollars on them but mine seem to draw eyes just fine. Maybe once I'm making bank more steadily I'll consider farming this out to a pro.

Any chance there's a minor red headed character with her dark haired partner?

Absolutely!! In fact, my first book includes a pairing that looks suspiciously like Jonsa (I changed the eye color for her and gave him Kit's brown eyes though). Partly, that's because the original idea for the book was going to be a Jonsa story until I decided to switch gears. My third book has a guy that fits Jon's description and my novella includes elements of Sansa's love of songs and such in the female lead. It's fun to have bits of the characters I love in my books even when they're my own creations.

Thanks so much for this delicious ask! Lots of fun to answer <3

[reginarubie]

@7thkarma as promised… here you can read the teaser chapter of the story:

You start to see the same eyes in different people [if you live long enough]

As always, thank you @ginger-danica-snapps for the amazing art (she actually did another one for the AemondSa part of the story but I won’t share it yet because it’d be too spoilerish).

Enjoy!

[kit-kat21]

@7thkarma asked me "What about your faves from the Beatles au" and I took this question very seriously. It's almost impossible for me to choose but I managed. (Barely). I am not including "baby, it's you" in this list just because it's the first story in this series and is very important to this world and is a MUST read in this universe.

dig a pony - THE conversation between Sansa, Jon and Brandon where Brandon learns certain things. VERY important one-shot to the overall story.

yesterday - Sansa finally running from and escaping Ramsay and meeting a very kind man at the train station.

martha my dear - After Lady passes away, the Snow family gets a new dog.

yer blues - Sansa dealing with nightmares and panic attacks after the family moves to the Neck. (I f-ing love this story.)

things we said today - day-to-day life in the Snow family once they move and settle in the neck.

[ladywolfmd]

3) what order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?

4) favorite character you’ve written

5) character you were most surprised to end up writing

6) something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now

7) when asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

8) favorite genre to write

9) what, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

10) write in silence or with background noise? with people or alone

oh there was more. omg, 7thkarma, i'm so sorry for the effort you made to ask me and also i appreciate this.

3) it always starts with a scene i can't get off my mind, then i flesh out the how it went there and where its going after.

4) being one of the cliche supernatural young adult girlies from a teenager to a young adult, i was particularly proud of my vampire character who had an unusual thirst, that of dreams but every wednesday, he visits a young blind girl and teaches her how to see through dreams.

5) no character reveals haha but it's number 4. while the idea is good, the writing is really bad. i'm sorry 19 year old me.

6) i wish i stopped myself from creating mary sues. but i think it's common to have that phase. sometimes, you just want to write out self-indulgent things without care, and that's okay. :) we all had that one dream where you're a glamorous undercover spy that's highly intellectual, cool, witty, and might have great weaponry skills and/or rare magic. (Lucius from The Sandman comic said something to that effect, iirc).

7) ehm. depends on the audience. but generally, i'm proud of it. i was a school journalist first before i dabbled with fanfiction and prose.

8) fantasy for prose. but i'm more into poetry at the heart of things.

9) hm. nothing in particular, but a quiet room with good music and a drink helps. but mostly, the ideas are random, and comes at the most inconvenient times. my phone notes are full of clips or rather, i have pieces of tissues/receipts/random papers in my bag or pocket to save them.

10) alone with music only i can hear.

[aflashofgreen]

big thank you to @theghostsofhighheart who kindly uploaded two pdfs on google drive, here's the link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JWgVBSE4FZ2vUl7andQfu4oO6sF8kEMs

fyi the first file (old version with comments) goes up to chapter 57, the other one is complete with all 76 chapters that were originally posted on ao3 but does not include the author's notes

tagging some people from the notes: @7thkarma @charming-butt-insane @please-dot @esther-dot @kellyvela

please rb so this reaches as many people as possible + don't forget to thank theghostsofhighheart!!

rip Sansa of Winterfell by Fortheloveofjonsnow on ao3 i can't find the fic or the author's profile anymore </3 does anybody have a pdf they can email my way pls?

[phosphorescent-naidheachd]

In the mood for a tragic film, any recommendations?

Unfortunately, I'm probably not the best person to answer this question. My tastes run more to the bittersweet end of tragic rather than the truly tragic, if that makes any sense? Also, I'm not a hugely knowledgable movie person, so if we're talking movies I've personally seen, it's a limited list.

So I'll toss Titanic (1997) your way, along with my best wishes in finding a tragic film that suits your mood and tastes!

Any of my followers have any tearjerker recommendations?

[kellyvela]

A Storm of Swords - Sansa VI And quick as that, Marillion was gone. The other remained, looming over Sansa in the darkness. "Lord Petyr said watch out for you." It was Lothor Brune's voice, she realized. Not the Hound's, no, how could it be? Of course it had to be Lothor . . . That night Sansa scarcely slept at all, but tossed and turned just as she had aboard the Merling King. She dreamt of Joffrey dying, but as he clawed at his throat and the blood ran down across his fingers she saw with horror that it was her brother Robb. And she dreamed of her wedding night too, of Tyrion's eyes devouring her as she undressed. Only then he was bigger than Tyrion had any right to be, and when he climbed into the bed his face was scarred only on one side. "I'll have a song from you," he rasped, and Sansa woke and found the old blind dog beside her once again. "I wish you that you were lady'

This is one of my favorites forshadowings. Sansa dreams of her wedding. And it's with someone taller than tyrion "had any right to be" and has on one side of his face, plus she wakes to find a BLIND dog and she wish the dog was lady. A wolf that's dead but there is a direwolf who's name ghost and he's partner may go blind in one eye. Leaving a scar on one side of his face...

Man Sansa and her dreams, how can you read that and not think jonsa? What's your not that often mention jonsa favorite foreshadowing? Or underrated/controversial parallel?

It's hard for me to find Jon in situations where Sansa is experiencing or processing her trauma.

Here Sansa dreams with Joffrey's wedding, where he died, and that's why she associates it with Robb's wedding, because he also died during a wedding. Then she dreams with her own wedding night with Tyrion and then Tyrion morphed into cujo, because both med tried to rape her in her own bed. And of course when she wakes up and finds that old, blind, toothless dog, she wishes for her lost fierce and loyal Lady.

In a previous similar nightmare, she dreamed that she has to marry Joffrey but then her ex betrothed morphed into Ilyn Payne. Both men participate in Sansa's father execution, then the association. It is possible to find Jon here? Yes, Joffrey and Jon are a case of switched at birth, bastard disguised as prince, prince disguised as bastard. And Ilyn Payne wielded Ice, Eddard Stark's Valyrian steel sword, similar to Jon who wields Longclaw, another Valyrian steel sword with a white direwolf shaped hilt.

That's why I prefer to search for Jon in positive situations for Sansa.

But if I have to mention one of those traumatic experience where we can find Jon hidden there, I think it was @occupyvenus the one that found this one: During the night of the Blackwater Bay battle, cujo's white kingsguard cloak is described as soiled with blood and fire. A snow white cloak soiled with blood and fire it's almost like saying there's a fire and blood Targaryen hidden under a Snow cloak.

[cellsshapedlikestars]

so I got some prompts as responses to my post instead of asks, and I haven’t forgotten about you!! This prompt was sent to me by @7thkarma (though I can’t seem to get the tag to work? sorry!)

the prompt was: runaway bride meets runaway groom (both left their wedding to different people or it was an arranged marriage to each other but they've never met so the left but because it's jonsa fate said no and led them back to each other)

Look. I didn't do this exact prompt and I'm very sorry, but this is what came into my brain. I did half the prompt lol. If it helps, I sort of already wrote a version of this scenario where both are on bad dates and meet?? So... combine a bathroom engagement and this one, and you've got the answer to your prompt!

(Also, I'm being very inconsistent about what I post as it's own fic and what I post in my one-shot prompt collection ephemera. My initial qualifications were - anything that feels complete gets posted on it's own, anything that doesn't goes into ephemera. But this one doesn't necessarily feel complete, exactly, and there's a fic I posted in ephemera that absolutely should have been it's own standalone story, but now it's too late. Anyway, I’ll stop rambling now.)

read it here:

cigarettes, wedding bands

[wandering-scavenger]

tag nine people you want to get to know better

tagged by: @7thkarma thank you for the tag! Would love to get to know you as well ❤️

Fave color: I'm too indecisive, it's a toss up between blue, silver, or emerald green

Currently reading: Emma by Jane Austen

Last song: Carry You by Novo Amor

• for anyone looking for a sentimental Jon/Sansa playlist, check out my Spotify playlist, it would be so sweet! I normally listen to this when I'm writing my fic

Last series: Modern Family (it's too feel good and funny to not re-watch)

Last film: Persuasion (2022) *gags in disappointment*

Sweet/spicy/savoury: sweet-sour drinks but savoury snacks 👌

Currently working on: A Lady of Winterfell, my Jon/Sansa Regency AU that's a slow burn full of longing looks and hands touching before the eventual spicy times.

Tagging: @sweetaprilbutterfly @trinuviel @thewolvescalledmehome @purple-moon123 @riahchan @caitnan @kitnjon @honeybeeps @normadcisba

[longclawislightbringer]

@7thkarma regarding all my unfinished Jonsa WIPs

It's because I am the slowest writer in the world. Like George R.R. Martin levels of slow. I finished an eight-chapter fic this year that I started in February 2019 🙃

Just wish I had a Stephen King brain instead, lol

I'm trying to work on it--my new year's resolution is going to be to write every day, and maybe that will take care of some of my writing backlog.

[hilarychuff]

get to know me

tagged by: @ode-to-an-inkwell and @7thkarma! tyty

fave color: hmmmmmmmm i guess i would say pink rn but red is my power color

currently reading: not currently reading anything other than lots of fanfic! but have been meaning to finish manhunt which i started a while back and then fell off on when i didn’t get through it before my library hold expired and also have a library hold hopefully coming up soon for the final girl support group 

last song: currently obsessed with “my best friend’s wedding” by the chicks and am listening on repeat, specifically the “go it alone / go it alone / go it alone / go it alone!!!!!!” harmony part

last series: i’m watching that hulu psychic lady show maggie and it’s actually really cute lmfao i’m enjoying 

last movie: tragically unfortunately it was austin powers goldmember. a friend needed to watch it for reasons and i was having a case of the sads so she came over and we watched it together. i actually remember getting my mom to take me to see it in theaters and even as a child being like “ok lots of toilet humor....” however it does have both britney spears AND beyoncé in it which is pretty iconic

sweet/spicy/savory: hmmmmmmm for breakfast, savory. for snackies, sweet. 

currently working on: i’ve got a bunch of wips right now. lots of notes for i carry it in mine, the first lil bits of my uptown girls au, part of a jon pov scene for princess diaries au, part of a jon pov scene for overboard au, a lil extra so far in that alayne/jon vignette, a bit of a jily when harry met sally au scene that will probs never make it out of my group chat, aaaaaaaaaand some stranger things stuff even that will possibly never make it out of my google docs. lots going on!!!!! in the google docs!!!!!! i’ve got like 12 different google docs open in another window rn which is much more than usual lmao but i haven’t super focused in on any one particular thing

anyway i deleted the part about how many people you’re supposed to tag lmfao BUT if @chdarling / @cellsshapedlikestars / @rubdown / @gorgeousgreymatter-x want to do a tag meme thing you should!!

[vivilove-jonsa]

1) is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason?2) what work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

Hey @7thkarma!

This will be my 25,000th post on this hell site so there's some useless trivia for you and I've not been sent a writing ask in ages so thanks for that 😀

A story I'm holding off on writing?

For Jonsa, no. I'd like to finish The Farmer's Wife someday but, since I've switched to writing original romance, I'm solely focusing on that. I'm halfway through writing book 2 of a 4-book series which falls into one popular niche but I've been reading Dark Mafia Romances and I think someday I'd like to write one of those. Maybe under a different pen or maybe as Jonsa or maybe just for my own amusement? For now, I've got a goal I'm working on. It's called make money...

What work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about exisiting?

Well... some of my Jonsa works are better than others for certain. My first long modern fic Home is with You is sentimental to me because I love Modern Teen Jonsa AUs and I was in the early days of my Jonsa fever when I could write and write and still think about it incessantly. BUT, when I was writing that one, I had no plans to share it with anyone except my friend @mynameisnoneya1991 so I made it what I wanted it to be and, looking back, it's probably best I never reread it 🙈

[reginarubie]

1) is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason?2) what work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

Ciao anon!,

actually, now that I remember I had been tagged for this very series of questions by @7thkarma for this ‘know your author series of questions’. Since you've sent only two, but they tagged me for the whole I'll reply to them all, feel free to read only the first two ;)

Is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason?

Actually, yes, there is, but it is no fan work, it’s an original work I’ve been putting off writing because for one I am not confident enough yet and besides I have my hands full with school, full-time job and the fanfics. 

It’s not that I’ve not yet begun it, I’ve already have some scenes in mind — and written down — but somehow it never satisfies me and I am well too self-conscious about it. It’s one thing to write something set into a world that you already knows that works, with characters that you already know that work, it’s another building world and characters from scratch, I always second-guess myself and I honestly have not yet managed to bring myself to share what little I’ve written of it with anyone. I’ve shared with some friends the rough idea, the characters mostly, but I’m still waiting. Doesn’t feel right yet. 

I think that, like in most things — where I am concerned — one day the spring will snap and I’ll probably write it all down in a month or so of unbridled work. 

What work of yours, if any, you are the most embarrassed about existing?

Well to be truth with you… none, oh I’ve written atrocious things, like really terrible writing when I was a bit younger and new to the whole writing deal. Yet, while I am a perfectionist, at 28 I’ve come to accept that I’ll always make mistakes along the way, and that’s normal, and if I were to hide or be embarrassed about those mistakes I would only hinder the learning and growing process.

So I am more of a ‘trust the process of learning’ kind of person right now and that means not avoiding to look the truth in the face and not be embarrassed about that truth. 

What order do you write in? Front of book to back? Chronological? Favourite scenes first? Or something else?

All of the above, like I trust my instincts. I have sometimes started a fic from the end and moved from there back to the beginning; other times the opposite, sometimes I’ve drawn the general idea before and then wrote it down; other times chronological or favourite. There isn’t really a rule, I am a bit of a self-imposed-rule-breaker, so I simply go along with my instincts and let ‘em guide me. 

Favourite character you’ve written

Well you’re going to laugh at this… the plague. And no, I’m not even joking, but I’m going to explain all about this particular character and story when we reach question 15 because otherwise I’d have to smash together two questions, and tbh I wanna be a little sh*t and leave you with the curiosity for another bit. 

Character you are most surprised you ended up writing

I wrote Alessandro Manzoni once out of spite, and made him out to be a little, petty jerk. A bit of background is needed to understand this one. First of all, I was fourteen — so cut me some slack — and Manzoni was a real Italian writer who wrote the bane of the existence of every Italian student, a story called I promessi sposi (the intended spouses). 

There is not a single student to whom I’ve talked who has enjoyed that brick of a tome during school-years, it tends to grow on you when you get older, and as a petty fourteen year old student who had taken a flat out 4- (a very bad grade) on a test about him and his brick-tome (ending up grounded for a whole month because of it too) I decided to take out my pettiness on him by writing a story about him, with him looking all smug about all the sorrow and pain he caused to students thanks to his book because he was a jerk. 

I gave him even a very cozy hellish setting from which oversee the destruction his book sought even  three centuries after he had written it. 

What can I say, I was a petty, dramatic girl, and I regret nothing, also because I had so much fun dragging him through the mud in that story and enjoyed so much my teacher outraged face when I showed her my work that I realised I had gotten over my petty hate of his book. 

Something you would go back and change in your writing that it is too late/complicated to change now

I write way too much description, sometimes they take up pages and pages and I end up loosing the sight of the single detail I wanted to simultaneously put up to be seen and hide enough that it would be a hint but you had to look for it, and only looking back at it after you had come to the plot-twist you would understand it. Needless to say, sometimes I loose track of the whole point and I have to backtrack until I find it again. I don’t believe it’s too late to change it now, while it is complicated I am trying to find a way around it. 

When asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

Tbh it depend on the person I am telling it to. Often I am just anxious, especially when I was younger I was very embarrassed and nervous, afraid I would been made fun of. 

Right now?, well I am a very reserved person, sometimes I just off-handed tell someone I want to share it with, that I write and if I am either enthusiastic or anxious might depend on their reaction to it, not much because that I care that much about what they think, but because I am sharing something that is important to me — I am hard to give trust to people, on a deep level — and it’s the way you react to that, that tells me if we are really compatible either as friends or loved ones. You can make fun of it, I do it myself, but if you are encouraging and get along with my weirdness then we’re okay; if you just react in a way that makes me feel off well let’s say that what we’re building has still to take some work, and if I see it doesn’t work I will just back down. 

Favourite genre to write?

Romance, with a twist of darkness if I manage (but this latter one is optional really). In whatever setting (fantasy, modern, historical, satirical, sci-fi or dystopian) as long as there is romance I’m enthusiastic to write. 

What, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

Visuals, I am sure you haven’t missed my pretty heavy usage of gifs. It’s because having visuals as close to my imagination as possible helps me remain inspired. And music, music is my number one muse, tbh. Though it’s true that sometimes just one off-handed comment can make me take the tangent and begin a new work and both @woodlandandcrochet and @sansaissteel know about it as they’ve inspired some works with off-handed comments; or ask FeralG4 who has reached out to me and requested if I would be fine with writing an idea he had and boom after a bit of joined brainstorming ‘Wind of Ice’ was born. 

Write in silence or with background noise? With people or alone?

In truth weirdo-style I actually need music to help me write, and I mostly do it when I am alone because I have trouble concentrating when there are too many people around because they stimulate too much my curiosity with the way they move or speak and what they say (even when it’s not directed to me) so I need to be alone with my earbuds and music on to focus, and in weirdo-fashion, once I am in full-immersion mode I don’t take heed of the music either. Like it doesn’t exist, yet if I don’t put it on as I sit to write… I can’t write.

What aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing?

If we are talking in my mother-tongue I think it is keeping track of the consecution of events. When I first started I wrote only very short-stories because I often lost the track of what I was writing and end up going off-topic and I truly believe that writing in another language has helped me a lot in that aspect. In my mother-tongue I have no trouble with grammar and the logic of the sentence so when you write you can get often distracted, instead while writing a foreign language you have to be very careful with those and so it’s less easy to loose completely sight of the topic you were writing about. I suppose the fault must reside in the way my brain work, that piece of sh*t never shuts up, and even when I study I have to use many coloured pencils and pens because having to focus on the colour helps me not loose track of what I am supposed to learn instead of following my curiosity in flight of fancy ending up on something so separated from what I am studying that the connection is so obscure it could be useless. 

If we are talking of when I am writing in english… I would say the property with which I write, and also how I’ve learned to balance the various paces of each character and parts of the chapters. Balance is vital for a story to stay interesting not only for the reader but for the writer too. And actually it was @hungrytiger on ao3 who pointed it out to me in a comment:

So, I read this chapter right away and waited to comment to let it sit and settle in my mind a bit after a reread. In between my two readings of this chapter, I also reread your Wolf's Throne story. Its a story I also really enjoyed, but what struck me is... as good of a writer as you are in that story, this chapter really shows all the ways you have grown as a writer too. Jon's voice and his mindset in this chapter is *so* distinctive and seems to fit the incredibly unusual circumstances (the whole resurrected, politically intelligent, ruthless but also a bit animalistic vibe) so perfectly. You really struck a perfect balance between the bastard-turned-king but also came-back-slightly-different dual natures of Jon.

So, I think in English I’ve gotten really better at balancing and using catchphrases and description of the way a character move and thinks to give it a distinctive and believable cifra.

Your weaknesses as an author

I tend to write myself into a corner, and like a boxer I have to take the blows that I inflicted on myself and find a way to get out of the corner in which I cornered myself. 

Your strengths as an author

Sometimes I come out with phrases that I could not even think logically to write, they come intuitively and they are better than they could be if I lost weeks to try and pry them from my mind. Let my brain do the hard work and follow its instinct has paid off until now. 

On the downside...if that happens when I have nowhere to keep track of them and they're lost forever...I'll never be satisfied with their replacement because that phrase will always sound better in my memory even if I don't remember it anymore.

Do you make playlists for your current wips?

Hell yeah I do. 

I have one general for House Stark you can find here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4rgwqyNVb9UeW5brs8LQUC?si=4e6acd4aca19482b

Another one that can fit a bit of all my wips that you can find here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1eB344WzJvwyRyssVyaH7p?si=278ba8113d6f4433

Another one specific for my femBilbo/Fíli story: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/23IVxWADW2mAs9yAYBYKCn?si=343b7875b44d4add

Another one specific for ‘Like wolves in the darkness’: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0P0mMiaQzPLTtPEQ4hinzM?si=cfe7330850f34c43

Even if currently I’m writing more as I listen to the second one I shared.

Why did you start writing?

So this is where I come back to my plague story. Flashback to my third year of high school, I had chosen a very hard high-school that had as subjects both classical and scientific — italian, latin and ancient greek, history of art, history and geography, math, biology, physic, chemistry and a bunch of others — and when I was between sixteen and seventeen we changed our professor of Italian, thankfully because the first one was a nightmare I tell you (she admitted she loathed me to my mother’s face just on the principle of it, just to make you understand what kind of nightmare that woman was) anyway, new year, new professor and this one had a completely different approach. 

She would rather take the long way about something to make sure we students found our way to enjoy what we had to learn and do it with a better mood, thus learning better. 

So, one of the chapters of the Promessi Sposi, takes into consideration the events of the plague of Milan, and it is very, very boring to me, so the professor gave us as homework between a week and the other to write a short-story about the plague, not necessary set into the world of the Promessi Sposi, and I…kind of took the satirical way to it because it sounded fun to my own brain?

Look— I don't pretend to understand how my brain works, I just let it do its own thing and most of the time it works out.

So, I ended up writing a tv-interview between a journalist and the plague and it was hilarious, to the point that when I gave it to have it graded to my prof she gave me a 10/10 and asked permission to read it to the class and when she did I was like… all gushing because my classmates were laughing with me because of something I had written and not because I was weird and laughable at. They were really enjoying it and since I was the weird one out that no-one approached in those years it was really refreshing. It was really comical, I mean I had the interview happening with videos being shown of its victims and the Plague giving its justification of her actions because she had a ton of little siblings (lesser epidemics) to look after and going all plaguey on the world was her job. She was entirely petty and unapologetic. I had so much fun writing and was so proud when my prof asked if she could keep it, that it still is one of my happiest memories of my high school years in the academic career. 

Flashfoward a couple of months and I had some troubles with English and I confided in this professor and in my mom, my mom who had spoken to my italian prof and they both suggested I wrote for fun in English to better my grasp on the language and… it worked like a Swiss-clock. After I started writing stories in English my grades became so good that by the time the fifth year rolled around my English prof suggested I underwent the course for the FIRST and I did, getting top marks on it too!

So that’s the story of how I started to write. 

[on a sidenote my professor told me last year when I met her by chance, she still has my work and lends a copy of it to the students who are struggling because they feel they are the odd ones out, to tell ‘em I was perhaps the weirdest student she had — always with one my earbuds in , either drawing or just zooning out during class and sometimes I would jump up, excuse myself from class to go to the school library or with my pc outside and start researching about some topic the class had inadvertently provoked my curiosity about completely missing both the point and the subject of the class — but that being weird is a quality that if harnessed correctly can open up a new world for themselves and those around ‘em. I cried a bit too when she told me — what can I say, I am an emotional wreck just waiting to happen]

Are there any characters who haunt you?

Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings, when I first started to read the book I was very young, perhaps eleven (I think) and I found most of the characters strangely off (I was too young for them to click as they ought to, I’ve worked through that now), instead, for some reason I immediately attuned to both Samwise Gamgee and Pippin Took, but the latter does not haunt me like the first. 

It’s a good type of haunting, mind you, his character just resonates to a basic level with me, so sometimes as I write I catch myself wanting to write a character that I can get attuned so much as I attuned to Samwise Gamgee and to his soft, unyielding hope and strength, but all of my original characters come short and I end up re-reading a hundred times “The choices of Master Samwise” (which in Italian, in the version I had, was titled ‘le scelte di Samwise l’impavido’ — ‘the choices of Samwise the fearless/brave’). I’ve loved Samwise since his first appearance, but this chapter…to me it’s the masterpiece inside the masterpiece. 

If you could give your fledging author self any advice, what would it be?

Trust the process. Have fun, make mistakes, and just hum along. You’ll find your own comfort zone, you just need to push at its borders and keep learning, but first to do so you must stumble and learn your limits. There’s no shame in those.

Just have fun. That’s the key to it.

Were there any works you read that affected you so much it influenced your writing style? What were they?

Well I have a couple. Of course the Lord of the Rings, for obvious reasons, also The Chronicles of Narnia (I love how unapologetic those fables for children and adults are and how meaningful), and truly I think I’ve stolen some little trick or ‘influence’ from every piece of fiction I have consumed, whether I have loved it to bits or left untouched after a couple of chapters because it just didn’t click right. 

When it comes to more complicated narratives how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, etc.?

Er… I kind of don’t?, which is another one of my weaknesses, I told you I can and will write myself in a corner. So I need to backtrack to the origin of a plot-point (sometimes I can’t even remember where I first planted the seed for a certain plot-twist or plot-point) and no matter how much I’ve tried to organise those, it’s just not my style. I write improvising, so having a detailed outline actually kills my inspiration. Oops, I guess?

Do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts?

A in-between, sometimes I am just struck by inspiration and will sit down and write on my phone what came to mind, other times I’ll have a middle-long session of writing. It really depends on my mindset in that moment. 

What do you think when you read over your older works?

Well, on the good side, look how far you’ve made it. Who would’ve guessed it? Good job *pat-pat* still… what were you thinking?, what kind of obscure sh*t is this?

I know, I am hilarious. It kind of comes with the ground of being an aqua with gemini rising I suppose. 

Are there any subjects that make you uncomfortable to write?

Emotional pain, depression and such. They are very hard for me to write, which is why I try to address emotional distress and/or depression — though the latter much less than the first — when I write. To work through my own discomfort. How am I supposed to become better if I don’t push at my limits?, all in due time, obviously. 

Any obscure life experience that you feel have helped your writing?

I have a very close-knit — almost symbiotical — relationship with my mother, to the point I just feel when she’s off even if we’re not in the same room or in the same building, some kind of sixth sense I have with anyone I have time enough or am comfortable enough to attune with, I am an emotional sponge and mirror which has been pretty hard to work through and balance as I was growing up. She’s had a very hard life, mostly for things outside of her control and she’s shared some of those with me, and— they helped me a lot, because they gave me insight and I think some of it seeps into my writing as well. So… yeah, I think this can qualify as an obscure life experience (even if it is not mine first-hand). 

Have you become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or a story?

Guilty as charged, your honour. Actually, if you’ve read some of my metas you might know that I never consider myself expert in anything. The world is big, human-experience so diverse, and history so filled with obscure little details that can twist completely a whole vision that I believe you can never be truly expert on anything. But you can be on your way there. It’s a process. And I’ve gone through long-researches spree only to make a scene or a story believable and relatable. 

copy/paste a few sentence or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of

I am particularly proud of whole thing I have set in “The chanson of the Sun’s son and his Queen Wolf” and the role that will play in the endgame of the story, but I won’t share it because it would spoilerish. Sorry. 

But I have other tidbits I can share, so I will!

«I won’t accept this mantle easily and with light heart — she tells the court amassed — but I will do my best to secure the peace of the Seven Kingdoms against invader forces, this I swear to you on my honor as a Stark» then, without any further ado she sits on the Iron throne.

 As she does she feels powerful because all of the court — as they should — bows their heads in greeting to the new lady Regent of the Seven Kingdoms.  

 She sits with poise, trying to imitate in a more feminine way, the pose her father used to have when he held court during his tenure as Hand of the King. 

(…)

Tell them — she looks forward, surveying the whole of the throne room as the City Watch’s commander, a slim man who has taken over after Bronn’s death at Jon’s hand, comes forward to give his report — winter is coming. Tell them I am doing what honor demands; that I defend my family to those who’d harm us, that I defend my people from those who’d want to see us on our knees.

I promise sweetheart.

— the Wolf’s throne, chapter 32

Ghost tallons them and Sansa feels powerful as Jon leads her to the yard where once stood the Great Sept. She has been unyielding on this, the coronation is to take place in the same place Eddard Stark lost his life. May the people of Kings Landing, who had called for his head then, know that now his daughter — in the same spot he lost his head — will be crowned queen. Let them acclaim them and wash away the stain done against Eddard Stark that day.

Let them see the girl who invoked mercy for her father, who screamed until her throat was hoarse for his life, until she lost her senses. Let them see her now, years after, being crowned Queen in the very same spot. Let them know they owe her their life and they can do so only because she is Ned Stark’s daughter and he raised her to care for the people under her authority. 

— Wolf’s throne, epilogue

Come, Caroline let’s begin our life together as we were supposed to... 

... he was looking at her like Caroline had always wished to be looked at, his eyes even seemed to have a different cut.

(…)

Let me go, she snapped to Stefan and suddenly as if made of smoke he disappeared.

(…)

“And what about your christian sensibilities, Karoline?” he demanded.

Caroline took a deep breath “Not all saint are martyrs and not all people are saints. Suppose I am not a saint, perhaps I never was. If I stay he has to go, and I will stay. You can either help me or continue and cower in your farm away from everything”

“I am Hope’s” she replied “is that not enough?”

(…)

The winds in her hair and as she turned her back to her homeland for a child, for her child, Caroline realized something she had not realized before. 

In her vision, Stefan’s eyes weren’t green, as she remembered them being in truth.

They had been blue.

— Lightening and thunder, chapter 7

I guess these are a bit more than what was asked of me, but what can I say, I love these moments as many others so sue me. 

Thank you again for your ask!, I enjoyed this very much, felt almost like a proper writer, even if I am really noway there yet! As always I wish you a very nice day!

[snowsandstones]

@7thkarma ty!!! I’m new too so idk about wisdom haha but glad you like it!

just finished watching the finale and it’s actually quite clear that jon is choosing sansa over all else, because he loves her.

the repetition of him going protective wolf mode over and over to the point that it became a meme?

it establishes this as fundamental to his character. he’s fulfilling his promise, whether she thinks he can or not:

(and vice versa)

and add the book prophecy to this equation and it makes it even clearer:

The voices were growing louder, she realized, and it seemed her heart was slowing, and even her breath. . . . three treasons will you know . . . once for blood and once for gold and once for love . . . -ACOK, D IV

she’s right: the first was Mirri, done for blood (to avenge her people).

The warlocks whispered of three treasons . . . once for blood and once for gold and once for love. The first traitor was surely Mirri Maz Duur, who had murdered Khal Drogo and their unborn son to avenge her people. Could Pyat Pree and Xaro Xhoan Daxos be the second and the third? She did not think so. What Pyat did was not for gold, and Xaro had never truly loved her. -ACOK, D V

the second has to be done for gold.

"I have loved you." And there it was. Three treasons will you know. Once for blood and once for gold and once for love. -ASOS, D VI

but Jorah doesn’t betray her for love. it’s for gold, despite his “love”.

she knows this deep down, because it confuses her. she mulls over it constantly, tries to forestall it, tries to make sense of it. (certainly not something we’ve seen with another queen determined to prevent a prophecy and inadvertently causing it). the prophecy looms large in her thoughts (and our foreshadowing) throughout ADWD:

"What if Daario has betrayed me and gone over to my enemies?" Three treasons will you know.

"The blood of the dragon." But my dragons are roaring in the darkness. "I remember the Undying. Child of three, they called me. Three mounts they promised me, three fires, and three treasons. One for blood and one for gold and one for …"

When Reznak and Skahaz appeared, she found herself looking at them askance, mindful of the three treasons. Beware the perfumed seneschal. She sniffed suspiciously at Reznak mo Reznak. I could command the Shavepate to arrest him and put him to the question. Would that forestall the prophecy? Or would some other betrayer take his place? Prophecies are treacherous, she reminded herself,

Three treasons will you know. Once for gold and once for blood and once for love. Was Plumm the third treason, or the second? And what did that make Ser Jorah, her gruff old bear? Would she never have a friend that she could trust? What good are prophecies if you cannot make sense of them?

Dany had once eaten a stallion's heart to give strength to her unborn son … but that had not saved Rhaego when the maegi murdered him in her womb. Three treasons shall you know. She was the first, Jorah was the second, Brown Ben Plumm the third. Was she done with betrayals?

and it finally unfolds with Jon committing the ultimate treason: betraying and murdering his queen. not out of love. for love. for Sansa.

and speaking of prophecies from the house of the undying…she sees many things, the war of the five kings, the red wedding, etc.

and she sees the very end of our story:

A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness.

and in the same book, GRRM tells us what it means:

"And she never sung you the song o' the winter rose?"

“He was King-beyond-the-Wall a long time back. All the free folk know his songs […] “All I ask is a flower,' Bael answered, 'the fairest flower that blooms in the gardens o' Winterfell.'" “Now as it happened the winter roses had only then come into bloom, and no flower is so rare nor precious. So the Stark sent to his glass gardens and commanded that the most beautiful o' the winter roses be plucked for the singer's payment. And so it was done. But when morning come, the singer had vanished . . . and so had Lord Brandon's maiden daughter. Her bed they found empty, but for the pale blue rose that Bael had left on the pillow where her head had lain." "Lord Brandon had no other children. At his behest, the black crows flew forth from their castles in the hundreds, but nowhere could they find any sign o' Bael or this maid. For most a year they searched, till the lord lost heart and took to his bed, and it seemed as though the line o' Starks was at its end. But one night as he lay waiting to die, Lord Brandon heard a child's cry. He followed the sound and found his daughter back in her bedchamber, asleep with a babe at her breast." “The maid loved Bael so dearly she bore him a son, the song says […] and that the boy grew to be the next Lord Stark. […] “It never happened," Jon said. She shrugged. "Might be it did, might be it didn't. It is a good song, though.

The second to last episode title? “The last of the Starks”. And the final moments of the finale? The Queen in the North lined up with the implied eventual King Beyond the Wall.

[haraways]

tagged by: 7thkarma Thanks for the tag sorry I’m late I’m just so busy right now!

 Fave color: millennial green: it’s a vibe

Currently reading: Nothing because im a bad book lover even though I got a tbr 100 titles long

Last song:  Love we lost by Armin von Buuren this is also a vibe

Last series: The Boys and Attack on titan because I like mindless crap at the moment

Last movie: idk what the last one I watched was, I feel l9ike I should  know this. I wanna see NOPE tho cuz I, too, would nope the fuck out of there if there are aliens.

Sweet/spicy/savoury: I like fruit so sweet then spicy then savoury if I have to put an order to it.

Currently working on: a jonsa future fic that’s a little messed up cuz no one is good and I set sansa up to have made a bad move right at the beginning. I’m hoping it will be a 3 parter told from 4 maybe 5 povs but the parts and their chapters will be posted all at once so no one suffers. So part one will come out then two then three easy.

 I’m not gonna tag anyone because I don’t talk too much to people and I don’t wanna bother them but, please if you see this meme and you wanna take part feel free to do it and tag me so I get to know my followers better!

[phosphorescent-naidheachd]

Great to see you pop back here, love the update btw! Also idk if you've heard but Jon is apparently getting an update thoughts on that?

Also, how'd you been? Any new fandoms and hobbies you wanna share or skills you want to flex?

Awww, thank you!

Yeah, I saw that! I'm... not sure what to think, honestly? Other than that HBO wants that $$$, anyway. I'm highly skeptical about how good a story they could tell, but I'm willing to reserve judgment.

I've been doing well overall, albeit better some days than others. I'm not a huge fan of the summer heat, but I do love the increased daylight hours! You?

No new fandoms as of the moment, though I drifted briefly into the Grishaverse over the early winter; I have a WIP canon divergence Nikolai/Alina (potentially Nikolai/Alina/Zoya) one-shot sitting in my drafts folder that's currently around 5,000 words. We'll see if it ever sees the light of day!

I watched the Kenobi miniseries, but I wouldn't call that a new fandom per se, since I've long been a part of the SW fandom. I also fell back into Tamora Pierce's Tortall and Emelan universes, but as with Kenobi, I don't currently have any fic to show for it—just a lot of feelings.

Hmmm, hobbies and skills... I DM'd for the first time in May. It was definitely nerve-racking, especially since I belatedly realized I wasn't remotely familiar with the 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons rules! (As a kid, I played a weird mishmash of earlier editions, and I played different tabletop RPGs in college.) But it went well, and I'd consider running a game again.

What about you? Any new fandoms/hobbies/skills?