#Writing babble

[i-am-trans-gwender]

Writing a first draft is frustrating because I know most of it's going to be completely changed by the time it's done. It makes the first draft feel pointless even though it's not pointless. You gotta have a first draft in order to get a final draft.

In a book i'm writing there's a bunch of things I want to do but can't until the second draft because if I did them now then I would have to start over.

[ceescedasticity]

a road not taken

So, when I was originally thinking about elves, once, Nimloth was not in line to be an orc. Nimloth would have answered the Call and been reembodied by now. The roles of "Doriath native duped by Saruman" and "particularly hostile to Reckless" would have been filled by Nimloth's mother. (Actually she would have been a lot more actively hostile, where Leafblight kept her head down.) There is of course no canon information about Nimloth's mother; I named her Maidhwen, Sallow as an orc.

In this alternate timeline where Nimloth answered the Call rather than look for her sons, Eluréd and Elurín probably died from exposure or wild animals or one of the innumerable other hazards. They would also answer the Call, and be given the Choice, and choose elf, and be reembodied by this time, too. Or if they came up with the swan thing without prompting, Radagast was able to tell them both their parents were waiting for them in Aman, and they sailed in the middle of the Third Age.

I made Nimloth an orc because it justified Eluréd and Elurín being around to be 1/8 maia and add necessary ooomph in the Warden fight.

Before I came up with this, I had a much weirder idea for adding ooomph in the Warden fight.

I'm pretty sure I posted this fragment before, but I don't want to dig up the link so here it is again:

The thing about being guardians of the South and the East is that there is a lot of South, and a lot of East, and then you get into the Southeast, and — it's just a lot. Lord Oromë gave them splendid horses, but they aren't Nahar, and being embodied would slow them down a lot anyway.

The distance works both ways, at least: In the far Southeast and much of the South, most Men who nominally worshipped Melkor might as well be worshipping something entirely imaginary. If an emissary from Melkor or Sauron came and demanded troops or tribute, the priests would be the first to scornfully declare it a fraud. Sauron could win them over with force, fear, or flattery, but there is no preexisting foundation for him to start with. It's not good, but it isn't really doing any harm, either.

And many of them aren't worshipping Melkor — they're worshipping Eru, or the natural world, or some rogue Maiar who are going to be in a lot of trouble if Eönwë or Sauron catches up with them, or "god-kings" who are in truth entirely mortal, or a Lord who might be Melkor or Eru, it's honestly not clear.

It's not perfect. Sometimes the powerful are cruel to the weak. Sometimes they attack and kill each other for no good reason. Sometimes they enslave each other. Sometimes they come up with terrible ideas and declare them divine truth. But all those lands and peoples are already free, they just need to be protected from Sauron's interference.

…And, it turns out, protected from little leftover pockets of Melkor's power that evidently didn't get cleaned up properly after one of the first two wars, which they have no weapons against. So that's a problem.

But the real trouble spots are: the regions in the north-East which Sauron maintains as his safe haven, and a broad swathe connecting them to Mordor; a certain radius around Mordor; and a radius around those damn Númenórean colonies, where people are afraid and looking for a way to fight and Sauron's been the only one offering. Alatar and Pallando have had some success winning people free — the liberti — but it's a struggle.

And now with his evil rings, Sauron can get a lot closer to being in multiple places at once.

"You know if we'd gotten here a few hundred years earlier we could have gotten the Noldor to make magic rings we could hand out to people," Alatar grumbles.

It is the year 2281 of the Second Age. They're in Turrim Magorum, one of the guarded refuges of the liberti orientalium, standing like a fence between Sauron's influence and the free Men of more distant regions. (Alatar has been politely pretending not to notice that the Men treat them less like guides and guardians and more like… well. Gods. They had Sauron as god-king for close to two-score generations, and Melkor's shadow heavy on them before that. It's easier in the South.)

"No we couldn't," Pallando replies. "He brought knowledge to the table."

"Well, we could've gotten them to make us something." Alatar frowns out the West-facing window. "We could've asked the Noldor in Eldamar to make us some stuff before we left, for that matter."

"Would that have been allowed?"

"I don't know, but I'd like to think we could have argued that the people need tools to protect themselves from Shadow." Alatar sighs. "I wish we could have brought some elves, for that matter."

"There are elves in the East."

"You know what I mean."

"Avari are better than nothing, though. We even get the occasional pereldarin family. That's been helpful."

Alatar was possibly somewhat biased against Avari because they had hurt Lord Oromë's feelings, but Pallando had a point. "But it's not enough. We don't have Treelight- or Valar-strengthened elves, we don't have Noldorin toys, we don't have… whatever it is they did with the Men of Númenor. The only thing we have that might even slightly give Sauron pause is ourselves, and I'm not sure about that!"

"Maybe we could breed some really big hounds," Pallando said. "—Sorry, too soon?"

Then his expression changed.

"What?" Alatar asked.

"Nothing, just a — terrible idea."

"Come on, tell me."

"Just — did he end up more scared of dogs after that, or of Lúthien the half-Maia?"

Alatar thinks about this. "You're right, that's a terrible idea."

"Yes."

"Absolutely not what we're meant to be doing here. Deeply immoral." (Was it, though, if everyone understood the idea and agreed to it? No, stop.) "Deeply."

"Yes."

"We probably shouldn't discuss it again."

Alatar gets back to his home base in the South a month later and finds that in his absence, some of his people were brought in sorely hurt by Morgul-blades, and none could help them, and they faded away and were lost.

Perhaps… perhaps he should consult some of the wise and mighty of the free and contested South, kings and queens and sages. Pose some hypothetical questions, about possible unintended consequences. Get their take on the morality of it all. Perhaps he should meditate on the shape given him to wear and consider its capabilities.

Just… in case.

[end fragment]

So yeah the idea was that Alatar and Pallando have been having a slow but steady stream of half-maia half-human children (called fils or filia necessitatum, collectively filii necessitatum) for like four thousand years. (Sometimes people say fils/filia magi/magorum, children of the wizard(s), but the official term is child of necessity.) The wizards are pretty damn sure the Valar would not approve, but since they're half-human they'll just get the Gift of Men and leave the world and the Valar never have to know, right? Námo will probably notice but he won't bring it up if no one else does.

For the most part it goes as intended. There are people in the East and South with the ability to deal with Morgul blades, random Shadow puddles, etc. Most filii necessitatum don't have children, but it's all right if they do, the uncanniness dilutes faster without elf bloodlines added in.

I didn't ever decide on details of the filii (or, uh, grand-filii) necessitatum who would be involved. Possibilities included:

Standard fils/filia necessitatum or two assigned to the task by the Blue Wizards because this is Very Important Work.

Over all this time, it's probably inevitable that at least one of these kids (or their kids) would marry an elf and their kids would not all choose human. Now we've got another part-maia peredhil bloodline who have to find their place somehow.

Or, personal stake: There are lots of orcs in the East and South. Plenty of opportunity for a not-currently-heavily-Shadowed goblin and an adventurous (half-)human to meet and get to know each other. Any children would again be part-maia peredhil.

I still think it's a really interesting idea! But going the orc Nimloth/swan-twins route instead cut down on original characters and eliminated a serious worldbuilding twist that I think would need more than an interlude to do justice.

[bluemoonperegrine]

I've decided...

...that Gael has a Santa beard because they're shooting Midnight Sons.

At the start of the series--which will have 20 episodes in the first season because this is my happy fantasy land where I make the rules--Jack has been in hiding for months following the conclusion of the Werewolf by Night special. As other monster hunters learned about the slaughter at Bloodstone Manor, some of them organized. They want three heads on a wall somewhere: Elsa's, Jack's, and Ted's.

Ted's been holding his own in the Everglades. He's had to use the Nexus of All Things to flee a few times, but he's returned with help and taken out the bad guys each time. This is how some of the other Midnight Sons get involved. They've been helping Ted.

In a nod to the original comics, Moon Knight is hired or persuaded by the revenge-seeking hunters to take out the werewolf that they've determined is laying low in a hunting shack in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Jack's had to run a few times from other safe houses due to the hunters. The hunters' numbers are dwindling, so they hire MK to take out the accursed werewolf once and for all.

Okay, this is fun to brainstorm. I'm going to post this and continue with another post. If anyone wants to jump in, feel free. I'll keep spitballing my ideas because it makes me happy.

[abirdie]

Having not written any of my actual WIP for the last week or so, I just wrote 1200 words of the fic that will come three or four after that, because I needed to be sure that I could write one particular scene before I started placing all the other breadcrumb scenes that will eventually lead up to it into all the intervening fics.

This may also mean that I've found myself accidentally writing a new series (although if so I'm going to try to stick to a you-don't-have-to-have-read-anything-else model for as long as possible and potentially just deny that it's a series at all).

[ffeelann]

being the whole fandom, marketing director, producer, writer, editor and artist for my ocs is so much fun and so much pain at the same time

[menaceadored]

writing fanfiction is so weird bc to me, this story is real

like, that’s canon

and so i see bits of poems or song lyrics or quotes and i’m like oh my god that’s so nancy wheeler and robin buckley and it’s like- no it literally isn’t. that’s so nancy wheeler and robin buckley that i’ve written and i’m currently writing.

but to me it’s real

like, i just saw a quote that was like “you’re my favorite friend, i’m sorry i want you like a lover”

and i was like ahghh that could go either way that’s so ronance

but like- its literally not. but oh my god is it ronance in Girls Just Want To Have Fun and on into this new fic i’m writing

so weird

[samanthaswritingcorner]

Welcome!

Hey there! Welcome to my writing blog! I'm Samantha. I've been passionate about writing ever since I was just a little girl. I only recently re-rediscovered Tumblr after logging in to my old account. This is where I'll keep my blurbs and scribbles, chicken scratch, if you will. I tend to write anything, but I do dabble in a bit of angst (probably not relevant, but I don't care).

My spoken and written language is English and I have a strong grasp on the grammar and punctuation side of things (at least I think I do). I'm gonna use the "Meet the Artist" meme as a "Get to Know Me":

My Name: Samantha

My Age: 21 (September 16th)

My Favorite Color: Red

My Height: 5'4

My Sign: Virgo

Do I Have a Lover?: No >< (Not yet)

What's My Nationality?: American; Midwest Minnesotan

Here Are Some Things That Inspire Me: Fandom Blogs (especially with those 'x Reader' posts), anything with angst, animated movies and TV shows, Skillet and other bands, and generally anything else.

My Shoe Size: Size 10, US (You'll have to convert it if you live in a different region.

Things I Wanted to Add BC I Feel Comfortable Adding Them:

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Pronouns and Gender: She/Her, Cisgender Female

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you enjoy whatever pops into my head and out for the world to enjoy! Take care!

[reborrowing]

really feeling the zombie au as horror, setting up a Bad Place To Be on the north side of the lake like

Several months after society has fallen to the undead, a small band of survivors seek more permanent shelter in the form of a remote hunting lodge that hopefully has gone untouched by the zombie hordes. The place is quiet, hauntingly so, but apparently safe. That is, until an unexpected death leads to the survivors facing off against undead recently powered by a force much more actively malicious than simple hunger.

half the named cast dies, taking the lodge is unsuccesful

[neonaughtager]

should i go back to posting my cringe creepypasta ocs would you all like that?

im gonna be so annoying about them be ready for it u guys

[colesabi]

I think I may have overwhumped in my next fic. The angst is palpable. The first chapter isn’t so bad but the second… uh oh.

I’m kind of scared but I also kind of love it. Oh well…

on the bright side, I’m getting a lot of whiplash from simultaneously writing a lovey smut piece. Lol.

[bluemoonperegrine]

😂 @vicarious-rebel and I are mostly evil when it comes to everything Hallmark by Knight. Most of it starts off in tumblr DMs that we then save in our brains and in the text editors of our choice.

Vi is able to keep a lot of it straight by referring to her notes. I took it to the next level and created a wiki-like thing with Nuclino, and I still goof stuff up occasionally!

Reblog and put in the tags which one you see

Where do you store your OC’s info chart made by this person

[ceescedasticity]

damn you, physical existence

why must things have appearances.

Okay. So. Take this shape. Refine it so it's actually perfectly symmetrical. —Maybe give it more arms, idk, so not exactly this shape.

The whole thing is a couple miles in diameter. It's not uniform in height. I'm not sure what the average height is, but there's not a huge variation within the snowflake footprint. The edges are steep, though probably not right-angle.

It was originally pure black or pure white smooth stone, but cosmetically it's taken some weathering. There are superficial cracks, pitting, dirt, a few really stubborn plants.

Okay — approaching it from the side it'll look like a giant and really weird complex of windowless, featureless buildings.

[bluemoonperegrine]

Let's try this again.

Writing, that is.

So far, so good. 🤞

[abirdie]

The trouble with writing a fic that is mostly conversation with no real plot is working out how to end it.

[menaceadored]

Some people know what they want to do with the rest of their life from the time they’re 6 years old and they follow through with it all the way through college and into their professional careers.

Nancy Wheeler seems like the kind of girl who knew she wanted to be a journalist since she joined the school newspaper in 7th grade. By freshman year of high school, she knew Emerson was the college she wanted to go to. She knew the classes she would take her first semester and by the time she graduated she had her entire college career pre-planned and mapped out, a perfect guide that, if followed to the T, would have her graduating with a bachelor’s in journalism in three years rather than four. She’d even looked into the internships she’d take after graduating and masters programs.

But college often has a way of shifting everything you think you know about yourself and the plans you have made…