#why are they so difficult to write?

[world-of-fire-and-flight]

Embers of Eternity Blurb....Draft 103

A/N: BLURBS ARE THE BANE OF EXISTENCE😣😭 I can't tell y'all how many times I've revised it and at this point idk if I'm just mad at it and that's why I'm having trouble with it or if it still needs work. Would you mind dropping some feedback for me? This is for Embers of Eterinity/book 2 in my Heirs of Tenebris trilogy (Fire & Flight (book 1) blurb here; Fire & Flight general info masterlist here), so any and all help is totally appreciated so I can get this finalized😄💜

The spirits of the Shadow Forest are waking up.

Hidden in the centuries-old legends of the forest is the history forgotten by the country of Tenebris. But for seventeen-year-old Nyla, the 600-year-old history has become her present. Struggling to break the curse binding her to the Woodlane Manor, she and her companions must race against time to find and defeat the evil sorceress threatening their homeland. With the help of Xander and Shamira, the fierce pumpkie who’d taken up the forbidden quest to investigate the disturbances in magic, Nyla searches for a way to break the curse that won’t require a hefty sacrifice.

But even as their small victories swell their hope, the real battle is only just beginning. With the trio forced to confront their pasts, Nyla and Xander must trust the help offered to them by outside sources and connect the missing links provided by a secret society. But what if Dinora raises her army before Nyla and Xander can gather the forces necessary to defeat her? Will defeating her cost them their dreams of the future?

Return to Tenebris in Embers of Eternity, the stunning sequel to [my] epic young adult fantasy series, the Heirs of Tenebris.

[umblrspectrum]

hi heres my ramblings about a md rain world au i made up in like a day bye

[th3secr3th1story]

gojo and geto when you don't say "i love you" back

biggest losers ever

gojo

"baby, i'll see you soon, ok? don't miss me too much," gojo whined, attached to your hip as you rubbed his back.

he was assigned a mission somewhere in rural japan and likely wouldn't be back for a couple days, which was especially hard for the both of you seeing that you were never separated for more than 12 hours. (you and gojo were typically assigned to missions together, but this one wasn't a special-grade curse so it was only given to him. what a loser.)

"i should go," he sighed into your shoulder. "don't cheat, call me every day, don't start any new shows, don't go out, don't let anyone talk to you, buy tons of sweets for me, annoy megumi, punch nanami for me, don't for-"

"'toru! it's just a few days, i'll see you soon. just be careful, ok?" you giggled.

he (begrudgingly) removed himself from you, turning towards the door with a massive pout.

"alright, baby, i love you," he grouched.

"stay safe, 'toru! bring me back souvenirs," you smiled, waving at him.

except he didn't leave. he stood there, grinning at you expectantly, one hand on his mini suitcase and another on the doorknob.

when you simply kept waving at him, confused, his smile dropped.

"okay, fine. i guess i won't come home then," he said with a pout, glaring at you.

"huh?! what are you talking about?"

"well, since you clearly just want me to kill myself because you don't love me anymore, i guess i'll find someone else to marry," he sniffed.

"stop playing around, 'toru. you know i love you."

and just like that, gojo satoru was grinning like an idiot.

"okay, sweets, see you soon!"

and just like that, gojo satoru was out the door.

geto

the two of you were currently coddled up in your bed, you on top of geto as he massaged your scalp.

you weren't sure how long you both had been laying there, but neither of you wanted to move.

geto listened to you talk about your day, mainly filled with complaints about gojo and his weird behaviors.

you were currently telling him how itadori pranked fushiguro earlier that day in your class, barely able to suppress your giggles.

"-and then he put a fake spider on his shoulder. i swear, when fushiguro saw it i thought he was going to cry. it's so hard being a teacher sometimes, i forget that i can't laugh at the students."

geto chuckled lightly at the story as he listened to how happy you sounded retelling jujutsu high's antics.

once you finished, the two of you laid there in silence, simply enjoying each other's presence.

"you know i love you, right? you're the most important person in my life, y/n," he said softly.

you simply sighed and kissed his neck, happy to be in geto's embrace. but after a few seconds the head massaging stopped.

you whined and looked up to see why he paused. you were met with his dead stare.

"why'd you stop?" you asked, confused.

"'cause you don't appreciate me," he teased.

"no! you're my favorite man ever. i love you so much, suguru," you wailed, pressing his hand back on your head.

"man?"

"fine. you're my favorite person ever."

"person?"

"you're my favorite...organism ever?"

"that'll do, i guess," he mumbled, smiling.

geto resumed his ministrations and slowly lulled you to sleep with his light humming of a song gojo couldn't stop singing earlier that day.

(it only sounds good when it comes from him. no offense, gojo.)

[ohno-the-sun]

Hoho the next chapter is finally done huzzah!

[brainrot-jikan]

im not the biggest alhaitham/kaveh shipper (because im a rare pair ho) but it seems to me that in alhaitham/kaveh getting-together fics tend to be... unequal.

the beautiful thing about alhaitham and kaveh is that they're both equally right and equally wrong and equally dicks about it. but the writers for alhaitham/kaveh much more frequently seem to give alhaitham the burden change (the burden of the character flaw) instead of kaveh.

in any good character arc, the main character has a fatal flaw or misconception, and by the end of that arc they have addressed that flaw in some definitive way. scrooge was a scrooge and learned that being that way was detrimental; merlin from finding nemo was overprotective to a fault and had to learn that he couldn't (and shouldn't) control everything and to let go; the wolf from little red riding hood learns that you should stop while you're ahead.

stories centering around romance tend to lean heavily on character arcs, which makes sense. and since romance generally requires two individuals to be vulnerable and open and emotional with each other, it makes double sense that alhaitham/kaveh authors zoom straight into alhaitham's lack of emotional vulnerability.

this bothers me.

in society, individuals are expected to experience and present emotions in a specific way. if someone dies, you cry. if someone smiles at you, you smile back. if you're at a party, you're supposed to be having fun. if you don't do these things, you're seen as impolite at best and a inhuman freak at worst. when these behaviors are frequent it's often viewed as emotional immaturity, or a lack of ability to feel at all. the inability or lack of willingness to conform to societies emotional expectations of you is seen as a flaw and a reason for exclusion.

alhaitham is canonically disliked and avoided for being the way he is. he prefers it this way, but that doesn't mean the people perpetuating this avoidance are in the right. they are the societal pressure to conform that alhaitham blows off. alhaitham could be the way he is for a lot of reasons: avoidant attachment style, trauma, following someone else's example (eg. his grandmother), or just his base personality. it doesn't MATTER. he is the way he is. kaveh having to accept that should be part of the story.

putting the burden of the fatal flaw on alhaitham, making the way alhaitham treats kaveh and the people around him the problem, feels invalidating. it implies heavily that alhaitham's way of interfacing with the world, alhaitham's very SELF, is incorrect. my suggestion is to flip a larger portion of that burden onto kaveh. kaveh 👏 character 👏 arcs 👏

some examples/recommendations:

- make kaveh project his insecurities onto other people but especially onto alhaitham; he's overly reliant on other people for his own self worth, and he perceives alhaitham's lack of positive feedback as a direct reflection of how alhaitham feels about him. but learns along the way that alhaitham doesn't hate him, kaveh's actual struggle is with hating himself and being unable to his own self as worthy of love. maybe throw in how you are responsible for your own recovery, other people can help but you can't rely on them to carry you through self actualization.

- or, kaveh tries to make alhaitham behave more like a "normal" person, to be more pleasant and emotive and forthcoming, and then realizes he's in the wrong for trying to make alhaitham into something he's not, possibly for all the wrong reasons (not because he likes alhaitham better like that, but bc society says that's healthier and a better/more conforming way to be)

- or you could go ahead make alhaitham's issues the main problem but they're too complicated to overcome in a short period of time, so kaveh has to accept alhaitham is doing his best in his own way and not push for unrealistic and unhealthy changes. he could alter his own behavior to give alhaitham space and time and a safe place to land.

that got sappy so it's past time for me to dip out. go forth and ship things; but maybe consider letting alhaitham be a rude stone-faced bastard if he wants to be.

[yasmeensh]

Story update

I got to write a good chunk of the opening these past two days. Excited to get more work done over March break. And I can't wait to get to writing more about my daughter T-T But she comes in a bit later in the story. Still in the first act, though.

Some more character design doodles:

[fromtheseventhhell]

Imagine being 9 years old and asking your dad about the things you're interested in doing when you grow up and he's like "No ❤️! But you can get married, have babies, and then maybe your sons can do those things ☺️🫶 "

[quotes-and-recs]

I think the reason plot of The Raven Cycle is so hard to remember & describe is because you have the overarching series plot (finding Glendower, Gansey's death), each book's individual plot (waking the ley line in The Raven Boys, Ronan learning to dream in The Dream Thieves, exploring the cave & the consequences of that in Blue Lily, Lily Blue), and then you have the character's individual & pair side quests and characters arcs. There's just so much going on that it's difficult to keep track of if you're not interacting with it directly

[the-kingshound]

I want to die. I had written a scene I loved and now, after three hours of editing the word document, I realize I accidentally deleted it all.

Fuck me.

[bayetea]

I'm gonna froth at the mouth over this in the tags so bear with me but reason #1278038 why the way rick went about breaking up jiper was bad: rereading her povs in hoo where she gushes over jason feels like even more of an unreliable narrator queer girl comphet psychological horror story

[unfortunatelyevent]

have we ever thought about how essek "religious trauma™" thelyss could have been very sucetible to ruby vanguard propaganda if he hadn't been neined* in c2 and in another life could very likely be the one flawless manipulating the beacon in their ritual there

*the act of being hit in the face with love from the mighty nein

[spookythesillyfella]

they make me want rip my brain out of my skull ...........

★ original template under cut :

[littlespoonevan]

.

[milolunde]

We all know Timmy is Wanda’s mama’s boy but we need to keep in mind he’s still Cosmo’s kid too and that Cosmo would love him just as vehemently as Wanda

[expectiations]

Thinking of how "left me like a book on a shelf" is from River's POV and therefore does not mean it is the entirety of the story much like how "the Doctor does not and has never loved me" was uttered from a River who was grieving.

Like the Doctor could have spent a long time putting the TARDIS in stationary orbit around the Library. The Doctor could have puttered about with the Library from years before it was shut down to ensure that everything would go smoothly while doing his best not to change a single thing. And on days when it is too hard, he just stares at the Library from his perch on the TARDIS door. Waiting, hoping, thinking. Trying to find a way out for her. For them.

And he does!

He finds a hundred ways to get her out of the data core. But...something always goes wrong. It's somehow never good enough. She's back, but she's not entirely there.

So he scratches it out, slaps himself, and tries again.

And again.

And again.

But his plans always fail.

But they don't. Not really. His plans could work. Could have worked. His beloved Sexy would help him. She'd always help him when it comes to her Water. But he was too scared. Too frightened of failure. Because one single mistake. One. Single. Mistake. And she's gone. He can never get her back. Forever.

So he runs. And runs. And runs. Until centuries has gone by and companion come and gone. Until he met a younger, more alive version of her. And then they had Darillium. And oh the joys of wonderful joys, what a night that was.

But things end. Even for him. They had to part ways again. Had to say goodbye. So he tries again. Picks up what his previous self had shelved. He tries. Oh how he tries.

But still. That fear exists. Is it worth it? Can he finally accomplish what he'd started a literal lifetime ago?

(He doesn't.)

Off on another lifetime with a new body. He's a...she now? Oh and shorter! Wow. That's new! I wonder what Ri–

On the rare moments she allows herself to succumb to sleep she goes to their his her study. She takes a moment to take everything in. It's unrecognizable now – the study that once was theirs filled with warmth and laughter and-

Every single space was taken. Covered by plans of plans of plans spanning...two...lifetimes now. Sexy still kept it just as it was the last time he she had been in there.

Their His Her favorite throw was still where it was – on their his her favorite corner of their his her favorite couch.

Nothing had changed but everything had changed.

She curled up and buried her face hoping it would still smell of her (It did. They never knew how it worked but somehow her smell still lingered anyway. They thought they were hallucinating at first but other people had been able to smell it too. Sometimes they forget but Sexy also lost her too).

She was a he again. The same face they had four lifetimes ago. The same face who was the first to keep the memory of their meeting.

But wh- what? Why? How? Is this it? Is this the body that finally brings her back home? A fitting act really. He put her in there and so he'll also put her out of there.

But... she wasn't there. Nothing was there. Nothing but chunks of debris and ashes and smelted...somethings.

When he blinked his eyes open (when had he closed them?), Donna's worried face greeted him. He blinked again and blinked. Nothing changed. Everything has changed. He had waited for far too long. He had made her wait for far. too. long. He feared of failing her but now he actually has failed her.

Everything was bland now. Was it just him or is everything a bit...on the side of grey? Donna looks at him like he might break. (He won't. He's a Time Lord. Time Lords don't break.) Even Sylvia had taken to treating him a bit more kindly.

He goes off alone with Sexy. His return to the Noble-Temple (Temple-Noble) household becomes fewer and further in between. One day he finds himself in Venice. Wonderful Venice. His Pond and her Roman (who wasn't yet a Roman) had gone here. There were vampires. And running and –

River?

No silly. River wasn't there.

He blinked. And blinked again. Made sure the sky was blue and the clouds still fluffy white. But was that his leather jacket that just whizzed by past him? Wait. Hold on. That was... Was that? Oh no. It wasn't. It couldn't be. Did they? No. They couldn't have.

But of course, apparently they did. Because that was actually his leather jacket wearing self that just passed by him again(?) tugging along his very-much-not-dead wife along running from... Hold on. Why are they running? What- Who's shooting at her?!

[hidey-writes]

wip wednesday

Abruptly, Zheng Bei leans back to grab his jacket from the back of the car. It’s the one he’d worn during the rescue, black and still smelling of gunpowder. Something rattles in the pocket when he dumps it in Gu Yiran’s lap.  Gu Yiran turns a confused look on Zheng Bei. “What’s this?” “The nurse said you didn’t pick these up when you left the hospital,” Zheng Bei says. It’s only half an answer. The prescription label on the painkillers says to take them every six hours. Gu Yiran looks up from it and says, “I’m not taking them.” The pain isn’t so bad that he would risk —  Zheng Bei tsks. “What do you mean, you’re not taking them?” The car starts moving. He doesn’t look at Gu Yiran. “Don’t pretend. I heard how long it took you to dress this morning.”  Gu Yiran is wearing his lightest button-down with the sleeves rolled up because he couldn’t manage to get a polo over his head. He hadn’t thought Zheng Bei could hear him over the sound of the tap. He hadn’t thought Zheng Bei had been paying such close attention.

various occurrences happening ...! wavering regularly on whether its going well or not so well but things are happening for sure!