writers after killing their own characters:

Five foot two in shoes,

though you claim to be taller,

and stubborn.

The thin lines around your mouth were carved by deep worries, I know,

but they look like permanent smiles.

And the curling in your hands is from holding tight

to the threads of our family, pulling us close -

and the forward press of your teeth is be from the clench of

a determined jaw, not weak bones.

They say that age is grey and sad,

or frail.

but you are silver and smiling,

a staunch wee warrior-

and I cannot be frightened of a future that looks like you.

If you want to help me keep writing, consider Reading This Poem Here, reblogging, or supporting me via Ko-Fi

wordfather:

all i do is rotate wips around in my head and not write anything down

petermorwood:

illisidifan:

authorkims:

This is why she’s my favorite author.

Check out “Barry Lyndon”, a film whose period interiors were famously shot by period lamp-and-candle lighting (director Stanley Kubrick had to source special lenses with which to do it).

More recently, some scenes in “Wolf Hall” were also shot with period live-flame lighting and IIRC until they got used to it, actors had to be careful how they moved across the sets. However, it’s very atmospheric: there’s one scene where Cromwell is sitting by the fire, brooding about his association with Henry VIII while the candles in the room are put out around him. The effect is more than just visual.

As someone (I think it was Terry Pratchett) once said: “You always need enough light to see how dark it is.”

A demonstration of getting that out of balance happened in later seasons of “Game of Thrones”, most infamously in the complaint-heavy “Battle of Winterfell” episode, whose cinematographer claimed the poor visibility was because “a lot of people don’t know how to tune their TVs properly”.

So it was nothing to do with him at all, oh dear me no. Wottapillock. Needing to retune a TV to watch one programme but not others shows where the fault lies, and it’s not in the TV.

*****

We live in rural West Wicklow, Ireland, and it’s 80% certain that when we have a storm, a branch or even an entire tree will fall onto a power line and our lights will go out.

Usually the engineers have things fixed in an hour or two, but that can be a long dark time in the evenings or nights of October through February, so we always know where the candles and matches are and the oil lamp is always full.

We also know from experience how much reading can be done by candle-light, and it’s more than you’d think, once there’s a candle right behind you with its light falling on the pages.

You get more light than you’d expect from both candles and lamps, because for one thing, eyes adapt to dim light. @dduane​ says she can sometimes hear my irises dilating. Yeah, sure…

For another thing lamps can have accessories. Here’s an example: reflectors to direct light out from the wall into the room. I’ve tried this with a shiny foil pie-dish behind our own Very Modern Swedish Design oil lamp, and it works.

Smooth or parabolic reflectors concentrate their light (for a given value of concentrate, which is a pretty low value at that) while flatter fluted ones like these scatter the light over a wider area, though it’s less bright as a result:

This candle-holder has both a reflector and a magnifying lens, almost certainly to illuminate close or even medical work of some sort rather than light a room.

And then there’s this, which a lot of people saw and didn’t recognise, because it’s often described in tones of librarian horror as a beverage in the rare documents collection.

There IS a beverage, that’s in the beaker, but the spherical bottle is a light magnifier, and Gandalf would arrange a candle behind it for close study.

Here’s one being used - with a lightbulb - by a woodblock carver.

And here’s the effect it produces.

Here’s a four-sphere version used with a candle (all the fittings can be screwed up and down to get the candle and magnifiers properly lined up) and another one in use by a lacemaker.

Finally, here’s something I tried last night in our own kitchen, using a water-filled decanter. It’s not perfectly spherical so didn’t create the full effect, but it certainly impressed me, especially since I’d locked the camera so its automatic settings didn’t change to match light levels.

This is the effect with candles placed “normally”.

But when one candle is behind the sphere, this happens.

 It also threw a long teardrop of concentrated light across the worktop; the photos of the woodcarver show that much better.

Poor-people lighting involved things like rushlights or tallow dips. They were awkward things, because they didn’t last long, needed constant adjustment, didn’t give much light and were smelly. But they were cheap, and that’s what mattered most.

They’re often mentioned in historical and fantasy fiction but seldom explained: a rushlight is a length of spongy pith from inside a rush plant, dried then dipped in tallow (or lard, or mutton-fat), hence both its names.

Here’s Jason Kingsley making one.

so i saw a dream the other week that i finished writing the book i’m currently working on and it ended up being about 41k words and i got so sad because it was smaller than i imagined and cried myself awake…

…so anyway, i reached 40k words yesterday while writing that book and i’m not even halfway done

screnwriter:

how to stay motivated as a writer

• Reread your old writing, especially those scenes you’re most proud of
• Write something silly. It doesn’t need to be logical, consistent or included in your story. Write something dumb
• Compare your old writing to your new writing. Seeing how much you’ve improved can be very motivating
• Explore different storylines, those type of storylines that would never make it into your story, but you’d still like to play around with. Create AUs!
• Choose one of your least favorite scenes and rewrite it
• Act out your scenes
• Read old comments from people praising your work
• Create a playlist that reminds you of your wip
• Team up with a friend, write AUs for each other’s characters
• Create playlists for your characters
• Draw your ocs/make memes of your ocs
• Draw/make memes of your friend’s ocs
• Don’t push yourself to get back into writing the thing that made you stop writing in the first place, try writing something else!
• Write what you wanna write, no matter how cliché it might be. If you want to write it, write it
• Take a break, focus on another hobby of yours. Consume other pieces of media, take a walk to clear your head
• You don’t have to write in chronological order if it isn’t working for you! Sometimes a scene you aren’t interested in writing can become interesting after you’ve explored other scenes in the story
• Read bad reviews of books or TV-shows. You’ll unlock appreciation and motivation for your own writing
• Create a new storyline, or a new character! Anything that helps bring something fresh into your story. Could even be a completely new wip!
• Not writing every day doesn’t make you a bad writer. Take a break if you feel like you need one
• Remind yourself to have fun. Start writing and don’t focus all your attention on following “the rules.” You can get into the nitty-gritty when you’ve familiarized yourself with writing as an art. Or don’t. It’s fiction, you make your own rules
• Go to sleep, or take a nap. Sleep deprivation and writing does not go hand in hand
• Listen to music that reminds you of your characters/wip
• Remember why you started. Know that you deserve to tell the story you want to tell regardless of the skill you possess

headspace-hotel:

adorhauer:

nature-bursting-forth:

adorhauer:

RIP to all the amazing story ideas I never wrote down.

Trust mate they come back when needed or went somewhere else and became. All the energy goes somewhere in the end. Trust. This one always goes home

That was the most uplifting addition to this post I’ve seen yet. Thank you, friend

This is true though! Your brain is compost not a landfill. Everything you bury will later bloom. 

wikluk:

milf-maul:

writing is a process appreciate your ficwriters

in my case it’s just head empty, no thoughts lol

rockshitty:

Does this fanfiction make sense? Hold water? Not an ounce! Does that mean I’m going to stop writing it? Not an ounce! I’m a moron with a keyboard and half an idea and that’s your problem now. God couldn’t stop me and neither could my dad, and now I’m on your screen with another thousand words of whatever the fuck this is. Bon appetite bitch!

writeouswriter:

Planning the sequel to my novel even though the first one currently consists of approximately 3 lines of dialogue and a piece of string

mybruisedankleneedsakiss:

Breasts and Eggs, Mieko Kawakami

childhoodlovers:

Hey Writeblr, if you have a WIP that heavily features people of color or narratives of color, be a dear and tell me about it? (through rb, tags, an ask, etc). Bonus if it’s Fantasy or Historical. Trying to find more stories to follow <3.

Writing rough draft to Academy 4. 50k in already and already moving elements I thought was going to add to this book to books later in the series. This series is huge. I can’t write fast enough.

Trying to get a proof copy to edit from CreateSpace is proving to be difficult. Going to switch out the cover for a plain/generic one just to get that print copy.

I keep thinking of scenes and lines when I go to sleep at night. I’m not getting much sleep for that very reason.

I feel like I talk about the Academy more than anything else. It’s an addiction and I’ve admitted this. AND I DON’T WANT TO STOP.

Cute guys are awesome.

doomstar:

You know what, fuck people who force writers to reveal their trauma in order to justify the stories they write. No consumer is owed an explanation for the content a creator creates, and no creator should feel obligated to draw from or admit to pain that may or may not be in their life in order to craft a work of fiction.

“I had an idea for a story” is all the justification you need to write one, and all anyone needs to let it be. 

headspace-hotel:

Remember being a kid and writing a story like “yeah I’m going to make my protagonist 14. That’s a good age to join a rebellion, fight in a war, and assassinate an evil ruler. Having them be 12 just wouldn’t be realistic.”

I absolutely do!

Then being an adult and writing like: “yeah, I’m gonna make this protagonist 28, that’s perfect for this contemporary, because no one younger than that is capable of making a logical decision about which streaming service to commit to.”

weaselle:

azbukivedii:

stevhoa:

irtenyev:

when w. h. auden said “evil is unspectacular and always human” and ursula k. leguin said “this is the great treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain”

when toni morrison said “i just think goodness is more interesting. evil is constant. you can think of different ways to murder people, but you can do that at age five. but you have to be an adult to consciously, deliberately be good – and that’s complicated.”

when simone weil said “imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.”

so what i’m hearing here is that the best stories will always be the ones that pit imaginary evil like dark sorcery or alien overlords against things that are real and good, like human hope, kindness, and perseverance…

except, i am starting to suspect, the very VERY best stories are the ones that take the true, boring kind of evil that is present in our lives and tells it in a way that is interesting enough for us to watch it be defeated by the goodness we are all capable of

So, I’m super disappointed that I didn’t manage to finish my current fic in time for today (it’s not set on Valentine’s Day, but has a Cupid theme!). In my own defence, I came down with shingles and I’ve had no energy, either physically or emotionally, for really anything. However! The fic IS coming along and the end is very much in sight at this point! I’m always afraid to give timeline promises, but I thiiiink I should be able to finish it this week or early into next week???? It’s at 23,700 words now! 

Fic is now over 20,500 words! :)

I got a little slice of writing done! Yay! I’m working on a sequel to Isosceles, featuring John and Sherlock going to LA to visit Corey! It’s just in the early stages but all plotted out at this point. I’m hoping it will be a fun one, low on the angst, but with a bit of spice. It’s a little over 2,200 words now! 

jobooksncoffee:

calaisreno:

First Line Writer Game

I was tagged by both @arwamachineand@helloliriels. Thank you!

My last 10 works and their opening lines:

• Equinox: Happy families are all alike.
• A Chronic Condition: Sherlock Holmes is jealous.
• Accidental Magic: It sounds like a terrible case.
• No Such Person: “Did you talk to Harriet Watson?”
• We Remain: London is known for rain, not snow.
• The Real You: John knows Sherlock is ill even before he tells him.
• Prodigal Sons: Idiots, both of them.
• Blank Slate: Mary died before he could formally propose.
• A Chamber to be Haunted: There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.
• Synchronicity: He’s crossing Russell Square one day, thinking about his worthless life (so worthless, he can’t think of a single thing to say about it in the blog his therapist insisted that he start), when he hears a voice.

I have an obvious preference for short first sentences. This goes all the way back to my first stories on AO3, so I suppose it’s part of my writerly style. Two of these (Equinox and A Chamber to be Haunted) borrow first lines from literature. The line from Equinox is the first line of Anna Karenina, and A Chamber to be Haunted uses the same line that begins Jane Eyre.

Am I in a rut? Are there better ways to begin a story? I like a short sentence; it gives the reader questions, invites them to read.

I’d like to tag a couple, though they may already have been tagged: @therealsaintscully@jobooksncoffee

Thank you to the very talented @calaisreno! As I don’t yet have ten stories posted on AO3, I’ll throw in some WIPs

•Will You Take Me Home? Rosie kept looking up towards the doors of her school auditorium filled with students, their science projects displayed on tables, and their parents for the school’s Annual Science Fair.

•The bowels of London. “Hey there sweetie, you again? You looking for some companeee?” she slurred.

•Security Blanket He didn’t know why he had taken it.

•Not Involved. Mycroft put down the phone and went back to his treadmill.

•The Beard “…But it doesn’t work like that!! You know it, you have to come to the Yard and fill out that paperwork!!

•Following the (Silver) Fox “Those things will kill you,” said a voice in the darkness.

•The Necessity Oh that tall glass of water, gorgeous.

Three WIPs

•Three Years: Scared, alone, cold—after everything, after all that time, all that work, still scared, still alone, still cold.

•We’ll Always Have Vasteras: Sherlock was tired, hurt and hungry.

• Title to be determined: John held his hat in his hands nervously.

Please anyone who would like to, join in! I will tag @loveismyrevolution,@elwinglyre,@totallysilvergirl,@cumbercurlygirl@discordantwords,@silentauroriamthereal@chriscalledmesweetie@greenapricot,@nade2308,@fellshish,@annecumberbatch

Oh, cool meme! Thanks for the tag, @jobooksncoffee! 

1. Sherlock squints across the narrow, wobbling table and wishes for the seventeenth time that some idiot from behind the bar would come and shore it up with a wedge of serviettes or else just make the floor level, or whatever it would take to keep the thing from swaying precariously every time he forgets and puts his right elbow down onto it again. (Cupid’s Venom)

2. It starts with an event that takes John completely by surprise. (Nocturne)

3. John has a secret. (The Secret of Hazel Grange)

4. Interesting, that soldier fellow. He could be the making of my brother. Or make him worse than ever. Mycroft purses his lips and moves the cursor back to the start of the surveillance video, beginning it at the precise moment where John Watson rushes forward and begins to beat his brother to a bloody pulp. (Two lines on that one! This is the opening of Sine Nomine)

5.  “The National Defence of Traditional Marriage Coalition,” Sherlock reads aloud. He already sounds contemptuous, John thinks. Sherlock puts the pamphlet down. “What the hell is that?” (Technically that’s three lines, but they’re short! From The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse)

6. When the text comes, John closes his eyes and sighs. (Rebuilding Rome)

7. It starts with an email on a Tuesday afternoon sometime in April. (Isosceles)

8. They’re drinking tea in front of the fire one afternoon when Mrs Hudson comes up, her step a little heavier than usual to Sherlock’s ear. (Home for Christmas)

9. PS. I know you two, and if I’m gone, I know what you could become, because I know who you really are. A junkie who solves crimes to get high and the doctor who never came home from the war. Well, you listen to me: who you really are, it doesn’t matter. It’s all about the legend, the stories, the adventures…Mary’s words go on, but somehow John stops listening. (More than one line there, too, but it was for the quote! From The Bells of King’s College)

10. It initially began as concern, though Sherlock wondered even then if the excuse weren’t a little thin. (In the Still of the Night)

There you have it! Tagging: all of you who write. :)

Whoo, I just wrote 1,500 words of the fic!! I’m officially on the last little scene, basically an epilogue! The word count is right at 27,400 words! :))) 

First time managing to write a tiny bit since a few days before my mom’s big surgery. I just need one chunk of uninterrupted time, all at once, and I’ll be able to get this thing done. I haven’t had that in the week I’ve been taking care of my mom and puppysitting or cleaning at the same time, but hopefully I’ll get a chance SOON! Fic’s at 26,000 words, probably around 4,000 or so to go??