thebloodthatmadeyou

[thebloodthatmadeyou]

Unconventional Writing Tips from My Many Years Of Serious™ Writing Experience

Write in bed. Just do it. It's cozy there.

Alternatively, write challenging scenes while standing up (i.e. with a standing desk or at a dresser).

You know that one tip about listening to Coconut Mall while doing schoolwork? Well, listen to Coconut Mall while writing on a deadline.

Run what you've written through text-to-speech (I usually just use Google Translate) so you don't have to read it aloud to check for mistakes.

Do personality quizzes in the POV of your characters, even silly Buzzfeed ones about which kind of pizza your personality represents.

For a story that takes place over a week or a month: make a timeline of what your MC does every day in the morning, afternoon, evening, and night. It helps put together those "missing pieces" in the narrative.

Make your characters in The Sims, as well as their houses.

Browse Subreddits related to themes in your story, or hobbies/interests of your characters.

[thebloodthatmadeyou]

twinning

[thebloodthatmadeyou]

hi wat were u going to do with the fic elysium

HELLOOO!

so, for the people who don't know, i was writing a jegulus royal au — "the elysium", indeed — but I don't have the time to keep going and i want to focus entirely on my dystopian novel, so i asked the people who were reading the fic to follow me here.

but let's go back to the question.

so, to be honest, it was going to have quite A LOT of angst (major character death was one of the tags), so you're kinda lucky that i ended it when i did. let's start from where the story ended, though. i'm gonna explain this like ass, but bear with me.

euphemia and fleamont were going to abdicate and there was going to be james' coronation as king and regulus' coronation as king consort — shortly later, walburga and orion were going to leave the elysium to return in the north, while bellatrix, lucius and narcissa remained there (euphemia offered for them to stay because narcissa was pretty close to term, but kinda also to have them in sight)

then i was going to write a few chapters of bliss on jegulus' part, so that i could focus on progressing a little with wolfstar and nobleflower. there's a literal honeymoon phase, a lot of kissing, a lot of romance, but a little out of touch from reality. no hard conversations YET. but then i was going to write about james and regulus attending a public event to celebrate their coronation and there is an assassination attempt: james' food is tasted and the food taster drops dead.

after the attempt, the bliss is OVER. regulus is forced to come to terms with two simple facts: one, that his family is actually trying to kill james, and two, which is that james is mortal. regulus blames himself and the weight of james' mortality is suddenly too much, bringing him to distance himself.

at this point, for a while, they are both a wreck. they literally can't look at each other without fighting or feeling like shit. in the meantime, regulus is avoiding both sirius and bellatrix: sirius because he was right, and bella because she had most certainly something to do with the assassination attempt. so he seeks refuge in narcissa. cue to them bonding about having little to no say in their life, except — let's be real — narcissa has it much worse. while they're talking, narcissa goes into labour.

i would have loved to actually write the scene surrounding draco's birth because i think it was the event that solidified narcissa and regulus' relationship. it's also interesting because, no matter all the family drama (to say the least), sirius and bellatrix were there too. also, i just fucking LOVE writing mothers [snippet incoming]

james, being king, has to be sort of the one to "christen" draco and to proclaim him a lord of house malfoy. he visits narcissa the next day (regulus is still there) and does the "christening". regulus is kind of able to look at him be with narcissa (because mind you, narcissa does like james, and the feeling is mutual) and not feel completely hopeless for a second, but he's still kind of skittish and james is still too hurt that regulus pulled away. they try to talk afterwards but another big ass fight ensues.

james starts feeling sick, though. badly. sirius was spending the night with him (codependent prongsfoot, here we go) and james started convulsing, fever spiking and everything. sirius runs to tell regulus and james is just not responding. they're trying to figure out what might have caused this. the only plausible response, since james was literally okay hours prior to this, was that he was somehow still poisoned. they all go insane, with evan — being master of spies — going through the event over and over with regulus. there seems to be no explanation, because james had drunk and eaten nothing. then regulus remembers that james had received flowers from a servant girl, which he dramatically smelled to make her happy. evan checks on that servant girl and finds her also ill. so this girl was used to poison james through flowers. both evan, the healers and alchemists of the elysium work together to find an antidote. meanwhile, regulus is a mess. actually, everybody is.

they end up finding an antidote and james does wake up. there is a very emotional moment between him and regulus. basically, regulus asks him to forgive him and tells him he'd like to try again, taking it one day at a time as if they were ordinary.

more chapters to focus on nobleflower and wolfstar, while regulus does his duty as king consort as james recovers. at the end of one particular chapter, i was going to have the readers find out that regulus has found the proof he needs "through the mouth of a traitor" and declared war to the north. in a little section right after, we have bellatrix crying and panicking to narcissa because her lover, rita, has disappeared into thin hair. later, the readers would have read a small section of evan, singing about catching rats in the crypt, moving rita's body on a little chariot. it's implied it was her who poisoned james through the servant girl.

this is where things get TOUGHHH. hearing of regulus' war declaration, bellatrix runs through the tunnels with lucius, and draco is kidnapped by his father. although in bad shape, james immediately sends his knights (including remus) after them. the thing is, that was taken as a cue for northern loyalists to attack the palace at night, through those same tunnels, as the knights are away.

long story short??? HELL ENSUES.

regulus gets stuck in a room with barty — and they both can fight but. yk. barty tells regulus he's gonna hold the loyalists back and to go get james, because he's still in bad shape and remus, his literal sworn protector, isn't even there because james sent him to get draco for narcissa. so regulus does but you would have later discovered that evan found barty's dead body blocking the door so that nobody would get to reg. soooo. death number one.

sirius is fighting, trying to protect euphemia and fleamont as they make their way to james. euphemia dies, struck by an arrow. sirius is taken and fleamont is left for dead (but he isn't)

regulus is taken because sirius is being held hostage

meanwhile, james is giving sickly demon (and doesn't know about his mother dying, quite obviously), making his way to regulus through tunnels and secret doors, killing everything that moves. and he's just late enough to not only see sirius and regulus BOTH being taken away, but to find out that peter died trying to defend the entrance to the tunnel.

i'm gonna leave you to just imagine the aftermath of this one attack and james' mental state.

remus returns with the other knights to absolute HELL. and he didn't even manage to get draco back, but lost a shit ton of his knights instead, including marlene.

james is literally mad with grief and rage and he names his father regent. he decides to do the one unexpected thing, which is to go get regulus and sirius back alone, just accompanied by remus.

long story short, they get divided to find sirius and regulus more quickly and basically to kill orion and walburga, and thus end the war. remus is the one to find and free sirius and together they find walburga, whom sirius stabs to death. yayyy matricide

james finds regulus already wrestling with orion, because my feral boy managed to free himself. and, as orion had his hands around regulus' neck, james killed him with his spear.

bellatrix and lucius actually ended up going back for narcissa in an attempt to kidnap her too, but narcissa literally sets lucius on fire for taking her son and bellatrix throws herself in the ocean after realising how much narcissa hates her after her betrayal.

the rest would be basically the aftermath of everything, plus a happy and bittersweet epilogue

sooo, i guess that's your answer! i only explained the plot points for jegulus because that was the main ship but there you go!

i hope you're satisfied with the outcome :)

[thebloodthatmadeyou]

FELT.

also my favourite writers are r.f. kuang, suzanne collins, grrm and frank herbert. i'm bound to eternally feel inferior💀

Nobody talks about how damaging being a reader AND a writer is. Like I can't read a book normally without either: a) mentally criticizing every poorly constructed sentence and analyzing it or b) comparing an EDITED AND PROFESSIONALLY PROOFREAD piece of published work to my MEANT-TO-BE-BAD-FIRST DRAFT and proceeding to gaslight myself into thinking I'm shit and being thrust into a week-long writing hiatus.

I CAN NEVER WIN

[thebloodthatmadeyou]

i'm 21 but my childish ass would fucking DEMOLISH a self-insert one-shot about this dream. literally just me sitting in that minimalist rich-people room watching vampires being read to filth by a 70 yo.

do i embarrass myself on the internet or

guys i had a crazy iwtv-related dream tonight.

i dreamed that i was also in dubai interviewing louis and armand because i had previously and randomly met louis and he had become paranoid that i somehow knew he was a vampire. then apparently louis found out i am an author and invited me to dubai along with daniel.

there comes my favourite part of the dream, where me and daniel make friends and spend the mornings giggling and kicking our feet in bed while talking shit about the vampires, also while browsing all the files RJ sent. tbf i would love to be besties with this bisexual former addict 70 yo with parkinson's, so that was very real of my sleeping brain.

also, at some point, my brain changed the scenery of my dream and we were no longer doing the interview in dubai, but we were at my house (???? secluded town in italy) and someone had locked a random dog into my balcony, so obviously i let it in (louis, i know it was your lunch, you evil sucker) and cuddled it, but i also let it jump on what was supposedly daniel's bed and i texted him to ask him if he was allergic to dog fur????

THEN the scenery changed again and we were all in new york, except i was at a market for some reason and I had to be back for interview at 9:30 pm, but i didn't know how to get back so i texted louis (why do i have this vampire's number) and literally typed: "bro i need the address, i got lost at the market." LIKE, WHAT?????

anyway, the interview ended up being at the empire state building.

i really need a follow-up dream for this because i need to know what the hell i was doing at the interview. was i staring?? was i just listening???? was i commenting along with daniel or was i taking notes???? both? was i going to be published and turned into a vampire along with daniel?????

nEvEr MaKe OnE aS yOunG aS aRmAnD. HA! we'll see

[thebloodthatmadeyou]

guys i had a crazy iwtv-related dream tonight.

i dreamed that i was also in dubai interviewing louis and armand because i had previously and randomly met louis and he had become paranoid that i somehow knew he was a vampire. then apparently louis found out i am an author and invited me to dubai along with daniel.

there comes my favourite part of the dream, where me and daniel make friends and spend the mornings giggling and kicking our feet in bed while talking shit about the vampires, also while browsing all the files RJ sent. tbf i would love to be besties with this bisexual former addict 70 yo with parkinson's, so that was very real of my sleeping brain.

also, at some point, my brain changed the scenery of my dream and we were no longer doing the interview in dubai, but we were at my house (???? secluded town in italy) and someone had locked a random dog into my balcony, so obviously i let it in (louis, i know it was your lunch, you evil sucker) and cuddled it, but i also let it jump on what was supposedly daniel's bed and i texted him to ask him if he was allergic to dog fur????

THEN the scenery changed again and we were all in new york, except i was at a market for some reason and I had to be back for interview at 9:30 pm, but i didn't know how to get back so i texted louis (why do i have this vampire's number) and literally typed: "bro i need the address, i got lost at the market." LIKE, WHAT?????

anyway, the interview ended up being at the empire state building.

i really need a follow-up dream for this because i need to know what the hell i was doing at the interview. was i staring?? was i just listening???? was i commenting along with daniel or was i taking notes???? both? was i going to be published and turned into a vampire along with daniel?????

nEvEr MaKe OnE aS yOunG aS aRmAnD. HA! we'll see

[thebloodthatmadeyou]

canon

[thebloodthatmadeyou]

It's a telenovela Louis

Did you eat the baby Louis

Was it raining Louis

Are you schizophrenic Louis

Did we fuck Louis

What an interview.

[thebloodthatmadeyou]

[thebloodthatmadeyou]

This post ate so hard. I don’t know why I’d never thought about the lamps being used for this reason…

[thebloodthatmadeyou]

still, if i don't see armand absolutely smothering that old man next season i will sue

How I sleep knowing I'll never be queerbaited by IWTV because there isn't a single heterosexual character in the show

[thebloodthatmadeyou]

'Across The River'

Hello, everyone! I'm Camilla — some of you may know me as Pixie — and I came here on Tumblr to build a community centred around writing and reading, but mostly to tell you more about my adult dystopian novel, 'Across The River'.

Just to start, I'm gonna tell you a few things about myself:

• I'm 21

• I'm about to get my degree in Communication Sciences and I will proceed my studies in International Relations

• My preferred pronouns are she/her/they

Now here's a few facts about my novel:

• It's a MULTI-POV novel

• It's supposed to be the first of a series, but it could also work as a stand-alone, should that be imposed on me (by traditional publishing standards)

• There's no "spice" or smut

• It's a wip (work in progress)

• For now, I intend to traditionally publish

• The story follows the POV of Nadar, Zilla, Marcel and Shaera, with some more occasional POVs

• If you like these tropes — found family, strangers to enemies, unrequited love, friends to lovers, destructive grief, revenge arc —, this is the book for you

And I guess that, to let you know my novel even better, I could let you read the blurb and the prologue!

I'm hoping that some of you will be captivated enough to follow my Tumblr account and my TikTok account (@landsraadsdoom), where I also post content and snippets :). If you have any questions, comments or thoughts, please feel free to leave them in my inbox or under my posts!

Hugs,

Camilla <3

[thebloodthatmadeyou]

Becoming a writer is great because now you have a hobby that haunts you whenever you don’t have time to do it

[thebloodthatmadeyou]

Me when I have to write my dissertation in my native language but 80% of my sources are in English

Cite my sources? How about we just pinky promise

[thebloodthatmadeyou]

we write characters for them to feel real — writing an annoying, insufferable, or evil character is an exercise of our craft.

plus, we just love it.

I very strongly feel that the job of fiction is not to write admirable figures, but to imagine one's way into all sorts of people, often people who ostensibly at least are deeply unlikeable or unpleasant. The question is not whether you like them but whether you understand them.

Zoë Heller