For a while during the pandemic I was regularly posting for WIP Wednesday, a midweek check-in about your writing projects. Eventually that scaled back to Workshop Wednesday, where I'd open my inbox to talk about my projects and everyone else's too.
I'm seeing a lot of people in my immediate circle talk about creative loneliness, and burnout, and a growing sense of…dissatisfaction? with their respective communities, and I want to do something about that. I'm not immune to these things either and while I really want to open my inbox for writing prompts, my soul of souls knows that's not what I need right now.
So - Workshop Wednesday!
Got something you want a second opinion on? Sense check on an idea? paragraph you’re just really proud of? Idea you want some help with? A pat on the back and a sign that says 'YOU'RE DOING GREAT AND I BELIEVE IN YOU!' Send it to my askbox - and if the idea of hashing out your idea in public does not appeal, DM me for my discord handle and we can talk there!
Workshop Wednesday is a free hour long Zoom Session where like minded writers can exchange feedback on each other’s work.
The aim of Workshop Wednesday is to form a community that helps, inspires and supports other writers through feedback, word prompts and an exchange of ideas.
How It Works:
Every Friday you have the opportunity to submit a piece of work (up to 500 words) for peer review. This will be sent out to other participants of the session for them to critique. You will also receive a piece of work for you to provide feedback on.
During the session we will discuss each writer’s work and if there’s time discuss any issues that people may be having with their projects.
Happy Wednesday, everyone! Thanks to @lemonlyman-dotcom, @birdclowns, @thisbuildinghasfeelings, @bonheur-cafe and @carlos-in-glasses for the tags as always. Hope you don't mind me changing it up a bit this week and sharing something for the Old West AU:
Carlos is silent for a moment, before taking a swig of the moonshine. After swallowing down the bitter, burning taste, he says, “When I was fifteen, I called my father a bastard. I said it with a heat within me I didn’t know was there.” He takes another swig, this time letting the burn settle a little bit more. “Cursed at him, even took the Lord’s name in vein.”
TK’s eyebrows raise slightly, he never would thought Carlos had it in him. Not only to go against God, but his own father. Carlos just didn’t seem the type. “What did he say?”
Carlos pauses, staring up at the night sky. His eyes mirroring the moonlight that’s bathing them in a distant white light. “Nothing. He had been dead for two years.”
He looks over at TK, his eyes dewy and glazed over with repressed melancholy. “Being angry doesn’t make you evil, TK. It makes you human.”
no pressure tagging: @reyesstrand, @strandnreyes, @heartstringsduet, @rosedavid, @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut, @welcometololaland, @rmd-writes, @basilsunrise, @sanjuwrites, @orchidscript, @three-drink-amy, @paperstorm, @mikibwrites, @freneticfloetry, @ambiguouspenny, @catanisspicy @sanjuwrites, @chaotictarlos, @wandering-night19, @inflarescent and here's an open tag for anyone who wants to join in on the fun (tag me back, i want to read!)
thank you!! i've added to Message, but it would be spoilers <3 so instead i offer you a bit i've written from Make it Home!
PAIN THRESHOLD [Failure] groans, face in his hands – We can't keep doing this. You need to sit down.
ENDURANCE [Failure] – That's pathetic. We just got- hrgh… started…
VOLITION watches as Endurance hunches over and swats aggressively at Hand/Eye Coordination as he attempts to pat his back. Volition sighs and turns back to the viewfinder – No, this is bad for us. Until we process that thought and gain an ability to compress our shit, we won't be getting anything worthwhile done out here. We could stand getting out of the rain, at least.
I'm going to try an experiment. Just historically speaking, it will probably flop, as everything that involves me posting consistently tends to, but I will see how far I can ride this.
gonna just...publicly workshop my setting...
Intro
For those of you who aren't aware, I'm writing an original story for Lemel and Tevane. It's based a lot on the plot and worldbuilding I did for Catching Icarus, but obviously a lot of work has to be done to backfill in the stuff that was derived from Hat in Time canon. Another thing you might not be aware of, worldbuiding, while a lot more enjoyable now than in the past, is still very much not very enjoyable to me, or maybe more accurately, is very frustrating. Maybe the dopamine from getting a single note on a post will help me pull through.
Let's start
In a binary star system, there is a planet called Altimera
The currently mainstream names of these stars are Ceri Naliphon and Ceri Kuliphon (Older Sibling and Younger Sibling, in an archaic language, though actually more literally translated as Larger and Littler Sibling respectively)
Together, they are called the Cerian Twins, despite the size difference. That's just how it turned out, don't worry about it.
Ceri Naliphon is a blue star and Kuliphon is a white dwarf at the moment. Might change that if I do more research on binary stars, but the system is based on Sirius AB, specifically because I like that star system I think it's pretty.
The sentients of Altimera have been around awhile. They've done a lot, technologically, including interstellar exploration. They're not the only species in the universe to have accomplished this, but they do have some unique ways of going about it.
One of their species capabilities is their ability to interface with the temporal dimension. Mostly, this manifests in a slightly heightened anticipatory sensitivity that appears like foresight to species who don't have any time sensitivity. In some, this foresight is more pronounced, and over the course of history, these individuals were exalted as foretellers and prophets. But on an ordinary level, it mostly just gives everyone a bit of Default Anxiety.
More recently, as in within the last several centuries, they developed technology that lets them manipulate it for space travel, largely due to the discovery of "time crystals" known as Ilakyte, which grow on the edge of an interstellar phenomenon known as a gravity well.
What's a gravity well? It's like a dimensional snarl of spacetime folding in on itself and doing it over and over until what you get is something like a megagiant permanent space storm. Spews radiation. Fucks with gravity. Absolutely do not ask me about the physics of this. This shit is magic.
Anyway, Ilakyte was discovered. Its capabilities were studied, and a specialized engine called the Chrono-conversion engine was built based on its properties that enabled powerful and efficient hyperjumps, opening the doors to travel farther and faster than the species had previously dreamed.
It also provided a (partial) solution to the death of their planet. Core-harvesting was the main supply of energy for generations, but the planet was steadily losing its power, disrupting the magnetic fields and the atmosphere.
The Altimeran people had to cloister themselves in climate controlled cities to survive, while many of them used the newfound powers of the Chrono-conversion engine to escape to the far reaches of space. Doing so has created many complicated political problems with a lot of different civs. I'll get to that some other time.
Still, the People of the Cerian suns as they began to term themselves once "Altimeran" no longer encapsulated their species-identity after they left Altimera, managed to persist through their planet's fading, and there is still a vibrant and dense population living on there, doing the things that people do.
Happy first Workshop Wednesday of the new year! I'm in full swing here, wrapping up a few late Christmas presents as well as starting a couple new projects. More to come soon!
Hey, Merc — thanks for hosting Workshop/WIP Wednesday! I’ve been taking a break from Tumblr for a while (for a bunch of reasons I won’t bore you with), but for the last few weeks I’ve been working on a new writing project, based on the Canal+/BBC Marie Antoinette series and centered on telling the events of the first four episodes through Louis’s perspective. I’m so, so tempted to finish a chunk and then post it (because who doesn’t like feedback and positive reinforcement?), but I’ve told myself that I need to finish the whole thing before posting to lessen the chance I’ll lose steam halfway through and not finish the story. Considering the pace I’m going, though, it might end up taking a lot of the summer (I’m not even through Episode 1 and it’s already 8k). So mostly I’m just looking for some encouragement — or, on the off chance you think my fic idea is terrible, some gentle words of advice that maybe I should cut my losses now before I get much further… :/
This is a GREAT idea! One of the things I personally loved about the new Marie Antoinette was the way they drew out Louis' 'probably on the spectrum' side - those were all things that I knew about him but had never put together in that way. He obviously cares deeply about things going on around him but is so afraid to mess something up because his grandfather is already doing it better.
And the fact that he himself doesn't 'speak' much during those first few episodes doesn't mean that he doesn't have things to say!!
I'm so looking forward to reading whatever it is when you're done!
[workshop Wednesday and we're giving encouragement]
nosy anon again making a return because i think what my brain did was read that i helped find some kind of writing and then did not fully process what the writing was?? but upon rereading i am very intrigued if you ever get the urge to share i will be all eyes/ears/senses required to enjoy things!!
I GET TO DO WIP WEDNESDAYYYYYY!!! the writing exists mostly in the form of a tag (fantastic! 'verse) and also a thirty-two page doc of snippets and planning, so the sense you will be using most is imagination:
don't think i have ever actually formally written out anything about fantastic! 'verse but! the tl;dr of it is that it's a semi-college au: joel is still a hockey player for the lv phantoms, but morgan is a college student-athlete. it's incredibly relevant to the plot that joel falls in love with morgan in the check-out line of a wegman's, lies a little bit, and ends up going back to get his degree.
most of it is just good fun about college kids growing up, but i think there's a lot of parallels between making your way through a development system where traditional "success" isn't always guaranteed (ahl -> nhl, completion of higher education -> pursuit of a career) because that development system isn't always designed for you to "succeed" or have opportunities. heavy quotation marks around success because part of that struggle is learning what you want in life and how you define success. are your dreams achievable? are they still the same dreams you always used to have? it's infinite branching universes of would you still love me if i was a worm (ahl player forever) (a college dropout) (a college graduate) (older) (realizing the fallibility of your body) (uncertain of the future) (human).