dontjudgemeimawriter

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

doom yourself before the narrative does

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

#ny means I'm pretty good but idk who's actually from here

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

The symbolism of flowers

Flowers have a long history of symbolism that you can incorporate into your writing to give subtext.

Symbolism varies between cultures and customs, and these particular examples come from Victorian Era Britain. You'll find examples of this symbolism in many well-known novels of the era!

Amaryllis: Pride

Black-eyed Susan: Justice

Bluebell: Humility

Calla Lily: Beauty

Pink Camellia: Longing

Carnations: Female love

Yellow Carnation: Rejection

Clematis: Mental beauty

Columbine: Foolishness

Cyclamen: Resignation

Daffodil: Unrivalled love

Daisy: Innocence, loyalty

Forget-me-not: True love

Gardenia: Secret love

Geranium: Folly, stupidity

Gladiolus: Integrity, strength

Hibiscus: Delicate beauty

Honeysuckle: Bonds of love

Blue Hyacinth: Constancy

Hydrangea: Frigid, heartless

Iris: Faith, trust, wisdom

White Jasmine: Amiability

Lavender: Distrust

Lilac: Joy of youth

White Lily: Purity

Orange Lily: Hatred

Tiger Lily: Wealth, pride

Lily-of-the-valley: Sweetness, humility

Lotus: Enlightenment, rebirth

Magnolia: Nobility

Marigold: Grief, jealousy

Morning Glory: Affection

Nasturtium: Patriotism, conquest

Pansy: Thoughtfulness

Peony: Bashfulness, shame

Poppy: Consolation

Red Rose: Love

Yellow Rose: Jealously, infidelity

Snapdragon: Deception, grace

Sunflower: Adoration

Sweet Willian: Gallantry

Red Tulip: Passion

Violet: Watchfulness, modesty

Yarrow: Everlasting love

Zinnia: Absent, affection

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

i wish more asexual characters & characters commonly headcanonned as asexual were more… mean lol, for lack of a better word. there’s a lot of characters who get hc’ed as asexual bc "they’re so innocent and sweet!" or "they’re awkward and shy" and even canon asexual characters are often kinda in the same vein.

i want more ace characters who are confident & serious & assertive & loud, who are proudly asexual. characters who are aroace and just sigh when someone tries to hit on them. characters who are asexual and sex repulsed, who clearly & definitively let their romantic interests know "we’re never gonna have sex, you have to decide if that’s a commitment you’re willing to make". asexual characters who are glad that they don’t feel sexual attraction, because it seems to make their friends do wild, ridiculous things. asexual characters who like going out and having fun and dressing for the occasion, and just aren’t interested in a hookup afterwards.

asexuality isn’t a personality trait. asexuality is not related to ideas of innocence or purity and honestly, it’s super fucking weird to act like it is. consider moving away from that very uncomfortable stereotype, thanks in advance.

#my aroace character is kinda the antagonist? so... #(I have some others but they don't exactly fit with what you're talking about)

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

I never post excepts nowadays because I've hardly been writing but today i sat down and got the boys to kiss. Sooooo since otherwise no one will be excited with me, I'll give you guys a present. Of course, it's not as delicious without all the buildup... but some of you have been following along and know about half of that buildup. Soooo... here is the little bit of them kissing. Unedited, I literally just wrote this today and was excited.

I stroked his back. “I am glad you didn’t listen to me all those times. You are so committed to being a better person. You show me how it might be possible. I watch you try so hard to do things better and it makes me want to do things better. I am a better person because I lo— care about you.”

[Raymond is very upset and Terran is trying to comfort him. Terran has actually realized he likes Raymond here but hasn't done anything about it]

Raymond lifted his head to look at me. I felt my stomach turn, he’d heard what I’d almost said, I should have been thinking about what I was saying more, it has just— almost— slipped out—

“What?” he asked, and I heard something lighter in it, something that hadn’t been there yet this morning.

“I—“ I didn’t know what to say from here. I didn’t know how to correct, how to cover.

And then suddenly I didn’t have to, because he’d leaned in close to me, and he was closer to me than he ever had before, and then his lips pressed against mine— soft and salty, his face pressing into me— and my heart was racing and I got so excited I forgot to respond for a second, and did I even know how to do this? I didn’t have practice. I didn’t even fully know I wanted it until it was happening— Raymond, against me, kissing me— my body stirred in ways I wasn’t used to dealing with, pulled me in closer to him , pressing my lips harder on his—

And then suddenly I remembered why I hadn’t done this, what had held me back yesterday, and I hesitated, pulling back just enough that he noticed and pulled back very suddenly and completely, his eyes wide and scared again.

“I’m sorry— you said— you didn’t mean it like— I’ll go,” he scrambled to stand up, then looked around for a moment, realizing it was his room.

I sat up quickly, half-standing to reach for him, to catch his arm. “No,” I said, not even sure what I was going to say, just that I wanted him to stay, but also I didn’t know how to get him to stay without telling him the truth, which I couldn’t say, which we couldn’t do any of this without, because I was still going against him and who he wanted me to be.

He didn’t look at me. “That— I’m sorry—“

I ignored his apology. “I need to ask you something.” I said.

He paused, looking at me, raising an eyebrow.

I still wanted to pull him back. I swallowed. “Just, pause on what just happened for a second. And I’m sorry to bring this up, now, when you’re upset, but Is need to ask.” I’d actually been intending on not asking permission. But now… I needed to.

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to say it, to ask. I stared at the sheets below me. “I need to ask you… If I found a way, if it didn’t just put us in more danger… You don’t want me to kill anyone, I know that, and thanks to you I don’t want to either— but…would you not want me to kill Alexander?”

Because if he said no, I wouldn’t do it. I’d find another way.

In the pause, he relented, sitting back down on the bed, much farther away than we’d been before.

It had come out so fumbled that I was almost afraid it had come out wrong. Raymond swallowed, looking away for a moment. “Do you… have a way?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Not a good one. But I might be close to finding one.”

He slowly shook his head. “No. I mean, I really hate him right now. I think maybe I would be up to killing him right now, but I know I can’t, and that I’d feel horrible about it. But… if you were doing it to, like, take over his job, or even just out of revenge… that wouldn’t be great. But… there are some reasons, I think, that justify it. And I wish there was a way out of it where you didn’t have to. But it might be the only way… and if anyone deserves to die, it’s him.”

Still without looking at me, Raymond thought for a moment, then spoke. “I wish, for you, that you wouldn’t to kill anyone. But… if anyone deserves to die, it’s him. And I… I’m fine with it. If you did.”

It hadn’t been the answer I’d expected. “Are you just… mad at him right now? Because of [spoilers]?” Had I purposefully chosen this moment, the moment he was most likely to give me permission?

I nodded. I really hadn’t expected him to give me permission. But, underneath his hesitations, his convincing himself— I heard what he was scared to admit. He wasn’t just giving me permission. He wanted me to do it.

I would have to figure out what that meant. But now that I was no longer keeping that from him, all I wanted was to pull him back. I took a deep breath. “Okay. So since we’ve taken care of that… we can unpause.”

“Right.” Raymond glanced at me, trying to figure out what I was going to say.

All I wanted was him closer to me, so I reached to him, pulled myself close. His eyes flew wide open in surprise. “I’m sorry I stopped it. I’ve been—" my instinct to hid my feelings almost made me stop talking, but I pushed it out. “— wanting to do that for the past three days. Please continue.”

Raymond laughed at that. “To be honest? I’ve been wanting to do that for the past three years.”

I laughed, too. I didn’t take the time to process that, to think about what it meant. I didn’t let myself think, or I’d stop. I leaned into him and kissed him as hard as I could.

@sleepy-night-child

@enbydragon02

@drippingmoon

@thegreatobsesso

@athenswrites

@charlesjosephwrites

@wildswrites

@cljordan-imperium

@islanded-in-a-stream-of-stars

@andromeda-grace

@Iris-words

@unclevladscorner

Very important announcement!

The boys have kissed!

#hope you guys enjoy my gay children #need some cheerleadering over this. I decided to do this on a whim today #may change it completely #but you know it can only happen in a hella angsty way

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

Very important announcement!

The boys have kissed!

#Syndicate #Raymond #Terran #Rayran

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

i made this comparison of my YA books for twitter / instagram / my Professional accounts but i figured i could share it here too :)

i am Not good at marketing myself / talking about my books, but i Know that i need to be getting my name out there so... this is one such attempt. read my YA novels perhaps??

request the ghost of you on netgalley

pre-order the ghost of you

buy if i can give you that

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

Honestly? My main piece of advice for writing well-rounded characters is to make them a little bit lame. No real living person is 100% cool and suave 100% of the time. Everyone's a little awkward sometimes, or gets too excited about something goofy, or has a silly fear, or laughs about stupid things. Being a bit of a loser is an incurable part of the human condition. Utilize that in your writing.

#this isn't exactly that but i hate in tv shows where someone makes a joke to an audience and no one laughs. i kaugh if i percieve something #as a joke. someone is going to chuckle #no matter how lame it is

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

Are you a writer who likes tag games?

I'm trying to be more active here and build a group of people that I can tag and get tagged in return.

Please interact with this post to get on my tag list and reblog to boost.

#hi! i like them #even though I've got a backlog rn.. ...

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

ATTENTION ALL GIRLS: Being a ride or die means staying by a man’s side whether he has $500 or $5. Not when he cheats 10 times and you stay.

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

my dash is super dead these days so im looking for some new writeblrs to follow. reblog this and tell me about your current project when you do!

all writeblrs and projects should be shared but bonus points if

monsters (creature feature, vampires, zombies, ghosts, all apply)

werewolves

spy thrillers

horror elements of any sort

animal protags ala warrior cats/watership down

#it isn't a spy thriller but if you like that my wip has similar vibes i think #it's about someone raised to be an assassin for a criminal empire who is trying to escape but in order to do that he has to outsmart #the people above him and protect people he loves and also convince himself that this is what he really wants

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

reminder that in a little over two months, i have the first book in a queer fantasy trilogy coming out!

it's about a spy falling in love with the man he politically married as part of his cover, and uncovering a massive conspiracy. it features an icy setting, a country where the sun never shines, and a girl who would cut you on sight. i think it's really cool :)

you can read more about it here!

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

I LOVE IT WHEN ENDINGS CIRCLE BACK TO THE BEGINNING!!!

I LOVE IT WHEN CHARACTERS MIRROR EACH OTHER!!!!!

I LOVE IT WHEN CHARACTERS SEAL THEIR FATES IN THEIR FIRST SCENES!!!!

I LOVE IT WHEN CHARACTERS' GREATEST TRAITS ARE ALSO WHAT DOOM THEM IN THE END!!!!!

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

A Workshop for Creating Magical/ Fictional Crystals: A Guide from a Geologist

Hi folks, its me, here to talk about fictional writing again! Today I'm just tackling the idea of magical stones/mana stones by looking at existing minerals today and some neat properties that they have, and how you can apply these things to a fictional world. The goal is mainly to help you if you are stuck trying to come up with a unique magic system, or a unique identification/characteristic of your mineral.

First Things First: Mineral Shapes

I am exhausted, petered out, down-right fatigued by seeing every mineral depicted with having the crystal structure of calcite and quartz. There are soooooo many cooler, more interesting crystal structures, don't you think you would stop and take a look at a perfect cube in nature? It is completely unsettling.

Second: Color

Color within minerals can either be really important, or not important at all! It is your choice to decide if color is going to be something that means something to your mineral. But what are some times when the color is important? Well.... there are some elements that are called chromophores, this classification just indicates that these elements, when present, will determine the color of whatever they are in. So, if you wanted to treat mana like a chromophore, you could say, "Oh everything that contains mana turns green!" This could mean that regardless of the mineral, if that mineral is a specific color, it means it contains mana. This concept is exciting because you can just stop here and use minerals that already exist! You can also use it as an indicator for a magical ore! Chromophores are typically metals, so if you are making a new metal weapon, making the ore of that metal a unique color would make a lot of sense!

However, your mineral can also just be every color of the rainbow like quartz and perhaps that's what makes identifying your mana stones elusive and create an illusion of scarcity that your character can solve.

There are other things that can change the colors of minerals, like radiation damage, and electron exchange, but I think that is beyond what would be helpful! So lets talk about some unique color properties that happen in nature that seem magical in the first place! Maybe you don't need to design a mana stone, but you want a unique gemstone that only the royal family passes down or something (IDK).

The first one is the alexandrite effect! This is where a mineral can change color in natural light vs. incandescent light. (the mineral itself is not changing, but the lights contain different amounts of different colors that then get absorbed by the stone). Even if you don't use electricity in your fictional world, you could have the colors change in the presence of light magic. This could create fun misunderstandings about what the mineral is reacting to!

Pleochroism

Pleochroism is something that most minerals have, it is frequently used to help identify minerals in thin sections, however minerals are usually not pleochroic enough for it to be visible to the naked eye! Pleochroism is just a fancy name to describe the change in how light is absorbed based on the angle of the mineral! So if you scroll up to the first image where I showed a lot of crystal shapes, most of them have angles where they are longer and shorter! This will effect the way light travels in the crystal. Tanzanite is a popular mineral that does this.

Photochromism

This is when a mineral will change color (in a reversible way) when exposed to UV light (or sunlight), I am not going to go too into the details of why this is happening because it would require me to read some research papers and I just don't feel like it. The mineral that is best known for this is Hackmanite!

Alright! These are all the really cool color effects that might inspire you or maybe not, but now I am going to talk about how you might find your minerals within a rock!

When I see a lot of magical caves/mines, typically I see them with some variation of a geode honestly, but most minerals are not found like that! Now I am sure most of you guys have seen a geode, so I will not really talk about those, but I will talk briefly about porphyroblasts which is when the mineral grows larger than the minerals around it, this happens in metamorphic minerals!

sorry random stranger, but this is an image of garnets inside a finer-grained rock at gore mountain in New York!

Another way you might find minerals is in a pegmatite! This is when all minerals are really large! This is a formed from really slow crystalizing magma!

But something else to think about is that your mineral might just be massive, it doesn't have to have distinct crystals, it may be similar to jadeite where small grains grow together which leaves it looking smooth and seamless! A note about all of these is that you would have to mine into the rock to find these, there would not be any natural caves in these rocks! Caves are only ever really formed in limestones and maybe marbles (rocks that react with acid).

How can your characters identify these minerals?

Typically when you are out in the field you will look to see what type of rocks the minerals are found in (The overall texture of the rock will tell you how it formed). If you know how the rock formed, it will narrow down the amount of minerals you need to think about by quite a bit! Next, you are going to look closely at it and observe its crystal structure, does it have an obvious crystal? if so what is the general shape? If it is broken, how did it break? Did it fracture like glass or did it break along uniform planes. Some minerals have a thing called cleavage (breaks along planes of weakness). If a mineral exhibits this habit, it will again help narrow this down. Next we can look at color. Color can be misleading, because minerals like quartz can be any color imaginable, but minerals like olivine will always be green! The next thing your character can do is test for hardness, minerals all have a specific hardness that can help identify it as well.

After you go through all of this, your mineral might have some special property! This could be magnetism, fluorescence, reactions to acid, or any of the color changing effects I mentioned above! Other than that, your character can take it back to a lab and do a number of things to identify it, but the most typical thing would be for them to make a thin section (very thin piece of the rock) and observe it under a cross polarized microscope!

On that note folks! I hope this helped in some way in thinking of new magic mineral properties! I have other guides that explore some different fictional worldbuilding issues you might run into, but if you have any topics you would like me to cover please that I haven't mentioned already, let me know!

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

the cover + description for my second YA novel is finally live! :)

From the author of If I Can Give You That comes an emotional novel that follows a transgender teen who must grapple with a friendship fracturing and a new romance blossoming, all while being haunted by a devastating loss. A must-read for fans of How It Feels to Float and The Ghosts We Keep. Caleb’s world broke the day his brother died of a drug overdose. Now in the throes of grief, Caleb hardly ever sees his friends anymore, and school isn’t much better. He’s on the verge of failing his songwriting class, never mind that music used to be his greatest passion. Even Tanya, his best friend, is growing tired of trying to push him back into his life. But perhaps most concerning of all: A black cat has been following Caleb around…a cat that only he can see. A cat that may just be a ghost. Then Caleb is assigned a songwriting partner in class: Emmett, the nonbinary lead singer of a local punk band. The cat takes a liking to Emmett—and maybe Caleb does, too. As they write together, Caleb begins opening up about his grief, and the two realize they have more in common than expected. Now Caleb will have to decide if he is ready to heal with Emmett’s help—or recede in life and become as invisible as the ghostly cat at his heel.

please pre-order and/or add to goodreads <3

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

FORESHADOW is the LUBE of storytelling

[dontjudgemeimawriter]

looking for writeblr accounts to follow!!!

Hi, my name is Xena! I want to follow fellow writers whose stories I can enjoy and learn from! please interact with this post if you’re a writer account - even if you don’t post your writing!! even if you just post about your writing experiences!!! i want to follow you all! let’s be friends <3

#hello!