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ren-c-leyn · 2 years ago

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Happy STS, Ren^^ First I would like to ask for writing update on your projects, esp Dark princess wip, your dnd campaign, Forgotten gods and Shackles. :D

Second I would like to know what scene from the currently published Shackles of time chapters was the most meaningful to you?

@writingonesdreams

Happy STS to you too, Dreams ^^ I hope you're having a good one.

I'll be answering in reverse order, hope you don't mind @writingonesdreams ^^ The second answer was just the shorter and more coherent one, as my updates are a bunch of incoherent screaming at the moment lol.

Here is your read more, as is tradition.

The most meaningful to me is a toss up among the 15 chapters that are up.

Something about The Time Keeper's office scene in chapter 4 is still sticking with me, and it's gotten even more meaningful as I've continued writing the story. The symbols of the long career that was torn away, the stories behind those objects of adventurers taken with people who are no longer with them, the beautiful impression mixed with the unspoken sadness. Then there was the mask. I believe that line was 'it was not the only thing to be broken that day, just the symbol of it all.' That, that slaps way, way harder now that I've written The Guild Masters' Meeting arc. It hit hard when I wrote it the first time, but rereading it after that arc hard felt like past me kicked current me in the gut. It was a perfect, unintended set up. Like I knew the history of it when I wrote it, but I didn't know what the future would hold and it just... yeah. Yeah that scene makes me feel proud and happy and sad all at once. It resonates with me in the way that holding the stuffed unicorn my late grandmother gave me when I was a kid does now. That sense of loss and comfort all in one.

The contender is from the end of part 2 of The Guild Masters' Meeting arc, when Wyndulin is talking to his old friend, Myria. And it hits similar notes, but is much heavier on the melancholic tone as these two legends both show just how closely they mirror each other and Wyndulin is slowly coming to the conclusion that he's watching the end. The end of a legend, the end of an era, perhaps the end of everything, and Myria is not the same as she was then. She's older, more fragile, exhausted, but she still won't stop. Won't step down. He admires her and grieves her in the same breath, just as she appreciates and is frustrated with him and The Time Keeper. It's... it's hard to explain, but if you want to understand I recommend reading it when you get the chance. And when you finish with that scene, go back and reread that scene from chapter 4. But I recommend doing it on a day when you can handle some heavy angst ^^'

Your weekly updates:

There's no new updates on Forgotten Gods or The Dark Princess of Aconitum this week. I paused the rewrite in favor of working on The Shackles of Time's anniversary event since it's taking most of my creativity, and I'm letting the magic system for dark princess stew for awhile in the back of my mind. Sometimes I come up with better ways to handle things or see drawbacks that I hadn't originally expected when I give a concept some time to marinate.

I think the next thing I'm going to consider one Dark Princess while I'm finishing up solidifying the magic system is how the assassination of the elf prince was done. I've already gotten the political ramifications of it done and out of the way, as well as whose behind it, but I never did decide how he was killed ^^' a bit of an oversight on my part, I suppose, but there's a lot of things I'm juggling. So, I'm playing around with a few ideas. Some practical, some inspired by history, and some that are totally over the top and dramatic.

I may get really ambitious and actually name the characters, as not even the MC has a proper name yet ^^;

In my DnD campaign I've finished setting up the big bad's goals and what they need to do to achieve them. These things will be happening in the background, and the players have the potential to mess up those plans, speed them up, or ignore them. I'll be keeping track as the game progresses. It turned into a big undertaking. I need to finish designing some things for it, but for the most part that end of things is solidified.

I've also started marking down important locations on the world map and drawing kingdom/country boarders as well as the migration paths of the floating islands. (Yes, I have yet another world with floating islands lol)

I've also written down 10 moral quandaries for the players to answer in character to go along with their alignments as a sort of guidelines for how their characters would react. Among them is a version of the Trolley problem, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they respond to those. Though, I admit I nearly gave myself an existential crisis while looking up example moral quandaries to base the questions off of. Some of them were... yeah. Tough calls, to say the least, tough calls.

We also set up some homebrew and table rules. I also finished my 20+ god pantheon (which took forever but I survived) for the world and the players have picked their patron gods, which is great since since two of the three characters are going into levels of cleric, and you kinda need a patron god for cleric. So, we're inching closer to being able to play. I have everyone's backstories and am thinking of fun and evil ways I can bring them into play throughout the game.

Unfortunately, everyone's work schedules have changed, again, so our session 0 and character building sessions are going to be postponed and the game is getting pushed back. But it just gives me more time to fiddle with things in the world, look up more Dming tips, name things. Naming things is so hard, and scheduling people for a dnd game is even harder >.<

As far as The Shackles of Time goes, I have enough chapters banked up to get through October, even with the posted chapters doubling to 4 for that month, I just need to finish rewriting and scheduling them :D I'm not quite finished with the Stormy Road ahead arc, but I am getting there. It'll probably make up all of October and probably November's 2 posts. There's also a chance it'll continue into December. It's much longer than I originally planned for, but a lot of heavy stuff came to light and demanded my attention lol. I've also thought up a good starting point for the next mini arc, right down to the character introductions, so once I get there it should be smooth sailing.

Also, my rough drafts document is over 60,000 words long, which means the published versions are probably somewhere around 70,000 words long, if not longer. There's a full book worth of content available to be read, and I can. not. believe. it. I can't! This is so wild that I am shocked and dazed. The impulse project I spent exactly 3 days planning ahead of time has not only survived a year, but thrived! :D I'm so proud of The Shackles of Time and myself. My adorable, little adventure trio and all of their weird friends makes my heart happy and the words flow <3 Though my favorite chapter is still chapter 4, I think The Guild Masters' Meeting is my favorite arc. So much sad Wyndulin and a group of badasses sitting in dead silence out of shock and terror, I love it <3

Speaking of, I am currently working on more content for the big Anniversary event. My housemates and my writing partner have all demanded I keep them updated with my progress, they love the bonus content that much, so I am confident that I'm doing something right with the cool stuff I'm cooking up here >:D Progress is slow, as I expected, since these are very involved... and also I recently got Stardew Valley and have a hard time putting it down. That game is scary addicting, but so much fun.

I think that's about it? Nothing else is jumping to mind. If you have more specific questions about any of it, ask any time. You know how I like to ramble ;p

Thanks for stopping in, I hope you have a lovely day/evening.

#sts #writing update #The Shackles of Time #Forgotten Gods #The Dark Princess of Aconitum #dnd

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ren-c-leyn · 3 years ago

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I don’t mind the long answer at all, it was an interesting read ^^ It’s interesting how the genres you prefer revolve around your one true love, suspense. Though, I’m honestly not surprised. I remember that romance you tried writing that turned into more of a suspense thriller with a romantic subplot :D

And I do have a new genre I’m going to be moving into as seen as I can finish wrangling the massive cast and in-depth world building, and that’s a political fantasy. I’ve had some political elements in The Plight of a Sparrow and The Shackles of Time, but The Dark Princess of Aconitum (yes, @writingonesdreams and @writeblrfantasy that idea I was talking about earlier in the week is rapidly evolving into a full fledged wip, complete with a working title. I promise I’ll tag you both when I actually start writing it.) will be the first story I’ve done in the thick of the world’s politics, going into assassinations, plotting against other nobles, running a kingdom, a succession crisis, heirs who don’t want to be heirs, spies, and so on. I’m looking into media that go over similar territory to get an idea of how I want to approach the story while I’m working on setting up the world building and characters. It’s not going to be something I start immediately, seeing as my research has sparked an impulse project I wrote 6,000 words of yesterday and there’s a lot of characters and political stuff I still need to set up, but I’m excited for it.

Hello, hello, and happy STS, Hyba! I hope you're having a lovely one. Alright, so you've worked with a ton of different settings and genres in the time we've been chatting, and I was wondering what your thoughts on each one was. What ones have been the easiest for you to work with? Which ones did you find more challenging? Are there any you haven't tried yet but are interested in giving a go?

Happy STS!!!!! This is an awesome set of Qs and I feel like this post is going to be long, haha, so I hope you don't mind! :D

So, I LOVE writing suspense. I don't know how good I am at it, but I really, really enjoy it. No matter what genre I move to, I always try to incorporate suspense into my stories (with varying levels of success, because writing style does tend to change from one genre/story to the next). Writing something like Apartment was easy - it was all suspense, all the time. Just a thick serving of dread that never ends. I loved it. To date, I'm still very, very proud of it.

(For my newer followers, this is Apartment.)

I think the reason that I love suspense so much is that it really does make for lighter writing. You don’t need a lot of description to build suspense. You don’t need to get into background worldbuilding to make the reader feel the tension. It’s very much action-based. Things that have happened. Things that might happen. Things that are planned. Things that are discovered.

This might be why I enjoy it so much.

Horror lends itself well to that, so it’s pretty easy to write up to a certain point. An Entity In Your Midst (tumblr wip intro), for example, is sort of a slow burn horror (well, okay, medium burn) that utilizes the reader’s knowledge that someone is not who they say they are to create suspense as they watch other characters interact with that character.

Fantasy and sci-fi are a little less suspense-heavy. The suspense tends to mostly kick in when characters are plotting something, or when they’re in a tough spot, or when there is action. I can’t make choppy, punchy chapters with fantasy; there’s too much to describe, too much to get into (though sci-fi, I find, is a bit easier to make more suspenseful, and that might have something to do with how relatable it is, despite the science-fiction-ness of it? Or maybe it’s just the fact that all of my sci-fi stories end up being very much mysteries, too...). The pacing is very different overall, even with short, punchy suspenseful scenes here and there.

Psychological thrillers are awesome, because the suspense is all about understanding that something is happening to the characters. They’re changing, mentally, and they’re hiding things from you, and they’re hiding things from each other, and you think you understand how their brains work, but you don’t, really, and it’s so fun. Characters who drip with suspicion, who think thoughts that make you really wonder, who leave you guessing about their motives... Love it.

As always, though, and this will be true across all of my projects, one of my biggest challenges is description. I think maybe that’s why Apartment was also so easy for me. It was meant to make you feel like everything was the same but not; you were grounded but floating; things exist and don’t exist.

I’m going to be giving a family drama a go soon - something with magical realism in it - and I’m excited for that. I love the bizarre and unsettling, so I think anything I do requires some suspense in there, haha. As you know, I’ve tried romance and that just did not work for me. Don’t think I’ll be trying it again. I prefer romance to be a sub-plot and not a main theme or genre of my stories.

What about you? Any genres you want to try your hand at?

#writing discussion

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theparadoxmachine · 7 years ago

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tagged by @aconitum-napellus

Rules: Answer the 20 questions and tag 20 amazing people you would like to get to know better.

Name: Kasey

Nicknames: K (I guess-if I ever make it to grad school I wanna try and make that happen.) Mr. Padfoot to relevant parties. A couple embarrassing ones my brother still likes to call me, but I’m not mentioning them here.

Zodiac Sign: Virgo

Height: 5′6″

Orientation: About 97% ace and about 3% *non-committal shrug*

Ethnicity: White American.

Favourite Fruit: Most of them. Pomegranates, grapes, and plums particularly.

Favourite Season: I honestly do not know anymore. Summer probably

Favourite Book Series: Sherlock Holmes, Lord of the Rings, Abarat (what there is of it CLIVE), the Nightside series by Simon R Green, Harry Potter, the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, the Jeeves and Wooster books by Wodehouse.

Favourite Flower: Black or purple dahlias

Favourite Scent: Sandalwood and vanilla, also sea island cotton, like proper cotton or linen-y smells, not the candles that are like “Line Dried Linen” but they just smell like laundry detergent

Favourite Colour: Dark colors, especially purple and green, black, silver.

Coffee, Tea, or Cocoa: Tea. Preferably green with some sort of fruit flavoring.

Average Sleep Hours: Not nearly enough

Cat or Dog Person: Both

Favorite Fictional Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Napoleon Solo, Illya Kuryakin, Joss Carter, John Utterson, Hobbits, Bones McCoy, Spock, Dr. Julia Hoffman

Dream Trip: Just about anywhere but here.

Blog Created: 2012 I think. Right before I moved out to Denton.

Number of Followers: 391 as of this exact moment.

I shall tag: ok my computer did something strange and I thought I might have lost this entire thing and it’s nearly 5 am and I’m tired and I’m afraid if I touch anything else I’m going to have to start over so I’m just gonna end this. Please feel free to do it if you want to. I want to know all of you better. <3

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magicalthoughtsendinterriblefics · 7 years ago

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20 Questions (Get to Know Me Better)

I was tagged by You guys know I never get tired of these things.

Name ~ Rebecca

Chinese Zodiac Sign ~ Tiger.

Height ~ 5′1′’

Ethnicity ~ Mexican… (Arriba México cab*ones!!!!) (Also, yes I did copy you, Eva)

Howarts House ~ Ravenclaw, with a little bit too much of Slytherin.

Myers-Briggs Personality Result ~ ENTP (aka The Debater)

Favorite Season ~ Fall and Winter (Cold seasons)

Favorite Books ~ Pride and Prejuice, Harry Potter, Aura, The Picture of Dorian Gray, It, The Pearl, Interview with the Vampire, Cirque du Freak, Upon a Moon-Dark Moor.

Favorite Flowers ~ Sunflowers, Belladonna, Adenium, Aconitum… I like too many flowers to pick a favourite.

Favorite Color ~ Pink and Black.

Favorite Animal(s) and Why ~ Animals in general are awesome, don’t get me wrong, but I prefer cats (specially black, hairy cats) or really any other feline. I also love wolves.

Favorite Ice cream flavor ~ I love Strawberry, but also Currant.

Avarage hours of sleep ~ Five hours tops, maybe eight if I take a pill.

SamGirl/DeanGirl/CasGirl/CrowleyGirl/Othere/None ~ Dean Girl.

Favorite SPN character and why ~ Obviously Dean, but also Charlie and Rowena. <3

Second favorite SPN character ~ Bobby, Crowley, Abadon.

Favorite Fictional Characters Other than SPN ~ T SHerlock Holmes, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Elizabeth Bennet, Rachel Berry, Blair Waldorf, Phoebe Buffay, Joey Tribianni, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewie, Alice Lidell, Frank ‘n’ Further, Beetlejuice, Meagara, Elsa, and so so many others!

Favorite Superhero ~ Batmaaaan! Nah, just kidding, Superheroes are for babies, I like villains.

Favorite Movies ~ Pride and Prejudice, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribean, No Instructions Incluided, Nosotros los Nobles, Alice in Wonderland, CRIMSON PEAK <3 Black Swan, ANY Tim Burton movie…

What would your personal SPN heaven be like ~ Me on a stage, or perhaps re-living my favourite memories. I don’t know, I try not to think much about it.

I’m going to tag @sprinkleofhappinessuniverse @procrastinating-my-life-away

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imagineelrios · 8 years ago

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flower representation of elgang (all jobs) pls?

((warning: long post ahead. also I used Victorian flower symbolism instead of flower appearances so I hope you don’t mind!)

Lord Knight-Quercus leaves (bravery, also known as oak leaves)

Rune Slayer-Iris pseudacorus (flame, I burn, also known as yellow flag iris, fleur-de-lis)

Infinity Sword-Rhododendron (danger, beware, I am dangerous, also known as rosebay)

Elemental Master-Morus alba (wisdom, also known as white mulberry)

Void Princess-Circaea lutetiana (witchcraft, sorcery, also known as enchanter’s nightshade)

Dimension Witch-Angelica genus (inspiration, magic)

Grand Archer-Nymphaeaceae family (eloquence, purity of heart, also known as water lilies)

Wind Sneaker-Antirrhinum genus (you are dazzling but dangerous, gracious lady, strength, presumption, also known as snapdragon, dragon flower)

Night Watcher-Aconitum genus (misanthropy, chivalry, a knight, also known as wolfsbane)

Blade Master-Gladiolus murielae (you pierce my heart, generosity, I’m sincere, flower of the gladiators, also known as gladiolus, sword lily)

Reckless Fist-Achillea millefolium (war, a cure for a broken heart, also known as yarrow)

Veteran Commander-Adonis annua (sad memories, painful recollections, also known as pheasant’s eye, blooddrops, red chamomile, rose-a-ruby)

Code: Empress-Rosa centifolia (pride, grace, also known as hundred-leaved rose)

Code: Nemesis-Ruta graveolens (grace, disdain, also known as rue)

Code: Battle Seraph-Dahlia pinnata (forever thine, elegance and dignity, novelty, instability, my gratitude exceeds your care, also known as dahlia)

Iron Paladin-Magnolia virginiana (love of nature, dignity, nobility, perseverance, also known as magnolia)

Deadly Chaser-Narcissus pseudonarcissus (deceitful hopes, self-love, regard, new beginnings, also known as daffodil)

Tactical Trooper-Lupinus albus (imagination, sorrow, voraciousness, also known as white lupine)

Sakra Devanam-Tussilago farfara (justice shall be done you, also known as coltsfoot)

Yama Raja-cattleya (mature charm, a type of orchid)

Asura-Hypericum perforatum (superstition, animosity, also known as St. John’s wort)

Grand Master-Tropaeolum speciosum (patriotism, conquest, victory in battle, also known as flame nasturtium)

Blazing Heart-Dictamnus albus (fire, also known as fraxinella, burning bush, dittany)

Crimson Avenger-Amaranthus caudatus (hopeless but not heartless, deserted love, also known as love-lies-bleeding)

Mastermind-Viburnum opulus (bound, ennui, thoughts of heaven, also known as snowball)

Lunatic Psyker-Arbutus unedo (esteem and love, esteem not love, perseverance, also known as strawberry tree)

Diabolic Esper-Rosmarinus officinalis (remembrance, your presence revives me, also known as rosemary)

Noblesse-Amaryllis belladonna (pride, haughtiness, timidness, splendid beauty, also known as knight’s star lily, amaryllis)

Chiliarch-Echites purpurea (be warned in time, also known as dark purple echites)

Diabla-Rosa canina (simplicity, pleasure in pain, also known as dog rose)

Royal Guard-Dianthus barbatus (finesse, childhood, gallantry, scorn, grant me one smile, also known as sweet william)

Dreadlord-Dracaena fragrans (dread, you are near a snare, also known as dragon-plant)

Demonio-Lavandula Angustifolia (distrust, devotion, acknowledgement, also known as common lavender, English lavender, true lavender)

Storm Trooper-Hepatica nobilis (trust, confidence, also known as hepatica, anemone nobilis, liverleaf, liverworth)

Crimson Rose-Rosa Gallicanae (depending on the colour, can represent mourning, passion, capricious beauty, among other things)

Freyja-Leontopodium alpinum (noble courage, noble purity, also known as edelweiss)

Optimus-Hyacinthus orientalis (constancy, playfulness, brashness, also known as common hyacinth, Dutch hyacinth)

Arme Thaumaturgy-Passiflora incarnata (faith, belief, religious fervor, also known as passionflower)

Erbluhen Emotion-Pyrus japonica/Chaenomeles japonica (the faeries’ fire, also known as Maule’s quince)

Apostasia-Datura metel (separation, also known as datura, angel’s trumpet, devil’s trumpet)

#elboy #aisha #rena #raven #eve #chung #ara #elesis #add #lu #ciel #rose #ain #mod ceae #anon #ask #elsword #elsword imagines #fuck if this was hell to proofread it must have been difficult to write ~ash

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brokenmusicboxwolfe · 8 years ago

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Tagged by: @aigooylgaifyllina Thanks!!!

Rules: You can tell a lot about yourself through music you’re listening to. Put your music player, iTunes, Spotify, etc. on shuffle mode and write the first 10 songs. Tag 10 people.

1) The Ring Trilogy: Rhein Maidens - Joseph LoDuca - Xena: Warrior Princess Vol6

2) Rakim - Dead Can Dance

3) She Makes Me Laugh - The Monkees (why is it whenever I do these random things they and The Beatles show up)

4) The Mystical Master Dies - Trevor Jones - The Dark Crystal

5) Grand Canyon Suite : Sunset - Ferde Grofe

6) Shootout in the Cell Bay/Dianoga - John Willams - Star Wars: A New Hope

7) P. S. I Love You - The Beatles (LOL! Look who else showed up!)

8) Last Threats - Guy Gross - Farscape Volume 2

9) Godzilla - Blue Oyster Cult

10) Hip Like Junk - 7 Year Bitch

Other than that I have a lot of soundtracks on there, I dunno what it says about me!

Ok, my mood is slightly better so I’ll tag a few, picked at random. No obligation! @theramblingrogue @aconitum-napellus @omegadalek @whitexblackrose @tiny-teapot-stuck-in-a-burrow @kimikokat @orcface @antonnightwatch @lzbarnabas @runningbarefootthroughtheforest and anyone else that wants to!!!

#tag game #tagging game

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ren-c-leyn · 2 years ago

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Happy STS, Ren! How have you been? How is it going? Any writing updates? What have you been thinking about lately? @writingonesdreams

And a happy sts to you as well. ^^ Actuall, you have perfect time, Dreams. I was just about to make a writing update post for you ^^ This got pretty long, so here's your weekly read more. Enjoy.

I'm a little tired, but otherwise am doing alright. The head cold is mostly cleared up so I've been working on Forgotten Gods' draft 2 and setting up a DnD campaign.

I just finished up chapter 1, which ended up being over 4k words this time which is almost double its old length, and started chapter 2. Still not entirely sure how I feel about how the first conversation went between Silver and Eternity, but we'll see what it looks like when I give it time and reread it later. I'm introducing your favorite monster hunting elf, Reuven, and his giant grumpy wolf friend to the story now.

There's a lot of foreshadowing I missed in the first two chapters, so I'm having to reference my notes and my old draft quite a bit as I go. It should start moving more smoothly around chapter 6 or so. The first 5 chapters make up at least a quarter of my total editing notes XD The total word count for the draft is at 4,250 words at the moment. Not bad progress, all things considered.

As for what I've been thinking about, the short answer is a lot of things.

I'm world building two worlds (my weird dark fantasy dnd world and the world for the dark princess wip), trying to find solid plot points and build all of the side characters for both of those worlds, rewriting Forgotten Gods (while it's mostly faithful to the first draft already feels like a different story with the places that have changed), and have been meaning to finish the editing for The Plight of a Sparrow book one and writing the first draft of the second quest arc for The Shackles of Time. All the while, my brain is also nagging at me that it's been awhile since I've done anything with The Firewalker (an old project with my two morally questionable characters and their inability to do anything but make more problems for themselves).

My brain feels kinda like jelly right now, lol.

At the forefront of my mind tonight, though, is I need to build a pantheon of gods for my DnD setting since all of my players went 'oh fuck no' when I mentioned there'd vampires and dove straight for the holy classes. They have been giving me puppy dog eyes since they picked their classes, hoping I'd build the pantheon faster so they can pick their temples and build their backstories and stuff. I've been meaning to get to it, but there is still a ton of world building I need to get done before I can turn my dnd group loose on the world. Like vampire rules. I'm not sure if I'm sticking with DnD 5e's vampire rules, or if I'm going to mix and match from different media.

I also need to sit myself down and finally decide what I'm going to do about magic for The Dark Princess of Aconitum. It's my second biggest sticking point, right after finishing building the noble houses and all of the nobles in them and then literally naming every character because I have named no one. XD But it's the most plot-relevant sticking point.

So, I've got a lot on my plate, lol.

#The Dark Princess of Aconitum #Forgotten Gods #my wips #sts

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ren-c-leyn · 2 years ago

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Happy belated STS Ren! May I be excused, I'm currently on a trip for being a bit late, but this really caught my attention:

Valerian, an angry and persecuted fire mage who just wanted to see the ocean once in his life and ended up landing himself into more trouble and Thistle's schemes.

Why does he want to see the sea? Looks like it's very important on symbolic level too maybe? And what are Valerian and Thistle like together?

And also how is the dark princess wip and the rewrites going?^^

@writingonesdreams

I don't mind belated asks, goodness knows I've sent more of them than on time asks myself in recent times, and there's no telling when I might have seen this if I didn't get a little wiggle room during the weekends. XD (You're most likely to catch me on weekends for now.)

It's not often people ask me about The Firewalker, so I mentioned a small part of this before and then never did elaborate further. ^^' I really need to get better about talking about my projects without prompting. I just never quite know where to start.

As per usual, the answers got long and rambly, particularly the last part of your question, I think you'll be happy to hear about my progress on my various projects. So here's your read more, my lady. Happy reading, I hope your seat is comfortable over there, Dreams. ^^

So, to answer the first part of your question, we need to go into a little world building. The continent the story takes place on is physically split into the Lowlands, where the story takes place and Thistle was born, and the Highlands, Where Valerian is from. Imagine tectonic plates, right? Now imagine one of those plates is about a small mountain's height above the other and you've got the basic idea. The Highlands are, well, the high ground. It's not just hills and mountains, it's more like a massive jagged cliff face that lords over the Lowlands with a few places where it dips and connects to the Lowlands with passes and rolling foothills. However, The Highlands are no where near the ocean. They're thick, untamed forests full of dangerous monsters and wild and unpredictable weather.

The lowlands, however, are full of coastal towns, trade, and is basically an entirely different world than the Highlands. It also happens to be where Valerian's mother was from before she moved to the Highlands. Before her death, she told him her favorite thing about the lowlands had been the ocean. It sounded so... impossible to him. He never could imagine what the ocean looked like after spending his entire life in the Highlands, and so, years after she died with his own death seemingly around every corner, he decided to break his rules and head down into the thick of civilization to finally see what this ocean-thing his mother loved so much was like.

As for what Valerian and Thistle are like together, I'd say a grumpy, socially awkward older brother and his chaotic, bossy but sweet younger sister is a pretty good description of their general dynamics and how outsiders perceive them. Thistle actually calls him her older brother when introducing him to people, as a sort of cover.

Valerian hasn't spent much time around people, and most of the ones he had tried to kill him for being a mage. To add to this, his mother, also a fire mage, raised him to stay away from other people and keep his guard up at all times, which doesn't exactly make him very approachable, and normally he prefers it that way.

Except Thistle doesn't care that he's a mage, or that basic etiquette eludes him, or that he's a bit sour. In fact, she seems to enjoy it, particularly 'the birds', which is the pair of talking crows who serve as Valerian's familiars. What he doesn't realize at first is that she was raised in a den of thieves, assassins, and general scum. Compared to people who cause death and destruction for fun and profit, he doesn't scare her in the slightest, and it confuses the poor boy XD She saves his life, even though he just clearly was in a horrible fight and she doesn't know anything about him; sleeps in his camp to make sure he survives the night, doesn't freak out at the crows talking to her, and when he goes to leave she starts just skipping along beside him, chatting happily after seeing him light a fire with a snap of his fingers, talking about how they could, theoretically become folk heroes and then people might be reluctant to hurt him for fear of the wrath of the people. And he doesn't know what to do with any of that. No one has reacted like that to him being a mage before. No stabbing, no screaming, no 'spare me', just happily chatting so fast he can barely process it.

Her enthusiasm and confidence has Valerian allowing her to drag him into situations and messes that every fiber of his being screams in protest at: cities, markets, shady taverns, talking to followers of the new gods, ect. He also admires her skill as a healer, her ability to put people at ease with them, and appreciates how she goes out of her way to help him blend in better and track down his mother's past, but Valerian doesn't entirely trust her. Thistle is a little too good at stepping quietly, a little too good at getting the information they want, a little too good at bending him to her whims, just a little too quick to grab onto her dagger, and a little too adept at dealing with bandits for him to put his full faith in, so she spends quite a bit of time dodging suspicions and trying, in vain, to keep her past from him, afraid she might lose her first potential new friend if he finds out that he's been traveling with a former criminal.

I also have a few favorite incorrect quotes that nail their dynamic pretty well. They come from either this generator or this generator.

*Thistle and Valerian are doing something absurdly dangerous* Thistle: I think Houdini did something like this once! Why, if I recall correctly, he was out of the hospital in no time!

Valerian, deadpan: Well that's encouraging.

Thistle: We have fun, don’t we, Val?

Valerian: I have never been more stressed out in my entire life.

Thistle: That was a joke. Say ha. Valerian: Ha. Thistle: Now do it again. Valerian: Ha. Thistle: Congratulations, you are officially the life of the party.

And now, the last part of your question -

I'm on chapter 2 of the Forgotten Gods rewrite which would be Reuven's appearance and our first monster fight of the story, I still haven't touched The Firewalker since I already have too much on my plate creative wise to give it the proper attention it needs, so it'll probably end up being my next rewrite after I get the current draft of Forgotten Gods down; haven't had much of a chance to sit down with The Dark Princess's world building to finish it up yet since I've been working on the dnd campaign's Pantheon of Gods and the end bad guy. My players are stoked to see what I'm cooking up since I've been keeping them in the loop with the world building, except for spoilers like who the big bad is, as I've been doing it. They're really fond of the 'epic dark/gothic high fantasy with weird humor for flavor' blend I've been doing with it. I don't think I've seen them so invested in a campaign before it's started before. Hoping it lives up to their expectations ^^' I'm still a newer DM, so I get the feeling building the world is going to be the easy part of this, lol.

That being said, The Dark Princess isn't entirely on pause. I've been going through some different fantasy magic systems I've liked in the past, both from my own works and from other works to try and find inspiration for The Dark Princess. I might have an idea of a blend between The Shackles of Time's system and another one, but I need some time to stew on it a bit because there's a lot of implications and work that'd need to go into that, not that there isn't already. I've got some more character ideas for minor nobles, future enemies, and that sort of thing, but most of them wouldn't come up until book 2, and I need to work through book 1 because the politics I set up are complex enough that what happens is going to be really important to know before I commit to anything XD I did solidify the ending for the first book, though! So that's a good start. It'll help me herd the plot in the right direction when I start actually writing it. I also figured out my naming convention for the trilogy! First Book is The Dark Princess, the second book will be The Dark Queen, and the last book will be The Dark Empress. So, spoilers, I guess lol.

I've shifted my main focus for the moment to The Shackles of Time to try and finish up the second quest arc since the first 2 chapters of it are scheduled for tumblr, and wow, angst, so much angst. I knew the trio was going to get themselves into trouble, but some of this stuff made me gasp out loud, and I'm writing it!

A darker part of Night's existence relating to the creation of the Shadow and Shade-kin peoples has surfaced, we get another glimpse into why Merle hates the Howling Ice Guild and just what kind of revenge she's hoping to get on them, and that's painting a dark picture; a severe drawback to Arlen's magic tradition rears up, we get some interesting world building, and poor Zephyr and Glenn are nervous wrecks in the chapter I'm currently on.

I'm bouncing in my seat just thinking about it again. It was so, so good, like good enough I got distracted rereading them instead of writing the new ones, and these are just the rough drafts! The published versions you're going to get to read will probably be even better :D I'm super excited to see where this wild ride of an arc ends! I don't think I have many chapters left to go for the second quest arc. 2 to 4, I think. It's going to be one of the longest ones to date. After it's done, we're going to do another mini arc or two following another team on a special task for The Time Keeper. (Spoiler, I have decided to add a rehashed version of my old DnD character - Drusila into it, and will be introducing an interesting result of the Mad War. I'm super excited to write that team, I think they're going to be fun. And also, possibly, my third romantic pairing of the series? I don't know, yet, we'll see how they click while I'm writing them. They may just end up as friends.)

Also, have I said how much I love Glenn and Zephyr? Because I freaken love Glenn and Zephyr, they're such sweet boys <3 They are so getting their own date night mini arc when I'm done with the main trio's mentoring chaos.

That's all I can think of writing update-wise. If you have more specific questions about anything mentioned, or just something you're curious about, just ask whenever you like. The askbox is open whenever. I may be slow getting back to them, and most of my answers will probably be during a weekend, but I will get back to them ^^

Thanks for stopping by, Dreams! I hope you have a lovely day/evening.

#writing update #my wips #sts #The Firewalker #The Shackles of Time #Forgotten Gods #The Dark Princess of Aconitum #Thistle #Valerian

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ren-c-leyn · 2 years ago

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I agree with your assessment for the two most brutal worlds I have at the moment. None of those characters have known peace in a long, long time ^^; And that is the darker aspect of Forgotten Gods, and a side I’ve been thinking about more and more recently. It won’t change the plot, it’s just something I’m considering since I’ve been thinking of doing a sequel for it.

You know, having you put it in those terms actually makes my world building process make more sense to me? Like, I knew what I did, but it always felt like disorganized chaos. I never thought about it like this before, but I do work with the worlds like I would my characters. General ideas, a couple of key ties to the plot and the characters, and then I pretty much let it develop itself from there as I write and become it’s own thing. If something unexpected pops up, I just go ‘you’re a thing now, I guess’ and find a way to slot it in with everything else in a way that makes sense. Which is cool, it’s just, I never thought of it that way before.

And of course you can! :D You can ask me for an update or random facts on your favorite projects whenever you like, it doesn’t have to be sts or wbw.

(On a slightly related but also mostly unrelated note, do you mind if I ask you what tiny scene sunday is? I’ve read your snippets for it and seen some of my other mutuals doing it, but I’m not sure how it works and was wondering if you’d mind explaining it?)

Here’s your update and a couple of random facts ~

Writing update - Last week was a busy week, so progress was slowed by life, so not much was done in actual writing :/ Thankfully, this week is looking pretty quiet so I intend to get some work done.

That being said, I did get work done on two of the Shackles of Time’s anniversary posts. I’ve actually been working on one of them in between wbw questions.

I’ve also solidified the plot for Book 1 of the Dark Princess triology, and have the basic plot idea for book 2 of the triology. Book three I have the beginning of, but I have no idea where it ends exactly, so I’ll need to stew on it some more. I’ve decided that I’m going to go with that magic system I told you about, and I’ve also decided that it’s going to be a softer magic system. No solid limits or hard rules, but there are still limits and downfalls. I’ll be developing most of this when I get into the story itself, it’ll work well with the politics and characters I have planned out I think. I’m also figuring out the countries’ relations to each other and it’s complicated, but it makes sense to me and that’s good. I’m going to have to draw out a map and a timeline for when certain things, like your favorite Dark Lord’s rise, happen, for a guide/reference but it’s coming along nicely. I tell you, I’m tempted to start it now, but I really want to clear some stuff off my plate first so I can really just buckle down on it.

The Firewalker is starting to come back to my mind as well, I’ve been thinking over ways to improve it now that I know where it’s going. There’s some subplots I dropped and foreshadowing that was desperately needed, but hey, it was a first draft, it’ll be better the next time. The main thing I’ve been thinking about recently is how it’s set up where the end is a cliff hanger. I’m wondering if I want to do a follow up on it or leave what happens after up to people’s imaginations.

And I’ve been exploring ending possibilities in My Ancestor, My Enemy again. So many good options, but I think I’m honing in on one (finally XD) that feels right. I’m going to have to reread it and play with the idea in the context of what I have written so far, but I may finally be over that snag. Though I probably won’t act on it just yet.

I need to get a nice buffer going on The Shackles of Time again and to get some progress laid out on the Forgotten Gods’ second draft and finish up the anniversary preparations before I take on any more work, lol.

Some random interesting facts about Forgotten Gods -

* Reuben is not the only elf whose in the village in the far north, an uncommon occurrence for a place so far away from both elven clans.

* The forest is often filled with a thick fog in the early mornings/cool evenings. Whether this is due to the river and the streams that branch from it or the influence of one of the local gods is unclear.

* Every elf child of the southern clan get a dire wolf pup to raise before they leave for their trial to serve as their first mount and as a companion/slice of home while they’re wandering the outside world during their exile.

Some random interesting facts about the Dark Princess triology - (I’ll probably have even better ones once I start writing since the randomness is where most of the cool stuff comes from)

* Most of the countries of the north are predominately different elven clans, such as snow elves, sea elves, dark elves, moon elves, and dark elves. Even the countries that are not tend to have lots of elves mixed into their populations due to their proximity.

* The name Aconitum is the formal name of a plant that has many names, though I chose it for the specific one: Wolf’s bane. It’s a poisonous flower. Then, purely for irony’s sake I made the royal family’s symbol wolves since they are kind of their own bane and posion in many ways.

* The elf prince is a wood elf from the kingdom south of Aconitum, and their palace is made of trees and other plants that were sculpted into the building using magic.

Happy WBW, Ren! So first off, what is the most ruthless world of your wips and what makes it so? You have very distinct worlds as well, so what helps you to get into them, when you switch projects? You mentioned something about rereading I think, do you use that when switching?

@writingonesdreams

Happy WBW to you too, Dreams! :D Always lovely to hear from you.

That's an interesting set of questions, particularly your first. All of my worlds are brutal and can be ruthless, so it depends on your definition of ruthless. So, I'll list it out and you can decide for yourself, and maybe this will explain my constant 'I don't want to live in any of my fantasy world' answers.

Warning: Mentions of war, slavery, monsters, curses, terrible gods, and other horrible things. Nothing graphic, but it's there.

The Plight of a Sparrow is in the middle of a 2,000 year long war. There is all kinds of horrible things happening in this world that Sparrow is vaguely aware of but doesn't come face to face with until she gets into the thick of it in book 2. Slavery, battles, magic that will physically break you just for being born with it, cruel leaders, monsters that roam unchecked, gods that turned their backs on mortals, it is a lot bleaker and harsher than Sparrow had been expecting when she was reborn into it. I'd say it's up there on my list of most ruthless world.

My Ancestor, My Enemy is pretty brutal in the story itself, but as a world I'm not sure how harsh it is compared to the others since the general world itself is not fleshed out at all. The monsters are a constant threat, the elves have been driven to one small community after their ancestors' terrible, terrible choices, along with the general fantasy nonsense. The stress the elven hunters are under is certainly enough to break a person, but I'm not sure if the entire world is in so dire straights or if it got shifted to the elves.

Forgotten Gods has, of course, it's God nonsense. Like, for every protective god like Corona, every helpful god like Tear, and every harmless god like Eternity, there's an asshole god with tons of power and 0 damns to give. Some of them might even enjoy making mortals suffer. There are gods who just want to destroy everything. Then there's gods who are just using mortals to basically fight each other since fighting in person, so to speak, is useless since they are immortal.

The Firewalker is recovering from basically a holy war between the priests of the old gods and the priests of the new gods, so the mages, descendants of the old priests, are being hunted, if a holy knight senses magic in someone, they'll be killed. Even if they haven't awakened their powers, even if they've never hurt anyone, they will be killed. The mages are fighting back, in secrecy with equal brutality. And to top it all off, since they're busy fighting each other, criminals, like Sin, basically walk freely and run things in large cities. Normal people are losing all the way around, but the cycle of hate and revenge between the factions won't stop.

The Dragon's Crown's world is literally rotting. Food and resources are getting scarcer, more and more people are turning to crime, and the nobles are too busy fighting to fill the power vacuum left behind from the disaster that outcasted the royal family and broke the world.

Orion's Oblivion I don't have much of the world state, since it takes place over several planets and most of it happens on the ship I didn't need to flesh out a whole lot, but some places are ruthless others are pretty mellow.

The Shackles of Time is complicated because the threats and such vary throughout the series. But you know some of it, monsters, corrupt guilds, bandits, mages playing with lost magics without knowing that they are, rivalries between countries, guilds, and clans; places of raw magic that could affect you, a war with a literal God that they're still recovering from, and probably other threats I haven't come across yet.

So, yeah, pick your own flavor of awful there. So sorry if this shatters your view of my world ^^'

Rereading is my main go-to for refreshing myself when switching between stories, but it also helps that I'm usually thinking on them even when I'm not actively working on them so some things always stay fresh in my mind. But a key element to that is the distinctness in my worlds and characters is intentional.

I made this mistake once, and once was enough to make me go out of my way to not do it again. When I was trying to write Silver Tiger alongside The Plight of a Sparrow, some elements were too similar. Sasha and Sparrow start at a similar square, modern young women thrown into fantasy madness. Under achievers tired of their lives were now faced with new realities, and while their arcs go in opposite directions and their paths and situations are wildly different, they bled into each other because of those similarities. Some of the fantasy elements also started bleeding into each other and the worlds and characters got muddy in my mind. It was... a disaster. The drafts of both were almost unbearable to read once I got to the parts where I tried to write them alongside each other, so I put Silver Tiger back on the shelf. I will write it someday, just not until Sparrow is done.

But with each world being so distinct, it's a lot easier to separate them out in my mind and keep them from running together, particularly with the rereading to keep my mind fresh on them. It's part of why I don't do AUs with them, since I'm afraid that might muddy the details in my minds again and lead to another incident of the worlds melting on me.

Beyond that, there's not much else I can think of that I do to help me get into different projects as I switch through them.

Thanks for stopping by, Dreams, I hope you have a lovely day/evening <3

#wbw #The Dark Princess of Aconitum #Forgotten Gods

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ren-c-leyn · 3 years ago

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Happy Tbtt, Ren, our writeblr delight^^ How is it going with the two impulse projects? With the romantic political fantasy and the op mage one? It's a different process for you, I'm hearing, so I'm curious^^

@writingonesdreams

Ah, thank you, Dreams, you're an absolute delight <3

It is a very different process than my norm for both of them. The thing about politics is that there's a lot of moving pieces too it that requires a lot of thought. Also, the thing about starting a story with little of the plot and none of the world building beforehand is I have 0 idea what I'm doing and I'm hoping it doesn't collapse on me ^^'

The process of The Dark Princess of Aconitum's process turning into quite the ramble. I really do hope your chair is comfortable, this will be a read XD

Fixing this because tumblr messed it up when I posted -

In addition to the normal political drama killing a king is both very difficult and very treasonous, trying to do so without endangering herself or her claim to the throne will be even more so; trying to catch professional assassins hired secretly by said king to kill a foreign crowned prince, different noble houses from her own kingdom and foreign lands throwing their sons and daughters at the princess for a chance at the throne, diplomatic break downs and pressures from the dead lover's mother, a magical and equally angry elven queen; trying to manage a kingdom in the middle of turbulent times, dealing with the end of a war they just got out of with the dark elven kingdom to their south, two large empires clashing in the world, one riding dragons and one rules by a Dark Lord, and I've really got my work cut out for me.

I'm going to have to not only fill in my skeleton of a plot, but also the intent and actions of each noble house, every main character, the way the people are responding to it all, the state the kingdoms are in, and where these goals and dozens of other threads clash and their results, all the while working at how the Princess uncovers the identities of her lover's killers and who hired them, and her eventual revenge and what method she uses for it.

I think I'm going to have to do like I did for The Plight of a Sparrow, my now second most complex story, and run down the story from each character's point of view.

In the meantime, while I'm considering all of this and am still building characters, dear goodness the amount of characters T-T There's going to be at least 20 for the first book, I swear. I haven't even bothered trying to name them all, yet XD That's 20 different mannerisms, personalities, personal goals, loyalties, alliances, and enemy lists I need to work out. My one spot of good fortune is that I won't have to deal with all of them the entire way through.

I also need to factor in how magic interacts with the world and build that into the thick of things. Because if there's scrying magic, why wouldn't she just go find a mage? If there's invisibility magic, would anyone even have seen the assassins? And a dozen other questions I need to answer about the world itself.

I also haven't read many political fantasys. Actually @writeblrfantasy is one of my first exposures to the genre, so I've decided to watch as many of the shows relating to that kind of thing as my housemates have thrown at me as I can. It's given me some good ideas.

I'm actually planning on starting a document with what I have thought up so far so I can start to kind of weave the web so to speak. I think it'll get easier as I start checking things off the list so I have something more solid to work with. I am making progress, though. I've got the angry princesses' three main accomplices figured out, and am working on building her personal set of alliances. As I flesh out her father and his alliances I think I'll get a better idea of where the rest fall.

At the exact opposite end of the spectrum is Mage of the Final Rest. I have winged 8k words of it so far, have an over powered mage girl, her new dragon friend, her adopted father, a mage of some renown himself, and a couple of random passages from an in-universe magic guide between the chapters. No plot, just vibes and a vague concept of a fantasy/adventure slice of life. There isn't much of a process here except keep writing and hope my brain decides it has a plan by the time I get to the end of what I planned. I don't even have much in the way of world building, outside of how magic works.

It's fun, but also kind of stressful. I don't have a good history with just jumping into projects without any sort of grounding in plot or world building so I'm getting a little nervous.

Thanks for stopping in, Dreams. I hope you have a nice day/evening ^^

#truth be told tuesday #my wips

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ren-c-leyn · 2 years ago

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Hey WBW on time this time

Where do you find inspiration to create things like magic system, weaponry, governmental systems that sort of thing?

Hey, happy wbw to you. ^^

Weaponry - Forged in fire always has interesting weapons, though it's been awhile since I watched it, and when I was a teenager doing reports on ancient wars and the like I found a lot of interesting weapons while digging around for information. Then there's of course fantasy games, novels, and ttrpgs.

Magic systems - Other fantasy works are, of course, big inspirations though I don't lean too heavily on any one of them when building my own worlds. A lot of my systems is just my brain going 'wouldn't it be messed up if a mage's magic could do this to them?' combined with 'wouldn't it be awesome if a mage could do this?'

Governmental systems - I try not to go too deep into them as it usually doesn't directly affect my characters. For my political fantasy romance mystery project that I'm planning out, The Dark Princess of Aconitum, I happen to have a history geek and a historical fantasy geek living in the same household as me and they've been big helps with me gathering up ideas and getting a loose idea of how things work. They also recommended me a very long list of animes/series to watch for ideas, and it's been helpful to see different approaches to it.

Monsters - Real life animals are wild, folklore is equally wild, and modern fantasy also have some neat things and if you mix and match them you can get some cool results.

Thanks for stopping in ^^ I hope you have a lovely day/evening.

#wbw

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ren-c-leyn · 2 years ago

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I think so, it certainly does make for a variety of cool scenes that pop up in my head and spur me into writing ^^

Yes, sparkly! :D It’s sparkly, pretty, sassy and very much beloved <3 At least, I’m assuming I’m not the only one who loves the sparkly based on people’s answers. And I’m also looking forward to it! The idea I have for it is fun, looks great in my head, and I’m looking forward to giving it a try.

And I’m not done building characters ^^’ I’m far from done building characters. The first book alone involves the nobility of Aconitum, members of foreign nobility, important members of the castle staff, and at least one assassin. And since this is all going on during people trying to court the princess, building the noble houses and their heirs and who is in line for what is actually details I need to work out.... And the second book will require me building even more characters :) I don’t want to think about the cast for the third book. I’m hoping I’ll be able to shelve at least some of this madness before we get there. On the bright side, none of this has deterred me. I think it’s safe to say that The Dark Princess of Aconitum will be a full scale WIP, as soon as I finish getting everything built and clear of my plate a little bit to give it the attention it’s going to need. I think this will be one of my most intense projects to date. (It already is. I don’t remember the last time I put this much work into the pre-writing phase. I don’t even know if that time I tried to tolkien world build has this much thought put into it)

Aw, thank you, Dreams <3 That’s really sweet of you. I just really love my stories, and want to do my best with them. Though chasing them down and helping them bloom is easier with great enablers like you along for the ride ;D

Happy STS Ren! What about a scene comes to you first? Piece of dialogue, first line, conflict, imaginary, voices,...What else do you need to write it down? @writingonesdreams

Also any hints on what the celebration in October will look like?👀 Your enigmatic posts are making me curious.

And if there is a writing/thinking update I would love to hear how you are doing ^^ How is the dark princess wip?

@writingonesdreams

Happy STS to you too, Dreams! :D

That depends on the scene in question. I got on a ramble, multiple rambles actually, so here's your very favorite thing to get on sts and wbw: a read more.

Keep reading

#The Shackles of Time #The Dark Princess of Aconitum #writing discussion

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writingonesdreams · 2 years ago

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Hehe it's always funny how we realize things about ourselves, when others notice them for us. :D

Well of course! Tiny Scene Sunday was made up as a game to make each other write. The writer posts a self-made list of words or a prompt list or asks for any words from their followers + a wip + a combination of characters. The followers choose this and send it over. Then the writer has to write a scene for it. The lists help steer the content into the direction the writer would want to write in anyway, but the ask helps with the external motivation, makes you feel like what you do is wanted and you also see what readers get interested in from your work. Szandra and Jacques are especially fond of these and do them almost regularly. I like it, because it forces me to sit down and write that scene, power through insecurities. It can also spark hew ideas and force combinations you wouldn't have though of.

Now that I think about it, it reminds me of your celebration stories made of words others send you.

Glad Dark princesses is calling for attention and will be coming in the next break. Also Firewaker, I'm really fond of that wip now too. So it might end on a cliffhanger, a kind of open ending for readers to decide? That's very interesting, when it's not just a way to make readers eager for the next book. I like it.

Reuben is not the only elf there?👀 Omg now I'm curious.

The elf children get a wolf puppy to raise! Mystery magical fog! Wood and elf and sea elves! Aconitum meaning Wolf's bane and the symbolism with the royal family being their own bane, that's brilliant.✨ Wow hehe I love that.

Thanks for the update, you are doing so much creatively, it's amazing. Good luck with writing!

@writingonesdreams

Happy WBW to you too, Dreams! :D Always lovely to hear from you.

Warning: Mentions of war, slavery, monsters, curses, terrible gods, and other horrible things. Nothing graphic, but it's there.

So, yeah, pick your own flavor of awful there. So sorry if this shatters your view of my world ^^'

Beyond that, there's not much else I can think of that I do to help me get into different projects as I switch through them.

Thanks for stopping by, Dreams, I hope you have a lovely day/evening <3

#other people's wips #writing discussions

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ren-c-leyn · 3 years ago

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Another long ranble for you, dreams. Is your chair comfy? I hope it’s comfy.

It’s not fearlessness so much as it’s just the daily chaos of my brain. These ideas appeared, my brain got attached, and now I have to figure out how to handle them. They Dark Princess of Aconitum is way, way outside of my norm, and my brain got too impatient to let me do any of my normal process with Mage of the Final Rest. So, here I am, trying to clean up the mess, as usual XD

It’s the one I used for The Plight of a Sparrow for that same reason. It really helped me figure out how each character’s actions in the timeline would affect the others, which is why I think it’ll be the right call for this project as well. I just need to finish getting the characters in line before I start running through it.

With fantasy, it’s my main genre of consumption, so I have a deeper well to draw on even without watching new media. With political fantasy, I need to build a well to draw on, and watching the different shows has helped, particularly How the Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. I’ve got a few more animes on my list, my housemates know me well, and then I’ll move onto to the tv shows my historical drama nerd housemate recommended. One of my roommates actually recommended I finish working through The Witcher games and then watch the tv show. Been a bit too busy to sit down and play the games. The shows are easier since I can multi-task so long as it’s in English.

None of the magic is confirmed yet, so please don’t get too attached to those particular details, they may not be there when I confirm the magic system. Scrying is generally spying on another place in fiction. Usually seers are the ones who see the future. I’m sure every place has a degree of magic, though I think it’s rarer in Aconitum, which is her kingdom’s name, I haven’t named any of the characters yet. I see that you asked more about the empires in your wbw ask, so I’ll save that part for there.

The mage one is at 9k now after last night’s session of going back and fixing up some of the earlier scenes since it look like this story might actually last? Maybe? I still have no plot, so we’ll see what happens. The main character’s name is Fate, because she’s a special kind of mage known as an Era. Eras are extremely rare mages that can use every element of magic, while the most any normal mage has ever been able to use is 4, and that had only happened once. Eras appear before the changing of the times, harbingers of chaos and change. And Elijah of the Light Spear, her adopted father, saved her when a bunch of bandits attacked a caravan and ended up killing everyone but her. He’s the one that named her, since she was just a baby, almost a toddler, and he couldn’t find anything that told him the names of anyone in the wreckage.

Elijah of the Light Spear is a light and wind mage. He’s traveled around the world and gone on some relatively famous quests, mostly to purge the undead in troubled regions. He carries a spear with him and believes only foolish mages train only their magic. These days he lives alone in the center of an enchanted forest. Dangerous places where natural magic flows, changing the animals and plant life. It’s not such a challenge for a skilled mage, but your average wood cutter and hunter would have a rough go of it.

I don’t have much on Mythos, the dragon, so I don’t know hardly anything about him. He’s only just shown up in the story. He’s Fate’s familiar, and very shocked to be a familiar. Most mages aren’t strong enough to summon a dragon, to speak nothing of binding them, little along 13 year old girls. And unlike Cherrenth, he’s a real dragon. A giant, fire breathing, dragon who cannot believe that this actually happened.

@writingonesdreams

Ah, thank you, Dreams, you're an absolute delight <3

The process of The Dark Princess of Aconitum's process turning into quite the ramble. I really do hope your chair is comfortable, this will be a read XD

Fixing this because tumblr messed it up when I posted -

I think I'm going to have to do like I did for The Plight of a Sparrow, my now second most complex story, and run down the story from each character's point of view.

It's fun, but also kind of stressful. I don't have a good history with just jumping into projects without any sort of grounding in plot or world building so I'm getting a little nervous.

Thanks for stopping in, Dreams. I hope you have a nice day/evening ^^

#writing discussion #my wips

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ren-c-leyn · 3 years ago

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I'm a binge reader, so the more chapters I see the more excited I get ^^ It's just trying to make the time anymore. Life has been chaotic lately.

I appreciate it <3 I look forward to hearing more about The Falcon's Claw ^^

It does have a meaning, actually ^^ Aconitum is another name for Wolf's Bane, a beautiful flower and a fairly well-known poison. I found that name for it while I was researching various poisonous plants, because my historical nerd housemate told me that a lot of assassinations she knew of were done with poisons, so I thought I'd explore that option since I already know of at least two assassinations that are happening in the story.

No need to apologize! :D I appreciate the in depth explanation of the challenges you've faced and how you worked around some of these things. It'll be a big help and I really appreciate you taking the time to go over this with me <3 The Dark Princess of Aconitum is one of the few stories I feel is going to need a solid plot before I proceed since it's made up of multiple smaller plots.

Happy STS!!!!! This is an awesome set of Qs and I feel like this post is going to be long, haha, so I hope you don't mind! :D

(For my newer followers, this is Apartment.)

This might be why I enjoy it so much.

What about you? Any genres you want to try your hand at?

#writing discussion

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ren-c-leyn · 3 years ago

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It sounds really interesting based on your description, and definitely the kind of media I’m looking for! :D Thank you very much for the recommendation <3 I’ve bookmarked it and will read it when I get some spare time and energy. The art style looks really pretty too.

The Falcon Claw sounds AMAZING. I love the premise and how complex it sounds. Do you have a taglist for it? I’d love to stay in the loop with it. And hearing about your experience with writing it was very interesting and helpful, thank you so much for going so in depth with your experience with it <3 I get the feeling I’ll be facing some of the same challenges with The Dark Princess of Aconitum, it already feels like I’m weaving a web and I’m not even half-way through building characters ^^’

If I may ask some follow up questions, where there things in the plotting process you did, or didn’t, do that you wish you had done differently? Some snags you hit that you felt might have been avoided or some tricks that might have made it easier? Anything along those lines? And what parts of the world building did you feel came up the most?

Happy STS!!!!! This is an awesome set of Qs and I feel like this post is going to be long, haha, so I hope you don't mind! :D

(For my newer followers, this is Apartment.)

This might be why I enjoy it so much.

What about you? Any genres you want to try your hand at?

#writing discussion #other people's wips

17 notes · View notes