#or 2) like 6 litfic books

[rebeccadumaurier]

i should go resume reading books like i normally do because if i go more than like 3 days without doing any reading, my brain goes crazy. my sanity hinges on Reading A Lot. but also i can't stop thinking about network effect and simply do not want to have other thoughts

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

Out of curiosity, could be either due to craft or sheer enjoyment, what are your top favourite books?

Okay lowkey I wrote this post & then tumblr ATE it so here it is a little late!! Rachel's All Time Favourite Books (in no particular order):

Cleanness - Garth Greenwell (litfic, ok but this is actually my fave book & today Garth Greenwell lowkey Acknowledged My Presence SOOOO!!! I've read this 4x since August, it's a craft masterpiece)

What Belongs to You - Garth Greenwell (litfic, the book that comes before Cleanness, I'm not as attached to it but it's still FANTASTIC)

A Hundred Lovers - Richie Hofmann (poetry, my fave poetry collection of all time, ALL my epigraphs come from here)

We Do What We Do in the Dark - Michelle Hart (litfic, AMAZINGGG character study & peak into relationship dynamics)

Big Shadow - Marta Balcewicz (litfic, one of my fave books of all time, FANTASTIC teen protagonist in this bildungsroman)

Physical - Andrew McMillan (poetry, AMAZING queer poetry, lots of epigraphs from here too)

Winter in Sokcho - Elisa Shua Desapin (litfic, probably the best start-to-finish narrative I've ever read in my whole life)

If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English - Noor Naga (litfic, THE BEST litfic ending I've ever read, it's UNEXPECTED and something to be STUDIED)

Undoing Hours - Selina Boan (poetry, I feel so grateful for this book as it really helped me reconnect to my Indigenous identity. I met Selina after a LIFE-CHANGING reading & chatted with her, & that conversation drove me to learn more about my family!)

Bitterblue - Kristen Cashore (YA fantasy, this is LITERARY FICTION TO ME I've re-read this like 6 times)

Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo (YA fantasy, really fun ensemble cast, THE AUDIOBOOK SLAYS)

Intimations - Alexandra Kleeman (litfic short story collection, some of THE BEST short story collections, my work feels adjacent to this dare I say??)

The Marionettes - Katie Wismer (NA paranormal, this series is sooo tropey and fun like I CAN'T WAIT for the last book, I did like book 2 best but this is the first one & I loved it too!)

Demi-Gods - Eliza Robertson (litfic, this was my fave novel before Cleanness & Eliza is my fave writer & from my alma mater! Read my interview with her!)

Monkey Beach - Eden Robinson (litfic, I read this book in a DAY, it's the most impactful novel I've ever read, she's also from my alma mater!)

How to Pronounce Knife - Souvankham Thammavongsa (litfic short story collection, my fave short story collection OF ALL TIME I learned so MUCH about short stories from this!)

The Girls - Emma Cline (litfic, this was MY writing bible for so long lol, I actually ethically hate how this book treats real murders but Emma Cline is an incredible writer & the best parts of this book are the ones that don't casually repurpose history... I have thoughts...)

History of Wolves - Emily Fridlund (litfic, I need to re-read this NOW but wow, the first half of this is chilling...)

Past Lives, Future Bodies - K-Ming Chang (poetry, not sure if you can still buy this but this is one of THE best collections I own)

The Darkest Minds - Alexandra Bracken (YA dystopian, I love AB SOOO MUCH even now hehe, this was a childhood fave & Fostered is a ripoff so <3)

[incognitajones]

Reading meme 📚

What’s up readers?! How about a little show and tell? Answer these 13 questions, tag 13 lucky readers and if you’re feeling extra bookish add a shelfie! Let’s Go!

Thanks for the tag, @lucymonster, this was a lot of fun!

1) The Last book I read: The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr, finally, which has been on my radar since I saw her speak in 2022. /o\ I loved the narrator's voice & it lived up to the hype, though I might have some nitpicks about the ending.

2) A book I recommend: Like lucymonster, I have to ask "For who?" and "What are they looking for?" You can't make me suggest something completely at random!

That said, when this was my job, my go-to rec for anyone who enjoyed mysteries and/or thrillers was Tana French; for science fiction/action readers, Martha Wells' Murderbot series; and Kelly Link or Mariana Enríquez for litfic & fantasy folks. 

3) A book that I couldn’t put down: Hild (and its sequel Menewood)

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more): The last thing I re-read was The Worm Ouroboros. It's a strange book and almost indescribable; very much of its time but also written in deliberately, completely antique prose, sort of as if Tolkien had been inspired by Orlando Furioso.

5) A book on my TBR: SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

6) A book I’ve put down: These days I put down more fantasy novels and contemporary romances than I finish; I'm picky about prose and characterization and a lot of them are too bland.

7) A book on my wish list: The Mask of Fear. I'm not a fan of most SW tie-in novels, but Alexander Freed is one of my exceptions, plus I always want more Saw Gerrera and Mon Mothma!

8) A favorite book from childhood: Continuing on the theme of pony books from lucy - I read hundreds of them, but my all-time favourite was Fly-by-Night.

9) A book you would give to a friend: The last book I gave as a gift (to someone who's a massive local politics/municipal government wonk) was How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World.

10) A book of poetry or lyrics that you own: Sadly, I don't actually own it anymore as over the past few years, I've drastically downsized my physical library. But before that, I held on to this edition of Akhmatova's selected poems in translation for decades. 

11) A nonfiction book you own: One book that made the downsizing cut and stayed on my shelf is LeGuin's The Wave in the Mind. Her essays were just as foundational for me as her fiction.  

12) What are you currently reading: Just started The Blighted Stars - Megan O'Keefe is one of the few romance writers whose work I consistently enjoy so I have high hopes for her SF.

13) What are you planning on reading next? One of two books that I have to read soon or return to the library: either the light contemporary romcom (Under Your Spell) or the thick history book (Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century) depending on my mood this weekend.

Tagging my reading peeps @englishable @mosylu @glorious-spoon @anghraine @rain-sleet-snow @intellectualcarrot plus anyone who wants to!

[goose-books]

please check out @yvesdot's remastered debut! trust me, it's worth a read and a reread and a re-revisit. for the blog tour, i give you... another blast from the past, an old-fashioned writeblr-style comic sans powerpoint!

Something’s Not Right, published by tRaum Books, will be released October 10th 2023 and is available to preorder at Amazon, Bookshop.org, and itch.io. It will also be available upon release signed from Bookshop Santa Cruz. yves. will also have a local event at 6:30 PM on October 12th at the Santa Cruz Diversity Center and another on January 4th 2024 (to be announced) at Bookshop Santa Cruz.

(my sixth favorite story is koschei, btw. shoutout to koschei. sorry i left you off the slides)

(slides described under the cut)

all slides are written in white comic sans on a black background.

slide one: text reading "FIVE reasons YOU should read" over a cropped image of the cover for Something's Not Right, featuring the title. smaller comic sans next to the image reads "by yves."

slide two: at the center of the slide, text reads "1. IT'S GAY!" smaller text boxes, scattered around the slide, read:

so many transgender people

you want fluff? we got fluff. you want angst? we got angst. you want high octane drama? we got it

you like metaphors for queerness? we’ve got metaphors for queerness

some characters’ identities are plot relevant! some of them just happen to be trans!

there’s even an m/f couple i actually like!

there’s literally a lesbian robot what else am i supposed to say

first book where i ever saw a they/them lesbian referred to as a woman and they at the same time <3 <3 <3

you want monsterfucking? we got—

between the first and third boxes is this image of feathers. beneath the monsterfucking box is this image of a halo/eclipse. beneath the they/them lesbian box is the anakin image from this post, reading, "dyke business. go back to your drinks"

slide three: the top of the slide reads "2. CLEVER USE OF TROPES AND TALES." the bullet points beneath read:

the author was a lit major & lovingly: it shows

fresh takes on everything from sexy vampires to demigod/human romance

do you like russian folklore? do you wish it was set in your high school

hansel and gretel story followed immediately by wlw fairies

STORY WHERE VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN GOES TO A PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCE

an arrow points from the sexy vampire bullet to an image of edward cullen, captioned "this guy isn't in there." another points from the frankenstein bullet to a picture of the book Frankenstein, captioned "this guy is, tho"

slide four: at the center of the slide, text reads "3. DELIGHTFUL NARRATIVE VOICE." smaller text boxes read "the sheer range of the range of character narrations in this book is impressive and so fun" and "we got teen talk we got litfic prose we got monsters narrating we got ordinary people." there are also three quotes from various stories, set in speech bubbles:

“Everyone’s cousin Tanya says she’s done it with an elf dude. That doesn’t mean shit.”

“And all of these things were true, and simultaneous, and all of them were occurring only a moment before she might be killed, and rise again.”

“At first, the plants seemed quite innocuous, and Ephraim watched them pile up on the windows of the little greenhouse with mild curiosity.”

there is also an edited image of the "she doesn't have the range" meme, reading, "they have the range."

slide five: the top of the slide reads "4. DON’T LIKE ONE-OFFS? NO PROBLEM!" the bullet points beneath read:

do you prefer your short stories unrelated to each other? completely tonally variant?

SNR has got that!

do you prefer your short stories interconnected? do you like recurring characters? do you want to see… characters from OTHER yves. projects?

SNR has got that too!

smaller text boxes read "Red and Eliza from Forest Castles are there!" and "maybe avner too. i'm not allowed to say"

there is also a picture of hannah montana's "best of both worlds" album.

slide six: the top of the slide reads "5. THERE ARE NEW STORIES IN IT!" the bullet points beneath read:

already an SNR fan? already have a copy? you haven’t yet read the new content!

THREE new stories

what if the alien abductee you were interviewing had questions… for you?

what if you had to love-potion your crush… for someone else?

what if you had to come out to your date… AS A MONSTER?

there are clipart images on the side of an alien spaceship, a bubbling potion, and a lit candle.

slide seven: word art with a glowing green shadow reads "max's favorite stories :)". each story blurb goes with a corresponding image:

Six Hours Under: the woman on the L train is crying, dead, and very very pretty. [clipart of a train]

Monsters and The Guy: there’s a guy in Arrivals. he’s being weird about it. [clipart of an airport]

The Hands and The Mouth: the story-speakers speak only in script. there are only a few of them left. [clipart of rolling waves]

Don't Feel Guilty: a teen’s plant collection starts to unnerve their father. [clipart of a leaf]

Blood Orange Tea: getting trapped at work with your crush is awkward even when you’re not a vampire. [clipart of iced tea]

slide eight: large text reads "THANK YOU. GO FORTH AND BUY SNR." in smaller text is the information paragraph from this post.

[catchingbigfish]

author ask tag game

thank you so much for the tag @doublegoblin! i'll soft-tag @words-after-midnight, @ragnarokproofing, @horrormama, @winterandwords, and anyone else who wants to participate!

i'm gonna use these questions to introduce a new wip i'm working on! i don't know the name of it yet lol but i'm tagging it "wip: ttb" because i was calling it i tried to bury you but you wouldn't stay dead. a rough synopsis: novella-length, depressing af, dual-POV (duet-POV?), second-person litfic about a preacher's son and a town outcast who fall in love and tell select stories of their relationship before the preacher's son went missing.

(1) What is the main lesson of your story (e.g. kindness, diversity, anti-war), and why did you choose it?

i don't really write lessons into my work, but as far as themes go: what we replace it with when we lose religion, sex-as-religion, the limitations of identity and our struggles to break out of them, hauntings, ghosts-as-wishes, and the brutality of religion

(2) What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding (like real-life cultures, animals, famous media, websites, etc.)?

i'm always a little unsure of how to answer this because it's not fantasy, but the setting is a small town i spent a lot of time in during my childhood in the south! it was a rural, 50k population, churches on every corner sort of place. i'm trying hard to nail that vibe as well as possible, including exploring it on google maps a ton

(3) What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, help readers grow as a person?

i think both main characters are mostly concerned with closure; i'm really just trying to tell the story, tbh!

(4) How many chapters is your story going to have?

i have a very specific vision in mind for this wip -- i have plans for 9 chapters, around 6k words apiece, each centered on a biblical place and a related theme from southern baptist teachings. it'll be somewhat evenly split between the MCs' versions of the same story with an interlude i'm tentatively calling lamentations, which is a very short "dream" the woman has of a way the man dies (hence its tentative title)

(5) Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

original content! not sure yet -- i'm contemplating whether i want to try trad publishing or potentially release it here on tumblr.

(6) When and why did you start writing?

i'm not sure if this means generally or this story -- so you get both answers. i don't remember when and why i started writing, but my earliest clear memory of writing is when i was ten. it feels like scratching an itch tbh. for this story, i would say it has roots in a similar story (another dual-POV, second-person, man disappears type story) i wrote for my first ever creative writing course which coalesced into this via various pieces of media i was consuming at the time -- way too much lana del rey, some david lynch (particularly blue velvet), and the book of eve, to name a few. the why, though, is because it just sort of popped into my brain and i'd be itchy if i didn't, to continue the previous metaphor

(7) Do you have any words of engagement for fellow writers of Writeblr? What other writers of Tumblr do you follow?

stop caring about the market, tbh. to borrow a line from community, caring is lethal. just write the story and find the audience later

[speculatives]

Mid-Year Book Freakout 2023

thanks for tagging me @aroaessidhe !

1. Best book you’ve read so far this year

FINALLYYY read A Memory Called Empire. What can I say. Another win for the space lesbians with a guy in their head genre.

The Apple Tree Throne by Premee Mohamed—I really like this author’s short stories so it’s no surprise I liked this novella. Bittersweet and cozy, with an intricate writing style and a very cool alternate history Edwardian setting.

Also Piranesi!

2. Best sequel you’ve read so far this year

Not technically a sequel, but Lost In The Moment And Found — I always look forward to new Wayward Children books!

3. New release you haven’t read yet

I haven’t gotten around to reading Translation State! Also not super new, but The Spear Cuts Through Water.

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

Mammoths at the Gates, the next book in the Singing Hills Cycle!

5. Biggest disappointment

Couldn’t get into Sea of Tranquility :( Station Eleven was such good sci fi and I just found this one unimaginative

6. Biggest surprise

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder! I haven’t been reading much litfic and i was surprised how quickly I got into this one. Insane writing style

7. Favorite new author (debut or new to you)

Isabel J Kim’s short stories are really good! They’re here on tumblr, I am too scared to @ them

8. Newest fictional crush/newest favorite character

qifrey. sorry. also twelve azalea you will aways be famous

9. Book that made you cry

The Apple Tree Throne—the protagonist’s situation being a bit too relatable, the kindness of his friends, the suckerpunch of an ending :,)

10. Book that made you happy

Also Witch Hat Atelier!!! I still haven’t read the most recent volume, but I’ve been slowly picking my way through them (Japanese practice) and the ones I’ve read this year continue to be a joy :)

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen was also so beautiful and heartfelt. I guess what I got out of this is I should read more graphic novels and comics!

tagging @nycorix if you feel like it and anyone else if they’d like to!!

[crushedleavess]

day 30: 10 facts about you! And now, what are your stats?

1. I’m a duel enrollment student, so i’ll have an AA when I graduate high school

2. I mention I’m a dancer a lot, but not the specifics. I’m in an intensive program, so I do ballet, jazz, tap, and contemporary

3. I’m originally from CA. Now I live in the east us

4. I’m obsessed with litfic and classics

5. My favorite tv show is Eyewitness and I never stop recommending it to people

6. I speak English, Russian, and some Polish. Right now i’m learning Greek and Mandarin

7. My biggest dream is to move out of the US and become an author or history professor. If I stay in the US, probably something in crime/law

8. I’m bisexual, but with recent politics, I don’t think I’ll ever find a man that doesn’t disgust me

9. I have contamination and purity ocd

10. My favorite book is The Goldfinch. I’ve nearly lost friends because they didn’t like it lol

Stats !!

hw: 164lbs

sw: 162lbs

sw of day 1: 151lbs

cw: 146.9lbs

gw 1: 160lbs

gw 2: 150lbs

gw 3: 140lbs

gw 4: 130

ugw: 120lbs - bmi: 18

[andsalttheearthbehindyou]

april reading wrap up

1. binding 13, chloe walsh - THIS is my guilty pleasure.. ohhh this is like if normal people was less well written litfic and more in line with sappy trashy romance novels. BUT GOOD. oh it reminds me of like a good quotev story. which is like wattpad for emo middle schoolers

2. the prisoner’s throne, holly black - MASSIVE disappointment, but now that i think about it, idk why i was so let down. i didnt care for the three cruel prince books but i did really like stolen heir which made me excited for this. but this follows a different characters pov and was just a big downgrade from stolen heir. i wont read any more holly black going forward.

3. the boy who was raised as a dog, bruce perry, md, phd - preferred this one over the body keeps the score. i cried three separate times.

4. the salt grows heavy, cassandra khaw - cute and eerie!! save this one for october.

5. the god of endings, jacqueline holland - also cute! i dont know why i read all these spooky adjacent books in the middle of spring but i digress

6. lilith, nikki marmery - i thought id really like this but the writing style and characterizations felt too modern and tongue in cheek for the content itself. might have served better if reworked as an original story as opposed to a retelling but what do i know

7. clytemnestra, costanza casati - this is like circe x 10000000 oh madeline miller WISHES she couldve written this.. this is such a good retelling. maybe im biased because i just love the atreus family and the orestia and everything but content aside the writing was really magnificent

8. keeping 13, chloe walsh - MWAHHHHH AHHHH RAHHH GAHHHH

9. monstrilio, gerardo sámano córdova - the first three fourths were very good but the last act just lost me! another eerie sort of monster book with a maternal lens. good concept and good execution even, i just felt like the ending fell flat and getting thru it was a chore

10. shatter me, tahereh mafi - i dont know why i bother with the booktok book recommendations anymore. this was PISS POOR. and i think theres like eight of these books. oh you couldnt PAY me to read the rest.

11. butcher & blackbird, brynne weaver - EVEN WORSE

12. thirst, marina yuszczuk - if i had one quarter for every monster aligned book with themes of motherhood i read in april then i would have one whole dollar!

13. stone blind, natalie haynes - was scared because this was like my third retelling of the month and i was nervy. it couldve gone lilith bad or clytmenestra good and it was GREAT!!! im so pleased with this and all the perspectives and everything was done so well and right. everything was so lyrical and smart.

wowwww im so proud of my month!!!!!!!! :)

[wherestoriescomefrom]

im sewwwww glad I've given up on sff other than 5-6 authors genuinely tell me why the stock standard litfic book has a more imaginative magic and fantasy than something with dragons and witches on the cover

2 real...... i do still read many authors but i guess it is my job to read so you know.

i dont know!!!! off late people don't seem to have much of magic and fantasy to go with and more of a VIBE they want to explore. like, idk if im explaining this well, but it often seems that the magic and fantastical is a secondary concern. which CAN work, only these days it doesn't seem to be doing anything for me personally. i keep waiting for something exciting and bewitching but the last cool book series was The Witchlands and The Sword of Kaigen. oh also Raybearer i thjnk

[volturialice]

1) How many books on the 2024 list have you already read? 18, not counting my own recs lol (and 19 from 2023!)

2) Were any already on your TBR/radar? Which ones? Several! otoh, Chlorine and Woman, Eating

3) What genre or category do you want to read more in? Litfic because it's like eating my vegetables. but not in a punishing way, in that adult way where you eat a vegetable and your body is like oh thank god, we desperately needed that

4) Which book has your favorite cover? I am digging many but I especially like Our Hideous Progeny and the lil riceball from Convenience Store Woman

5) What’s your favorite book or author that someone else recced? well I double-recced several, but in addition to those, The Bloody Chamber is one of my all-time faves that I have reread to tatters (ok it's actually that section of Burning Your Boats that's in tatters. close enough)

6) What’s the #1 factor that makes you add a book to your TBR? probably the descriptor "weird." and other indicator species like "gross," "disturbing," "original." also the usual "someone whose taste I trust likes it" factor

7) Choose one book from the list to hollow out and hide a murder weapon in. Why that one? Ducks, Newburyport because it's a chunky book and could probably fit a bigger weapon and maybe some bonus excedrins and ibuprofens

8) What are your picks for Summer Reading 2024? The Name of the Wind, A Luminous Republic, To Be Taught, If Fortunate, Woman, Eating, Ducks: Two Years On the Oil Sands and probs like 2 more

tagging @flowerslut and @gashousegables, and perhaps @iocococo @emimayooo and @catja while I'm here

Get tagged, BBC! 🎠

Peep the 2024 summer reading reclist (SG | Listchallenge), then answer the questions below! (Hard mode: include the 2023 list)

1) How many books on the 2024 list have you already read?

2) Were any already on your TBR/radar? Which ones?

3) What genre or category do you want to read more in?

4) Which book has your favorite cover?

5) What’s your favorite book or author that someone else recced?

6) What’s the #1 factor that makes you add a book to your TBR?

7) Choose one book from the list to hollow out and hide a murder weapon in. Why that one?

8) What are your picks for Summer Reading 2024? (Don’t worry, you’re allowed to change these!)

If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged 🌟

More info | Join the challenge on Storygraph

[rebeccadumaurier]

January 2023 Reading Review

books read this month

1. Strange Beasts of China, Yan Ge, trans. Jeremy Tiang

trying to read more translated fiction and i do not regret it!! LOVEDD this one. a very Genderous work of SFF

2. Comfort Me with Apples, Catherynne M. Valente

it was ok! valente’s prose is always so captivating but the plot of this was really predictable. my first audiobook - it’s a good book to listen to since it’s very atmospheric

3. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers

warm, meandering, comforting. i get why it’s an r/CozyFantasy staple. also Genderous SFF

4. The School for Good Mothers, Jessamine Chan

oof…i can’t concisely summarize my feelings on this book. it’s intense and thought-provoking but also shades a bit too much toward misery porn and not nearly enough toward exploring the questions it raises

5. The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo

it’s fun! not entirely sold on the novella form, it felt very vaguely sketched out, but the prose is solid and the worldbuilding is interesting. better than the chosen and the beautiful, which was a snore

6. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

quick nonfiction read, really eloquent and well-written and moving examination of being black in america

7. Severance, Ling Ma

took a while to pick up but i LOVEE candace she would destroy all the other Sad Girl litfic protagonists EASILY. she is out here SURVIVING A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE while juggling her nyc chinese diaspora orphan identity crisis. i STAN. a book which deserves its hype

8. All Systems Red, Martha Wells

simultaneously a fun and entertaining read about an AI’s identity crisis, and an insightful examination of worker exploitation under technocapitalism. lots of discussion about the former but i wish there was more about the latter—it’s pretty hard not to see real-world parallels to murderbot’s apathy about its shitty job

9. The Membranes, Chi Ta-wei (favorite of the month)

was hard to decide between this and severance as a fave but WOW this book was mind-blowing. the premise is so cool and it’s very queer and also super ahead of its time (written in the ‘90s). unsettlingly prophetic. wept like a baby at the (very twisty!!) ending

10. Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, Chen Chen

it was good and i liked how it’s very joyful and earnest but not really my type of poetry

11. The Hurting Kind, Ada Limon

what can i say, i like good nature poetry…i mean it’s ada limon <3

thoughts

good reading month overall! read lots of good books. tried to get back into poetry but i don’t think i am in the right headspace to do so, RIP—maybe later. read lots of sino authors and sff, which was a fun time, though i’d like to read more litfic next month since i think i was a bit lacking this time around. i particularly miss books with top-tier prose.

goals for next month

finish the mushroom at the end of the world and the monster baru cormorant

finish light from uncommon stars for book club

read more literary fiction

limit myself to reading 3, max 4, books at a time

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

10 things finishing my 10th book taught me

Hey People of Earth!

(I cannot believe I typed the title of this post!)

Today, I’m going to be sharing 10 things finishing my 10th book taught me, which means--as of 2:30 this morning, I have finished writing my tenth novel, aka MOTH WORK. I’ve written posts like this for my 7th, 8th, and 9th novels as well!

Enjoy this note no one asked me to write but that I wrote because I was sad: 

I introduced this project on this blog back in June, but actually started it in the notes app of my iPhone (iconic) sometime in January of 2019. At this time, my mental health was *lackin* as I was stressed and in my final months of high school. I needed something to cheer me up, and so Moth Work became a place where I could dump my “bad writing” and also have fun. For more context, you can read more about Moth Work in my various writing updates HERE. 

I didn’t intend for this project to become a novel, but thought I’d write it as a longer “for fun” story (prospective word count was 5k words). I chipped away at it for a few months, but didn’t really start picking it up as a serious project until around May/June. It was only once summer vacation hit that I, under the advice of my therapist to have a “reach goal” for the summer, decided to say fuck it!! I shall write this as a novel (prospective word count now 50k words). This novel has seen me graduate high school + almost finish my first year of university, and I’m so excited to share all the wonderful things I learned while writing it!

1. It is totally okay to take your “guilty pleasures” seriously. 

I was in a mega dilemma writing this book. I’d wrapped up writing my ninth novel just after starting this project, and felt a need to write something that was more “serious”. Though I’m an advocate for writing what you want, when you want, even I struggled not to feel like I was wasting my time writing a project that didn’t have very much literary/craft merit (in my eyes, this changed eventually). 

I am here to tell you--do NOT let anyone, including yourself, shame you out of writing what you like. Allow yourself to let loose and write “bad” things, and remember you don’t have to feel guilty/ashamed for writing stuff that seems “juvenile” or “bad”.

2. Processes change--embrace this.

I took about 4000 different approaches writing this book, and though I really wanted to stick to one (outlining, pantsing), eventually, I let my process be what it wanted to be. For example, I am a pantser and began this novel pantsing. Very quickly, I realized I needed an outline because I could not keep track of events (this book begins very plot-oriented). But, pre-determining events that would happen eventually stopped working as I began feeling constrained, and so I settled for outlining as I went so I could keep track of plot points. 

I outlined 10 of the 15 chapters like this before I sort of... stopped doing this (though I will go back and fill it in just for future reference)! I went back to full-blown pantsing in the last four or so chapters, as what I’d planned would NOT pan out--and I think it’s so important to let your process be what it wants to be. Sometimes this book needed some planning--sometimes it really didn’t. This flexibility has really allowed me to be in touch with my projects more, and really listen to them/understand what it is they need. 

3. Sometimes plans change. Don’t be afraid to follow your gut.

I did not plan for Moth Work to be a novel. But as the project developed, so did its final form. My gut was telling me what I needed to do (continue writing), and another example of this is when I sporadically made this a dual point of view book! I’ve never written a full-length dual POV manuscript, and haven’t written dual POV since I was 12, but I didn’t let that stop me from doing what I knew in my gut, was what the book needed. 

I want to emphasize here--sometimes the vision you imagine changes. Allow this change to happen if you feel it’s right, even if it’s scary. I feel I’ve grown a lot as a writer by just allowing this of myself! It’s easy to beat yourself up for not following your plan, and I did this a lot. Understanding that sometimes plans turn into other plans turn into other plans etc, is the most freeing thing you can do for your writing!

4. Write what makes you happy!

This project began as a means to increase my serotonin lmaooo and I think sometimes as writers, we forget that yes, art is hard, but writing what you like can make that difficulty just a little more tolerable. This book started toiling toward disaster mode for a few chapters in the middle, and I really was not happy writing it. You can feel the difference in the chapters when I felt comfortable writing, versus when I struggled because I felt I “had to”. And so I took a step back and re-evaluated. Since this was not working/not making me happy, what would? This question solved my problems (not easily, but lead me on the right path). The artist! does not! have to! suffer! 

Sometimes problems occur, and critically thinking through them is vital. I’m not saying just to do whatever every time something doesn't work because this isn’t a shortcut. However, my point is not to be afraid to change things up and write what will make you happier and help you finish the book if you feel that’s what you need. I wanted to write a cheesy romance about two boys who both need to chill, and so though I could’ve written something else, I wrote this because it genuinely made me happier! And I love that about this book!

5. Things can take longer than you expect. You’re not a bad writer because of this.

Y’ALL. I wanted to write 50k words of this book over one summer. One month! One! Month! Lots of folks can do this, but I did not! In fact, I hit 50k this month, which is half a year after I projected. 

I think a lot of us constitute speed to being a good writer, and while speed and being a good writer can coexist, speed is not necessarily a determining factor in whether you can write or not! This book took me just over a year from when I started it (nine months from when I took it on as a full-time project), and while sure, I could’ve written it faster, I let it develop as it needed, and wrote it when I felt I could. I am not a professional writer with deadlines (that’s different)! While you gotta put in the time to improve, I think you also gotta look out for yourself! Use your gut, and take your time if that’s what you need!

6. Craft and play can coexist.

This took me so long to grasp, and I still struggle with this today! Craft and play can coexist. Say it with me y’all: craft and play can coexist!!

My manifesto for Moth Work initially was to have it be my dumping ground for shitty writing. While this took the pressure off initially, I then felt like I was regressing in my craft (which was untrue, I just didn’t realize it at the time). So, I decided to begin taking the craft aspect of this book very seriously, trying to write polished, delicious prose (every! time!) and the fact of the matter is that often, this did not happen. 

I beat myself up over this! I was like: Rachel, 16-year-old you was pumping out better prose than this, what’s up? And I put so much pressure on myself to perfect the writing, even though this was only ever meant to be a “for funsies” project. Eventually, I came to understand that, okay, I really do want this to be a for funsies project, but I also want to enjoy re-reading it and not criticizing every aspect of it. I then began incorporating a few passes of line edits after drafting a chapter, until eventually, I stopped circling back to chapters to line-edit them altogether. You don’t have to be perfect on the first draft!

You also don’t have to sacrifice craft to have fun, just as the opposite is true. This book taught me a lot about finding this balance, something I’ve lacked in my writing process for years!

7. Your writing styles can differ from book-to book!

I couldn’t understand why my prose in this book felt “thin” (aka awful in my eyes), why the only thing I felt capable of describing was literally everything shining in some sort of way (glinting, glimmering, glowing lool) or overzealous descriptions of the moon. It was only about a month ago that I realized, after making a breakthrough with my litfic novel Houses With Teeth, that Moth Work was not sucking the life out of my prose--it was just a different book with a different style of writing.

And this makes sense! I was writing with two different characters, in two different perspectives, in a completely different POV than I’m used to writing in the long-form (third-present). Of course things were going to be different! I felt a bit silly realizing this, lol, because it felt so obvious, but I struggled with this for a long time (you can even see bits of this struggle in my video Problems I’m having with writing + solutions). 

I thought I had regressed to being a bad writer because of this book, when in reality, the fault was on my inability to stop comparing a very different book to my very different past works. Sometimes you don’t even realize you’re working against yourself! Acknowledging this, and then letting it go was the best thing I did for this book and it allowed me to draft it much faster toward the end!

8. Writing is NOT linear.

I spoke about this in my Problems video, and I honestly was nervous to see how this hot take would be received. However, I was surprised to see that some folks thought this hot take was actually not a bad one, so I’m re-iterating it here!

I think, because we writers are often always practicing writing, we assume everything we write will be better than the last. Honestly, I feel like at least for me, this was my goal--to always be working linearly in terms of progress. It wasn’t until this book that I really came to realize that this is just not how writing works. The easiest way for me to compare this, also as a visual artist, is to say that sure, practice does make perfect, but I have sketches from last week that are worse than sketches I drew two years ago. Why is it that we expect writing to always be linearly better from one project to the next? My answer is that this is just not how writing works. I wrote some of my favourite paragraphs years ago, and may be embarrassed of a paragraph I write tomorrow. 

I got caught up in this idealism of “I must be writing better each time I write” because I thought this was the most logical progression of my writing craft, but realizing that actually!! progress jumps around, was so important for me. Some days I’m better at writing description, some days I write dialogue worse than I did when I was fourteen! It’s okay not to always be uphill. 

Y’all, if I step down a wrung on a ladder and then step up four the very next day, that’s how it’s going to be! Practice intrinsically will make you grow as a writer, but it doesn't mean everything you write has to be better than what you wrote before (though this can be the case, which is awesome). I feel like I don’t see this spoken about enough, so I do want to know if this is relevant to any of you or if this point is bologna!!!

9. The story wants what it wants.

This is heavily in line with some previous points, but is something that was driven home for me while writing this novel. If I can give one piece of advice, it would be to let the story be what it wants to be. If my story wants to be a YA fantasy trilogy, but I’m trying to force it to be a standalone pretentious character-driven coming-of-age saga (calling myself out), my writing may suffer! Of course, some writers can take control over their story and execute their initial vision perfectly! I am not! one of those! people!

I’m a firm believer that sometimes the story wants what it wants, and it’s often your best bet to follow this path. Write intuitively--if you know something feels wrong, or contrarily, feels right, follow that path. 

I did not know how to end this book. I’d had an ending planned for a few months, though it eventually fell apart in the last few weeks. I didn’t know what I would do instead, but last night when I was drafting the last two chapters of the book, I felt in my gut that I was heading to the end. I wanted to stop writing for the night--I almost did, but instead, I kept at it because I knew I was on a roll toward the finish line, and I felt compelled to follow my instinct. This is how I landed at the end I wrote in, and it was a completely organic process.

Planning out your story is a great thing to do, and I’m not here to start a debate about whether plotting/pantsing is better because they’re both amazing!! But for me, it’s important to let the story breathe, and let it eventually grow into the shoes it chooses for itself. Taking a step back so I could stop trying to mould this story into a place it didn't want to be is probably the best thing I could’ve done for it because I finished the book. Any process is a good process if it gets you to the end healthily, and for me, allowing the story to be what it wanted to be and allowing it to take the lead helped me get there.

10. It’s okay to love your story.

I’m going to end this post on another hot take because it is probably what I primarily felt early this morning as I typed up the last paragraph of this book. I’m not going to lie--I cried finishing this book lol. I ached finishing this book. It *hurt* to finish this book. I didn’t want to finish this book. What I wanted to do was shut my computer, and pretend the end was not coming, and come back four months from now to finish it, maybe. I wanted to hang onto my story because it’s my story and I love it!

Y’all, this book is cringey. It’s melodramatic, juvenile in some places, comically serious in others. But it’s mine, and I love it. Sometimes I’m ashamed of the writing in this book--sometimes I think I’m getting worse. But it’s my story, and I love! it! 

I think so many of us want to please other people! Or maybe that’s just me lol!! oh boy!! There were so many times I wanted to give up on this project because I thought others would find it cringey in places I too, thought were cringey, but simultaneously loved.

I’ve written for other people a lot in the past, and sometimes those ‘other people’ are just me--many critical versions of me. Don’t forget about how much you love a story (for its quirks maybe, its clichés, its “bad writing”) before you finish it. A first draft only comes once and finishing a first draft is so wonderful, and even more so when you love that story. We got enough hate y’all, lets give our stories some love. 

So that’s it for this post! I still have five chapters to write writing updates for, so the party ain’t over til it’s over!!!

For my obligatory Oscar’s speech! A special thanks to @sarahkelsiwrites​​ for reading about these trash people for five years, and for enthusiastically contributing to their trash decisions (#do it for the tea)! And for reassuring me that the prose in this book is actually not as bad as I believe because I would never have finished this book without that pep talk lol. To @imdisappointed​​ for helping me crack some of the toughest plot problems!! You talk me out of problems and it’s magic! And to my MOM @shaelinwrites​​ (for being my mom) and also for all the kind/insightful things you say! Y’all get me through it!!!

And of course!! I thank all of YOU for following this journey of drafting Moth Work. My community on here never fails to amaze me, and I’m a big stan of you all!! Please tag me in your stuff--I’d love to read about what you’re writing!

Here’s to finishing a book, but more importantly, to hoping I don’t make Moth Work a series lmaoo!!! *pops confetti*

--Rachel

[theseerasures]

Conspicuous Media Consumption, 2019

i mean, everyone's doing these write-ups, right? might as well hop onto the bandwagon

towards the end of last year i had one of my typical existential crises about my media consumption: am i slowly disappearing up my own ass because i no longer care about most of the pop culture people like to discuss ad nauseam? but on the other hand, isn’t it more responsible to find the niche items made by non-mainstream and marginalized creators? on the third hand, wouldn’t i be much happier if i just watched FMA Brotherhood over and over again, preferably while starting a new Mass Effect playthrough at the same time?

the answer to all these questions is probably “yes,” but i decided to try something different going into 2019. for every week of the year, i would try to get through a year’s worth of content for some kind of media, be it comics, video games, TV, etc--they didn’t all have to be recent, or even new to me, but once i was done with that week i’d be done, even if i didn’t finish the content, and i’d make a judgement based what i’d seen on whether i want to continue. mostly, i was trying to avoid what happened to me with video games in 2018, when i was hating every second of playing Uncharted but still felt obligated to finish because everyone and their houseplant liked Uncharted or listlessly doing the Master Hunter achievement in RDR2 because the main quest made me miserable.

the actual outcomes of this Project(tm) are a little more complicated than anticipated--some media i could finish in a day, while trying to play through ALL THE CONTENT OF AN MMO understandably took much longer than a week--but it all kind of evened out. in the end i did 48 weeks of this, and used December as my catch-ups month to follow up on some things i didn’t get to finish. i thought i’d give my thoughts on each of the things i consumed this year as part of this project below in a concise manner--and yes, i know the people who’ve read even one (1) thing i’ve written are probably laughing right now, particularly given how long i took in this introduction just to get to me point, but i really am going to try!! it’s all an exercise in shameless self-indulgence, basically, but hey: if any of you want to chat at length about any of this stuff below, hit me up.

(quick note: you’ll only find media that i chose for this particular project below, so things i watched socially with friends--like certain film properties slorping me back into Disney’s gelatinous monolith--are not included)

Devilman Crybaby (anime, finished 1/5/2019): honestly i should have twigged onto what the year was going to be like when the first thing i drew from the metaphorical barrel was demon tiddies and apocalyptic existentialism. i was determined to dislike it for most of the year due to fundamentally disagreeing with its main thematic thrust, but i kept THINKING about it even months after. at this point i’ve kinda mellowed out. it’s definitely not a must love, but there’s enough queer metaphor and philosophical richness in it to make it worth checking out.

Attack on Titan (manga, 3 volumes finished 1/12/2019): this is the second time i’ve tried to get into this franchise and...yeah, no. i still don’t see the appeal. the fascistic overtones juxtaposed with absolutely no one having a sense of humor wigs me out to no end.

Young Justice (TV, 2.5 seasons finished 1/31/2019): honestly, what even is there to say? they’re my kids. they’re back and grown up and making even more terrible decisions. i screamed when i saw Babs in her wheelchair.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf (book, finished 2/10/2019): i tried VERY HARD to like this book, given how much i liked Brief History of Seven Killings, but it just...didn’t click for me. which honestly is fine, since i don’t think it was made for me either.

Dragon Age (3 games, finished 2/28/2019): i feel like there’s always a part of me that’s going to think of this series as “the other one,” but y’know. it’s good. it’s my second playthrough (as a mage for all three) and it’s good! i even went around killing all the dragons in Inquisition because Knight Enchanter was a blast. appreciate the higher queer content vis-a-vis Mass Effect, even though i couldn’t care less about any of the plot. Dragon Age II is the best one, do not @ me

Bitter Root (comic, 4 issues finished 3/1/2019): i love intergenerational dramas and i love stories about vampire slayers, so this was aces. my only complaint is the pacing was a little slow for a story that was going on hiatus after five issues.

Pearl (comic, 6 issues finished 3/3/2019): i know that he’s done great things and grudgingly admit that he’s probably a net positive in the industry but Brian Michael Bendis can suck my entire dick

Lazarus (comic, 5 trades finished 3/ 4/2019): i really thought this was going to clench the position for comic of the year. it’s Rucka doing Highly Relevant Dystopia! it’s a corporate Lannisters AU! it’s a highly personal story about a woman with high privilege and little agency! what more could you want

Immortal Hulk (comic, 2 trades finished 3/ 4/2019): i vibed with the horror feel, but i don’t honestly think it’s THAT exceptional. being set in 616-verse means there was still ton of baggage i didn’t know or care about, since i’ve now swung more to the DC side of things

thank u, next (album, finished 3/5/2019): didn’t Ariana Grande get canceled this year for some reason? oh well, i liked her album

When I Get Home (album, finished 3/13/2019): i vividly remember listening to this for the first time and feeling vaguely disappointed that it wasn’t more like Seat at the Table until i realized that i was covered in goosebumps. still don’t understand the magic but it is Good

The Bird King (book, finished 3/23/2019): pretty much everything you’d expect from a G. Willow Wilson book--spirituality, the female lead finding Themselves and the Answer and learning they’re the same thing, etc etc. i’m slightly resentful that her Wonder Woman was so lackluster while this was so good, but whatevs

Psychodrama (album, finished 3/29/2019): possibly my favorite album of the year? dense and emotionally raw in a way i really appreciate. Dave has a Mercury and he’s younger than me

Mass Effect (4 games, finished 4/7/2019): wow guys did you know that Mass Effect is good! it is. all of it is actually, even the Mass Effect 3 ending, another controversial finale to a big franchise that i will obstinately defend. even Andromeda, which isn’t AS good as the trilogy but still has a lot of heart. all its bugs have been exhaustively patched since launch anyway

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (TV, 4 seasons finished 5/13/2019): i’m...still kind of mad about this finale, but can’t exactly deny that this show is one of the best things to ever happen to me, or television probably. i didn’t even mind new!Greg that much! tho he was probably the nail on the coffin of me jumping onto the Nathaniel train.

Knights of the Old Republic/The Old Republic (3 games, finished 7/4/2019): did you guys know that KOTOR II was my first ever video game? i feel like that...explains a lot about me. anyway, the first game is a classic and the second is a deconstructive classic and playing either of them is basically a fun way for me to turn off my brain these days. even the MMO wasn’t as much of slog as i worried it would be. the Imperial Agent storyline had some nice surprises and i dig the general atmosphere of ruthless pragmatism and crushing loneliness.

Wanderers (book, finished 7/13/2019): Chuck Wendig is a very well-intentioned man in dire need of a strict editor. still good tho! some VERY punchy emotional bits and an ending that still leaves me with vague existential terror.

Code Geass (anime, 2 seasons finished 7/20/2019): i feel like this is on the polar opposite of the spectrum as Devilman Crybaby, because i don’t think Geass is GOOD on like, any basis, and i actually find its central moral message kind of abhorrent? but some part of my lizard brain LOVED the High Imperial Family Drama (it’s been a good year for me and Lannister types, hasn’t it? well, with the obvious exception of--never mind), so...yeah. have i discovered the true meaning of guilty pleasure

The Farewell (movie, finished 7/23/2019): how could i not a) watch this and b) love this and c) feel emotionally cold towards this at the same time because the situations depicted were so similar to mine that i ended up feeling kind of alienated

The Nickel Boys (book, finished 8/8/2019): i STILL haven’t read Underground Railroad, but here i am a book late and a dollar short to appreciate Whitehead’s new book. the man’s stylistic versatility is jaw-dropping and i appreciate the plotting in contrast to like, 90% of the litfic out there that’s just “protagonist sad in different milieu”

Durarara (anime, 2 seasons finished 8/31/2019): it’s fucking bonkers and i loved pretty much every second of it? even the second season, where i finally got the BruceNat AU i deserved??? the first anime i’ve seen where everyone was relatively soberly dressed. the answer was love and having feelings and asking your middle school best friend to hurl you like a projectile so you can chop your girlfriend’s head off with a demon katana

Lover (album, finished 9/1/2019): i feel like with all the Discourse surrounding Taylor Swift re: she’s the devil incarnate or re: she’s good, actually the fact that she makes fucking bops gets kind of lost in the conversation. i have no vested interest in her as a person but i liked Lover, even though London Boy was “what if Style but stupid”

Are You Listening (comic, finished 10/2/2019): my actual choice for best comic of the year if i were giving out awards like that. it’s coming of age! it’s grief! it’s queers! it’s trauma! it’s magical realism! it’s cats! it’s expressive gorgeous art! Tillie Walden has an Eisner and she’s younger than me

High School DxD (manga, 2 volumes finished 10/10/2019): i don’t even know how to talk about this series?? i actually kind of came around to the whole “main character is a perv but goes hard for consent” by the end of the second volume, but it’s still...bad. i only can have lingering conflicted feelings about one Japanese adaptation of Christian mythology per year

Ghosteen (album, finished 10/18/2019): much like Immortal Hulk i thought it was fine but over-hyped. it’s Nick Cave doing his Nick Cave ethereal music thing. i still can’t tell what any of the lyrics mean, except Jesus is there sometimes

Watchmen (TV, 2 episodes finished 10/29/2019): i am nOT FUCKING CAUGHT UP so please watch out for spoilers. it is on my high priority list of things to be caught up on tho--i appreciate that the plot is blatantly unsubtle but still manages to give me aneurysms and i appreciate the political overtones just kinda...balances on a razor thin wire and also gives me aneurysms. i wanna say i have no expectations and would be fine if it does a full dive into the horrible bland depths of the both-sides porridge, but i’m sadly a fool who wants to believe in Damon Lindelof

Syllabus/Making Comics (2 comics, finished 12/24/2019): it’s funny--even before Making Comics came out i was like “man i miss Lynda Barry” and then BAM. it’s incredible how her work just makes me feel taken care of, even when we’re wrestling with tough topics or she’s demanding that i draw a Batman in 30 seconds. kudos for immediately shooting to the top of my gift list for my sister also

Allegiance/Choices of One (2 books, finished 12/24/2019): fun and largely inoffensive, but i was honestly hoping for more. the level of Empire apologia going on was too much for me, someone who thinks Mara Jade is the best Star Wars character of all time (still?????? still). it reeked a little of Zahn believing his own hype as the only valid guy in Star Wars Legends of whatever

Aldnoah.Zero (anime, 1 season finished 12/24/2019): turns out i also can only have “trash but my trash” feelings about one Japanese mecha show with higher art pretensions and patriotism verging into jingoism per year, and this one ain’t it. it’s not as good as Code Geass and Code Geass ISN’T GOOD. at least Geass attempted character complexity and moved at enough of a breakneck pace to distract me from its questionable bits. Aldnoah is just...bland, and nothing gets accomplished or revealed in 12 episodes, except the baffling and contradictory motivations of the main bad guy.

Baldur’s Gate (game, unfinished): yet again something i really wanted to like, given *gestures at all the BioWare above*. i think it’s mainly the Seinfeld issue, where it actually predates my own experience with video games and was so formative for the Western RPG genre that what was innovative just comes across as kind of staid now. i didn’t DISLIKE it, and will probably play the sequel since it’s supposed to be more character-driven, but by the time i finished the vanilla campaign i just didn’t have it in me to squint at more tiny avatars on the screen, so the expansions ended up a no-go.

most prominent thing i noticed about this list is that only one 2019 movie made it on the list and ZERO 2019 video games did so. the former i’m okay with because i currently live with two film people with whom i’m happy to tag along to the cinema. the latter bums me out a little more, because there WERE a few things i wanted to play this year, but all of them came out just as my semester was reaching its catastrophic boil, so i had no time. maybe i’ll use my free time after the New Year festivities to catch up on those.

to conclude: this worked out pretty well! i ended up finishing all but one of the things, and only a few were bad enough that i have no interest in seeking out more content. i’ll probably do this again in 2020--we’ll see if the scheduling can withstand a full year of grad school hell

[wingedshoes]

hiii eraaaa it's been so long thank youu for tagging me

10 books I wanna read this year, really wanna get back into reading fantasy and YA again because while i like litfic and classics they don't make for a good reading spree

1. more of ve schwab whether it's finishing adsom or starting vicious

2. more neil gaiman, either american gods or norse mythology

3. development as freedom by amartya sen, i took a copy from my friend a month ago and I'm only 22 pages in :((

4. daydream by hannah grace, icebreaker was cringe as fuck but HENRYYYY

5. a day of fallen night by samantha shannon

6. maybe this is how you lose the time war

7. THE REAPPEARANCE OF RACHEL PRICE BY HOLLY JACKSON

8. The familiar by leigh bardugo

9. hopefully Katabasis by rf kuang if it's released this year 🤞

10. maybe try webtoons because i like experiencing different mediums (im lying i hate change but i like anime so im not that put off by it)

tagging @bookishjules @delilahsbard @ehsan-tera-hoga-mujhpe ....idr any other urls so open tag everyone do this pls

9 BOOKS I PLAN TO READ IN 2024:

thank you for tagging me aish <3 @moirainesedai

1. the dragon republic - r. f. kuang

2. the burning god - r. f. kuang

3. he who drowned the world - shelley parker-chan

4. normal people - sally rooney

5. all the light we cannot see - anthony doerr

6. the pairing - casey mcquiston

7. vicious - v. e. schwab

8. the jasmine throne - tasha suri

9. alone with you in the ether - olivie blake

tagging @kitconnor @buffyboyfriend @harrisons @ajusnice @lesseraive @langorion @mayclair @haniishu @augustsjanes @dandeliononthemoon @reyestrands @nezhcs @oscarwilds @vcnka + anyone who wants to join in ! <3

[jaydeiswriting]

11/11/11 Tag

Rules: Answer the 11 questions of the person who tagged you, make up 11 questions, then tag 11 people to answer them.

Sorry this took so long. I'm really bad at tag games, but I do love to participate. Thanks for tagging me! I was tagged twice, so I'm going to do both.

Tagged by @liesversusjournals

1. Are you a plotter or pantser?

Definitely more of a pantser. I find if I outline things completely, I don't enjoy writing the draft or feel compelled to finish it. I have a lot of fun unpuzzling plot when pantsing and have a strong enough grasp of story structure to still produce a coherent draft.

2. Do you write using a computer or pen and paper?

Honestly, I do a lot of writing on my phone. I always have it on me and I'm a horrible typer. I do use a laptop for formatting and later drafts and I like to brainstorm on paper, but I do quite a lot of work on google docs on my phone.

3. How much writing do you get done on an average day?

Oof. I usually write at least a paragraph or poem every day so that's about 100-200 words. It usually leads to around 500 words if I'm writing prose, but not always. If I really don't feel like writing, I just don't. Which has been a lot of days in the past few months.

4. Which present work(s) are you most proud of?

I'm proud of my short story "Baby's Breath" (now called "Breathe for Me") in which a woman gives birth to a child with flowers growing in their throat, obstructing their airway. It has a ways to go, but it's fairly solid in this stage. I'm also proud the poem "Dancing to Our Deaths" which is a conversation on voicelessness in times of struggle and utilizing body language and ASL to reclaim voice without verbal speech.

5. Which past work(s) are you most proud of?

Hm, I don't know. I am proud of myself for writing and finishing things but as I look back, I see so many flaws in works. I take it to mean I'm better now, so I'm most proud of my current work.

6. Which present work(s) are you the least proud of?

Some short stories in They Leave Your Bones Behind have yet to reach their full potential. "Luminous Spaces" is basically my favourite concept, but it's not in the right place as of yet. It can be super dynamic and complex, but it falls a little flat in this early draft. It will get better, I hope, in revisions!

7. Which past work(s) are you least proud of?

I've written some really crappy stories in my childhood. Now that I think about it, when I was maybe 12, I used a site called Miss Literati and wrote a really weird romance I think is very cringe. Glad to have finished that novel, but it's like just not good.

8. Which books/authors have influenced you most?

The authors that helped me realize I wanted to write as a kid: Beverly Cleary, Kate DiCamillo and Cecilia Galante. And the books/authors that have illuminated, even in the smallest way, the niche I'd like to fill and/or the stories I'd like to tell: Kirsty Logan, Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, Jen Campbell, Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moira Fowley Doyle, Delicate Edible Birds by Lauren Groff, The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X. R. Pan, and Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado.

9. Describe your writing process from when you get the idea to when it's polished.

It differs from project to project, but generally I don't really outline. I write a zero draft to grasp what the story's going to be. Then, I reread and take notes about what changes I'd like to make in draft one. I completely rewrite for that draft, then from there make mostly smaller changes. It can be a lot of drafts until it feels 'polished'.

10. How many drafts do you write until you feel satisfied with a project?

It can be a lot. Anywhere from 3 to like 10 drafts. Probably 10 if I'm honest. I could go on forever, but you have to eventually concede if it's the best you can do.

11. If you could re-visit and write in any shelved project, which one would it be and why?

I have this one novel idea I've been working on for so long that I just haven't understood how to write yet, so I shelved it. If I could figure out how to get the story out, I would 100% return to it. I really like the concept and it's a slightly dark litfic novel, so it's not out of my wheelhouse.

Tagged by @softwishesx

1. What's your favourite stage of the writing process?

I absolutely adore both developmental and line edits. The story really comes together for me and I feel closest to it at this stage.

2. What's your least favourite stage of the writing process?

This is going to sound weird, but drafting. It's not that I don't like it, I just prefer having a baseline to work off of, which is why I usually write quick 'zero drafts' to start with.

3. What would you say is your greatest strength as a writer?

I think I generally do pretty well at creating interesting conflicts and maintaining tension in a piece.

4. What would you say is your greatest weakness as a writer?

I worry that I use too much repetition and over-explain concepts, undercutting the intrigue of a story.

5. What have you learned about your writing in the last year?

A year and a half ago, a post-colonial lit class cracked open the magical realism genre for me. Since then, I've found my niche in writing. I really enjoy writing literary fiction with elements of magical realism, leaning often into gothic horror and fabulism. I also prefer to write short works rather than novels.

6. Is writing full time something you would like to do or is it more of just a side hobby?

Honestly, I don't know what career path to follow. I'd like to work in literature in some way, but writing fiction full-time may not be realistic or the best choice for me.

7. Would you ever write a semi-autobiographical book? If so, would you ever reveal that it is semi-autobiographical?

Essentially, this is the role poetry takes for me. It's not always based on a specific experience, but it's often true to my emotions, fears, desires, etc. I write in a confessional style, so it reveals itself. I have, however, feared people putting experiences on me that are not my own based on their readings of my poetry, so I think I would try to be quite clear where I could.

8. What's your 'I have to write in this otherwise everything is trash' font?

I have to write every major project in a different font. They all have their distinct voices and moods and personalities, so they have to be separate. A Mouthful of Cotton is written in Garamond and They Leave Your Bones Behind is written in Spectral. I also often use Georgia and Times New Roman.

9. Do you read books similar to your WIP for inspiration while drafting?

Yes, absolutely! I've been reading a lot of poetry while writing poetry and reading a lot of literary fiction and magical realism when I can lately.

10. How many people in your real life know that you're a writer?

Pretty much everyone. No one would be surprised if I locked myself away for a while to write. I don't talk about it a lot in my life though.

11. What's one of the best lines you've ever written?

Ooh, tough question. I don't think many stories I've written recently are quotable because they're pretty early drafts and older ones have drifted too far from my voice. Here are some:

"What point was there to a magic that only worked if you believed? In a God that did the same?

We were all already grieving. If healing worked like magic, it wasn't working at all."

- "Muñeca", They Leave Your Bones Behind

"The strung up bodies of so many women made a collective wailing; they moaned stretched cello notes in a minor key."

- "Flesh", They Leave Your Bones Behind

I tag: @hobywrites @futureauthor-mabye @wolvesofarcadia @writer-jessicac @atelierwriting @delphwrites @headspace-hotel @lend-your-lungs-to-me @mademoiselleink @teacupwriter (no pressure, of course!)

What is your ideal writing environment?

Do you have any writing rituals?

What's your favourite aspect of drafting?

How do you go about brainstorming and developing ideas?

What was the most recent thing you've been inspired by?

Rainy day writing inside or sunny day writing outside?

Which themes/topics are you most drawn to?

Do you read a lot in the genre(s) you write?

How would you describe your writing voice?

Which project gave you the most challenges? How did you overcome them?

Which project gave you the most enjoyment to write?

[cruelsister-moved2]

1, 24, 5!

thank you!!<3

1: How many books did you read this year? I honestly have no clue but definitely at least 1 a month 😭 but more including nonfiction i read for uni so idk lets say 15 or something. sorry i had like a 6 month depressive episode at the start of this year & then ive been working + studying + 2x volunteering + various intense personal stuff  + waiting to move house so i kind of forgot how to be a person for most of this year

24: Did you DNF anything? Why? Yeah this book called the red tent it was kind of interesting in the first half but i already kind of hated the prose and it was kind of annoyingly divine feminine core, and then halfway or maybe 2/3rds through basically everyone gets killed and the MC gets taken away to another country and it was just depressing and brutal and pointless and i realised i wasnt even enjoying reading it so i stopped

5: What genre did you read the most of? fantasy! i read mostly fantasy and nonfiction, I do read litfic occasionally but mostly if im reading fiction its bc i want to relax my brain a little, but i mean like short stories and fantasy for adults not YA i got tricked into accidentally reading a YA fantasy this year and im still mad abt it i haaated it😭