#AM WRITING

[serendipizzy79]

This is where fanfic is easier. The world building has already been done, and your readers know the characters already.

However... The world can get in the way of the story you want to tell, too.

My BG3 Durgetash dabble is feeling constrained by the limits of DnD, the crappy timeline of BG3, and the sheer bloody evilness of the characters. I want to expand them into a steampunk style comic romantasy... But I don't think I have what it takes to write it 😩

Writing fantasy and speculative fiction is actual Hell because achieving verisimilitude demands that you, the author, have a clear idea of how the speculative or fantastical elements of your setting work, but the story will almost always be improved by not explaining it to the reader.

[vesanal]

₊˚｡⋆❆⋆｡˚₊The 21st Day of Writemas₊˚｡⋆❆⋆｡˚₊

Howdy everyone!! How are we doing today? It’s soooo close to the end of writemas we only have like 3 days left!! Crazy. If you are still interested in seeing the rules or wanna join here is the invite post! Today these are my prompts! <3

Prompts used:

Feeling: The hum of song

Narration: She watched the clouds swirl and dance high up in the sky, as free as the birds playing in their midst, as free as she would never be.

Today is going to be a little short because I’ve been a bit busy this week somehow. Have more Aerlyra because she is awesome and I love her to death :D And oops I got a little angsty on this one.

Read about the WIP here!!

Enjoy! Sending love to you all <3

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Aerlyra sat at the edge of her chair, peering into the small, silver mirror that laid on the table in front of her, watching herself at work. Interviewing her curly, dark hair together was certainly a huge task for her to do. It was quite monotonous work. Each coarse tendril rubbed against her fingers so much that they were going numb. Looping one strand at a time of her black hair over another—repeating it again with the next strand to its side—into an intricate pattern, as she had to do three times over for each braid on her head. So much effort went into braiding together the thick strands. Arguably too much for its results.

Finishing one of the braids on the side of her head, she stopped for a moment to take a look in the mirror at her progress. Only two of the three braids were completed, with the hardest one in the back and the other on the side finally done. Aerlyra let out a sigh of relief. Almost over. She picked up the mirror on her table to inspect herself further, wiping away the curly stragglers off of her light face. The mirror proved that her work so far was serviceable, but nothing too unusual from its usual quality. She was just going to work then home again anyways, and it wouldn’t be all that visible from her from her winter coat’s fuzzy hood. 

Looking at her work from the reflection, she closed her eyes. She tried to just forget what it looked like. Perfection just brings pain, but yet, deep down, she still so desperately craved it. No matter how much she denied it. But, she knew she could never be, she was not even close to being perfect. It’s been proven time and time again. It was a hard truth she had to swallow, that she wasn’t going anywhere now, that she was a wash-up. 

Keeping her eyes closed, she placed back down the tiny mirror. She began to hum a song as she started on the last section of her unbraided to her right. She wasn’t sure where she heard the song. Music doesn’t come far enough to seek her here. Not many things did anymore. It was her own choosing, anyway. Tears welled in her eyes as she opened them to look at herself when her thoughts got louder.

Glancing out the window before she got up to get dressed, she watched the clouds swirl and dance high up in the sky, as free as the birds playing in their midst, as free as she would never be. She knew it, the tears reinforced that. It was the same as life back home. Nobody is ever truly free. The very thing she wanted to escape, or rather run from, had followed her all the way to her tiny cabin in the expansive woods, just outside of a nobody town that not even a Queensman bothered to occupy. 

Queensman. How she loathed that word. Not for what it stood for, but for what it became to her. Just another thing she didn’t have the guts to do. Another thing she failed to do. The taste of the word in her mouth made her feel worthless for even trying. 

Smearing the trails of tears off of her white face as she finished her hair, she threw herself off the chair, toppling over the chair along with her, and steeled herself for the upcoming day ahead of her. She couldn’t be late for work, she would like to eat that night.

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(PLEASE tell me if you wanna get added to a tag list here because I genuinely don't know who to tag lol. I'll edit this and add you in!! <3 )

TAGLIST SO FAR: @sunflowerrosy @seastarblue

@thebookishkiwi @viridis-icithus @corinneglass

Our wonderful host <3 → @agirlandherquill Have a lovely day everyone!!

[ssbooks]

#20 What would your character do if they where told “you can’t come.”

You stare blankly at him. "what do you mean I can't come."

The man has his arms crossed over his chest. "You are not allowed here. that is final"

I know you all have amazing creative juices in you and some amazing characters. This prompt is just for you to have fun and to help you explore your Character in a different setting. I would LOVE to hear what your Characters would do.

[charliejaneanders]

Random writing thought: the best stories are often the ones that only you could have written — but also the ones that you could only write at this one moment.

I couldn't write All the Birds in the Sky from scratch now if I tried. But the me of 2013 couldn't have written The Prodigal Mother either.

[serendipizzy79]

Haven't picked up my scribe or opened Ellipsus for a week... But it is Christmas shopping week... And I am exhausted...

Everytime I finish a chapter, one of two things will happen:

1. I continue writing like hell, and come out at the end with more material than I could ever need (the next step is editing hell)

2. I go blank immediately, and lose my motivation to write anything for a month (the next step here is procrastination)

[selenekallanwriter]

Person: What's your book about?

Writers:

I'm both somehow 🙃

[whatwedointhecraft]

When your characters just start revealing lore you didn't know about them, as you're writing them

[emeryleewho]

I used to work for a trade book reviewer where I got paid to review people's books, and one of the rules of that review company is one that I think is just super useful to media analysis as a whole, and that is, we were told never to critique media for what it didn't do but only for what it did.

So, for instance, I couldn't say "this book didn't give its characters strong agency or goals". I instead had to say, "the characters in this book acted in ways that often felt misaligned with their characterization as if they were being pulled by the plot."

I think this is really important because a lot of "critiques" people give, if subverted to address what the book does instead of what it doesn't do, actually read pretty nonsensical. For instance, "none of the characters were unique" becomes "all of the characters read like other characters that exist in other media", which like... okay? That's not really a critique. It's just how fiction works. Or "none of the characters were likeable" becomes "all of the characters, at some point or another, did things that I found disagreeable or annoying" which is literally how every book works?

It also keeps you from holding a book to a standard it never sought to meet. "The world building in this book simply wasn't complex enough" becomes "The world building in this book was very simple", which, yes, good, that can actually be a good thing. Many books aspire to this. It's not actually a negative critique. Or "The stakes weren't very high and the climax didn't really offer any major plot twists or turns" becomes "The stakes were low and and the ending was quite predictable", which, if this is a cute romcom is exactly what I'm looking for.

Not to mention, I think this really helps to deconstruct a lot of the biases we carry into fiction. Characters not having strong agency isn't inherently bad. Characters who react to their surroundings can make a good story, so saying "the characters didn't have enough agency" is kind of weak, but when you flip it to say "the characters acted misaligned from their characterization" we can now see that the *real* problem here isn't that they lacked agency but that this lack of agency is inconsistent with the type of character that they are. a character this strong-willed *should* have more agency even if a weak-willed character might not.

So it's just a really simple way of framing the way I critique books that I think has really helped to show the difference between "this book is bad" and "this book didn't meet my personal preferences", but also, as someone talking about books, I think it helps give other people a clearer idea of what the book actually looks like so they can decide for themselves if it's worth their time.

Update: This is literally just a thought exercise to help you be more intentional with how you critique media. I'm not enforcing this as some divine rule that must be followed any time you have an opinion on fiction, and I'm definitely not saying that you have to structure every single sentence in a review to contain zero negative phrases. I'm just saying that I repurposed a rule we had at that specific reviewer to be a helpful tool to check myself when writing critiques now. If you don't want to use the tool, literally no one (especially not me) can or wants to force you to use it. As with all advice, it is a totally reasonable and normal thing to not have use for every piece of it that exists from random strangers on the internet. Use it to whatever extent it helps you or not at all.

[serendipizzy79]

Stop calling me out! 😭

Introducing the Writer Kinks:

1. The comma (,)

2. The semicolon (;)

3. The em dash (—)

4. The Overused italics

5. The Fragments (Because. Drama.)

6. THE ALL CAPS

7. The Ellipses (...)

Honorable Mentions: Long metaphors, parentheses (bonus thoughts) and repititions.

Because why write a concise sentence when you can string together 37 thoughts into one grammatical monstrosity.

[xisadorapurlowx]

[rheas-chaos-motivation]

Questions to ask beta readers

General:

Were you confused at any point of the story?

What genre would you say this book is?

When did you put the story down?

Is the ending satisfying?

If you had to cut 3 scenes what would they be?

When did you feel like the story really began?

What was the last book you read before this story?

Characters:

Do you get any of the characters names confused?

Which character is your favorite?

If you had to remove a character who would you and why? (you don't have to remove the character, just make sure their role is meaningful)

Which character do you relate to the most?

Which character do you relate to the least?

Do the characters feel real?

Are character relationships believable?

Are the goals clear and influence the plot?

Are the characters distinct (voice, motivations, etc)

Setting:

Which setting was clearest to you?

Which setting was the most memorable?

Am including enough/too much detail?

Plot and conflict:

Are the internal and external conflicts well defined for the main characters?

Are the internal conflicts and the external conflicts organic and believable?

Are there enough stakes?

Are the plot twists believable but still unexpected?

[vesanal]

₊˚｡⋆❆⋆｡˚₊The 22nd Day of Writemas₊˚｡⋆❆⋆｡˚₊

NO WAY. YALLLLLL. The end is near :(. Now I have to work on my character intros and lore drops. Nooooooo. I’m too lazyyyyy. Oh welll, it’s time to enjoy the last 2 days of writemas!! Today I’ll be using these prompts! If you need to look over at the rules again or want to see what the challenge is all about check out the invite post here! 

Prompts used:

(Used all of the dialogues, they were just so fitting!!)

Dialogue: “You would leave me in the cold?" + "It's a time for celebration, wipe that frown from your face." + "How could I be cold when I have you?"

More Melina! I think she is pretty cool and the prompts just really, really, reallllyyyy, fit her today. SO, we are taking a blast back to her past again(for like the 3rd time jeez, but I swear I cannot write for her in present day since she kinda deleted her entire personality and goals and became just a lackey to her Queensman, because she wanted to reset her life over so she doesn’t talk a lottt which is kinda lame to read from her POV) to when she became mayor of Elares! She definitely won through fair and non-corrupt means! I mean, it was basically her birthright! Haha, uh, anyway don’t think about that too hard ;). Oh no I’ve said too much.

Read about the WIP here!!

Enjoy the slimeball tehe >:)

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The ballroom echoed with joy. Laughter and happiness filled the air as much as heat waves from the above heaters did. A celebration was held in the middle of the Harrier estate. All for Melina and her triumphant victory. Watch out, there was a new sheriff in town, and she knew how to run things smoothly, as in, for her own glory.

She held her win as a badge of honor, boasting about it to every person that came up to her. In the banquet hall, Melina and another girl stood together with interlocked arms in fancy dresses. Though only one of the girls seemed to enjoy the glamourous new title of ‘Mayor of Elares’.

Looking down her shoulder to her girlfriend, Astraea, Melina could see that something was bothering her. She knew that it meant something was wrong. The poor girl puts up with so much. Why was it now that she was hesitant? Melina caught odd looks coming their way as Astraea’s expression saddened further. They had other things to focus on, this would just bring attention away from her victory.

"It's a time for celebration, wipe that frown from your face, dear." Melina smiled with smug eyes staring right into her soul, grabbing onto the back of her arm. Now wasn’t the time for feeling sad, Melina had to look the best she ever could be. 

“Mel, you have been ignoring me all night. How can I not be sad? You are dragging me around like a decoration to your accomplishments, as if I had nothing to do with it! Does none of my hard work and support mean nothing to your cold heart?” Astraea whispered sharply in Melina’s ear, trying to keep her anguished facial expression to a minimum.

Melina smirked wider, "How could I be cold when I have you?”

“Please, Mel, stop being so rude to me. Why are you all of the sudden changing up on me? What’s going on with you?” Astraea pleaded with her partner.

Melina rolled her eyes. Excusing herself from the party temporarily, she walked her girlfriend, hand in hand, out of the estate.

Arriving just outside the doors, Astraea spoke with a stern voice, yet still trying to keep quiet, “What did you want to say, would you like to apologize for the way you acted?” 

“Yeah. No. Sorry, doll, but it looks like we’ve run our course. It’s time for you to go.” Melina said with simplicity, pulling her hand out of her newly made ex’s, “It wasn’t going to work anyway, I’m just climbing the ladder of life while you are doing, whatever you are doing.”

“I’m working on my herbalism fascination. An education like that has got to mean something to someone like you!”

“Yes, sure. Whatever you say.” Melina replied callously.

“So, you would leave me in the cold?" Astraea said, her nectarine voice softly wavering, “I have done nothing to you. Please reconsider!”

Astraea took a step back from her. Melina’s face turned sour with bitterness. Her words became venom in an instant.

”Neither have you done anything for me. It’s not hard to understand why I have to let you go. I’m trying to leave my options open for someone worth the horrible effort that a relationship takes. Relationships, if not controlled and manipulated, can really drag you down in the world. That’s not something I really want in my life right now. I have better prospects to get to, along with more people to meet. Really, you are just in the way.” Melina’s smile faltered a bit to give another condescending addition to her statement, “If it makes you feel better, I never loved you. You didn’t lose someone who cared about you.”

Melina left the girl to wail in sorrow to get back inside, it was her party after all, she had to be there. Impressing people was her responsibility, and, coincidentally, her favorite activity.

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(PLEASE tell me if you wanna get added to a tag list here because I genuinely don't know who to tag lol. I'll edit this and add you in!! <3 )

TAGLIST SO FAR: @sunflowerrosy @seastarblue

@thebookishkiwi @viridis-icithus @corinneglass

Our wonderful host <3 → @agirlandherquill Have a lovely day everyone!!

[fullyvisible]

December 23:

Lily Lives: 180 words

December Writing Goals

In the words of the great Merle Haggard, "If we make it through December, everything's gonna be all right, I know."

It's a new month, but I'm still writing - a little bit, every day - and I'm still tracking it here. Follow along!

[jgmartin]

me, after clearing my schedule to write:

uhhhh it was raining... and dark (and also night) and um... cold i guess?? anyway, something dramatic~ happened

me, stuck in traffic on my way to work:

Rain tumbled through midnight leaves, casting the forest in liquid moonlight. A low growl shook the horizon. Death had come.

[itsawritblr]

Me admiring the 2 sentences I wrote over the weekend.