#lcrowstories

[the-writers-bookshelf]

For this Fab Friday I thought that instead of sending in my work, I'd talk about the joys of ignoring some of the writing advice you find online. Of course, if I ignored all advice I wouldn't be a very good writer, but I think it's important to take most of it with a grain of salt, and ignore what doesn't work for you. Then again, sometimes I don't just ignore advice -- I deliberately disobey it, out of spite.

A few times I've seen people on tumblr and reddit complain about writers saying that their characters shrug too much. I now have a main character for whom shrugging has become something of a signature move. We all have phrases or actions that we probably overdo, and in this case, my character is just kind of nonchalant about a lot of things.

However, the character in question is also a shapeshifting god, which means that I recently had the pleasure of describing a snake shrugging, and I wouldn't have gotten to do that if not for spite. 

submitted by @lcrowstories

AGREE SO HARD WITH THIS!!!

I've noticed a common trend on tumblr where people rag on "overused" phrases in fanfiction, claiming these are sure signs of "amateur writers". And then they list a bunch of phrases I see in original fiction ALL the time.

Totally with you on that spite motivation, too! it really goes a long way sometimes XD

[cecillias-garden]

My apologies, little bird, but I assure you that I do so with all of the love in my heart 💜

Do you remember what you were doing just now? Have you forgotten already? Take a deep breath. Think back a few moments. It was important, wasn't it? But here we are.

Take care of what needs doing, love. This will all still be here when you return.

[hippieghost]

A new emblem and a pair of wonderful teammates! I have a lot of projects coming up with @auxphono and @lcrowstories coming up soon, but I'm the meantime come check out our streams!

Team Moth streams on Stardew Valley on Tuesday nights starting at 10pm EST, and on Wednesdays at 8:30 we stream the Halo Infinite Campaign!

We hope to see you there!

https://twitch.tv/hippieghost

[rainbowofcrazy]

It's crow time! Like.. 'go time'.. but with crows? .....😬

Thanks to @lcrowstories for the Crowvember challenge! Finally, a challenge I can nail in the time frame given!

This crow is available as an art print! @ https://rainbowofcrazy.myshopify.com/products/hooded-crow-art-print

And a greeting card @ https://rainbowofcrazy.myshopify.com/products/hooded-crow-i-love-you-this-much-greeting-card

I'm on linktree! https://linktr.ee/rainbowofcrazy

[the-writers-bookshelf]

submitted by @lcrowstories

This is the most recent illustration from my novel, featuring freezing rain. I had a lot of fun with this one!

This is LOVELY! I really like how the warm and cool colors play off of each other! EXCELLENT job with your lighting, too!!! I love it! :D

[the-writers-bookshelf]

Illustration from the latest chapter of my novel. This is the first historical fiction portion of the story, which took more research than anticipated. Much respect to anyone writing entire books like this. This is from part 1 of the (3 part) chapter, which came out on Monday:

Theano began to feel a familiar sense of pressure building in her head, which she lowered with a cringe. 

She should have stepped out while Koralia was sleeping, but the thought of missing out on even a minute of their time together had been unbearable. 

 “Are you alright, agapití?” Koralia asked. 

Theano shuddered as she was blinded by a flash of searing pain, but a moment later it had passed, and the sense of pressure along with it. 

“Yes, my love,” she whispered, dread running icy through her veins. Koralia’s hand caressed her face, peering at her with concern. 

Outside the cheers of “Veneti!” and “Prasini!” had reached a fever pitch, blending together into a meaningless cacophony. Out of this discord a new, unified chant emerged. 

“Nika! Nika! Nika!” This was not the cry of zealous triumph. 

The word meant victory, but the mood of the crowd said something else entirely. It said vengeance, treason, murder. 

submitted by @lcrowstories

Oooo! I love this excerpt!!! And the illustration is WONDERFUL!! Great job!!!! :D

[the-writers-bookshelf]

This is from an upcoming chapter of my novel, about when you go drinking with a god. 

The two squared up to the rutted wooden bar and gave their orders to a middle aged bartender with a voice like coarse sandpaper. Elliott ordered a cheap beer and showed their ID when asked. Puck ordered a brandy alexander and wasn’t asked for ID. 

When Puck was presented with his drink, Elliott gaped at it in surprise. It was a creamy, café au lait colored confection, served in a cocktail glass. Puck sipped it with the absolute confidence of a god before noticing Elliott’s expression.

“You should try it,” he told them with a grin. “It’s delicious.” 

Elliott obligingly took a sip. “Jesus,” they laughed, “it tastes like chocolate milk, but flammable.”

“That’s more or less the basis of its appeal,” Puck concurred. 

They found a quiet table against the wall, away from the regulars who sat watching the television at the bar (Elliott had only been to this bar once or twice before -- not enough to recognize anyone -- but regulars of any dive bar have a way of quietly announcing themselves as fixtures of the establishment, usually via a certain air of gruff familiarity).

“Well,” said Elliott, a little nervously, “here we are.”

 “Yes. We’re having an authentic human experience,” Puck agreed. Elliott marveled, not for the first time, at how their prior assumptions about reality had somehow kept them from identifying Puck as at least some sort of alien. The signs had been there all along.

@lcrowstories

omg I L O V E this! It reads so incredibly well!! "...it tastes like chocolate milk, but flammable.” I love your descriptions and the wittiness in your word choices! Keep up the wonderful work! :D

[spicyartinsp]

@lcrowstories

Raven Folder High Carbon steel blade, hand-carved ebonized oak handle.

[the-writers-bookshelf]

The chapter I'm writing this week is a retelling of Babylonian mythology. I challenged myself to write this list of 11 monsters and their descriptions in a way that would be entertaining, but I think I'm probably going to cut it when it comes time to publish, because as a general rule I don't think it's a great idea to introduce this many characters at once, especially given how unimportant their individual features are. With that said, I had fun writing it, so I figured I'd show it to somebody. 

Tiamat harnessed the forces of chaos to create eleven monsters to fight for the cause.

First she created the three horned snakes. Bašmu was venomous, with two legs and wings. Ušumgallu, the great dragon, was part lion and part serpent, with four legs and wings. Mušmaḫḫū, the exalted serpent, was also part lion, as well as part bird.

Technically speaking, between the three horned snakes, there was quite a lot of lion, and slightly less than one complete snake, but given that standard lions and snakes had not yet been created, this was understandable.

Mušḫuššu had the hind legs of an eagle, the forelegs of a lion, and a long, scaled neck and tail, with the tongue of a snake. Tiamat also gave him a horn, for good measure. Having taken snake hybrids about as far as she felt wise, she moved on to other creations.

Laḫmu, the hairy one, was essentially just a very hairy man, though men had also yet to be invented, which made him quite the novelty at the time. Uridimmu, known as the Mad Lion, had the body of a dog and the head of a man. None of the gods present during the war of the gods can quite remember how he got the nickname “Mad Lion,” but for whatever reason, it stuck.

Ugallu was a storm demon, with the head of a wolf and the talons of an eagle. Umū dabrūtu was also a storm demon, but being one of the middle children, and rather quiet compared to his siblings, he was largely overlooked. After the war, nobody could quite remember what kind of chimera he had been. 

 At this point Tiamat was running low on creative energy, and it showed. Kusarikku was a bull-man, with the torso, arms, and head of a human, and the ears, horns, and hindquarters of a bull. Kulullû was a fish-man, which is what you might call a merman. Girtablullû was a scorpion-man, which is like a merman, only scorpion.

submitted by @lcrowstories

this is SO CREATIVE!!!! how does your brain even come up with something as epic as this???? incredible work, lovely!!! jawdropping!!! :D

[the-writers-bookshelf]

An illustration from the most recently published chapter of my novel -- our teenaged chaos god is all grown up!

submitted by @lcrowstories

I LOVE YOUR ILLUSTRATIONS SO MUCH!!! You capture atmosphere SO WELL and that's so hard to do!!! Fantastic job! :D

[the-writers-bookshelf]

I keep forgetting to submit, but here's my latest illustration, featuring a couple of new characters, Eva and Mara. They're the goddesses of life and death, and technically Puck's children (in this chapter it's revealed that the gods' family tree exists in more than three dimensions and cannot be comprehended by humans).

submitted by @lcrowstories​

Ooooo!!! I LOVE them already!!! And I also love how in-depth your WIP sounds!! that takes some serious creativity to come up with!

[the-writers-bookshelf]

This week I submit another excerpt from an upcoming chapter -- my novel has an actual plot, but apparently what I REALLY enjoy writing is absurd little moments about just hanging out with a god. In this chapter, Puck discovers the internet. 

The new smart phone was a revelation for Puck, and for a few days after giving it to him, Elliott didn’t hear from him as he went down the rabbit hole of the internet. When at last he began to text, he had discovered emojis. 

“What do you know about tiktok?” was his first text, followed by the “eyes” emoji. 

Elliott wrote back, “More than I’m willing to explain via text.”

A few hours later Puck shot back with, “Algorithm = bad?” and a “thinking” emoji. 

“Depends on context,” Elliot responded, and a minute later they received another thinking emoji. “Do you want to come over?” they tried. “I’ll make dinner.” It had occurred to them that they hadn’t properly thanked Puck for the [redacted due to spoilers], and though they knew that the god didn’t need to eat, they thought he might enjoy it, nonetheless. 

Puck responded with a sparkle emoji. 

“Is that a yes?”

Grinning emoji.

“So, how are you liking the internet?”

Exploding head emoji. Heart eyes emoji. Smiling poop emoji.

Elliott wrote back with the smiling poop emoji, followed by a question mark.

“I have a lot of feelings,” Puck answered. 

submitted by @lcrowstories

Yay for more Puck content!!! :D :D :D This is such a witty passage and it's a joy to read!! Fantastic work, lovely!!! :D

[the-writers-bookshelf]

Tagged!

Tagged by @storyteller-shealie! Thank you lovely! :D

Rules: share the last line you wrote of your WIP and tag as many people as there are words in the sentence.

As she grew older, her spells grew in power, too. Wild. Insatiable. More monster than magic.

Tagging: @captastra @thesecretscribe @elviirasblog @impassioned-pen @hippieghost @jaysworlds @lcrowstories @sweetmugofcocoa @strangefable @littlevoidbugg @jackalgirl @ace-in-a-shopping-cart @thoughts-of-nora @ms-moonlight-inn @thoughpoppiesblow @fellsor @sometimesjo

and anyone else who wants to jump in! :D

[hippieghost]

WIP Wednesday! I was tagged by @littlevoidbugg to post a bit from my WIP, so here's a teaser from The Fell Wren. I'm keeping this one short, because it's surrounded by spoilers, but I think this little paragraph gives a good glimpse into my humor - and we get to know The Aphuanian Days of the week! The day would grow long from that moment on, and the next would prove longer for the young boys as Myra did her best to keep them entertained. The day after that would be short, but Trathas usually was, ever since a wizard in Stockholme disrupted the poor weekday while trying to turn a clock into a sausage. Unfortunately for poor Wren, but rather luckily for everyone else, the rest of the week would crawl along as normal, trudging through Delvis, Restus, Soliras, and Maliras until finally it was Tuesday again. I post updates to The Aphuanian Tales every Friday on Tapas! You can check it out for free by following the link in the reblog! This WIP is from an upcoming chapter! and now I'm tagging @hopefulattempt and @lcrowstories to post theirs!

[the-writers-bookshelf]

Hello! I'm currently working on an illustrated novel about what happens when you accidentally reawaken a primordial god, which combines modern mythology with historical fiction. I'm a nonbinary writer, and this is my first time writing a main character who is also nonbinary, and it's been awesome to see how many people appreciate the representation (I'm just ignoring the handful of people who find the pronouns "awkward"). 

Here's the opening paragraph:

It was a dark and moderately stormy night -- at least it was rainy and somewhat windy. Not exactly the kind of storm you’d harness in order to reanimate a corpse into a metaphor for man’s obsession with conquering death, but storms exist on a spectrum, and they don’t all have to be that dramatic. It was, however, exactly the kind of damp autumn evening when a slight misstep might set off a chain of events which would nearly put an end to life as we know it.

And here's some character art of the god in question (in one of his forms), since it looks like I can't put an image and text in the same submission. 

submitted by @lcrowstories

This is so atmospheric and chilling! I LOVE it! And MAJOR kudos to you for illustrating AND writing! I've always wanted to do that! Fantastic job!! :D