What Ever Happened to Mischief?

Hi, friends. Surprised to see me?

I’m surprised how long it’s been! Once upon a time I was so engaged in this community, and I loved every second of it. Surrounding myself with write-minded people and their amazing content and getting to exercise that part of my brain on the regular was a wonderful outlet. If you followed me long-term, you probably noticed the gaps between my posts and replies increasing once I started medical school (and only getting more pronounced the further along I progressed). Well, I’m still here, and I hope to be able to catch back up with my followers and friends who are still kicking as well!

So what have I been up to all this time?

• I made some healthy life changes and improved my daily habits to be a better version of myself!
• I completed nearly three years of medical school and passed my first licensing exam. (I’ll graduate with my MD summer 2023.)
• I met my forever person and fell in love, which has tested me, blessed me and helped me grow more than I ever could have expected.
• I rekindled my love of reading and rebuilt a reading habit.

What I was in denial about for a long time but have eventually come to accept is this: I am not able to maintain a writing practice at this time. At first, I thought there was something deeply wrong with this and that I had failed. The reality, though, is that life happens in seasons, and there is a time for everything. My time for writing isn’t over, and it will be back again. This is the season in which I must let the fields lay fallow so they may be fruitful again in future years. My identity as a writer and a dreamer has not changed. If this is something you are struggling with as well, I hope you eventually feel encouraged in your seasons of change too.

I have no plans to leave Tumblr, or the writeblr community, permanently, and this account will remain active and (at least occasionally) monitored for messages and activity. I may even unleash a post from my drafts once in a blue moon. I hope to continue to see growth in the community and in all of your lovely WIPs and writing journeys!

My current plan is actually to return to the platform in the adjacent reading community with a new sideblog, @mischiefisreading. After all, aside from being a part of my DNA, reading is a crucial part of writing and something I deeply enjoy. I hope to connect with even more lovely bookish people and to continue making the things I love a part of my life as frequently as possible.

Thank you to everyone who supported my writeblr over the years - I could never have imagined how many of you there would be when I began. I wanted to share this update with all of you to let you know I am well, where I disappeared to, and where and how I’ll be reappearing in the near future. Please feel free to get in touch with me here, on my main @mischiefisgreen or on my new book blog, @mischiefisreading, which is currently under construction.

Hey all! Just curious as to how many of you have taken online/email writing courses to help develop your craft. If that’s you, I’d love to know how you found the experience and which (preferably free) courses you’d recommend.

Thanks!

Hello all! It’s been about, oh, a hundred years since I’ve done an update. But there have been plenty of things going on in the meantime!

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

• Finished my first year of med school! Whoo! Three years to go before I have my MD and match (fingers crossed) into residency.
• Completed a summer course on the COVID pandemic quick on the heels of the end of my M1 year, which also counts as one of my senior electives. (Plus it was free, cha-ching!)
• Started an emergency medicine preceptorship (redesigned to a strange longitudinal schedule, courtesy of the pandemic).
• Started volunteer work in health literacy, which I’m super super excited about. This job is even going to involve some writing! I’ll be helping to edit/proofread medical documents being converted to plain language as well as writing social media and blog posts! (This literally just happened, so I’m still all abuzz with it.)
• Kept pace in reading three books a month. So far this month I’ve finished Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (if you haven’t read this book you absolutely MUST, it is so good) and The Wicked King by Holly Black. Currently reading Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik.
• Wrote about 4k words on a random, outta-the-blue project in the faerie genre. Do I know why? Nope, but when the muse appears….
• Got some quality inspiration for The Calm Before (TCB) which I think makes the kind of change I’m looking for as I continue to re-conceptualize and rebuild this precious, age-old WIP.

Here’s what’s next:

• I’ve got to settle into this new health literacy position; specifically I think I’ve got to get started on some blog/social media post ideas. If there are any health/medical terms, concepts, etc. that you think are challenging for people to understand (especially those used regularly by doctors and other medical staff or faced regularly by patients), I’m open to suggestions!
• I want to continue to explore my new ideas for TCB, one of which could radically change the content and structure of the story. It’s a big shift, including cutting a character I really wanted to have be a part of the narrative, but I’m very excited about the prospect of this new element.
• My plan is to jump back into outlining both Here There Be Monsters andTCB. And probably a little drafting just to keep pace not too far behind the outline. 
• I’ve got a couple more ideas for HTBM posts to continue to get you guys acquainted with the world and characters, plus some general writing posts. A few are in my drafts, nearly ready to go, and the others are… not.

No idea what the timeline will be on these things because some of them are a little nebulous as tasks go, and of course I’ll be getting into my new role(s) related to health literacy. I’m really excited about the current path I’m on at the moment, including some other good news related to school, and I can’t wait to see where it all takes me and to share my writing progress with you.

I look forward to hearing your own news and updates!

- Mis

I’ve been a part of the community here for a while now (two years maybe? wowzers), but my dash has gone a little drier than I’d like while my time online was limited by school. I want to connect more with anyone who’s active, new or old, mutual or not!

(TL;DR - I’m a writeblr looking for new writeblrs to follow.)

I’ll (re)introduce myself.

I’m in my early twenties (she/her), and I just finished my first year of medical school. My bachelor’s degree is in psychology and pre-professional health science. I live in the southern US. I write primarily fantasy and read all genres! I post about my writing, my journey, writing strategies and tools, and I reblog a lot from other writing blogs.

My WIPs:

Currently I have two active WIPs, both high fantasy. The first, The Calm Before, is a project I’ve been conceptualizing and re-conceptualizing for a few years. I’ve just started an outline for it and hope to get it off the ground over the summer. You can read the WIP intro here,full summary here, and character intros one,two,three, and four, but I don’t post much about it anymore since it’s under more “serious” construction! (Questions and comments still welcome, and you can find all related posts on my blog by searching ‘tcb.’)

I post more often about my newest WIP, Here There Be Monsters!

Here There Be Monsters

• Raw high fantasy escapism in episodic structure
• My project to teach myself to write with abandon
• Chaotic goods and neutrals on adventures over land and sea
• Found family out the wazoo
• All the fantasy species and staples
• RPG inspired
• WIP intro here
• Character intros hereandhere
• All related posts in the ‘htbm’ tag here

Now for you guys!

I wanna get to know you and your blogs and WIPs! If you

• Post at least 95% writing content
• Are relatively active

Reblog this (super long,sorry) post or tag me in a post to introduce yourself, message me, shoot me an ask, anything! Doesn’t matter if your blog is brand new or I’ve been following you from the start. 

Join the conversation!

There are a lot of iconic squads of fictional characters out there who play off each other to absolute perfection. They keep us coming back for more and inspire fanfiction and fanart and shoving whatever piece of media they come from down the throats of everyone we know. (Just me?)

Frodo and Sam. Sherlock and Watson. Sam and Dean. The Gaang. Whether they’re siblings, lovers, frenemies, or bitter rivals, character dynamics can bring life to a work of fiction in a way few other things can.

What are your favorite character dynamics? Do you prefer duos or an entire squad? What elements in a dynamic make it truly *chef’s kiss*? Do your preferences differ if you’re the reader as opposed to the writer?

I’ll start things off with two of my favorite character dynamics/tropes. The first is grizzled and/or gruff loner character who Does Not Form Attachments that adopts the smol bean who is a living ray of sunshine or otherwise just their child/charge now. From John Silver taking Jim Hawkins under his wing in Treasure Planet to the titular Mandalorian forming a clan of two with Baby Yoda, I cannot get enough of this trope. It tugs at the heart strings and sets up great potential for suspense, strife, and angst. There’s something about the innocence of the smol bean proving the warmth of their rough and tough guardian and bringing out their potential for good, especially in the context of a more morally ambiguous character.

The second dynamic is enemy-to-adopted-weird-uncle-who-still-hasn’t-really-changed-sides-exactly. The most prototypical example of this is Hector Barbosa in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. He’s the primary antagonist of the first film, but by the third (spoilers) he’s marrying two of the heroes mid-battle. He’s not exactlyfriends with the good guys, but at the same time, he is. The longstanding comedic irony in this group dynamic is one of the primary draws for me, as well as that unique push and pull of being fond of someone you can’t necessarily trust to be on your side. I revel in the massive grey area of these kinds of relationships.

I don’t know that I have a true preference for group dynamics or one-on-ones, but group dynamics often prove to be more difficult to balance. There’s actually a pretty clean split between my two active WIPs. In The Calm Before, it’s more a series of one-on-one dynamics, while Here There Be Monsters has to deal more with how a larger group interacts and relates as a whole.

Join in and start chatting about character dynamics! Reblog or tag me in your own ‘Write Angle’ post with your take. No deadline for participation, and no need to necessarily answer the questions above - they’re just prompts to get the ball rolling!

Taglist under the cut. Drop me a line to be added/removed.

@ren-c-leyn/@monstrouswrites/@inscrutable-shadow/@sundaynightnovels/@seventypercentvodka/@iamidentical/@perringwrites/@dahladahlabills/@thewritertiffany/@writevevo

Thanks everybody!

<3 Mis   |05.28.20|

//FULL TEXT UNDER THE CUT// <- Click the ‘READ MORE’!

WIP:Here There Be Monsters

Name: Camlann  |  Gender: Male  |Race/Species: Half-fae   

Age: unknown  |  Nickname:Cam

Occupation: “half-elven charmcasting lordling”; first mate aboard theKenning

Class:Rogue |Alignment: chaotic neutral

Weapons of Choice: daggers, throwing knives | Magic:celestial

“Hollow of heart is the thrice-cursed son…”

Camlann’s life began with happiness, with privilege, with hope for the future. But it was never meant to stay that way. Born amongst fae immovably bound to tradition, his heterochromatic eyes left him marked by his people as an omen of calamity and harbinger of ill fate. Though he grew into a mischievous child, his troublemaking was harmless, and he strove to defy the prophecies that followed him in whispers and the power of his blood. In a moment of childish foolhardiness, however, what should have been an unremarkable night cast the die for the rest of his existence, and Camlann called the calamity he never believed existed down upon his world.

Unable to strip away the guilt, he attempted to strip away all else about himself. When he was old enough, he struck out into the world to be lost and – he hoped – never to return. Over many lifetimes, he became many selves, giving himself over to all manner of exploits and drifting throughout the Cradle and numerous lands beyond. Though unwanted by his people for the disaster he caused, he is also pursued by those who need him to return and take up the mantle left to him by tradition. A sudden change led him to abandon the troubled and hollow history hidden behind his blithe disposition, and ever since, Camlann has been trapped between becoming the man he tried to burn away and being rid of the man he’s lived as.

Theft committed on a whim puts him into trouble he can’t quite talk his way out of, and the price for his recklessness is death. He’s snatched from his punishment by a miraculous stolen ship and her equally miraculous - if puzzling - captain. The pair are bound together on a quest to repay his debts, but that is only the beginning.

A quintessential dreamer and runaway, Camlann believes in his own ideals and will pursue them across any distance, but likewise there is no limit to what he may leave behind. He must uncover what remains in the ashes of his past and the embers of his power in order to answer the question that has hounded him since the beginning.

But first, he has demons to face. Inner torments, ghosts of his own making, and enemies of flesh and bone have accumulated over the long years, and no amount of pretending will keep them from catching up to him.

Here there be monsters.

//TAGLIST//@awrenthatwrites​,@inscrutable-shadow​,@dawnoftheagez,@quilloftheclouds​,@a-box-without-hinges​,@bringingglory​,@ren-c-leyn​,@kespada​​

A big thank you to everyone who read this and met Cam! Questions, comments, and feedback are all very (very) welcome. If you’d like to be added to or removed from the taglist, please drop me a line. You can check out the HTBMtagHERE.