writerjodie

[writerjodie]

When inventing a fantasy religion a lot of people a) make the mistake of assuming that everyone in fantasy world would worship the same gods and b) assume that polytheistic religions see all of their gods as morally good

[writerjodie]

it’s easy to forget, so I’ll remind y’all: you can make fantasy versions of anything. yes even things you might not think about. like soil types. I am thinking of fantasy soil types right now

[writerjodie]

every single day I think about how american black vultures are known for engaging in allopreening (preening between different species)

and they have a specific relationship with crested caracaras, in which the black vultures assist them by not only preening them after meals but also leading them to food in the first place— due to their superior sense of smell— while the caracaras assist the black vultures by acting as a warning signal in case of danger

and while this is more typical of black vultures, this is not common at all for any member of the falconidae family— it’s a special bond!

yet another post in favor of vultures everyone , hope you enjoy:) and I implore you to do some more research on these incredible birds !!

[writerjodie]

oh my god i did not expect this today! i've been struggling with writing for the past year, and i keep going back to nessa and the other characters in that vampire story because i know i love their story and i want to tell it but the words have not been wording!

i'm working on another project at the moment, one i've not dared announce, but thank you so much for this because i know that the moment i've written the last word of this i'll be back in nessa's world!

I would like to thank everyone who pays The Lost Prince any attention or appreciation (those I suppose you're all sick of hearing about it by now 🙃) and to that end, I want to pay love forward to some special WIPs I've been allowed to appreciate over the year. I'll pick a few and if anybody wants to do this, feel free to reblog because nothing makes a writer's day than something to keep them going.

@veneritia I am in love with the WorldBuilding of When Comes the Dawn and the relationship between Fernice and her lil bro, is drama I always enjoy hearing about. Charles and Ambrose, ma'am!

@trapped-inadystopianovel for engaging characters (Sola my son) whom I always love to hear about and wonder what they're up to often.

@serpentarii it's the intriguing plots and complex characters for me, the never ending roll call of acceptional posts. And my star-crossed boys.

@surroundedbypearls Every WIP post is always so beautiful, it's like the art the sky makes just before it takes a nap.

@writingamongther0ses the sheer abundance of the writing you manage to produce never fails to impress me. Like girl, you're singlehandedly pushing me to get off of Tiktok and write. Your wip posts always make my day.

@lottieiswriting for my darling Macro and your beautiful wip, Kill the King

@ccorpsidious Adrian Skylar, the one and only, most precious boy who needs a good mom and a warm blanket.

@eluari the absolute beauty of the accompanying art!

@dameschnee123 for Priestess of Light, for the hardhittibg lines that just stock with you. You know the one I mean!

@writerjodie for a Protagonist like Nessa Herrik, whose complex motives are as compelling as the plot! I really can't wait to see more.

@residentofthedisc for all your works! Every one is utterly amazing, you have the range, darling!

[writerjodie]

IM WRITING! (4.6k in the last 4 hours! its bedtime!)

[writerjodie]

Ways to solve the Why Can’t They Use Magic To Fix Everything problem:

•Magic has a cost. The more powerful the spell, the more it drains the caster’s life.

•’We tried that ages ago.The gods grew angry at our arrogance and stripped most of our powers away.’

•Magic is tied to the stars and planets. Its full potential can only manifest on certain astrological events.(And these are once-in-a-millennia type events)

•Only one will a pure heart and selfless intentions can use their full power.

•All magic users are descendants of a (god/spirit). As the years have gone by, the blood has become more diluted, and magic has grown weaker as a result.

•Spell casters can only cast (finite number of spells). They end up using their gift on trivial matters.

•’After the war, we realized the dangers that magic presented. And so we sealed it away, lest it destroy the world.’

•Everyone has magic. Trying to solve one problem is futile as it can be easily undone(often violently and with much destruction)

•inverse of the above: everyone has magic, but their powers are limited and (mostly) harmless.

•Individual, company, or nation has a monopoly on the only substance that can negate magic. As they rule the world, they have installed anti-magic devices everywhere.

•Individual, group, company, or nation has a monopoly on magic. To insure their grip on power, all magic users that do not submit to them are killed.

•An act of good will spawn one of evil. The use of fire will cause somewhere to grow cold and dark. And to save a life, one must sacrifice another.

•The only magic people have access to is Chaos Magic. No one uses it, for obvious reasons.

—••• •• ——• ——• • ••• —•• •• —•—• —•— ••— •••

[writerjodie]

[writerjodie]

[writerjodie]

a list of 100+ buildings to put in your fantasy town

academy

adventurer's guild

alchemist

apiary

apothecary

aquarium

armory

art gallery

bakery

bank

barber

barracks

bathhouse

blacksmith

boathouse

book store

bookbinder

botanical garden

brothel

butcher

carpenter

cartographer

casino

castle

cobbler

coffee shop

council chamber

court house

crypt for the noble family

dentist

distillery

docks

dovecot

dyer

embassy

farmer's market

fighting pit

fishmonger

fortune teller

gallows

gatehouse

general store

graveyard

greenhouses

guard post

guildhall

gymnasium

haberdashery

haunted house

hedge maze

herbalist

hospice

hospital

house for sale

inn

jail

jeweller

leatherworker

library

locksmith

mail courier

manor house

market

mayor's house

monastery

morgue

museum

music shop

observatory

orchard

orphanage

outhouse

paper maker

pawn shop

pet shop

potion shop

potter

printmaker

quest board

residence

restricted zone

sawmill

school

scribe

sewer entrance

sheriff's office

shrine

silversmith

spa

speakeasy

spice merchant

sports stadium

stables

street market

tailor

tannery

tavern

tax collector

tea house

temple

textile shop

theatre

thieves guild

thrift store

tinker's workshop

town crier post

town square

townhall

toy store

trinket shop

warehouse

watchtower

water mill

weaver

well

wind mill

wishing well

wizard tower

[writerjodie]

i was thinking about this recently but also in the context of the characters in stories i wrote years ago... i'm older than all of them now, they were born from my 15 year old imagination, which was also before a pandemic, before i got a job, before all that, and when i reread them i feel like i'm picking up a little piece of who i was back then and tucking it safely into my pocket

the fact that i'm no longer the same age as the protagonists of novels and films i once connected to is so heartbreaking. there was a time when I looked forward to turning their age. i did. and i also outgrew them. i continue to age, but they don't; never will. the immortality of fiction is beautiful, but cruel.

[writerjodie]

The Vapors of the Night, 1896 - oil on canvas. — Yan Dargent / Jean-Édouard Dargent (French, 1824-1889)

[writerjodie]

i think one of the best things i realised recently is that story i wrote when i was 16 is not cringe, its just a story written by a 16 year old. i remember labouring for hours and hours over it, every spare hour i had between lessons at school i would borrow one of their laptops and i'd write. and after i wrote it i rewrote it. the final document of it is over 60,000 words, and i was proud of it. i didn't read it for a few years, i got busy with uni, quitting uni, getting a job, i got busy with growing up.

the other week i opened that document back up again. seeing the characters appear on the pages for the first time again was like being greeted by old friends, but they're old friends that never grew up with me, they're old friends imagined by a 16 year old mind. next month i'll be 21, in the grand scheme of things 21 isnt that far from 16 but at the same time it is. and i no longer relate to those characters beyond a fleeting memory of who i was when i was 16.

at 16, that story was perfect to me. at 20, less so. the plot makes no sense, the characters aren't consistent, the descriptions so long and full of words that its easy to lose track of what i'm on about... but i'm still proud of it. i'm always going to be proud of those 60,000 words and however many notes scattered across paper and other documents. i'm proud of them because they're mine. they belong to the first writing project i ever finished.

and i think sometimes we all strive for perfection so much that we forget that we are all at different stages in our writing lives, i'm sure that when i am 30 i will look back upon what i write now and think it was a bit silly, but i will also look back proudly upon it, knowing that i was still learning, still developing, still finding my own style. and i'll keep reminding myself of that my writing does not need to be perfect - ever - because i'm always learning.

[writerjodie]

☾ wip intro ✧ The House of Akreios ☽ [TAG]

Genre: fantasy + romance (m/f)

POV: third person, past tense; single pov

Status: outlining

When the new king of the House of Akreios makes a fateful decision to protect his sister Eudocia, the country of Sairos shatters into factions. Usurped by allies betraying generations of loyalty, the royal family is forced into exile to regroup and lick their wounds.

Their goal: to amass strength and retake their home.

But a woman is kept from these matters.

While her people strategise and wage war, Eudocia is confined to the guest palace on the island of Eirenos to manage hearth and home. When her former lover returns from the war a hero, she believes she can content herself with this. But he is not the boy he used to be, and Eudocia is certainly not the girl she once was.

Against a backdrop of war and ancient magics, Eudocia must navigate the life of a woman who is overlooked because of her gender, yet still blamed for all the country's strife. And she learns the grand tales of lovers she once romanticised may not have been how the women of history wanted to be remembered.

Tag list (please ask to be +/-!): @amaiguri

[writerjodie]

After the occupation, the princess was confined to the palace.

Once a month she'd be taken on a walk around the city, heavily guarded of course, to show the people that she still lived. It also served, of course, as a reminder of what they stood to lose if they made trouble. The princess did her best go wave and smile and give the people what encouragement she could.

The rest of the time, her life was spent in musty rooms and dusty towers. She filled most of her time scouring the castle for materials which she would sew into more and more elaborate outfits, which she would show off on the days when she was allowed outside.

Indeed, the public loved their princess and her dresses so much they'd often sketch or paint them along the route and pass the images on so that all could see the princess at least was well.

This pleased the occupiers for two reasons. First: it kept the princess out of trouble. Second: it gave them a reason to sneer and they did love a good sneer.

"What a vain creature she is!" They would remark.

"Doesn't even care we murdered her brothers so long as she gets enough satin to make her little dresses!" They squawked.

This was unfair, of course, for to call her creations "little dresses" was to call Queen Murderfun the Needlessly Genocidal "a tad piquey". Her dresses were gravity-defying wonders lace and pearl. They were thunderstorms captured in velvet and waterfalls summoned in silk. She was a wizard with silk.

Still, she bore their mockery with a tight smile and careful deference.

"Please, good sirs, my home, my people and my city now belong to you. Let me keep, at least, this one last joy."

And they sneered and they crowed most unpleasantly, but they let her keep her sewing room.

Of course, they would have known their mockery to be doubly unfair had they realised the true purpose of the princess's elaborate designs. For hidden in the intricate embroiderings across her gowns, jackets and fans, the princess had encoded secret (and very detailed) messages. When she would go on her monthly walk, the city's loyalists would line the route, sketching down the patterns to decode later.

Thus did the princess transmit all the occupiers' secrets (unearthed while supposedly 'searching the castle for old fabrics') to the city and thus did she build her resistance.

On the day the revolution finally came, she girded herself in armour of thick spider silk and whale bone. She cut a fine figure with a lacy handkerchief in her top pocket and a razor sharp knitting needle keeping her hair up.

As she waltzed through the castle to open the door for her army, the Usurper King tried to stop her and she simply unfolded her handkerchief and showed it to him.

Upon seeing the impossible arcane pattern emblazoned across it, he fell to the floor with blood streaming from his eyes.

She always had been a wizard with silk.

[writerjodie]

free resources to write a novel in 2024

hello hello! it's me, rach!

as the new year approaches, many of us set goals and resolutions - myself included. one of my goals for 2024 is to write a novel (I've been procrastinating on this for quite a long time now). i assume that some of you might have the same goal, that's why I'm writing this post today.

over 2023 i've been releasing some freebies for authors just like me, so I thought I could compile my favorites in this post. hope you find this useful :)

1) the writer's workbook

this workbook has over 60 exercises to help you develop characters, scenarios, etc. if you're ever stuck, I'm pretty sure this workbook will be your best friend.

2) author's corner (notion template)

this is the most downloaded freebie in my shop! it is a notion dashboard with everything you need to organize your writing and has some templates included (like scrivener)!!

3) another notion template

this one has two themes you can choose from: cottage-core and dark academia. they're very similar to the previous template, but this one is more recent and I added some new features. feel free to explore both and pick the one you like the most.

4) the author's journal

this is a cute printable with 20 pages that will help you stay on track and manage your social media accounts as a writer who shares their work online. you can also register what you're currently writing and your personal research and resources.

5) plan your book printable

this is a 6-page printable for you to fill out and plan your book easily and effectively.

6) excel sheet to organize tasks & word-count

this is a simple excel sheet, but it is very effective for keeping track of your tasks & word-count of your novels. also, it is 100% customizable to your liking!

that's all for now! feel free to explore my gumroad shop where I have plenty of freebies to grab! also, don't forget to subscribe so that you never miss any opportunity to get a goodie for free :)

hope this post was useful!

have a nice day,

rach

[writerjodie]

Domina + Costumes

Marcella's purple & golden dress in Season 02, Episode 02, 04 & 08.

// requested by @idreamhistory & @butterfliesjewels2134

[writerjodie]

heaven gaia spring/summer 2019