I have recently got back into doing some writing. This writing has been multi-chaptered.
So, here is a trick I am going to share that I learned from knitting socks. There is a thing called “second sock syndrome” which is when you finish one sock but can’t seem to get around to starting the second. So, when I finish a sock I IMMEDIATELY cast on the second sock and just knit a few rows.
So, when you finish that chapter, IMMEDIATELY just write one sentence of the next chapter. Trust me.
I have, and do, do this!
Not even, always, the end of a chapter. If I reach a place where there should be a scene break, I write the next few sentences so I have a launching off point the next time I sit down to write.
Tripping the Write Fantastic, a server by and for writers, is going to be celebrating its second year anniversary this coming June - how exciting! (Keep reading to see why this is important!) For those of you who don’t know, we run a zine full of stories from you guys, and we’re preparing for our next edition!
If you like to write stories with myths and fairy tales, this one’s for you - that’s our theme! Our only topic requirement is that your story somehow relates to a myth or a fairy tale. Other than that, the world is your oyster.
Interested in submitting? Here’s some more information!
- Your story must be below 3,000 words. -Any form of written work is acceptable, including but not limited to poetry, songwriting, and prose. - The submission deadline for this period is July 31st, and we are looking at releasing the edition in full in the middle or end of August. - Due to our theme, you must be prepared to tell us which fairy tale or myth your story relates to.
“But Sunny,” you’re asking (I’m sure), “how does the two year anniversary affect this?” For two years, we’re opening submissions for two stories from each writer! They don’t have to be connected should you choose to write two, but they can be - there’s a space in the form to mark that.
And, if you want to design the cover for this edition, you can send me a message for more information!
Woo, that was a lot. I’ll be boosting this post a few times between now and our deadline. Until then, happy writing!
Don’t know if I’ll have time, but this is an awesome idea and lovely offer to open it up, so I’m reblogging to boost <3 Good luck to anyone who enters a submission ^_^
Have a free picture of a Sunrise from yesterday morning.
I’m trying my best to make these monthly updates a habit, and clearly I’m failing at that! I’ve been busy this month though, which strangely helps. It makes me feel like I’ve got more to say than; “Did writing. Did more writing.”
So, let’s dig in…
Since my last update…
Well, since my last ‘official monthly update’ was literally a year ago…
Honestly, my consistency with these updates is embaressing at this point. Let me just look at the last couple of months though, shall we?
I’m still chipping away at Changeling, although since Christmas it’s been slow going. This last week I’ve taken a brief break to write a gift short story, but I can’t say too much about that publicly for the time being.
I’ve also been doing some more reading this month. I was lucky enough to get my hands on an Advanced Reader Copy of Rae Else’s new book, Umbra, that I reviewed in a previous post.
Plans for the coming month…
More word count on Changeling. Honestly, at this point, I think I need to take what I have so far, and rewrite. It shouldn’t set me back too much, but there’s certain things I need to add to the opening chapters that, at this point, are hindering my progression. Having them added into the manuscript now should streamling the process moving forward, and I’m hopeful to have the final manuscript finished by the end of June.
By the middle of next month, I should be able to share details about the gift short story I’ve written too. As I said, I can’t say much right now because the recipient hasn’t recived it, but I’m very proud of it. It only took me five days to write, and it seemed to appear on the page almost fully formed. I’m excited to share it.
As for reading, I’ve got two more Arc’s to review before the end of the month! 'Soul of the Sorceress’ by Cassandra Diviak and 'The Simple Delivery’ by Andrew Claydon. Both Arc’s were obtained through Booksprout, and I’m looking forward to putting my experiances into reviews for the authors, so keep an eye out for those posts.
Rules: When you receive this tag, list 5 things that make you happy (and send this to 10 of the last people in your notifications!)
Cat purrs. I got my first cat when I was 9, and there’s been nothing that can cheer me up faster than a cat purring, ever since.
A bottle of wine shared with @faelanvance late at night. Sometimes combined with Disney Sing-alongs at 2-4am just because we can!
Speaking of sing-alongs; Music! Music makes me happy. I can’t even pick a type or a genre, just sound. It soothes me, and makes me smile.
Romance! Specifically the fictional kind, seeing as there’s nothing going on in my real life in that department. But films, tv shows, movies, or computer games that give me sappy, wholesome, tragic, twisted, romances, can all have a slot in the “That makes me smile” section of my mental storage shelves.
The cliche answer; Writing. I don’t know what I’d be, who I’d be, how I’d face the world, without the ability to write. It’s a really integral part of who I am… and, it makes me happy!
hey y'all i’ve been startin to go back to doing writeblr things and a buncha the people i used to follow are now inactive. if you’re a writer yourself, please interact with this post and i’ll come check you out!! if i like your vibes enough, i’ll totally hurricane into your life to get to know you better. bonus points if you write fantasy, alternate history, are into tropes like found family, explore dysfunctional relationships, and have a buncha traumatized characters <3
You’re going to have slow writing days. Or writing days with no writing at all. Maybe it will stretch out to a week. Maybe it will linger over months. It’s all okay. It’s all perfectly normal.
You don’t qualify as a writer based on your word count. You qualify by telling stories. Dreaming them up and spinning wild adventures. Don’t worry about wordcounts. Find a way to connect with the stories you want to tell. ♥
Have barely written anything since December, but I’m back on a roll right now *rubs hands together excitedly*
Seriously though, for anyone who needs to hear this, I burned out on writing. I burned out hard. Between 2008-2018 I don’t think I wrote anything at all. Nothing I can put my finger on and say “I wrote this” about, anyways.
Then in late 2018 I started writing a Doctor Who fanfic. Between 2018 and 2019 I wrote over 250,000 words on that fanfic, and my best friend @faelanvance pointed out, rather irritated with me, that I could have written 250,000 words of my own story!
I, obstinantly, pointed out that my story was a season rewrite, so that, at most, I probably only had 65k words of original content.
To which she pointed out that was still a whole god damned novel!
I did not have an answer to this beyond; Ah… yeah. You’re not wrong.
So I started outlining a novel. At this point I’d not written original fiction, in any form of consistent manner, in just on ten years, but that didn’t stop me being a writer. I’d still been reading during that time. I’d still been watching films and analysing media during that time. I’d still be learning story craft just by looking at my media consumption critically.
It took me six months to write a 145k first draft of my novel, Stolen. By the time I finished it, the story outline had expanded to be a six book series.
To Long, Didn’t Read; So if you have a writing drought, that doesn’t mean you’re not a writer. It just means you’re absorbing media and studying storycraft in a different way that by putting fresh words to paper.
this is just a post where writers get to know writers, and hopefully through reblogs/comments we can find more people who not only read/write our genre, but just people who have similarities with us.
it’s kind of a simple “get to know me” post, and anyone can join <3
feel free to tag your mutuals and reblog !!
name: genres you like to write in: genres you like to read in + fav books/media: favorite line from your current wip:
name:ave
genres you like to write in: currently writing contemporary (ya/romcom/romance, give me them ALL), but I also like to dabble in fantasy!
genres you like to read in + fav books/media: i’ll consume literally anything haha. Fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, romance, young adult, you name it. I’m awful with horror, though ;-;
percy jackson (MY CHILDHOOD), harry potter (OBVIOUSLY), Better Than the Movies, From Lukov with Love, The Love Hypothesis, These Violent Delights, the list goes on…
favorite or latest line from your current wip: [latest line, because what a mood- from Destination Seoul]Ha. Per usual, the universe hates me.
Name:Asher-Orion
Genres I like to write in: Dystopia (that’s also kind of a murder mystery), apocalyptic, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, love a good bit of romance.
Genres I like to read in: Honestly, a bit of everything! It depends on how I’m feeling, but there’s nothing I hate!
Favourite Books: The Atlas Six - Olivie Blake, really enjoying a Bioshock book atm, Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg, but I don’t think I could ever read it again, big fan of The Mortal Instruments series, and that entire world-relate prequels and sequels, again, a bit of everything.
Latest line of my current WIP: “April rubs his eyes, trying to remember when he last took his medication, he’s sure it was at some point today, but it’s late, and he feels foggy.” (From Neon Glow)
name: tam!
genres you like to write in: uh, fantasy? I like scifi but I’m not very good at it. I’m chucking shit in a blender and hoping it makes a genre when I’m finished
genres you like to read in + fav books/media: sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, space westerns/operas, history/alt history, steampunk & more! Terry Pratchet, Tamora Pierce, Brian Jacques, Brandon Sanderson, asimov, Mercedes Lackey,Robert Jordan, Joy Demorra, & so so many more
favorite line from your current wip: Mal was Cayn’s brother in practically every sense of the word, despite his heritage, despite the whispers, despite, despite, despite! Cayn will do anything for his family, and burn the world. And so Cayn stood behind Maelus, eyes sparking above his trademark grin, and dared the world to comment on the revival of his brother’s clan.
Tagging some Mutuals, but consider this an open tag!
Genres you like to write in: Fantasy and Science Fiction, but I’m predominantly settled into fantasy writing right now, of all kinds. Urban, Portal, Epic, Romantic, etc.
Genres you like to read in + fav books/media: Speculative Fiction. Fantasy of all types, Science Fiction of all types, Time Travel fiction. I also like the occasional classic such as Pride and Prejudice, or Wuthering Heights. I also like childrens books, Beatrix Potter, Artemis Fowl, Watership Down. Basically, if it’s a good story, I’ll read it. My favourite book ever is Wuthering Heights, but my favourite Genre is Epic Fantasy (Series).
Favorite line from your current wip:
His feet didn’t move from her side, and when she glanced up, his hand was held out to her. Patiently waiting for her to notice.
And wasn’t that just a metaphor for their entire relationship.
@author-a-holmes I think I’ve said this to so many people today haha, but I will literally take any fantasy recs <3
OKAY BUT I HAVE NOT SEEN A TIME TRAVEL FICTION. ONLY IN MOVIES because I heard that nobody does them right, so you’ll have to introduce me to some that you’ll like! Classics will always have our hearts.
THE LAST LINE. THAT HIT ME TOO HARD.
I’m very much a fan of (what I title) old-style fantasy, so most of my rec’s are probably older books but honestly, *anything* by David and Leigh Eddings I would recommend for a fantasy buff.
Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series is good for the first 7-8 books, and after that the recaps of “what happened before” take up too much of the opening chapters for me to push through.
The Witcher books by Andrew Sapkowski are also incredible.
And, of course, anything written by Neil Gaiman is a delightful adventure.
~*~
As for Time Travel Fiction, I’ll admit I was mostly thinking of movies when I wrote that, but there are a few books too.
The Time Travellers Wife. While this is a movie, and also, recently, a tv series (Which I can’t wait to see!) it was based on a book of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger.
The Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon is another awesome time travel book series.
Somewhere in Time (1980) with Christopher Reeve is a lovely time travel film, and was also based on a book (although I’ve admittedly, not read the book) called “Bid Time Return” by Richard Matheson. He also helped write the screenplay, and since the film’s awesome, I suspect the book is worth a go too.
My other favourite time travel story is the film “The Lake House” with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Absolutely gorgeous story, one of my fave’s.
I, admittedly, get most of my time travel fix through fanfiction, because it seems like a drastically under-written-in section of fiction. Having said that, I may or may not have a bunny in the back of my head about a time travelling scientist, and an immortal phoenix who always bumps into her when she jumps through time.
EDIT TO ADD:
Oh! Oh! A Discovery of Witches! Book trilogy, and a 3-season TV series, both are great, but the books are phenomenal. In Book Two, they travel back in time, and the whole concept is done very, very well!
~*~
That snippet… Mwahahaa
It’s a new story bunny. Honestly, I spotted your post on a day where I’d been in a bit of a writing drought, so I threw together a 15 minute writing exercise so I had a line to share.
I posted the completed snippet if you want to see how it ends, but it’s honestly just a small piece of character interaction that has helped me get a grasp on the characters a bit more.
I’m still worldbuilding for the Chronicles of Verald, but it’s looking like a huge adventure, a world spanning continents, and on my current writing schedule I can’t start telling Nik and Mallory’s story until 2024.
Mallory Larue is the main character in this fantasy book series. In a world where most people are either Volvar, spellcaster, or Varang, those who lack magic entirely, Mallory is a rare Viken. A Cursebreaker.
Cursebreakers are the only being in Verlad who can alter a spell once it has latched onto a subject, but the magic of Verald has a life of its own, and it doesn’t like being tampered with. Because of how magic lashes out, practicing the art of Cursebreaking is dangerous, but highly sought after.
Mallory has spent her life hiding what she can do, at the urging of her mother Leda Larue. Leda and Mallory have kept her abilities a secret, and protected MAllory from those who would use her, by playing the part of simple barmaid. Daughter of the local fletcher. And nothing more.
That is until her childhood friend, Torval, returns home after several years, and admits to her that his curse has begun to morph. He doesn’t want her help, he says, but for how long can Mallory watch her oldest friend suffer without intevening?
Even if it might drawn the attention of other cursed creatures…
so because my last reblog pissed me off, reblog this and give me the elevator pitch of your WIP. i’ll go first:
inbeauty is a beast after wandering into a cursed forest, twenty year old rowan herself becomes cursed and has to find the witch who can reverse it
Tumblr just felt I needed to see this tonight. Okay then lol
When Lizzy Hail heads to the mortal realm to look for her missing mother, with nothing but a single bag and her best friend at her side, she must quickly learn to navigate a world of rabid vampires or risk losing her only opportunity for closure.
If only he would listen to her, instead of demanding that she adhered to his whims!
If only she would be silent on occasion, and realise that he knew best.
Mallory aimed a furious kick at a pile of leaves, and her foot slipped as the wet mud gave way beneath her feet. Her back hit the ground and her head spun as a sharp “Ooof!” was forced from her lungs.
Now that I’ve got my blog set up and I’m mostly settled, I’d like to get to know some of you and become mutuals with some like-minded folks!
Here’s a little bit about me:
I’m a 31 year old with an academic interest in esotericism, magic, true crime, and all things strange and unusual, which tends to bleed over into my creative endeavors. I write horror, sci-fi, and urban fantasy most often, although I have been known to branch into other genres when I’m hyper fixating on a topic (as you do).
Bird and Fish: Current W.I.P (first book in the Second Serpent series)
In the year 2643, 100 years after humanity has picked itself up from a centuries-long world war, what remains of humankind resides in a domed, climate-controlled city called New London. A pharmaceutical and technology company called Schmidt & Foster runs the city in what is basically a monopoly and a monarchy. However, with the forming of the ADC (the Allied Districts Council), Schmidt & Foster’s unblocked power over the people is beginning to wane.
Seung Kim is a government assassin created by Schmidt & Foster, the last-born in a now dissolving experimental gene-editing project that pre-dates the war (known as H.O.U.N.D.). Seung has a rare gift: the power to travel into the “Void” and traverse the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey soup of time and space. Before leaving on her first assignment, an elder HOUND relays to her an unusual and eerie prophecy: Seung, he says, is fated to destroy New London and all the tentative peace therein.
We’ve got psychics, we’ve got doomsday cults and Lovecraftian eldritch horror, we’ve got political drama, we’ve got the last vestiges of humanity recovering from over 500 years of generational trauma and war… It’s a whole bag of cats.
THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ. Follow if you’re interested in connecting and I’ll follow you back. Can’t wait to meet more of you. <3
Some Other Stuff About Me:
Favorite Tropes:
Enemies to lovers (slow burn)
Small boi/gurl is definitely more powerful than big boi/gurl
The magnificent bastard
The berserker
Sins of the father
Grow from trauma or die trying (read: angst angst angst)
Opposites attract (sweaty bisexual meets prim and proper is my crack)
Unknowable horror (eldritch horror)
Some of My All-Time Favorite Shows:
Evangelion
Fullmetal Alchemist
The Big O
Haruhi Suzumiya
Hannibal
Stranger Things
Haunting of Hill House
Mind Hunter
Arcane
Hello fellow writeblr! You had me hooked at “… magic, true crime, and all things strange and unusual.” All things that I, too, have an interest in :D
Your WIP sounds freaking awesome. I have a soft spot for any books set in London, or london like locations as I’m situated in the South East of England, but I’m also loving the time traveling vibes, and the science experiment vibes, and the horror notes. It looks very intriguing and I know at least one other writer on my mutuals who would also love it (@faelanvance)
I also spot slow burn on your things you like. It’s a favourite dynamic of mine to write. I drive everyone crazy. My project, Stolen, doesn’t even have the two MC’s kiss until book two *evil grin*.
Looking forward to seeing more of your project! <3
