#talysnovel: psychopomp
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
talysalankil · 2 months ago
Note
How about Psychopomp?
be aware that i haven't touched it for checks notes TEN YEARS? that can't be right.
Tumblr media
2 notes · View notes
talysalankil · 5 years ago
Text
talys’s great nanowrimo 2019 debacle: the post
i felt like being grandiose, just not grandiose enough that I’d properly capitalize things. bear with me.
So I’ve had a bit of a time figuring out what to do for NaNoWriMo this year. So it’s venting time.
I’m also using this to do like, a status report on all my writing endeavors.
Okay so I haven’t had any new novel idea in a while now. I mean, that’s fine. I have a massive pile of WIPs anyway. But (and I think I already made a post about it earlier) the problem for nanowrimo was this:
I didn’t want to do a rewrite of any of the existing drafts:
FEITS v3 was paused at about halfway done in 2017, and while I’ve had a bunch of ideas for it, I haven’t really taken the time to work on them.
Psychopomp’s first draft is complete, but it could use a rewrite
Tangled Stars and Dragged to the Underworld are about 50k each with a missing third act
Eloped in the Night is a 15k word mess that needs major rewriting because it was still Brooding Lust when I wrote those)
Of these five books, four have planned sequels, but: I didn’t want to write a sequel, since none of them anywhere near a final stage. That being
FTEITS (for which I wrote like 30k of a first draft of book 2, most of which is good for the trash what with all the changes I’ve made), 
Psychopomp, whose sequel would have been the best candidate in this category honestly because I don’t think the rewrites would be super structural
Eloped/Dragged are part of the same universe though mostly standalones, but each of the subsequent books in that series would draw from one or both of these, and like I said, neither are even a complete first draft.
While I have a bunch of fic ideas, I didn’t want to do a fic for nanowrimo because it felt like cheating.
Which left me with um…like, nothing. Well, not quite.
So you may or may not know this (I kind of forget where I put information online) but my first draw to storytelling was actually video games. In broad strokes, here’s a quick history of that:
As a very young child (we’re talking 4-8 years old here), I’d play pretend with my plushies
When I got Crash Bandicoot 2 (one of my first video games I was really into), I started to imagine various games where my plushies would be the protagonists. Inspired by Crash, Zelda, other games…I remember once outlining a 15-part series of games around my favorite plushy, each of which was basically subdivided into chunks of different genres. I even invented a “dark age of the franchise”.
When I got Final Fantasy X and then got another gaming magazine with a walkthrough of Final Fantasy X, I started inventing a self-insert game based heavily on it, and wrote most of my ideas in the format of a walkthrough. I even parroted the editing style because I was like nine.
That story was iterated upon several times, and eventually yielded the character of Talys Alankil (well, sort of—the name actually originated in Guild Wars and was then repurposed. Somewhere in the lore, the two of them are like, extremely distant relatives, or were until I decided all copyrighted works were purged from canon). Thanks for creating my brand, 13 and 15-year-old mes.
I actually got into computer engineering because of games, except I then realized the storytelling was what interested me. Oops. I mean I like programming but I’d never want to work as a programmer in a game.
That tangent was completely pointless but whatever, this is the state of the talys post.
Anyway. Point is. I got a new idea for a game earlier this year. Life Is Strange 2 meets Octopath Traveler by way of Vanitas from Kingdom Hearts as the protagonist. This is the first time I have an idea that I can phrase in this kind of pitch so I’ll indulge. Fight me.
Working title is just “The Road” though obviously it needs some work, and over the past few months I’ve actually done some pretty good prep work, so I thought, hey, why not challenge myself this nanowrimo and write a script for a game instead of a novel!
And like, there’s no reason why not. I’m actually feeling pretty attached to the protagonist already, I’ve been wanting to try scrivener’s script writing tool, it could be fun. Of course, the problem is that a script for a game (especially this one) is inerently nonlinear and requires thorough planning, which I have not done. And nanowrimo starts…technically tomorrow night if I can still stay up past midnight.
[Second tangent time: I’ve been going for a teaching degree, which has forced me to reset my sleep schedule extremely hard and I hate it]
So that brings me option 2. Well, technically there are two options here, but only one that’s remotely viable.
I may have mentioned it before but in FTEITS, Adam and Cell bond over (among other things) a shared favorite book/author. Well, mostly a book. There is also a scene of Adam finding that author’s new book and experiencing nostalgia over his lost life, which may or may not survive the rewrites. The author, incidentally, is my self-insert in that world, and will also not be an active character in the plot of the books, but I just felt like mentioning it. And yes, that means my protagonists are fans of my work. Sue me.
The one they’re both a fan of is titled Snow to Ashes (I remember way way back, when I randomly picked a title “The Brain is Out”, before I had any idea what it was about). It is, incidentally, a chance to analyze Adam and Cell’s character arc by proxy and in a microcosm, which is good because I feel that sometimes their arcs are still kind of ill-defined. Basically the story has two protagonist and it is canon that Adam and Cell each relate more to one of them.
The problem with that is that now I’m getting a lot of ideas for Snow to Ashes, and I don’t know if I have the time to work all of these ideas and iron them out before nanowrimo starts.
So that’s where I’m at. Either way I will be pantsing it. I was hoping to get to do some outlining this week before Friday, but it turns out that being tired, having a pretty big spike of executive dysfunction, final fantasy 14, and my parents deciding to watch the TV again after years of not doing it (thus making noise at the time of day that would be perfect for me to write), is not fertile grounds for productivity. I am, incidentally, out of a FF14 subscription in four days, which is very fine by me since that game would also ruin nanowrimo itself, not just the pre-nano prep.
This isn’t really a request for feedback tbh, just, like I said, venting. Hoping to straighten my thoughts and figure out which choice is best.
As a PS i should mention that yes, the Talys Alankil game is also technically a writing option, and I could write a script for that. I mean it’s almost a rewrite because that one has a pretty rigid outline already, but. Yeah. It’s an option too.
Edited: I didn’t mention Malefacta. I didn’t forget about malefacta. I just don’t know what to do with Malefacta. It’s annoying.
Edited2: Remember when I almost wrote a superhero book for nanowrimo 2017? yeah that’s still a project I have somewhere. I’m no feeling it though. Sorry, superhero project. You were never meant to be, I guess.
0 notes
talysalankil · 8 years ago
Photo
Tumblr media
[CM] Ife by CherushiMetsumari
I commissioned @cherushimetsumari (who already did Vals a while back) to complete the triumvirate from Psychopomp! So here’s Ife :D
2 notes · View notes
talysalankil · 7 years ago
Text
I should also mention that I put down a Psychopomp rewrite for camp nano in april and I don't know if i'll still work on FTEITS then (because it's looking unlikely i'll finish before that at this rate) or what or if i'll change my mind, finish fteits in april and put psychopomp for july, but i'm also pumped about that
0 notes
talysalankil · 8 years ago
Text
NaNo challenge - day 29
@snarktheater
Do you have any plans with this story past the end of the month? If you have previously participated in NaNoWriMo, what did you do with those stories?
Well…finishing it would be nice. And the sequels. Beyond that, who knows?
As for previous stories, I’m almost done editing my first NaNovel (From the Earth Into the Sky) into something query-able, and I’ll edit another (Psychopomp) as soon as I’m done with everything else. So there’s that.
1 note · View note
talysalankil · 9 years ago
Text
I synced scrivener on both my mobile devices and now i want to go back to psychopomp and tangled stars rip me
2 notes · View notes
talysalankil · 9 years ago
Note
your oc's + coffee shop au named 'a shop named liberTEA'
Guys you need to realize that “my ocs” encompasses something like three hundred people across several universes. I mean not all of them are of the same importance obviously but still. specifics.
So I’ll just make a coffeeshop au about all the characters i feel like including. because…libertea! So have a massive crossover thing with multiple subplots.
Talys is the barista who just can’t get the job done right. The only reason he works here is because Liera (his gf) is the manager and she’s indulging him. Tian is the new employee who’s basically a coffee artist with the perfect blend of hipster aesthetics and aloofness to be irresistible (he probably just came into the Big City™ and doesn’t realize how amazing he is). At first Talys is super jealous and then he’s super in love. Poly shenanigans ensue (is it wrong of me to want this guy when i have an amazing gf; oh no my gf is into him she’ll leave me for the obnoxiously amazing hot guy; oh god is he flirting with me; oh god is he flirting with her????; then some kind of honest discussions to settle things).[side-note: at some point I should 1) cement the latest version of this project and 2) talk about it on tumblr because i don’t even think i ever mentioned Tian before except off-handedly. Hell, I still don’t have a tag for this. Sigh.]
Vals is the regular who just loves hanging out here. Pietro just wanted to have coffee but there’s no free table and/or he sits at Vals’s table (like…maybe Vals was in the bathroom or something). Shenanigans ensue. Probably in relation to Pietro’s depression, since that’s the only aspect of canon I could keep in this AU.
Aveline and Robert are also employees (Aveline could be Liera’s co-manager, if that’s a thing?). They’re the Gay BFFs everyone who doesn’t know them well thinks are dating for some reason, even though Tommy (Robert’s bf) is literally there whenever Robert’s shift ends so they can head home together?? And no one picks up on it??? Especially not the girl with a major crush on Aveline. Obviously.
David is the employee who can actually fix the equipment when it breaks. He’s also the barista who flirts with literally everyone, even though (being aroace) they don’t actually stand a chance or anything. Apsis is the foreign exchange student with strict parents who imposed a chaperone on him while he was doing his semester abroad. He comes to the shop to work because the place his parents rented are so far off-campus that going to the library is too much of a hassle. David flirts, Apsis doesn’t really care, (queerplatonic) friendship ensues.
Adam being a coffee addict is literally canon, so I can keep that in this au. Cell is the only employee who can get his Super Specific Order™ right, so Adam ends up memorizing his shifts to get his dose of caffeine as he likes it. Totally for pragmatic reasons.
As for the rest of the casts…man I could probably do every single character, let’s be real. Not everyone could be tied to the coffee shop, though, and a lot of the subplots already don’t really intersect beyond being in the same place.
Also I guess I sort of didn’t use the title except to justify using all of my characters at once? Sorry not sorry anon.
On the other hand I kind of want to write that. Someday.
2 notes · View notes
talysalankil · 9 years ago
Note
Solangelo meets your OCs for the unprompting game?
You didn’t specify so I’ll pick two scenarii
Them meeting Adam and Cell would probably result in everyone being gay dorks together, and Nico and Adam sharing loving frustration over their dumb blond jock boyfriends. (Admittedly Cell and Will are actually pretty different but I wanted to focus on the common traits for the sake of the jokey prompt)
Them meeting Vals and Pietro would actually be much more interesting to me because 1) Nico and Pietro bonding over their Italian heritage (and issues with internalized homophobia yes I will ignore THO fucking fight me) and 2) Vals is literally an angel of death and close friends with the embodiment of Death so him meeting a son of Hades could go many different ways but it’s sure to be worth writing about. Especially because he’s very laid-back about the whole thing and just loves life so much so it would stand in contrast to Nico’s “i have death powers this is horrible” angst.
(Also I thought the game was to send a title but since you didn’t send one I sure as hell am not picking them myself)
1 note · View note
talysalankil · 9 years ago
Note
for the OC ask meme: one of my OCs is the literal void, who just kinda hangs around with this group of people as the Weird Friend and is also mayor of a town
(Gonna go outside of FTEITS for that one because I felt like I had to find something that matched)
One of my characters in Psychopomp is Death. I mean, a few other characters have death-related roles (the protagonist is the titular psychopomp, i.e. angel of death). Death is nonbinary (xe/xem/xyr pronouns) because xe found out about this recent human construct and loved it. Xe is basically the embodiment of the cycle of life and death. Xe’s also pretty laid-back and basically acts as the protagonist’s Dating Advisor when Vals is too stupid to listen to his best friend.
tell me a fact about your OC and i’ll respond with a fact about mine
1 note · View note
talysalankil · 9 years ago
Text
all this worldbuilding talk with pottermore is really helping me figure out flaws about my own books (especially Psychopomp), so hey, at least that’s good
2 notes · View notes
talysalankil · 9 years ago
Text
WIP/Writing Meme
Tagged by @mab-speaks​
Where do you publish your work?
Ao3, fanfiction.net, tumblr
What medium/application/etc. do you write in or with?
iWorks Pages + Google Docs when I want to share with a beta reader because Pages sharing exists and…that’s about all the nice things I can say about it (I also use Scrivener for novel but I guess this falls outside of this meme?)
Do you collaborate with others?
Nope! I kind of want to, you know, just to say I did, but most of the time I’d rather just brainstorm for other people’s fics. I like to be in full control of my own creative projects.
How much editing do you do before you publish?
Rarely much for fics. Like, if I want to publish it as a gift, I might try to get a beta reader, and I might even proofread my own fic before sending it to them, but if I’m posting the fic on my own then I’m probably just going to…post it right away. Don’t have time
Do you listen to music when you write?
I have playlists for writing. So that’s a yes.
How do you decide what to write about?
…Magic? I tend to write down any plot bunny I ever think of, but where these come from I have no idea.
Well, most of the time. Obvious thing like “X other franchise AU” are pretty clear in where they come from, and I did write a few fics by now based on prompts. Out of my novel projects, one was based on a “random” idea (i.e. a dream) and the other three were respectively started by a tumblr post (I believe by nella of chez apocalypse) about Disney’s Sleeping Beauty being all about the fairies (which I agreed with and ended up writing a sequel of sorts based on that), my own frustration with the YA paranormal romance and angel-based stories, and another tumblr post about space dragons. All of these were eventually written as plot bunnies, so technically, I guess I have a few ideas as to where they come from.
And if you’re asking me how I select which one I’m going to use for my next writing project…it’s generally just the next one on my list. Or the one that inspires me most at the time.
When do you write? / How often do you write?
Ha ha ha regularity what is that.
I basically have two writing modes: NaNoWriMo-esque ‘write write write’ and…barely anything for months. Well, unless you count the Snark Theater.
My biggest issue with finding time to write is that for some reason I can rarely procrastinate on something else by writing without feeling guilty about it (unlike, say, playing video games, where I feel guilty afterwards but not while I’m procrastinating). I guess it’s because more/different parts of my brain are used or something. So if I have something to do (which lbr is…most of the time), I end up being mentally crippled. It’s pretty obnoxious.
Do you take requests? Why/why not?
Sort of? I’ve yet to turn down one, but that’s because I’m not getting many. Right now I think I would turn down anything because life is busy.
Is there any genre or type of story you want to write but are hesitant to?
Not as far as I can think of. I’ve dabbled into pretty much every genre I’ve felt like writing so far. Maybe I’ll want to try more things in the future, but that’s not the case as far as pure writing goes.
I would be interested in trying out other media (games, audiovisual media like film/etc, comics) but that requires capacities and means I do not have. The closest I got was with one fic of mine, Virtually No Danger, where I planned to try out some kind of multimedia storytelling by keeping up the character’s blogs and wiki, but that sort of fell apart because as it turned out it is way too much effort for a hobby.
Any inspirational quotes, videos, tricks, articles, etc. that help you stay motivated?
No. What with having no motivation in the first place.
Go to page 7 of your WIP, skip to the 7th line, share 7 sentences, and tag 7 more writers to continue the challenge.
I’m pretty sure I already answered something similar (complete with the 7 motif) for Tangled Stars and have no fic WIPs, so i’ll go get an older novel of mine i.e. Psychopomp (a project I really should go back and edit…). And hey, look at that, it’s my babies’ first interaction! Hope you enjoy Vals’s monologue.
Our silent exchange through smile, I could handle. The boy timidly nodded towards the dance floor with a questioning look, and I nodded in return, following him through the crowd. If he was going to die soon, I could at least help him enjoy this night.
When I joined him on the dance floor, he shuddered as I laid my hands on his hips, but when I pulled away, he clasped his hands over mine. We started to move with the beat, progressively melting into the crowd and the music, and as we did, he inched closer. He closed his eyes, following my lead by touch only, his breath hot on my neck as he danced with abandon.
We danced through most of the night, and even though he didn't kiss me the way others did, I felt like this might have been the most intimate moment of my night.
Tagging @terresdebrume @sarahsyna @carpedm87 @puzzle163 @tomii-writes @biniall and I can’t really think of another writing friend who isn’t tagged by mab already so eh.
2 notes · View notes
talysalankil · 9 years ago
Note
For the OC meme: A-J + P
So many :o (I’ll be using the characters from my books so feel free to read more over here)
A: is the most attractive.
Matthias from FTEITS is canonically meant to be gorgeous, so I’ll go with him. Totally not because he’s my husbando. I don’t know what you mean.
B: gets bored the fastest.
Vals from Psychopomp without a doubt.
C: is the most open to cuddling.
I mean I’m very partial to cuddling so this is kind of a rough competition because I’d say everybody? But I’d say Cell from FTEITS gets the cake.
D: fears death the most.
Not the guys from Psychopomp, since death is a pretty chill nonbinary entity in that ‘verse. Beyond that, I’m not really sure?
E: is the most emotive.
Adam from FTEITS is probably the single character for whom I’ve written the most angst, but that’s probably just because he’s the main character/PoV of the longest book I’ve written yet and his story is pretty angsty (and he is prone to angst more than, say, Vals). I’m not sure if he really counts though, since he’s actually able to get over it and remain logical…most of the time.
I feel like David from Tangled Stars might be emotive? It would be an interesting challenge for me to write such a character as a protagonist. To be determined.
F: is my favorite.
Nope. Not choosing my favorite child. Sorry :P
G: has the greenest thumb.
Probably someone from Malefacta, since we have a fairy (albeit a dark one), a fairytale princess, and a guy whose family is tied to fairies as part of the main characters.
There’s also a main character from Tangled Stars named Asher. And yes, his affinity to plants is definitely inspired by intergalactic-ashkenazi (even though I picked the name independently ^^). Also, it works out because solarpunk aesthetic and plant aliens are involved.
H: trusts their horoscope the most.
??¿¿¿???¿??? No one? I rarely write characters who are deeply spiritual to begin with, let alone superstitious. I might at some point in the future, but I’ve got no one yet.
I: tends to idolize people they shouldn't.
I try to avoid it as much as I can because it’s hard to convey that they’re wrong for idolizing people and still make it believable, but I’d say Cell and/or Pietro from Psychopomp would be the most qualified, though they quickly get over it.
J: tells the most dad jokes.
I feel like a broken record, but I guess Cell would be that too. If he ever were a dad. Ahem.
P: is the purest, most perfect cinnamon roll.
Cell is my precious baby, but I’m not sure he fully qualifies? I guess it depends at which point of his character development you look at him.
Also, Aveline is technically a fairytale princess. I think that could count too.
3 notes · View notes
talysalankil · 10 years ago
Text
I don’t know what’s worse
that I based a minor character in Psychopomp on someone I had as my student for 2.5 days and had a brief crush on? (for what it’s worth he’s over eighteen. so. you know. at least it’s not creepy in this way)
that I’ve actually spent a while trying to find him to get a picture of him?
that I actually found him on facebook?
2 notes · View notes
talysalankil · 10 years ago
Note
6, 21, 29!
6. Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related?
I’m going to skip the two characters who are based on the same real person (oops).
Cell from FTEITS and Vals from Psychopomp look a lot alike! There’s literally no reason for it. It just happened.
21. Your most artistic OC
Well he doesn’t have a name yet, but the protagonist of the story I’m planning for this year’s nanowrimo is an artist! He joined a spaceship’s crew just so he could draw other planets. Well, okay, he might have had other reasons. I wouldn’t know at this stage.
29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going?
…Adam and Vals, probably? Most of the others would ask for help first, I think.
2 notes · View notes
talysalankil · 10 years ago
Text
oh yeah i watched 6 episodes of gravity falls and played an old game
and i also finished Psychopomp. (I mean it was pretty much over before that, I just added like once sentence to wrap up the epilogue). Yay me! Maybe I can finally achieve things in the end!
Anyway all I'm gonna achieve now is sleep byyyyye
2 notes · View notes
talysalankil · 10 years ago
Text
morethantonight replied to your post:Okay so here’s a writing question for anyone who...
As long as you’re not romanticising it then it’s fine, imo.
You show little faith in me
0 notes