#placeholder nanowrimo tag

[cospinol]

50k clear!! (*ˊᗜˋ*)و

[b-a-pigeon]

Nanowrimo Update - November 26 Word Count: 2351 (today) / 52484 (total)

These daily updates are fun so I might continue for the rest of the month (or the rest of this draft) !!

Yesterday I wrote a bunch of weird scene fragments to reach 50k, today I started threading them together. I wish I could write non-chronologically becuase it just seems better, but I get so confused whenever I try, lol - especially in a story like this where the characters are all on their own special timelines and always adjusting their opinions about each other!

Also, I'm thinking about concepts to explore for the title because it is killing me to be this far in without one, but I have nothing! I might just go about this Mirrored in Evergreen style where I list like every prominent noun in the book (and their synonyms) and then mash words together until I have something meaningful lol...

[kh2prologue]

various scraps from the last few weeks.  getting the hang of ru xian very very slowly

[pinkfadespirit]

End of year fic writer round-up

Thank you for the tag @barbex! And Happy New Year everyone!

I’ll tag: @fandomn00blr, @goth-surana, @aria-i-adagio, @johaerys-writes, @sulky-valkyrie, @glowing-blue-feathermage, @potatowitch, @noire-pandora, @factorykat and the others I’ve tagged below and anyone else who might want to do this. 

This year I published 4 new stories on AO3, completed one old one and completed the first draft of a new fic that I’m hoping to start posting in January. 

Words written (published or not, WIPs included!): roughly around 150k if I include DADWC stuff. This year started out a bit slow writing wise but it really picked up for me towards the end of the year when I did the DA Create-a-thon and Nanowrimo back to back. I somehow managed to write over 80k in those two months. I’ve slowed down a lot since but I’m still feeling quite positive about my writing after it, which is great!

Smut scenes: I think 3 published ones. One or two unpublished. And there are a few in the fic I’m still editing but they’re mostly glossed over. I may go back and add more to them but I’m undecided on that for now. 

New things I tried: I wrote Nanders for the first time – which was also my first time writing Nathaniel’s POV and my first Awakening fic in general. 

Fic I spent the most time on: the fic that took me the longest to finish was the life that, here, awaits, which I worked on on and off throughout the year. But that was several short chapters with long breaks in between them. So the fic I spent the most time actively working on must have been the Justnanders fic I wrote in part for Nanowrimo. It’s the longest fic I wrote this year at 40k and I’m still working on editing it. 

Fic I spent the least time on: My Secret Sanders gift is the shortest one I have on AO3, if that counts (I know author reveals haven’t happened yet but I’m pretty sure it’s no mystery which one is mine for anyone who is at all familiar with my work - and my giftee has definitely figured it out lol). If that doesn’t count then Trouble Sleeping would probably be it. I can’t actually remember how long I spent on it, just that it’s my shortest work from this year outside of DADWC stuff. 

Favourite thing I wrote: Probably the Justnanders fic. Not officially titled yet but I’m thinking of calling it Not To Disappear (shamelessly stolen from the Daughter song/album). I don’t know if it’s the best thing I’ve written, but I enjoyed writing it and I’m even enjoying editing it so far, which is surprising for me. I think the fact that I’m not rushing myself to publish it is helping a lot with that.  

Favourite thing I read: I read Holy, Holy, Holy by @little--abyss not that long ago and I loved it. Really loved it - like in a ‘it’s been weeks and I’m still thinking about it’ way. Also, The Place Where I Belong by @dismalzelenka is amazing and I think everyone should read it. 

Writing goals for next year: First, I’d like to finish editing and post the Justnanders fic. I’ve filled in most of the placeholders up to chapter six out of eight for that so hopefully that won’t take too much longer. After that, I’d love to get back to All Falls Away. I never meant to take as long a break from that as I did, but I think it was a good thing in the end. I feel excited by the idea of picking it up again so that’s a definite improvement on how I felt about it when I put it on hold back in February.  I also have a Handers modern AU in the works. It was my first nano idea for this year but I ran out of steam after the first week and switched projects. Now I’m having lots of thoughts about it again, mostly just working on a playlist and letting scenes play out in my head but I’d like it to turn into a full fic one day. My main goal is not to get so distracted by exchanges this year and make some progress on some of the ideas I’ve had on hold over the last couple of years.

[juniperpomegranate]

Keep a journal with ideas.

Make a journal (here, elsewhere--Dreamwidth is good) to keep the ideas. Speaking of Dreamwidth, there’s a big community of writers there and lots of communities that encourage writing/help you write. Hit me up if you want specific suggestions.

NaNoWriMo actually has tools for writing goals year-round, not just for November. You can use that.

AO3 is a public space, like a library. If you tag your placeholder fic with things that aren’t there, you’re clogging up the search results for everyone else.

there is a new scourge on AO3 that I discovered recently...

that scourge is "Placeholder fics". This is thing, where someone posts a "fic" on AO3 with a summary and tags (and sometimes even a complete tag), but when you click on the "fic" the content of the "fic" is something like:

"coming soon" or "in progress" or "an idea I'll write someday"

This is a scourge on AO3 tags that directly violates TOS Section IV, as it is spam (sect B) and inappropriate content (sect H) (not, strictly speaking a fanwork).

If you see these "placeholder fics" on AO3 REPORT THEM. It is easy to do.

Link the fic in report and in the description, you can write something like this:

The linked "fic" is a so-called "placeholder fic" where the author posts a work to a tag and the only content is the words "In progress". The "fic" appears in tags, yet contains no content, so I would consider it to be spam. Thank you!

(This, btw is the actual thing that I wrote to report one of these a few weeks ago)

If you want to get jazzy you can even mention that you believe the "fic" violates TOS IV.H (which is what the AO3 mod told me in the email response to my report) or TOS IV.B.

You can report anonymously if you want afaik. Once you submit a report the AO3 moderators will get back to you at some point to update you on that report and action taken.

This is a simple way that YOU can make AO3 better today. If you see a "fic" that violates TOS in any way, REPORT IT. There are literally millions of fics on AO3 and the moderators can't possibly go through all of them without YOUR help.

I suspect that the people who are posting these "placeholder fics" are probably very young people who are very new to fandom and fanfiction and do not know better. If you are reading this post, and you are one of these people, know that I don't hate you, I just want you to know that what you are doing is a violation of the AO3 TOS and that it fills AO3 tags with spam, preventing readers from finding actual fic to read. There can be (and certainly are) MANY fics on AO3 with the SAME names, if that's what is motivating this.

AO3 isn't a social media site, it's an ARCHIVE for fanfiction. If you want to communicate with your following that you are planning on writing a new fic, use your tumblr, your reddit, your dreamwidth, your substack, your pillowfort, your livejournal, your bird site or whatever the fuck you have to do this. Link your socials in your bio on AO3 if you must. Mention it in the author's notes on your latest work. IDK, just don't post empty "fics" on the ARCHIVE.

[kaaramel]

Just thought you should know, those Coriander shards are giving me big NB vibes. Either that or Butch vibes

[the bastards in question]

hell yeah

theyre sort of nebulously a male/female duo in my head but like Barely and anyway gender’s a fuck... i don’t know if it’s possible to parse out the details of the outfits in that Bad Sketch but cicely’s the one in lipstick + nail polish + a leather jacket w/ longer straighter hair and caraway’s in the like vest thing and i think i’m gonna give his hair more foof and curl. theyre Absolutely Butch is my point

anyway the reason i took so long to reply is my brain went weird places. have you seen those, like, baby gender announcements where people set up a box of explosives and colored dust and shoot it to do their Big Reveal

[velcrooooo]

NANOWRIMO DAY 6!!!

had a bit of a rough few days so i fell a tad bit behind, but that is ok! today i wrote an insane total of 2,250 words, bringing my total word count up to 6,080!

today i brought the first chapter to a close, established the dynamics of the 5 characters that've been introduced, and started setting up for the main conflict!

now, just because ive seen other people doing it, i have popped a fun snippet i wrote under the cut . as a treat :]

"Okay, I’ll go first,” Jack said, snapping them out of their thoughts. “I spyyy… Something blue.”

“Uh, alright,” Star said, leaning forward and looking out at the desert. “The sky?”

“Nope.”

Furrowing their brow, they scanned the sands around them carefully. When they drew a blank, they turned their attention to the inside of the carriage. Their gaze landed on Dune, whose wings were folded up neatly against his back. They were a warm russet color that melted into a dusty sort of blue-gray at the bottom. “Dune’s feathers?” 

“What?” Dune said, sounding vaguely offended. “My feathers are not blue.”

“I mean…” Azalea made a so-so gesture with her hand. “I guess it’s a matter of perspective.”

“It is not! They’re a dignified stormy gray!” 

“They’re like… Desaturated periwinkle,” Cloud mused with a straight face.

“What are you even saying?” Dune said, ruffling his feathers.

[loxxxlay]

I changed my goal from 20k to 30k like 5 days ago, and omggg, I almost didn’t, but I made itttt <3 EEEE ^_^

[hottubraccoon]

WIP: Tequila*

*Title is a placeholder.

i wish you could tell me how to find silence. my head feels far too heavy recently.

-.-.-

Genre: modern fantasy paranormal romantic LGBT+ YA/NA literary

Themes: self discovery, family, memories, boundaries, death, rebuilding

Warnings: discussion of mental health/illnesses, invasion of privacy, discussion of sexual content, sexual content, the aftermath of civil unrest

Current Progress: 1st Draft

I have characters? and an opening scene? :) 6/Oct

outlining 29/Oct

-.-.-

Tags:

general

playlist

characters: Zara Berridge, Walter Berridge, Marina Meyer, Jeremiah Sterne, Levi Haviaras, Tia Haviaras.

excerpts

NaNoWriMo 2021 Project Updates!

WTW Event posts: week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4.

-.-.-

Taglist: (ask to be +/-) 

@thelaughingstag​

[lorata]

In the Mind games NaNoWriMo, do you know who the target that Lyme, Misha and Nero are suppose to pick up from chapter 11? Since I'm kinda curious, but I can't find the answer.

................. did I not finish posting that to LJ? the first draft is done

(actually the answer to that question IS on LJ I just didn't add it to the table of contents, check the nanowrimo:2014 tag and there should be one more post)

i should post the rest of that one, i'm not sure why i didn't, I guess I got lazy. whoops!

also I forgot that was the placeholder title. definitely need a better one. and need to edit that into a working draft. hmmmm.....

[domesticated-feral]

ask game!

thank you for the tag @scribeoffate and @nacreousgore

Name: Feral also known as Tyler.

Fandoms: I like a lot of media, of various types. But the ones I've done the most interaction with is this one bandom that shall not be named and the Teen Wolf fandom. Although im not as immersed in these as I was because other cool things joined the chat, but im still knee deep in it though.

Most popular oneshot:

By Kudos: surprisingly (because i havent gone on ao3 in like months) Fake It 'til You Make It is top with 174 kudos!!!! It's a stackson fake dating/office setting/besties AU

By hits: it's I'm Yours which is also surprising but not unexpected. A smutty sciles oneshot.

Most popular multichapter: I have like 4 multichaptered fics and its undoubtedly the sterek AU fanfic i pantsed during nanowrimo of 2020.

Actual worst part of writing: having no time to write, having motivation but being unable to write. As a writer, thats the most frustrating part to ever experience and continue to experience.

How do you choose your titles? I understand that many writers find this part hard. But I find it pretty easy and I can think of titles in a moderate amount of time. I have three methods: placeholder title that you get attached to, or jumble up key words to make something or PUNS. If situation is dire, just resort to fic #19239283. (this is a callout to 2019 me who titled the first two sterek oneshots i posted to ao2 titled sterek oneshot #1 and sterek oneshot #2 respectively)

Do you outline? Pantser here. But sometimes i write down how i want a fic/chapter to go if i get too confused, its a 50/50 chance whether the outline gets followed or not.

Ideas I probably wouldn't get around to, but wouldn't it be nice if I would?

Most of ideas, blurbs, vague plotty dialogue exchanges which end up jotted down in the notes app probably. Some of them, I think about a lot, I yearn to write them but I haven't gotten around to doing it yet. For one, I would really love writing a fic where Scott is as recklessly selfless as he is in canon and Jackson having none of that bullshit, uses his paralyzing venom to stop Scott from being selfless to the point that he's willing to risk his life against a threat. He can get around to defeating that threat later when there's a better plan but for now, Scott's gotta sit tight. Whether that be voluntarily or involuntarily is up to him....or not.... idk where this idea is going but i want more of it.

Callouts @ Me: liking other things doesn't mean you're abandoning one thing for another. ALSO, don't feel guilty that you're prioritizing studies and stuff like that over stuff that's less arduous like fic writing or drawing...you'll get time to do them soon.

Best writing trait: I don't necessarily overthink about what others might think of what i write and i just write what i want? is that a good trait?

Spicy Tangential Opinion: S4 could've been greater if they had gone with one plot arc instead of trying to balance both the kate werejaguar berserker arc and the deadpool arc at the same time.

I don't think that's as spicy as one would think, but like...s4 could've been less confusing if the writers just focused on one or the other.

Tagging @ all my writer friends who havent been tagged to do this, i cant think rn im so tired and i wanna sleep. it's only been 2 days into this week and im already tired whyyyyy

[waywardfangirl]

Both @captain-aralias and @palimpsessed ​did really nice posts to share their fics from this year as well as their thoughts on what they wrote, and I enjoyed reading their posts (and their fics!) so much that I thought I would take them up on their open invitation to do one too! I’m a big believer in keeping lists of your accomplishments to look at on days when self-doubt creeps in, so I encourage anyone else who might be interested to do this too! (All the questions are copied from @captain-aralias)

List of Completed Fics this year:

I wrote ten fics this year, as well as starting a ton of WIPs, which is amazing to me, considering I have only written fic once before in my life!

Slow - General, 3k

We’re Not in Genovia Anymore - Teen, 28k

Promises - General, 3k

A Privilege to Love You - Teen, 7k

Early Riser - General, >1k

Write This Down - General, 3k

As You Wish - Teen, 13k

The View from the Veranda - General, 4k

Down By The Sea - General, 2k

Just Want You to Know Who I Am - General, 1k (written in 2020, posted in 2021)

Total: 10 fics, 67k words, 100% Snowbaz

Pretty good for what is truly the first year that I have been an active participant in fandom!

Questions answered below the cut.

Best/worst title?

A Privilege to Love You is my favorite title, because I think the line is just so sweet, and it makes my heart melt.

We’re Not in Genovia Anymore is definitely my worst title, because that was just the placeholder name I gave the WIP, but then I got so used to it I forgot to change it to something better before posting. I still cringe a bit at that one.

Best/worst summary?

l am horrifically indecisive, so I have a few summaries that I like. Just Want You To Know Who I Am is short and sweet, and I think it conveys exactly what I want it to:

Baz is fine. He's fine. Everything is fine. (It just isn't.)

~A fic about being loved in all the little ways~

But I also really liked the quotes I pulled for The View from the Veranda, As You Wish, and A Privilege to Love You.

Early Riser also has a summary that I let break my heart:

Baz wakes up early now, even though Simon doesn’t.

I does very little to convey what the fic is about, but after reading the fic it hurts like I wanted it to, sooo.....

I think that Promises has the worst summary though:

Inspired by the song "Promises" from the musical Hadestown.

Simon and Baz have spent the last three years working on themselves and on their relationship. Now it's time for their next step together.

Best/worst first line?

Baz says it best to open The View from the Veranda:

I am not a man accustomed to enduring want.

However, Simon deserves an honorable mention for starting us off right in As You Wish:

Baz is such a prick.

As for worst opening lines, I don’t really think I have any. I have some that stand better as an opening paragraph than an opening line, but I place a lot of importance on the first line of a story, so I like to make sure all mine are strong.

Best/worst last line?

I am not going to spoil any last lines for anyone (I cover up the last page of books when I read to reveal it slowly, word by word, so I take last lines seriously!), but I will say that As You Wish has an adorably predictable last line that I love.

For worst last line, I have to say Slow. I liked the line itself when I wrote it, but then I learned later that people were interpreting it in a more steamy way than what I had intended, and because I feel like Slow is such an innocent fic and really highlights how important it is for Simon to not be rushed into every decision he makes, I don’t like that it sounds like he and Baz rushed into something else. (I just meant that they talked and maybe kissed a bit! That’s it!)

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

On December 31st, 2019, I was pet sitting when I came across a prompt for a Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement Snowbaz AU. I impulsively started to write, even though I had only written one other fic in my life (Check, Please!), and I had never written Snowbaz before. I kind of thought that maybe I would write one fic and that would be all, and that maybe one fic is all I would ever write, but I am so happy to have been wrong about that! I wrote way more than I could have predicted, and I even did NaNoWriMo! (I failed NaNoWriMo too, and I’m okay with that, because I want writing to be something I do for fun, not something that stresses me out.)

As a fun side note, Carry On is a fandom that I have returned to many times in my life, and it seems to have a special place on New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day for me. I was given Fangirl as a Christmas present, and started reading it on New Year’s Eve, only to finish it and realize that the new year had arrived while I was engrossed in the book. I have spent multiple New Year’s Eves since engrossed in a reread of the book, or reading fic, and so it feels really fitting that I got into properly writing fic for Carry On as the year turned over.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

Literally all of this was unexpected, as I never planned on writing any more fic, but I think I am most surprised to have written multiple songfics. I never read many songfics, and didn’t often care for them, but I wrote Promises off of the song from Hadestown, Write This Down off of George Strait’s song, and then Just Want You to Know Who I Am because Caity got the Goo Goo Dolls stuck in my head.

What’s your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

My favorite might actually be my most popular, so I’ll go with my close second favorites (it’s a tie)

A Privilege to Love You is a soulmate au, and those are my favorite things ever. I also received some of the best feedback on this one, and I feel like I did a lot of things that worked really well in this fic.

The View from the Veranda is just so wonderful for me though, it combines my love of history with absolute silliness for a friend (I love you Liz!!!), @krisrix did some INCREDIBLE art for it, and I just had so much fun writing it.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

As You Wish was the most popular, hands down, with more hits, kudos, comments, and bookmarks than any other fic I wrote. It’s also the fic of mine that I reread the most, because it makes me so happy and I love all the silly moments.

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

We’re Not in Genovia Anymore is probably the answer here. This isn’t entirely backed up by metrics, since it does have more hits and kudos than some of my other fics, but for how long it is and the work that went into it, I think it only got a portion of the attention I was hoping it would. That’s mostly my fault though! It was the first fic I wrote for this fandom, and so I have definitely grown as a write since! Additionally, while I feel like it has a lot of great moments and fantastic lines, I have some lackluster bits too, and it really suffered from not having a beta (I was too shy to ask anyone back then). It’s also an AU of a movie that isn’t as widely viewed as I previously thought, so that didn’t help either, and as I already said, this fic could have a much better title.

All that aside though, the people who have read and talked to me about this fic have really seemed to like it, so I’m glad that I did right by my fellow Princess Diaries 2 fans! (and all of the wonderful people who read it and commented nice things having never seen the movie, y’all rock!)

Story that could have been better?

Everything I wrote before asking someone to beta. I just talked about what I would improve in We’re Not In Genovia Anymore, but Promises could use some work too. Having a few wonderful friends help me edit my fics has really improved what I post!

Sexiest story?

Oh gosh, I am not someone who writes sexy things.

Having said that, The View from the Veranda was written in the style of a bodice ripper, so I think that makes it the sexiest story by default. Kris’s art also enhances its sex appeal by at least 200% (I laughed out loud when I was making the list at the start of this post, because I had entirely forgotten that fic is rated G - honestly, that tells you everything you need to know about me, my romance novel fic can be read by children haha) (I might give it a T rating at some point, just because I feel like it should have that)

**I just remembered the bonus chapter for As You Wish.... that might be the sexiest thing I’ve written haha 🤣

Saddest story?

Early Riser - I am a big believer in giving everyone who deserves it a happy ending, but this one is just an interlude of sadness and depression without any resolution in sight.

(If you read it though, please know that in my head they do get therapy and things do get better! Snowbaz always has a happy ending in my fics, even if I don’t write it out fully)

Most fun?

As You Wish - this one to me feels like the happy chaos of running and sliding around a big house in stocking feet, and I don’t have a better way to describe it than that. There’s a tiny bit of angst from Baz, and a little bit of panic from Simon, but I was smiling and having so much fun while writing this fic, and I really think it comes across.

Story with single sweetest moment?

A Privilege to Love You - I’ll let you decide which of the many sweet moments is actually the sweetest ❤

Hardest story to write?

Promises, no question about it. I had written two fics by that point, and people had been so nice, and some of you lovely folks had even started tagging me in WIP Wednesday posts and in Six Sentence Sunday posts, but I felt like I had no inspiration left and I kept worrying that I wouldn’t be able to write again. So, I forced myself to write something, and it felt like pulling teeth (and it honestly wasn’t very good), but I gifted it to the person who had been my biggest cheerleader and who had tagged me a million times, and that’s how @foolofabookwyrm and I became friends. Writing the fic sucked, but her friendship is worth it, a million times over 💜💜💜

Easiest/most fun story to write?

The View from the Veranda. I’m a historian, and I work a lot with primary sources and spend time speaking with others in 18th century language, so once I got into my “work mindset” the words just flowed. This was also a silly, happy story for me, because I included a lot of jokes for Liz, and there are a ton of details that are just hilarious if you work at the same place I do (sorry that none of you do, but let me just tell you, the descriptions of Simon are all based off of my most attractive colleague, and at least 15% of this fic is silly quotes from work). I think this was only supposed to be about a thousand words long, and I messaged Kris multiple times while writing just to tell him that it was getting out of control and I couldn’t stop writing 😂

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

Writing for Agatha in We’re Not in Genovia Anymore really made realize how much some of her (canon) story resounded with me, and I liked the deeper character study I ended up doing for her. I’m still always going to be the most in love with Baz, but I have a deeper connection to Agatha now too.

Most overdue story?

It’s still overdue. I have so many WIPs, at least seven of which are soulmate AUs, and I just keep starting more. In terms of actual planned release date though? I started writing a The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue AU for NaNoWriMo, with the intention of publishing it in January. It’s already the longest fic I’ve ever written, and I don’t think I’m even a quarter of the way done with it. I wasn’t happy writing for NaNo, because I don’t do well with creativity on a deadline, and I chose to pause work on that fic so I can actually enjoy writing it and end up with something I like once I finally return to it. Apologies to those who are anxiously awaiting the fic, I do hope to finish it this year, and I won’t post until it’s all done, so you’ll get a very rapid update schedule when it does come out!

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

I signed up for my first fandom event! I participated in the Secret Snowflake event, and wrote Down By The Sea for the wonderful @fight-surrender (and ended up with ideas for some other new fics too)! Even though I was actively failing NaNoWriMo when I signed up, I did manage to complete my fic on time, and I learned that it wasn’t quite as daunting as I was expecting it to be. (My biggest problem was my laptop breaking and having to do almost everything on my phone - I also learned once again just how amazing Liz is, as she helped me format and post to ao3, since I couldn’t do that properly without a computer)

I struggle with being creative on a deadline, but wanting to write a little over 1k in a month was much more achievable than feeling stressed about writing 50k in a month!

This year’s theme and the story that demonstrates it most:

I like the idea of the inevitability of love. I adore soulmate AUs, because I love the idea of a universe where not only does someone have a perfectly matched other person, but that there is a surefire way to find them. Even though I only published one soulmate AU this year, I feel like every time I write Snowbaz I am writing about a couple where love will, inevitably, win. In my mind they are always going to have a happy ending somewhere down the line where they are just purely in love. Even though love doesn’t magically fix everything, it’s still incredibly powerful, and I only want to create stories where Simon and Baz truly love each other.

Of course, with that as the theme, A Privilege to Love You has to be the fic that best demonstrates the idea of inevitable love - it’s a soulmate AU and a universe where Simon exercises his free will.

What are your fic writing goals for next year this year?

Finish and publish my Gentleman’s Guide AU

Finish and publish more soulmate AUs (I have so many WIPs you guys)

Plan more before writing

Work on improving dynamic scenes and the overall flow of my fics - I sometimes feel like I have too many lulls, and I want to write in a more engaging way

Promote my own work more! I am partially doing this post because there are multiple fics that I never shared on here! I plan to make banners for all of the fics I write this year, and to post them on tumblr at the same time I upload them to ao3.

The last few years have been a time of tremendous personal growth for me, and I really feel like I’m starting to understand who I am as a person, settle into myself, and like who I am. I’m thrilled to discover that fandom is still part of who I am and what I enjoy, and that I have more creative outlets in my life now than I ever expected to. My biggest goal is just to keep building on all of that, to use fic to explore who I am, to reflect what I like, make myself happy with my writing, and to hopefully make at least a few of you happy with my stories too!

[nana-writes]

  ⚸ NaNo 2020 Project: Aeleine Bk 1

title is a placeholder

genre — dark fantasy,  LGBTQ+, adventure, (new) adult, high fantasy

pov — third person restricted; single narrator: Aeleine

major themes — found family | grey morality | magic | grey characters | war | survival | anger & fury

  ⚸ synopsis —

      Aeleine is a half-elf living in Murisgal, a merchant oligarchy city where people really only have two career paths: they are either merchants or mercenaries. She is also a runaway slave from the Aaspercy Empire, right next door, and, as far as she knows, one of the few remaining people capable of wielding magic - and she intends to watch the human empire burn.

      But her magic comes at a price, and collection day may be close upon her. Can Aeleine keep her promises to herself and her family, or will the fire keeping her alive consume her instead?

      In a world long ago depleted of magic, where fear of the unknown reigns, this is a story of retribution and vengeance, but also of learning not to let that consume you - and maybe gaining some friends along the way, too.

  ⚸ cast —

aeleine - 20, she/her; a half-elf warlock. blight - 26, she/her; an aruma believer lilis - 24, (all pronouns); a changeling soldier micah - 21, he/him; a human witch faeir - 50s (looks 22), ze/zir; an elf assassin

 ⚸ NaNoWriMo Notes & Goals —

If you’ve been around for a lil bit you might have seen this story about before! My plan is to spend NaNoWriMo hamering out the first draft to book 1, in order. I made a full outline in October and now all I have to is write ^_^

I made a schedule based on how busy I am each day of the month and I want to try and post daily updates.

If you too are participating in NaNo this year I’d love to hear about your project!!

 ⚸ Links —

wip - [ tag, wip page, mobile friendly, nano, writerblr community ]

find me - [ writerblr | studyblr | instagram | nano | discord ]

[pens-swords-stuff]

WIP Introduction: Project Vestige

“The earth is alive. It sings, it breathes, and it remembers.”

— Project Vestige; @pens-swords-stuff​

Placeholder Title: Project Vestige

Genre: YA/NA, Magical Realism, Mystery

Current Status: Nanowrimo 2019 Project; Outlining and planning

Synopsis: 

When Brooke started hearing voices, she thought that she was going insane. There was laughter when she was all alone, she overheard arguments in empty spaces… She’s not losing her grip on reality however. The earth remembers. It remembers the conversations, the laughter, sobs, and the shouts. It’s called place memory, and the places whisper and repeat them out loud so that nothing is ever truly forgotten. Anyone can hear it — all you have to do is listen and pay attention. Most people can’t hear place memory or ignore it because they’re too distracted with their own lives, but Brooke is listening now, and she’s paying attention to every murmur.

People are disappearing in Antium. At first it seems like no big deal — just a college student skipping town — but one by one, more people go missing.  It’s the Bay Witch, the locals say, the Bay Witch is snatching people away just like she did in the past; it’s happened before. Could it really be a local legend that’s responsible for these disappearances, or is there something far more sinister happening in Antium? Using her newfound discovery of place memory, Brooke and her friends start unraveling the truth behind the Bay Witch and missing people from over a hundred years ago. Little do they know, learning what truly happened back then may pave the way to them finding the missing people in the present.

Current tag: #project vestige

This is a bit barebones right now because there’s a lot in development, but I’m really excited to finally be able to share my Nanowrimo project with you guys! More information will be posted as relevant, including a Project Vestige tag list post and an eventual Project Vestige masterpost. Please stay tuned, I’ll be talking about this a lot in the next couple months.

Please let me know if you’re interested in being on the tag list!

[legacysam]

WIP WEDNESDAY

I was tagged by @lizksy (thank you!)

Tagging: all y’all with art/writing you haven’t looked at in too long lol. go look at your stuff, it’s better than you remember.

I had to think a bit about whether I actually had a WIP bc my writing has been....extremely sporadic lately. But I DO have a nanowrimo doc, which is something I work on for a few days at the start of every november, promptly forget about/get distracted from, then remember again a year later and the cycle starts all over again. Here’s a piece that I’m pretty happy with (but with the names taken out bc I actually hate the placeholder names I’m using for a bunch of the characters lmao)

*************************************************

The tall man’s scales glowed softly, pearly grey in the dark of the club; he had to lean down so that she could hear him over the roar of the music, an inarticulate clash of instruments over a beat meant for dancing, not talking. His face lacked human flexibility, but the gentle sibilance of his voice was familiar and sweet.

"I missed you."

"I'll bet you say that to all the girls," she answered, smiling indulgently and looking past him into the crowd. The lights moved over them all like falling leaves, bodies blending into one another in the shadowed places, and faces rising, falling, and vanishing again into the dark. Her dark skin glow red and orange and flash as the lights crossed the copper jewelry that twined around her rounded arms.

"Only the girls who taste like snow," he answered, and she laughed loudly. She had loved him once, a love that had settled into a quiet place in her heart, never urgent, not like it had once been. Another night, and she might have pulled him away from the crowd and given him all the memories of snow she could conjure, just for the comfort of being close to someone again.

"You're trying to charm me."

"Of course I am,” he admitted with a small bow, “but you’re too distracted to appreciate it, I think."

“Apologies, darling. I'm here for someone else tonight."

She offered her hand, though, and he took it with a sound of joy, bending deeper to kiss the skin of her palm. Snow, she thought, remembering one morning from her childhood when the weight of the snow had bent the trees almost to the ground, and the drifts were so deep she could only find home by following the trail of smoke from the fireplace against the clear blue sky. Only a moment, but bright and cold and very fond. 

Her friend shivered, and when he raised his head again, the tip of his forked tongue was tinted faintly blue.

[kaaramel]

pretty sure i dont get to call it “designing npcs” anymore when this is at least in theory an uhhh, Novêl, but thats sure as fuck what my internal monologue insisted on calling it