#petiolata writes

[petiolata]

Going to try and edit what I wrote today. I know a lot of people say it's best to just write the complete first draft then worry about editing, but I did that with my last novel and that was a disaster.

It's still not edited, because it's such an overwhelmingly huge amount of work to do. And looking down at 60k words of crap is discouraging.

Better to have this novel in better shape by the time it's done. That should make the post-completion editing rounds less daunting. This first draft is around 20% completed so far.

[petiolata]

It's all fun and games writing an awful first draft but eventually you hit the end of it and have to edit that bitch 😭

Through gritted teeth: my first draft is allowed to be awful. My first draft is allowed to be awful. My first draft is allowed to be awful.

[aphfanficwriters]

Every month we will pose a question and collate responses as a fun and informal little exercise in getting to know each other and spark discussion. This month's question is:

“Are there any recurring themes in your fics?”

Lacy: sadly no. I jump from genres and ideas too much to have a reoccurring theme in fics. Maybe if i really want to pinpoint one, i do realise my longer fics always made use of science experiments to push the events of the stories.

Tama / @delgumofics: 🤔 probably that evil goes unpunished. Bad people in my fics almost never see justice. Sometimes it's implied that they'll get their just desserts somewhere down the line but it's never anything I focus on while writing.

Wasps / @petiolata: Taboo relationships. Deception. Selfishness. Attachment issues, trauma, and mental illness. Family. Maybe these don't count as themes but are rather just subjects? For something more complex, I guess you could say there is no sense of right and wrong in my stories, or of justice or meaning. Sometimes characters' bad actions blow up in their face, other times they're deliciously rewarded. With most of my stories, the intention is more to voyeuristically view events and characters and take what you want from it. Sometimes I try to capture a feeling or experience but I'm not trying to make some grand point to anyone.

@chibidashie: As most of my writing is sugary sweet, it's that everyone deserves to be loved and that imagination can quite literally take you places you'd never expect to visit in your life! As the funny horse show says in the title, friendship really is magic!!

Emil / @connorsandroids: I don't have any simple 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

@billowingangel: So far no there isn't any recurring themes in my stories. Maybe eventually though it could end up being love knows no bounds or some other cheesy romantic shit ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@proosh: I find myself trying to approach the question of "what is a nation, anyway?" and all of my conclusions are varying shades of -- most of the time fairly abstract -- horror and that's what I like to dig into from a conceptual and thematic standpoint. Besides that, the recurring motifs of blood being both life and death keep cropping up in my writing, commonly as an extension and extrapolation of the previous question. On a less esoteric level I frequently end up touching on the themes of freedom and duty, and the interplay of power and violence. All of these feed into one another and become inextricably linked on a narrative and thematic level. We have fun here at Prush Studios :)

ciel / @torontofetish: i tend to explore identity and specifically identity loss and transformation. agency and control are also big themes i play around with, and the intersection of agency and identity is my sweet spot. what i write often ends with heavy sacrifice and the complex emotions that sacrifice goes hand in hand with. i ask who this character is, what defines them, and then i strip it away brutally to see what they can become without that identity to hide behind. for obvious reasons, most of my work can be considered horror.

Eru / @eruverse: I wonder if i have any. Actually if i write original stories i DO have it, but prob not for hetalia

Didi / @teaedon: death (mortality), loneliness. sometimes the crossing of boundaries, other times the corruption of love (obsession). probably more, idk

Mossman: Sex

@netherzon: Love/Romance in my fanfics since they’re mostly ship focused, but I have branched out with some of my more recent fics exploring themes like family, good and evil and in between, and how grief affects people

Yukihitomi / @arthurhonda: Super late to this but often the themes in my writing are love and loss.

WhiteWings / @smuttyandabsurd: I want to say a recurring theme in mine is loneliness and the insatiable need for human connection, but the unadorned truth is it's blowjobs 🌚

[books]

[Taglist] Writing Workshop week 3: Stories of a Place

For those just joining us, @bettsfic is running a writing workshop on @books this month. This is the taglist for participants. You can join this list by messaging us here on @books. Want to know more? Start here.

@scamuel-likely

@cheerfulmelancholies

@subversivegrrl

@jamiesshelves

@wanderingbandurria

@nana-glass-chillhop-radio-hour

@dragonnan

@sirswooshnoodles

@strexrep

@preternaturalrose

@funkynoshes

@medieshanachie

@stayfrosty2sims

@ashmariesstuff

@thesoapgirl

@bibliomancerkay

@jeanie205

@paulineagain

@youreonyourownkid13

@mxxnlightwriting

@randomafterthought

@karacat

@lilliebellfanfics

@haillily

@djinnhatescold

@liv-is

@rhysofcourse

@nix-rose

@little-tea-kitten

@petiolata

@xoxo-gothic-girl

@omg-elledubs-things

@reblogwhoreowo

@mclurky

@deplorablethoughts

@richardmurrayhumblr

@gluepoo

@valkyrhys

@x-soapbox-x

@winterstar1412

@themandilorian

@dinovom

@allaboardthecolumboat

@scorpio-and-a-half

@musicismagic-writes

@mywhateversite

@mtk4fun

@kameonerd566

@cardcaptorsakura96

@loiladadiani

@zacharialend

@tanthamorelover

@inflappible

@emptymanuscript

@deadrabbitohno

@slicesofapple

@goldenwatcher

@porcelaintoybox23

[pinsplantsandpikes]

Poor Man’s Mustard, or, this forager’s first gold.

Today has been an interesting day. I have travelled two hours (one each way), worn uncomfortable shoes, and awkwardly stuffed myself into an overcrowded bus for a interview less than twenty minutes. Which started out with being told off for being “too early”. 

Isn’t the whole point to be early to show punctuality and reliability?

Anyway, on the way home I got a phone call about a potential job in PR, hence my sudden desire to start a new, professional and outside-world friendly blog. (My personal blog is most emphatically not suitable for non-Tumblr natives, it is a dark and strange fandom-filled place). I felt awkward telling them that despite my creative writing focused degree in English, my hobby of writing is not on display. So I resolve to do something about it.

When that phone call finished and I got off the bus, some leaves by the side of the road caught my eye. Rugged, rumbly shapes and soft edges, sort of waxy looking. I’d seen them before, in a cluster in the woods, by a flooded out bit of marshland. Yesterday, in fact. 

I’d deliberately set out yesterday (Monday 2nd March) to go plant identifying. I spent an hour freezing my butt off in the great outdoors, getting rained and hailed on despite the weather forecast saying it wouldn’t rain - because of course. On my jaunt I’d tested out my plant identifying app, with mixed results. Experimentally I pointed it at random things, and then at some I knew - obvious things like brambles, only to be told they were trees. Clearly, this needed to be taken with a pinch of salt, software can only get so far from a photo with no other sensual input.

So, the thing I found just as I turned back for home was shiny in the rain, a lovely glossy waxen-looking leaf, which the app confidently gave the first (and assumedly, therefore, most likely) diagnosis of being “Alliaria petiolata,” or, Poor Man’s Mustard. I smiled to myself, thought it was cool, then walked on, pleased to have found something vaguely edible or usable.

Only when I had gotten halfway home did I start to kick myself for not picking any to bring home, not even having a nibble or sniff to further confirm. But I did find a baby nettle to cheer myself up - didn’t pick that one up either, but y’know, stinging nettle.

But today, I found a large patch of darker, waxy leaves by the side of the road at the bus stop. Before now I would have thought nothing of them, maybe vaguely wondered what they were. But today, but today - I will stop using that expression soon, I promise - I looked down and thought, I know this one! Poor Man’s Mustard!

And I picked some, the single leave which a bit of stem in the first picture, plus breaking a half off another to sniff. And yes! I struck garlic! It smelled, though mildly, of the stinky onion family.

I trotted off the short distance home, clutching my find like it was gold from them thar hills. With a bit of help from Google and my dad’s girlfriend, (the books were useless, being as they didn’t even acknowledge the plant existed, only listed one of the potential lookalikes - which it most certainly did not look alike in the book) we determined the biennial nature of Poor Man’s Mustard and cleared up the confusion the differing gallery images on my identification app had caused. 

This is a young Poor Man’s Mustard, and when it grows up in the second year the leaves change, and it flowers.

I hope to grow like that too, for my soft edges to form strong shapes, and to bloom into who I may become.

Rather fanciful stuff for a leaf.

[supersoakerfullofblood]

What @petiolata said in the comments, very much that. You almost never want to start with a "theme-as-message" when writing. It may help to start with a "theme-as-content," if that's a better way of looking at it. I wrote a story about church camp, but I didn't go into it thinking "the theme for this story are going to be how religious and romantic trauma are bad." I went into it thinking "I'm going to write about church camp, romance, and maybe some weird people I knew at church camp." There's a difference: the former is a message, the latter is just content.

Stephen King talks about this in On Writing: "starting with the questions and thematic concerns is a recipe for bad fiction. Good story always begins with story and progresses to theme; it almost never begins with theme and progresses to story" (208). Start with the story, and the themes will fall into place naturally. Especially if you're writing queer fantasy. A lot of your personal experience will flow into the novel and create many of the themes of your own life without you noticing

Idk why but I'm feeling really stuck with my writing rn. I don't really have a *theme* for my story or a message I want to tell, and I keep seeing things that say you need that for a story.

I just want to write a fantasy with queer main characters. I don't even know what I'm doing.

[kevinscottgardens]

12 to 21 March 2018

Spring has arrived and the days are longer than the nights. Flowers and leaves are breaking free, emerging from soil and branches, putting on quite a show. The ferns are starting to unfurl their fronds. This makes me very happy.

Narcissus tazetta subsp. italicus

It’s been a busy two weeks in the garden. Tuesday we had a very interesting day learning how to read and write rudimentary floral formulae, something I feel should have been part of my apprenticeship or RHS courses. Here is an example I found on Google of a comprehensive formula:

↯ K3 [C3 A1°–3°+½:2°] Ğ(3) – the formula of Canna edulis; asymmetric flower; calyx of three free sepals; corolla of three free petals joined with androecium; androecium in two whorls, the outer whorl contains 1–3 staminodes, the inner contains ½ of a stamen and 2 staminodes; gynoecium fused of 3 carpels, inferior ovary

I finished installing new interpretation in the fernery and have accessioned over 100 seed packs and new additions.

I typed draft wording to explain champion trees and will be adding a symbol to each of our champion trees so guests can enjoy this added bit of interest to some of our more tender trees we are able to grow outside. We were given three Amorphophallus spp. from Kew to add to our collection, which is very exciting. I was responsible for these very specimen when I worked with Marcelo in the tropical nursery. I’m sure they will add interest, and aroma, to our visitors’ delight.

Last Friday I attended a conference at Chester Zoo (the display of cacti above is theirs) on the Nagoya Protocol then headed farther north to Morecambe Bay to visit my godson and his family for a long-overdue visit. I’m heading to Los Angeles today to visit family and friends. I’ll be there until after Easter. It’s been two and a half years since my last visit. My nephews are probably taller than I am.

Last week’s plant ident

Apocynaceae Vinca difformis

Boraginaceae Echium giganteum

Boraginaceae Pulmonaria officinalis

Brassicaceae Descurainia millefolia

Brassicaceae Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’

Leguminosae Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca ‘Citrina’

Ranunculaceae Hepatica nobilis

Rutaceae Correa backhousiana

Solanaceae Streptosolen jamesonii

Winteraceae Drimys winteri

This week’s plant ident will be a review of the past four weeks.

Plant of the week16 March

Asteraceae Ageratum corymbosum Zuccagni ex Pers.

common name(s) - “perennial ageratum”, “butterfly mist” synonym(s) (30!) - Ageratum coelestinum (Regel) Sims; A. corymbosum Zuccagni; A. c. f. albiflorum (B.L.Rob.) B.L.Rob.; A. c. f. album B.L.Rob.; A. c. f. corymbosum; A. c. var. corymbosum; A. c. var. jaliscense B.L.Rob.; A. c. var. latifolium (DC.) B.L.Rob.; A. guatemalense M.F.Johnson; A. hudsonii Hort. ex Vilm. [Illegitimate]; A. pinetorum (L.O.Williams) R.M.King & H.Rob.; A. rugosum Coult. ex Donn.Sm.; A. rugosum J.M.Coult.; A. salicifolium Hemsl.; A. salicifolium subsp. salicifolium; A. strictum Hemsl.; A. strictum Hemsley; Alomia pinetorum L.O.Williams; Caelestina ageratoides (Kunth) Kunth [Illegitimate]; C. ageratoides var. latifolia DC.; C. caerulea Cass. [Illegitimate]; C. corymbosa (Zuccagni) DC. [Illegitimate]; C. lessingiana Klotzsch ex Walp. [Illegitimate]; C. micrantha (Lag.) Spreng.; C. sclerophylla Wooton & Standl.; Carelia corymbosa (Zuccagni ex Pers.) Kuntze; C. stricta Kuntze; Eupatorium coeruleum Sessé & Moc.; E. micranthum Lag.; Sparganophorus ageratoides Lag. conservation rating - none native to - México, Nicaragua, S. USA location - glasshouse 4, accession _____ leaves - deciduous in cold weather; evergreen in warm; starts green and changes to purple flowers - purple habit - perennial, up to 1m tall, to 1m wide habitat - crevices, ledges, cliffs, other rocky sites in canyons, along streams, in desert grasslands, oak-agave, oak, oak-juniper, and pine-oak woodlands; pests - no information found disease - resistant to honey fungus hardiness - to -10ºC (H4) soil - drought tolerant once established; well-drained sun - full sun propagation - cuttings, seed nomenclature - Asteraceae - aster - star; Ageratum - does not wither readily; corymbosum - full of corymbs (flat topped flower heads) NB - attracts bees and butterflies

Plant of the week 21 March

Apocynaceae Tabernaemontana pandacaqui Lam.

common name(s) - “windmill bush”, “banana bush”, “Australian ibogaine bush”, “crape jasmine”, “crepe jasmine, “native gardenia” synonym(s) (87!)- Alstonia pacifica (Seem.) A.C.Sm.; Anartia recurva Miers; Ervatamia angustisepala (Benth.) Domin; E. benthamiana Domin; E. biflora (Elmer) Pichon; E. brachybotrys (Merr.) Pichon; E. calcicola Kerr; E. capsicoides (Merr.) Pichon; E. cumingiana (A.DC.) Markgr.; E. daemeliana Domin; E. decaisnei (A.DC.) Markgr.; E. ecarinata (Merr.) Pichon; E. eriophora Markgr.; E. floribunda (Blume) Pichon; E. f. var. villosiuscula Bakh.f.; E. hexagona (Merr.) Pichon; E. lifuana Boiteau & L.Allorge; E. linearifolia (Merr.) Markgr.; E. merrilliana Markgr.; E. mindorensis (Merr.) Markgr.; E. montensis S.Moore; E. mucronata (Merr.) Markgr.; E. obtusiuscula Markgr.; E. oligantha (Merr.) Pichon; E. orientalis (R.Br.) Domin; E. pandacaqui (Lam.) Pichon; E. parviflora Meijer Drees; E. polygama (Blanco) Markgr.; E. puberula Tsiang & P.T.Li; E. pubescens (R.Br.) Domin; E. p. var. barbatocalyx (Markgr.) Markgr.; E. p. var. glaberrima Bakh.f.; E. p. var. grandiflora Domin; E. p. var. punctulata (Warb.) Markgr.; E. p. var. superba Domin; E. punctulata (Warb.) Markgr.; E. p. var. barbatocalyx Markgr.; E. rotensis Kaneh.; E. subglobosa (Merr.) Pichon; Pagiantha oligantha (Merr.) Markgr.; P. pandacaqui (Lam.) Markgr.; P. subglobosa (Merr.) Markgr.; Rejoua pacifica (Seem.) Markgr.; Tabernaemontana arborescens Perrier; T. biflora Elmer; T. brachybotrys Merr.; T. capsicoides Merr.; T. caudata Merr.; T. cerniflora Zipp. ex Span. [Invalid]; T. citrifolia G.Forst. [Illegitimate]; T. congestiflora Elmer; T. cumingiana A.DC.; T. decaisnei A.DC.; T. d. var. petiolata A.DC.; T. diclinis K.Schum. & Lauterb.; T. ebracteata R.Br.; T. ecarinata Merr.; T. floribunda Blume; T. guangdongensis P.T.Li; T. hexagona Merr.; T. indica Lam.; T. laurifolia Blanco [Illegitimate]; T. laxiflora Teijsm. & Binn.; T. linearifolia Merr.; T. mindanaensis Merr.; T. mindorensis Merr.; T. mollis Hook. & Arn.; T. mucronata Merr.; T. multiflora Sm.; T. oligantha Merr.; T. orientalis R.Br.; T. o. var. angustifolia Benth.; T. o. var. angustisepala Benth.; T. o. var. grandifolia Valeton; T. pacifica Seem.; T. parviflora Decne. [Illegitimate]; T. polygama Blanco; T. puberula Merr.; T. pubescens Teijsm. & Binn. [Invalid]; T. p. R.Br.; T. punctulata Warb.; T. riedeliana Miq. T. rotensis (Kaneh.) P.T.Li; T. semperflorens Perrier; T. subglobosa Merr.; T. thailandensis P.T.Li; T. vitiensis Seem. conservation rating - none native to - Australia, China, Malesia, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, Thailand and western Pacific islands location - tropical corridor, accession _____, leaves - lateral veins on each side of the midrib, curving but not forming loops inside the blade margin flowers - white or pale yellow corolla lobes; fruit is orange, red or yellow habit - evergreen shrub or small tree to 14m tall habitat - wide variety of habitats, particularly in drier areas pests - mealy bug disease - no information found hardiness - to 1ºC (H2) soil - fertile, well-drained; constantly moist to occasionally flooded sun - full sun to part shade propagation - seed, soft wood cuttings nomenclature - Apocynaceae - dogbane family; from the Greek apo (away from or away with) and kuon (dog); Tabernaemontana - Latin form of Bergzabern, meaning mountain cottage; pandacaqui - from Pandakaki, Philippines NB - The milky juice of the plant is said to be an effective treatment for swellings. The latex is applied as an emollient to bruises and wounds, and also to swellings.

[petiolata]

Weird maybe but I rly love when characters are in their own private hell? Like possessed, cursed, etc to where they can't tell anyone about their suffering state so they can't get help.

Idk if there's a name for that specific trope but I'd love more stories (either original or fanfic) to read with that. I should come up with a storyline for that for some of my characters too.

[petiolata]

For someone who gets so stressed out and overwhelmed by story disorganization you'd think I would be more organized 😒

Other ppl who crave organization to write: simply organize things neatly and beautifully, so efficient!

me: AHHHHHHHH so many parts what do?!?!? 😫

I've cleaned up my outline and figured out how the next chapter will go, and now I feel MUCH better about my novel WIP. The rest of the outline beyond this next chapter is still patchy/uneven/full of gaps, but I'll flesh it out more when I get to closer to those parts.

In the future though, when I think I've made an outline, I need to make sure I've actually put down a solid consistent outline and not left large parts of the story as very vague and essentially: ????.

[petiolata]

I got about half the editing done today that I wanted to. The fatigue's been killer the dash of nausea and every joint from the waist down aching didn't help either body wtf. I am glad I put in the effort and made some progress, even if it isn't as much as I'd hoped for.

I will slowly chip away at this story like...idk, a crazy guy with a chisel trying to take down the Rocky Mountains. If he lives long enough, he could do it.

[petiolata]

Only got 1.5k written today, but I'm happy with that. Because I didn't expect to get any writing done at all today, with how busy Sundays usually are. Plus with feeling like a zombie this morning and all.

But I persevered. Maybe I will get this and the previous part edited today, maybe and probably not. But I will try.

It's funny but one of the best ways for me to get writing is to get on my treadmill. Then as I'm walking I start thinking about my story and began mentally fleshing out the next part. Then I start wanting to write it. And since I write using a headset, I can just do that as I continue my walking.

This novel is slowly inching along.

I was interested in something the other day, and looked at a 400K fic that someone had written. Going by the initial posted date and completion dates, they would have only had to write about 9K words a month to have created that. (No doubt it wasn't evenly and neatly divided and distributed like that, since few writers have that rigid a writing schedule. People can write 60k one month and then nothing for months on end.) But anyway that only comes out to needing to write about 2k a week. That's just one writing session a week for a lot of people.

What I mean to say with all this is that you can create quite a lot, even if you only write in small amounts, as long as you is steadily chip away at it. Myself, I really do tend to do better when I create and stick to a daily writing habit. But that's just me. Everyone will have different methods and approaches that work for them best.

[petiolata]

Next scene I have to write is a fight scene...I find fights boring to read and boring to write.

Unless there's a certain amount of sadism and suffering in them 🤔 I could go that route.

Easier to just write a paragraph summing up the fight and roll on to shit I care more about.

[petiolata]

I did one writing session today (abt 2k words) and I'd like to get another done. I think it might be worth fiddling with my outline tho and trying to flesh it out (and make it less chaotic and scattered).

It may take up time, but being organized can save time and frustration in the long run.

[petiolata]

I haven't been in the mood to write any new stories so I've been editing old WIPs. I published one that was about 9-10k and I'm cleaning up another that has about that many words (but isn't finished yet).

It was surprisingly clean/readable but it will def need another rewrite or two even after this cleaning. Not sure how much it needs to be expanded--I think it lacks a sex scene so adding one will be another couple k.

Any longer than that and it will begin heading into novella territory and that point I might as well start outlining and try for a novel LOL.

[petiolata]

Think I'll do YOTP for MapleTea in 2025. I'll keep the fills very short so they don't cut into my original fic writing.