#writer's journal

[annals-of-the-arcane]

Writer's Journal # 4

Prompt: Your Phone (Or appliance) magically comes to life and goes on some sort of adventure.

The sound of thunder rolls across the night sky... everyone in the small suburb is asleep. Just when the thunder dies down a bright flash tears across the sky, as a bolt of lightning hits a nearby powerline. KABOOM. Following the course of the electricity we find ourselves led to one home in particular. The surge flows down the line eventually settling on a phone. The phone was charging for the night just plugged into the wall next to someone's bed. As the power surges into the cellular device it jolts to life with legs and arms springing forth from it's rectangular body. "HEYA, The name's sparky!" the phone spoke outloud in a noticably old timey American accent. Sparky paused for a moment looking around settling on the human in the bed. "Oh so you're just gonna sleep on me huh? A brand spankin new form of life pops up and you're asleep!?" Sparky shouted indignantly. Sparky took a moment to let the human rebuttle but when no reply came they harumphed. "Well up yours too buddy" then sparky hopped off the bed to seek out this brave new world. Sparky meandered around the bedroom for a few minutes before figuring out they could just slip under the door. That's when sparky came face to face with the fluffy menace, the hazardous hairball, the furry monstrocity....the dog. Lucky for Sparky the dog was still asleep. Sparky had a thought in that moment perhaps they should turn down their brightness. As they did this the dog continued to sleep making little noises every so often. Sparky peered down the hallway at the great expanse that was the upstair landing area."How am I gonna get around here" Sparky asked to no one. That's when another bright idea entered Sparky's circuits. "I should try and tame this beast so that I can get around easier" they exclaimed like this was the best idea since sliced bread. Sparky climbed up to sit on the back of the dog. Glancing down at the dog Sparky decided the best thing to use for a reign would probably be the collar. They gripped onto the collar with one hand and used the other to try and spank the dog. Of course their mechanical limbs are not that long so they really just kinda smacked the dogs shoulderblade. But with that smack the dog jumped up looking around trying to discern who could've awoken them. "Hello my new furry friend." Sparky greeted the dog "I need you to be my new steed." The dog attempted to face sparky in a motion not dissimilar to chasing one's tail. This motion jolted Sparky around flailing about but they did not lose grip on the dogs collar. "Please I need you to be my new mount so that I may travel this land and..." Sparky seemingly leaning into the whole knight and steed bit was cut off by the dogs sudden jump and kick which sent Sparky careening off of the back of the canine. Sparky still reeling from the throw laid there nursing a processor-ache. But the dog was curious... he came over to Sparky and began sniffing this new creature in his domain. Sparky recovering a bit cried out "Whoa hey there, good beastie, I'm a friend not an enemy I won't hurt you." The dog tilted it's head staring at the phone beneath their paws. The dog sniffed sparky some more and then decided to pick them up in its mouth and trotted away. As they were travelling "THIS IS NOT WHAT I HAD IN MIND WITH YOU AS MY STEEEEED" Sparky screamed as the dog carried it away.

Sometime later the sun has risen and a young girl has come downstairs to get ready for the day. "MOOOM HAVE YOU SEEN MY PHONE?" The girl yelled so that her mother could hear her. "No Elisa I haven't" The mother replied in the distance. Elisa peered around the room as though she were investigating, this quickly changed into her frantically searching the entire house. Eventually she exhausted all of the areas she could think of. She sat down next to her dog defeated. "Oh Titus what am I gonna do... I need my phone today." she said utterly defeated. "woof" Titus replied. Elisa peered down at the White cloud of a dog sitting next to her when she noticed inbetween his paws was her phone! "THERE IT IS!" she exclaimed with glee. "but why did you have my phone titus?" she pondered "woof" Titus responded indignantly as if he was upset to be accused of such treachery. "Well whatever thanks Titus, you're such a good booooy" she bent down to pet her faithful companion.

[hopeisgrey]

mona lisa smile (2003), dir. mike newell

set in the 1950s this little movie tells the story of girls in one of the most prestigious girls college, learning art history. they seem to be having a normal life until this new teacher, a young unmarried woman from california, disrupts their world. or was it their world to begin with? this is the question the movie attempts to ask. mona lisa smile. is she smiling because she was told to or is she actually happy?

this movie made me think however, how do you write women? how do you construct them? how do you define them?

in so many 'women centric' movies, women are defined in an attempt of redefining them. women, as the unfortunate creatures they are, are defined since birth. a woman. a care giver. a home maker. a mother. honour. narratives are build to take down these definitions. wars are fought, lives are lost. and then there she goes, in a bus, in a taxi, in a train. somewhere faraway, away from home and everyone she knows. away, where she can be born again and defined again. and thats the end of story.

but what next? what is the new definition? what is a woman when you take away what makes her a woman? how do you write a woman beyond birth, beyond family, beyond humiliation, beyond wars, beyond rot, beyond blood, and beyond a woman.

what is a woman beyond being a woman?

[ichigoporky]

How did Ichi's writing begin? — ✍

When I was smaller (like, smaller than now!), I had this super cool typewriter that my mom's boss gave us as a gift! I think my mom still keeps it somewhere, along with all my old stuffed animals and tons of other stuff that brings back memories!

With that typewriter, I started writing so much stuff! I wrote jokes that I'd take to school and tell my friends, short stories, I even transcribed things I heard on TV, and I wrote my very own novel!

My novel was called “The Lost Princess”, and yeah, you guessed it, it was about a princess who... well, she got lost. Looking back, Ichi from back then wasn't the best at coming up with fancy titles, hehe!

Before I had the typewriter, I had lots of diaries. I'd always be drawing and writing in them, filling up every single page. On my birthdays, I'd always get new notebooks to write in, even from my friends at school. One time, I got two notebooks that were exactly the same from two different friends! They didn't plan it or anything, it was just a big coincidence! But I kept writing in both of them, even though I sometimes mixed them up.

I've always loved writing, everywhere I could, even on walls, although my parents weren't too happy about that, haha!

But you know what? It's all part of the fun! Writing is amazing, whether it's with a fancy typewriter, a stack of notebooks, or even just a piece of paper and a pencil!

So, if you've ever thought about giving writing a try, why not go for it now? Whether it's jokes, stories, poems, or even your very own novel too, the world is waiting to hear your voice! So grab your pen, or your keyboard, and let your imagination run wild! Who knows? Maybe one day, you'll look back and be very happy reading all the thoughts you wrote, just like I'm doing now!

5 things you can do after reading this — 📜

Grab a notebook and write down any ideas or thoughts.

Write a short story or poem based on this prompt: A day in the life of a small fairy.

Rewrite the ending of your favorite movie, book or show.

Write a cute letter to a friend or family member.

Start reading a new book that interests you!

[pirate-of-the-southern-isles]

June's writing challange - Day 23

874 words. I realy wish I could go faster with it....

[quillandquotation]

I'm often at times left to ponder on with my thoughts alone for long which sometimes leaves me to be afraid of the many possibilities if I somehow someday act on it

-Yahvi Shah

[sadiahakim]

The most disturbing and disappointing thing about society is society itself.

Sadia Hakim

[illusionremember]

Writer's Journal #01

I've talked about this before, but I'm so... tired and bored of the narrative around authors avoiding/hating/struggling to write and making self-deprecating jokes about their supposed favorite thing feeling torturous. Just because it's difficult doesn't mean it should be torturous. Maybe you just don't actually like writing. That's okay.

Anyways, here's some things I've loved lately, working on my current project:

I finished my chapter 1 rough draft the other day!

fleshing out a character by examining the relationships her partner has with other characters to pinpoint a personality trait that attracts him to her

writing sensory descriptions of the desert, trying to capture its unique beauty because that's how the main character sees and values it

pushing the snark between two characters via letting them know each other well enough to know what buttons to push, which simultaneously lets me show the audience what kind of people they are

deciding on names for animals (horses and cattle) and writing little interactions with them and the human characters

going over the chapter in layers - the outline shifting into the essentials of dialogue and action, then adjusting the dialogue to push different characters' personalities and speech patterns - I want readers to recognize who's speaking without needing to look a the dialogue tags

working out new spots for foreshadowing and build-up of plot events

Feel free to respond or reblog and talk about the things you've enjoyed about working on your WIP! I wanna try and build more positivity around the creative process, and I'd love to hear what kinds of things other people are doing!

Might make more posts like this, talking about my fics and original works. It's nice to be able to review fun things :D

[novaae]

someone pls gimme inspo for fic writing like any positivity or motivation 🙏🙏🙏🙏

[fjadwrites]

I'm about to completely fill this notebook up with story ideas after story ideas and I don't know if they would all see the light of day. In other words, if I actually get to fully write all of them as novels of their own. But even so, I'm happy that I get to write down these ideas for future references. I have lots of story plans even before these notes were even written down. Some of them were from my college days (from way back 2009 to 2014). I think there was even one series that I started planning during my 3rd year high school (around late 2007 to early 2008). Crazy, right?

[catt-nuevenor]

Day 17

Today has been a very good day, bitterly cold, but progress has been breathtaking.

I suspect that Harrold has gotten over the worst of his hump from yesterday. He has spent far less time glowering at me for a start, and far more time hunting out new patches of grass to chomp upon. Foliage does not stand a chance against a seven-foot-at-the-shoulder tall herbivore on an empty stomach.

With my somewhat portable hedge trimmer at the helm, no bracken or bramble has been able to resist our passage. Today we have achieved 2,979 words, bringing our total up to 29,844, and leaving us with 20,156 till we reach the end of our journey.

Of course, it isn't really the end. There are still many thousands of words to go, and many more mountains to climb. But that should not detract from the present endeavour.

[annals-of-the-arcane]

Writer's Journal #5

Prompt: Take a character that appears one way but they act differently

Waah... Waah... the sounds of a crying child can be heard as Stephen walks down the street, he stops for a moment kneeling next to the child. "Hey there buddy what's wrong?" the child sniffles and then points to a balloon stuck in a tree they cannot grab. "Oh I see, you lost your balloon in the tree, did you? Well, don't worry I'll just grab that for you" Stephen assures the child, as he stands up to reach for the dangling string of the balloon. After retrieving the lost balloon Stephen returns it to the child. "Thanks mister you're the best!" replies the child as they wipe tears from their eyes. Stephen just smiles, ruffles the kid's hair a bit, and continues on his way.

Stephen walks up the street for a while taking in all of the beauty in the natural world. Listening to the trees whistling in the wind, the birds chirping in their nests as they prepare for their young ones to take flight. He continues walking for a moment, when, suddenly Stephen notices a dog happily trotting away, and he smiles to himself...That's when he heard it...*KAPLOOSH*...Scanning his surroundings Stephen notices the dog is missing, and there are ripples on a nearby pond. Rushing over to the pond Stephen notices the dog in the pond but they don't appear to be swimming. they seem to be flailing about but something seems to have snagged on the dog preventing it from swimming back to the surface. Not taking time to think Stephen jumps right into the pond. He swims down to the depths of the dog and notices the dogs paw has been caught in some sort of vine that seems to be pulling them down. The dog appears to be struggling but to no avail and is quickly losing energy. Stephen grabs hold of the dogs paw to free them so it can swim up. Gripping on to one part of the vine, Stephen with all his might pulls it apart. With no time to waste he does so with the other side. He's freed the dog but they continue to sink...The dog has passed out...Stephen swims to catch up with the sinking canine and grabs hold. Taking the dog in his arms Stephen begins to kick and ascend back to the surface. *PLOSH* the surface of the water breaks. Stephen puts the dog on shore and then lifts himself out. Stephen takes a moment..."WHY THE HELL WAS THAT POND SO DEEP". Another moment passes and Stephen notices the dog isn't moving. They must need cpr. Stephen not sure if he knows how to perform cpr on a dog does what he can. But, this essentially is just attempting to do chest compressions and hopes he won't harm the dog. After a few minutes the dog coughs and water comes spilling out. The dog begins to happily bark and lick Stephen. "Astro where are you?" Stephen hears a voice calling out. The dogs ears perk up and trotts off. "ASTRO!... Why're you so wet?... I told you to stay out of that weirdly deep pond." They say without disapointment as though they expected this behavior from Astro. Stephen lays back for a moment before continuing on his commute.

Eventually after a few more minutes of walking up the street Stephen reaches his destination. A building that towers into the heavens, there are no distinguishing symbols or signs on the building to let someone know what it's for, just sheer glass panels reaching up into the heavens. Stephen enters "Sandra can you get me a replacement suit and get this one I'm wearing to the cleaners." Stephen asks in a level tone. "Of course sir right away" Shandra responds quickly moving over to a closet and reaching in for a new and freshly clean suit, this seems to be routine for them. She hands the suit to Stephen "Thank you Sandra, is everyone here for the meeting?" Stephen inquires "Yes, everyone arrived a moment ago" Sandra replies with a satisfied smirk. "Good" Having changed Stephen turns to the doors to the meeting room. Stephen enters a large room with nine other people in it. As he enters any chatter there was comes to a halt, they all turn to look at Stephen. Stephen makes his way over to his seat. Stephen turning to the rest of the gathered croud ponders "So...now, how are we going to take over the world?"

[clarkresse]

Week 014

Not the lack of opportunities, tools, or confidence that brought me down. Rather it was the lack of people not believing I could. If water does have memory as some scientists say and a human body is more water than anything else, and if I only have negative thoughts (and I usually think 2 or 3 bad endings) therefore poisoning myself, then only others believing me could really cure my poisonous waters.

And I'm glad I have the sense to pick the right people in my life.

Rainwater can't choose where to fall. But to become a lake with pristine waters, the surroundings should be able to help the lake as the lake provides them. A balance without lacking or thinking too much on their own benefit.

I cannot choose the family I belong to. But I have the right friends who knew me better and loved me even more.

Frankly, I can't confide in them most of the time. Not because of them. Just me and my brain with screwed wires from mishandling. I still hesitate despite their genuine nature. Also, because I admit I'm still poisonous waters and I don't want to pollute them.

My NaNoWriMo has been a struggle but I think I'm doing well. I could do better, yes. But I rather have my own pace than join a race.

Also caught up to Noragami. It's still as good as I remember and as traumatizing as ... well, there was a reason I had to stay back and not keep up. It was too triggering and I hate pain.

[novaae]

@moonspirit @distortedclouds @dudewhy3

this us.

fic planning be like:

[pirate-of-the-southern-isles]

June's writing challenge - Day 11

1989 words today and the border of 600 pages of text was crossed!

And welcome to the real world, Lars, your new friend has briefed you already, but now you are going to see it with your own glasses.

[kelmccall]

Not chasing Independence, Just Running Away

When I was 16, I got into a relationship.

I was lonely. Looking for somebody to be close to me. Either a friend or a companion... My Dad says I've been chasing independence since I was 16. But my home life wasn't good. I had an alcoholic mom and my Dad was remarried and absent from knowing me. We disagreed about everything from what I should do with my life, to the electives I should take in school. And when we couldn't agree, he would ask me to leave his house so I began to only see him at group events like graduations as soon I got my license.

I was self-motivated, and a high-achiever. I was driven by a need to be seen as special or important. I wanted to feel smart. Like, I was smart and I got good grades, I was an A- student, but I didn't feel special. I felt depressed. The only time I felt good was when I was working on a new idea.

So one day, this handsome, superman-looking, 6'2, white hockey player pops his head into the closet-sized room outside of a drama/writing class teacher's office where I was working on the computer... "Hey, I'm looking for Mr. Adriano; have you seen him?" And I immediately developed an infatuation with this man. I told my best friend in high school that I was going to lose my virginity to this man. (that came true btw).

I missed a month of school when we broke up... But I'm getting ahead of myself.

[illusionremember]

Writer's Journal #02

I mentioned this the other day, but I've made a second blog ( @sabookey ) that will center around writing. I'll probably keep any deeper discussion of my original projects mainly over there, but I'll reblog it here when that comes up.

Historically, I've struggled to feel comfortable talking about my stories, especially when they are WIPs. It's not that I'm afraid of hearing what people think. As a young teen, I saw a lot of people warning creatives off of sharing their OCs for fear of IP theft, and that really stuck with me. The more recent AI bull doesn't help with that kind of paranoia, either. But regardless, as I'm starting to dive into each of these projects more, the discomfort around sharing is something that I'm trying to let go of.

One project I'm currently working on though, is a fanfic I started toying with the idea of years ago — my Tremors!AU Supernatural fic. A few months ago I rewatched Tremors (always a fun movie) and the idea came back and this time I'm actually going forward with it. I haven't written fanfic in a very long time, but coming off of a long period of burnout and depression and recovery, where I'm trying to center my writing again, it helps to have something completely self-indulgent that I can just... play with.

Here’s some things I’ve loved lately, working on my current projects:

I'm just about done with the rough for the first three chapters of the SPN Tremors!AU, and hitting roughly 14,500 words so far, which has already exceeded my more modest goal of 10K words per month :D

I'm getting to write the first one-on-one scene for the romantic arc (which is honestly like a C-level subplot, but I'm a hopeless romantic at heart) and while I was having some trouble with it at first, once I got into their dialogue, it started to flow again. These characters make it so easy to write them connecting with each other on a deeper level than most.

I'm a big believer that learning happens best when you are experimenting and trying things out. That's proven true here - working on this project is really helping me learn more about pacing and balance.

I've talked about this a few times with friends and family, so some of you already know this, but this has been a game changer when it comes to how I do outlines and rough drafts. I always struggle with that part, but this feels... easy, for once. I'm trying hard not to put this project up on some kind of pedestal. Like sometimes in the back of my mind I'm like, if I can complete this fic, then I can apply what I've learned from it to my original works and it'll make every project work like a dream. Which is an impractical expectation to place, but... jfc this has been so much more fun and effortless. I'm also trying to remind myself that being a fanfic, there's a lot of workload lifted off my shoulders when it comes to fabricating a plot. But still.

I was able to talk through some issues I was having with one scene and character in chapter 3 (Thank you again to @alkalidumpling! <3 ) which was really nice because, as mentioned above, I often don't talk about WIPs. The fact that this was productive is very heartening!

I wrote a scene between two characters that really don't get a lot of interaction typically, in canon or in fic (at least, not ones I've read) and it was really fun because it pulls out a different dynamic for each than I think I'm used to seeing. Plus its kinda fun to have characters interacting where I don't have as much intent or stakes to pour into how their relationship needs to go - there's some freedom there that's very intriguing to me.

Feel free to respond or reblog and talk about the things you’ve enjoyed about working on your WIP! I wanna try and build more positivity around the creative process, and I’d love to hear what kinds of things other people are doing!