#this was surprisingly difficult...

[elavoria]

Writerly Thumbprint Challenge

Rules: look back on your work, both past and present, finished and unfinished. what are five (or more!) narrative elements, themes, topics or tropes that continuously pop up in your work?

I saw this going around and wanted to give it a try. The vast majority of my writing [300k+ across various wip longfics] isn’t published anywhere for public consumption so most of you are just going to have to take my word on this. ;p

1. Charismatic young woman convinces sad / broken / hardened / &c. older man that he’s worthy of love. I would joke that this is the only kind of romantic pairing that I’m capable of writing, but in truth it’s the only one I’m interested in writing. I live through my charismatic protagonists, and being able to give my fictional favorites the gentle love and care they deserve through them... ah. <3 The men tend to be quasi-villainous and far more powerful, and they become devoted to women who tend to be sweet and virtuous [though also flirtatious and seductive], which leads into...

2. Power dynamics and the balance of power. My characters tend to be navigating power structures that are balanced against them in some way, but occasionally they have to grapple with the responsibility of having power over others, particularly unwanted power or power they reluctantly have to exercise over a loved one. I love writing romantic relationships with power imbalances and exploring how the characters deal with those imbalances, and it can be especially fun if the balance in the relationship tips somehow.

3. Character-driven narratives with deep, meaningful connections. I love getting into characters’ heads perhaps more than anything else and spend a lot of time describing my characters’ thoughts and feelings and developing their relationships. There are a lot of introspective sequences, and lots of long conversations, frequently full of empathy and compassion but occasionally heated arguments as well. I pride myself on staying true to canon character voices and motivations, and while it’s perhaps easiest to understand my original characters, I love slicing canon characters open [so to speak] and seeing what I can find in their deep, dark depths. ;p

4. A sense of time and place; characters grounded in the environment. My foremost goal in writing is to take the reader on a journey through the story, and to that end I like to keep the characters always in touch with their surroundings. I don’t always describe those surroundings at length, but there are always just enough reminders of where they are and what they’re doing that the reader can feel like they’re there too, taking it all in.

As an example of 3 and 4, I just wrote a nearly 20k word sequence with the premise “Amaryllia has a very long talk with Samson while walking Skyhold’s walls”.

5. Secrecy and confidants. Less of a major theme, but my characters often have secrets and those they entrust those secrets to—whether it be secret relationships or hidden aspects of their identities that they share only with the most trusted of individuals.

Bonus: Armor stripteases. This one’s kind of a joke, but only kind of. If there isn’t a scene where someone’s armor is taken off piece by loving piece, did I even write it?

I have no idea who’s been tagged in this! It’s a fun exercise for any writer though. : )

[n4rval]

i lied. here's a bonus.

[userarmand]

armand + name etymology

[ssalballoon]

Mystra showed him the secrets beneath the veils. The gossamer veils first, draped across the Weave. The delicate veils next, draped across her body. 'Chosen One' she whispered, as she slipped them off completely.

poor gale :'(

- the dialogue is from ea gale's explanation about his folly

- i kinda like that she ended up looking like a mother-of-pearl inlay lacquerware!

- oh this was a subconscious choice, but Gale is sitting in seiza which is a posture for showing respect especially to elders. it's also known to be a painful position to sit in for extended periods of time, which is why it was sometimes used as a method of (morally dubious) punishment. however, experienced people can maintain this posture for much longer. food for thought :-)

- (edit: deleted this point bcs it didn't really make sense + detracted from the art a little;;)

[sboochi]

Simpler times

[fox-guardian]

[ID: Six digital headshot drawings of Jimmy from Mouthwashing doing different expressions with colored overlays. The top three are of him rolling his eyes, doing a fake smile with a tiny eye-roll doodle next to it, and smiling mischievously all in green. The bottom row has two of him crying badly in orange, and one of him sweating and looking downwards in horror in red. end ID]

~~~~

jimmy expressions. gonna blow him up real bad.

i'm so mad he is VERY fun to draw

[aardvaark]

i don’t mind suspending my disbelief for leverage’s person-sized ventilation shafts bc that’s pretty standard for the genre, but that doesn’t mean i won’t laugh a bit at some of the egregiously large vents. particularly in the crowning acheivement job (lev: red s2 finale) because - well just look at this lol! harry and parker, two adults, can kneel side by side in those vents. parker can sit upright.

that museum was made for vent crawling purposes. that’s just an extra room in the museum they forgot to decorate. the leverageverse has a thief union that successfully lobbied for a better working environment. these vents double as a playground for museum-goers’ children. i was crying with laughter thinking about this and harry’s vent crisis was NOT helping me remember that there was a serious heist thing going on lol, i love this show.

[moonlightphos]

Darling, I will love you till the bitter end, And all the bitter moments till then

[caffichai]

Kjera and Enya's perspective trick

[beezter]

sleepy jayvik sketchdump

[namara-ashina]

DeepBlueInk: Have a creature Me: But what if rainbow?

[ominouspuff]

I Can Despair No Further / From Here Each Step is Defiance

REQUESTS / BLOG EVENT

Request from @husborth - Palette #1 - Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker - Death of the Cynic in Me

[sirdanjin]

Jokes aside.

I'm actually impressed by my gym progress. It might not look like much but I'm pretty happy.

Also the phone on my dick is a pretty neat trick.

[raffi-cat]

nothing at all

[voiddragoncat]

Kirb 💖💞

Original image: (found it on Pinterest)

I got inspired by this comment on the post:

[mispatchedgreens]

communal spaces! are the heart of any throuple! (2 versions bc im just an indecisive baby)

it's @zukki-week and day 1 was domestic