#tobermoriansass

[essayofthoughts]

7, 11, 13 & 17 for the writers asks!

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

Hm so. Two parts. Part 1. When, when writing something, I manage to solve a tangle of problems in a way which feels satisfying and ties up enough loose threads without seeming unreasonable and unrealistic. And Part 2. When I manage to write something that people connect to? Some of the comments on Ripley's Assistant and That Balance May Return and that people have sent me privately give me strong emotions.

11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

I hate killing my darlings, hate it, hate it, hate it. I've got better in recent years about deleting lines, but I still loathe it and prefer to rework things and rewrite it than just delete. And the problem is, my memory is terrible, so either 1. I delete it and forget it forever or 2. I remove it to a doc of notes and then forget I have a doc of notes. So generally, when I can, I try to move a line immediately to the relevant doc, or I rework it. I know sometimes it's necessary to delete things but I will never stop hating it and it's probably a good thing for me that I tend to get ideas of whole scenes. That way I can edit a great deal of it, but as long as the overarching scene is the same, I don't mind. (If I have to delete the scene... noooooooo 😰)

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

There is a very solid answer to the first part of that question but it's also complicated so I'd rather give you that answer in private, Mike, if you want to hear it. For another answer of something that's difficult for me to write - torture. I usually get around this by writing indirectly, letting the reader's mind fill in the gaps, because rather as with horror that's often the more effective way, but yeah. Not for me.

I also struggle to write the POV of outright malicious bastards just because I don't see the point of that kind of perspective? I don't see what is gained by being like that. I see it as deeply self-defeating and struggle to write it when I can't make out the goals of it or how it connects to other people.

As for easy - I mean, you've seen my fics. Manipulation, trauma, healing from violation. Angst and Hurt/Comfort in general, tbh. I struggle to write pure fluff, it feels deeply substanceless to me, but angst and hut/comfort have texture and I can always write those.

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

Mrrm. I don't know that there is much that won't make it in? Like, someone once commented about Ghost Cass something along the lines of how it can be kind of slow paced and... yeah. It's my self-indulgent "Take as much time as you like" fic in some respects, and while I do want to keep the plot moving it's also that... it took me ages to get from writing ficlets and oneshots to writing big fics! I am relishing it now. But also, because of this, a lot of the ideas for lore and history and details and stuff going on off-camera... we'll get bits of it anyway? Characters will inform others of lore, details of what happened elsewhere can be backfilled with other POVs, and for example with the Briarwood Arc part of Ghost Cass there's gonna be a downtime fic, and that's gonna cover Vox Machina, sure, but also some NPCs that are relevant, both within Whitestone and elsewhere, and help to provide some of that additional detail.

Idk. I don't like it going to waste? This is why I used to have such an issue of infodumping worldbuilding into a story. It's the whole reason I made monsterblog way back when, so I could infodump things in one place and redirect to it instead of infodump again in a fic. Instead I kind of work in background worldbuilding as information which a character has due to their background and it provides both worldbuilding and character information.

But I guess like, if I had to pick one piece of random background worldbuilding, lets go with my fave:

In my headcanon (shared with @blorbologist) - it starts with how Whitestone keeps bees. Snow Mead is a locally made Whitestone alcohol, and for mead you need honey. However, if you're making it in reasonable quantities you're probably taking quite a bit of honey, (not to mention honey just to sell as honey, and beeswax) and this is Whitestone, where it's cold and there's a shorter summer, so there's fewer flowers, so there's less for the bees to feed on. Mead was valued by the Norse because it used honey and honey wasn't cheap! It was a rarity, a treat.

But Whitestone makes Snow Mead enough that not all that long after the Briarwoods' occupation is ended Percy is able to obtain some Snow Mead amongst other local alcohols, which means the business has likely been continuing even during this occupation - an occupation which prevented trade between Whitestone and the rest of Tal'Dorei, I would note.

So the beekeepers need a way to sustain their hives, right? And IRL the way that's done is with sugar water. But sugar hasn't been cheap, historically, because it's kind of a pain to grow and refine and it was usually imported and made from sugar cane. We know trade was cut off for five years, so how are these beekeepers getting sugar for their bees? Given Whitestone climate, it can't be sugar cane imported or home grown, so most likely it's sugar beet, as grown in some of the fields near where I live.

And, if they've got hardy sugar beet growing, then they might well even have a surplus of sugar. Which would explain how, even as Tal'Dorei was rebuilding after the dragons, Vox Machina were able to set up a very prolific and successful bakery/pastry shop in Whitestone. Importing sugar, even with their money and connections would be tricky, and Vex doesn't like to waste money - if there's sugar locally they can get and use that at reduced cost.

And, further, it would be a source of income for the whole city even aside from the whitestone and refined residuum from the mountain quarries, which would help to explain why, despite it's small size, it hasn't just been subsumed into Tal'Dorei. Between it's isolated location and it's local sources of wealth, it's able to stay independent where other areas might find benefits in joining Tal'Dorei.

And... yes, that's a headcanon I came up with purely from Whitestone's climate and the fact they make mead.

[brotheralyosha]

@tobermoriansass

[essayofthoughts]

NO WAIT IGNORE THE OTHER ONE

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

Lets go with Kashra, because that's been eating my brain lately.

My go-to headcanon for Kashra is that when she falls asleep, Zahra loops her tail around Kash's arm or leg or waist - it's a habit from when she was quite young, first wrapping her tail around herself as a self-soothing method, and later using it to hold tight to things that mattered to her (her bag, her staff). It always makes Kash go all Squishle because it means that he matters to her.

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Hm, there's a few but I can't recall all of them. A random selection:

The time I was researching the pH of salt water to try to see if would slowly wear away at limestone like acid rain can.

History of horse domestication and use in Iron Age Europe.

Animals which can change sex due to social or hormonal factors for when I wanted to figure out ingredients for a Trans Ur Gender Potion for a fic.

Why some woods burl.

Human evolution and the mix of non-sapiens DNA found in modern humans so I could headcanon Berserkers.

NOT fic, but for my dissertation I found a completely whacked out guy from the Victorian Era who thought that Europe's megalithic sites were built by Appalachian Native Americans and that the zodiac matched to the Greco-Roman gods and also Atlantis was involved somewhere. That one really threw me, if I'm honest.

There are probably more, and this does not include the things I researched when helping you with fic things.

❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

I.... don't know. Because a lot of the plots I really want to see I've kind of resolved to rolling up my sleeves and doing it myself? At least within fandom spaces. And when it comes to original fiction, it's more that I'd like to see more gothic horror-romance stuff, and more stuff that's willing to meaningfully dig into trauma within the bounds of an overarching storyline, and I'm kind of still discovering the authors I specifically like for those things? There's authors I know are good at it - Martha Wells, for example - but who's writing style I don't always gel 100% with, while, like, I gel with S.T. Gibson's writing style better, but in how they nail the gothic writing style occasionally it feels a smidge to urple for me to take quite seriously because I'm picky.

So... I don't know what my dream theme/plot for a fic is, really, but I do know that unless it ended up being spyfic, I'd probably do it myself.

If it was spyfic, of course, I'd want you to do it, Mike.

Writers Truth & Dare Ask Game

[metamatar]

i genuinely owe my life to every white kid on tv who was demanding their parents respect them. fuck familial respect in south asia!

[brotheralyosha]

@tobermoriansass

Melkor

[ravencromwell]

So all you fellow Florence and the Machine fans may know this already--I'll freely admit I come late to every! party. But just in case you don't: in early September, she did a rendition of Lungs with one of the most astonishing symphonies in the UK backing her. It's breathtakingly beautiful, and free to listen to through Sunday afternoon--it says it expires at 11:59 P.M., but I'm guessing that's British time, so I'd figure out what the equivalent was in your time zone.

Don't know for how many of my mutuals this will be of interest, though I think I remember both @pinkcupboardwitch and @muffinworry mentioning they were fans? As well as, I think, the brilliant @avelera And honestly this also seems, just from genre, like it'd be both @bodysnatch3r and @tobermoriansass jam.

[sallysavestheday]

Thanks to @thescrapwitch and @thelordofgifs for the tag. I have a few irons in the fire, but not much forward momentum at the moment, so hopefully this will goose me along.

THE RULES: Make a poll with the titles of all your current WIPs. For whichever one wins, write 300 words and share a snippet if you want.

I'm not including my birthday ficlet collection because that's a fic-a-day-in-October challenge to myself that I'm already looking forward to. Let me know if you want one!

Tagging @littlewhitemouseagain @tobermoriansass @a-tehta @polutrope @melestasflight if you are in the mood...

[tanoraqui]

#finrod's mean girl act here has been permanently imprinted into my brain i hope you know that op #he's so mean but so kind#he is going to kill them with kindness :) #absolutely the definitive finrod and c&c post re-embodiment take

@tobermoriansass re: you tags on this post: I'm SO glad it stuck with you, because, non-humbly, it IS so good. Finrod has all of public opinion on his side; he is the hero that history remembers, and Celegorm and Curufin are the villains. People who see him being kind and welcoming to them will think him even better for it, and them so much worse if they still respond with bitter anger or betrayal. People who realize he's rubbing their noses in it will think they deserve the punishment and Finrod, tbh, deserves the fun, and if the Fëanorions can't accept some mild public submission and humiliation, that just shows they're still as terribly prideful as ever. If they can prove themselves humble to the latter and equally amiable to the former, it genuinely WILL help them enormously - so now they're also obliged to be grateful to Finrod, adding debt of gratitude to their preexisting debt of repentance (several times over, what with the multiple kinslayings of his kind and dear allies). Win win win for Finrod, lose lose lose for Curufin and Celegorm, except also win for them, which makes the losing even more bitter. They’re not supposed to be bitter about it because they’re supposed to be Reformed(TM).

[siliquasquama]

"She's been falling in love with both of us this entire time," murmured Robin.

Oh so ur a writer?? Prove it. Drop the last sentence of ur wip in the tags

[robespapier]

Based on this post and @tobermoriansass's very cursed tags, may I present a very cursed poll ?

And here's the link to the naked sketch of David's Tennis Court Oath.

[polutrope]

Heads Up Seven Up

RULES: Post the last 7 lines you wrote. Thank you for the tag @dreamingthroughthenoise!

“How many of them children?” “Twelve, my lord,” she answered. Maglor hid his pained expression behind his hands. “And Elwing’s son? What of Elros?” “His nurse would not administer the medicines.” What did it matter? They would do nothing but postpone the end, if Elros’ spirit could not save him.

Please feel welcome to share your last(ish) seven lines, if you like @ettelene @melestasflight @zealouswerewolfcollector @sallysavestheday @littlewhitemouseagain @gwaedhannen @tobermoriansass

[gardensofthemoon]

Tidbit Tuesday uh, Wednesday

Tagged by @tobermoriansass to share something I’ve been working on, and decided to post a bit from my longest-running wip in the hope I’d trick myself into writing more consistently. It’s a longer fic that has completely gone off-track — I wanted to write Curufinrod smut and just had to write some backstory, and now it seems that I have my hands on a coming of age, friends to lovers story. Oops.

Amarië takes a jewelled hairpin out of her neat updo, loosening the silver-blonde mane, and uses the blunt edge to cut the stems, gathering the flowers in the crook of an arm. Fragrances rise, heightened by the brisk summer air: ivory lilies and flush carnations, their sap leaking from the ruptured stalks, viscous. Lilting a simple tune, four chords repeating in the same sequence, she braids the flowers in a long garland, setting aside the odd ones with bruised or wilted leafage. She admires her handiwork, pleased, then places the ornament upon Findaráto’s shoulders, looping the garland around his neck. The flawed seedlings are abandoned, stems weeping, next to the flowerbed they have been sundered from.

I have the biggest love/hate relationship with this work, in part because I started writing in bits and half-scenes all over the place and fitting the pieces together is less like assembling a puzzle but rather like furiously jamming them into a mould until they somehow fit. Still, it has such a long way to go.

Zero pressure tagging @polutrope @lakehelevorn @saintstars 🤍

[metamatar]

top 10 books in 2023, tagged by @thelittlebirdthatkeptsomanywarm

[ID: covers of the following books:

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson, Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn, Reinventing Revolution by Gail Omvedt, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures by Aijaz Ahmad, The Final Question by Saratchandra Chattopadhyay , Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, Abolish the Family by Sophie Lewis, Network Effect by Martha Wells, Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

end ID]

i feel like everyone who wants to do this already has because im doing this on the 31st... no pressure at all and tag me if i missed you posting yours already @st-just @huayno @gothhabiba @sivavakkiyar @determinate-negation @tobermoriansass @saamdaamdandaurbhed @wherestoriescomefrom

[zealouswerewolfcollector]

Tolkien Fanfic Reading Month - Days 5 and 6

Just one fic for two days but what a fic.

vivat patria by @tobermoriansass

35884 words, M, Feanor/Curufin, Curufin & his brothers & his cousins & his uncle

This is a pretty dark fic, so make sure to read the tags, but it is SO good. Gripping from the very first sentence. Stellar characterization and dynamics. I just keep thinking back to random scenes and marveling again at how great it is.

[chamerionwrites]

Anyway what I’ve decided after going down a late-night rabbit hole with @tobermoriansass lamenting the lack of lady spies that aren’t glorified Bond Women is that we should genderswap a bunch of le Carré characters. George Smiley is a woman now sorry I don’t make the rules

[sallysavestheday]

Throwback Thursday!

Thanks to @tobermoriansass for the tag. I'm glad to see this becoming a regular routine. 😀

Today's installment, from a little more than a year ago, is a 2-ficlet Finrod/Edrahil. One painful, one tender. If you're in the mood for some real hurt/comfort, read both.

Here's a little excerpt from Whatever Betide:

In the stillness of the night watches, he polishes Finrod’s armor, halfway to dreaming as he works the hinges and oils the plates. Each touch is a caress, a blessing. He runs his loving fingers over the joints of elbow and knee, smooths the chilly curves of the protective steel, imagines the warmth of Finrod’s skin in the vulnerable openings of the throat, the ankle, the hip. He sings, low and tender, where no one will hear him. Each verse is a charm of protection, a spell of concealment, a plea for mercy, for time.

And one from the sequel, Now, I'm Found.

Reborn and restored yet still bruised from that cleaving, Finrod maps Edrahil’s new body with wonder and determination. It is an exercise in proof, an attestation. He is healed. He is here. He is whole.

Enjoy!

@ettelene @starspray @starsuncounted @spiced-wine-fic @grundyscribbling care to share an oldie-but-goodie? Anyone else who wants to, feel free to jump in.