#beela baby

[ftmerriweather]

I'm struggling to get Beela written and I'm not sure why. It can't just be the change in pov (I'll go back to someone I like more in another chapter or two)

I would really like to get a buffer of finished Beela chapters done before nano hits but it's not looking good

#I'm just whiney and tired #writeblr #writing #beela baby #merriweather's diary days #writing community

[cheadarchesse]

Thursday Ask-A-Thon time for @ask-a-thon : How are you, how are things going and you say you can't stop thinking of Beela, so would you like to talk about that wip? What captures you the most? Characters? The plot?

Beela my beloved!

Beela has been a journey for me, honestly. I started writing it for Nanowrimo 2016 because "well, it won't be that hard now will it". I had a character--Beela, 22, introvert, ace--and a premise--go to other worlds to collect things--and it has since bloomed into something much bigger.

This turned out a lot longer than I was expecting, so I added a read more.

I finished the "book" 13 months later at 320k words exactly. Don't worry, it's getting split into three books, maybe four because the worldbuilding I did in 2016 leaves a lot to be desired.

For a long time I hated Beela-the-character because they were all of my negative traits turned up to 11. People loved them anyway and I was baffled. Turns out, Beela-the-character isn't irredeemable, they're just depressed and autistic like I was. The plot may be about going to different worlds, but they actually learn that it's okay to be sad and you can still have friends, which is what I desperately needed to know at the time.

My main group is Beela, still 22, still introverted, but found the courage in book two to come out as enby. They have the power to move people between worlds, a feat called blitzing. Nona is their best friend (though at the current re-write spot, she did just make a huge mistake), a sweet, bubbly girl. She can feel and manipulate emotion. Maisie...oh Maisie. Maisie is 6' of anger management problems and I love her so much. She definitely got suspended in school for starting fights and she's the only one of my humans who's actually going to college. Her power is strength; she can use magic to make herself very strong, usually when she's upset. Santo is a soft boy, the youngest but also the most knowledgeable about magic. Vadeen is my "tough guy". On Earth he's got a motorcycle and a wisecrack, but he's pretty out of his league now that they're not on Earth anymore. His power is catching on fire when he gets mad. Last is Ellis. Honestly, I kinda hate him because he represents every generic guy that my friends have ignored me for. He doesn't get a power, though he can still use magic.

I also have extensive...aus? It feels kinda weird to say I have an au of my own work, but I have a lot of stuff I've written out about them that's not related to the plot at all. I mean, like, 70k of Santo/Vadeen cute stuff, 15k of Santo/Vadeen having a terrible breakup, 25k of the group living together after the events of the story and even a few dozen words of Maisie getting a very sweet boyfriend named Dominic.

As for what captivates me, I'm going to go with characters. The plot is just an excuse to play with characters. I like to put my guys in a Situation(tm).

#thank you so so much for asking me about Beela! #I love talking about it #it's been so instrumental for me learning I can like what I write #that you can be “annoying” and still loved #I made Beela to be an annoying character and people still adored them #they actually came out before I did #writing #writeblr #beela baby #cheadar sauce #asks

[beelas-bees]

Imagining Frecklepaw welcoming her little siblings to starclan and im crying

#their family has such a bad track record with losing kits #frecklepaw just marching around starclan with all of her baby siblings stumbling after her 😭 #why was younger beela so fucked #maybe i should make a ramble tag.. #old warrior ocs

[thestupidgang]

Out-of-Context Stupid Gang #15

“Emergency after emergency with me, baby.”

- Beela

#vod 9/10/20 #the stupid gang #beela #out of context #out of context the stupid gang #out of context beela #mod sunshine #among us #random #twitch #from the discord

[letoyajohnstone]

All the way from STUTTGART in Germany My friend Beela and her Best friend have been dancing to #abebo By @akotheekenya from onset. I swear this song is a hit Madam boss. @hennessy Is truly opening eyes. Dance like a Traditional dancer 😂 Link is on @akotheekenya bio. Click, subscribe, watch and dance your heart out. Thank girls @bellaachieng61 @eddietami Xo Xo Toy Toy baby - Kill it with love. #letoyajohnstone https://www.instagram.com/p/BtjJDGagj0R/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=gy9ckp6dz2eb

#abebo #letoyajohnstone

[ftmerriweather]

I'm writing until my cat gets off my lap (and he's asleep so it'll be a while). Will report back with any witty lines

#merriweather's diary days #writeblr #beela baby

[ftmerriweather]

I love when Ellis shows his true colors

#Ellis is the most generic White Boy #complete with “thinks he's better than everyone” disease #and santo is so soft and sweet #that it's nice to see him bite back #beela baby #snips #writing #writeblr #writing community

[ftmerriweather]

Guys I just realized I'm 6 weeks out from finishing the draft of my current novel. That means that, even though I skipped a few weeks, I did one chapter a week last year for Beela.

Current game plan is to finish Beela's third book in edits this year and next (it's long and only going to get longer), let it sit for a month or two, then spend the following year doing all the edits my writing group suggested, as well as the threads I dropped before.

So in 2-3 years, Beela will be query-ready. I've been working on this book since 2016 and the thought that it'll ever be query ready is wild. I want Beela to be out there and all that, but the idea that my book will be published, and this book in particular, is wild.

I remember when I was writing it just to purge the fact that I was depressed and closeted. Now my MC has come out twice and is finding acceptance among their friends

#pardon the publisher ramble #I just finally see a finish line #the idea of giving beela to someone new is...incomprehensible #scary #worse than any of my other books #this one has been so close to my heart for so long #and if anything happens to it I wont' know what to do with myself #I have so much post cannon that'll never go anywhere #I don't think I can do a follow up series? #merriweather's diary days #writeblr #writing #writing community #beela baby #publishing

[ftmerriweather]

Beela's feisty today. It's what happens after a bad magical jump

#blitzing is basically teleporting #and this one went bad #they're so annoyed at him #but also #I hate his guts #so there's that #beela baby #snips #writing #writeblr #writing community

[ftmerriweather]

I want someone to talk to me about Santo. I love him so much and want to ramble

#I just want to talk about my sweet boy #he's gay and hispanic #heart bigger than is safe #soft boi for sure #writeblr #beela baby #merriweather's diary days

[ftmerriweather]

Hey everyone, thought I'd do a little about me and my work!

I'm Merriweather, non binary (fae/ faer or they/ them please) and live in the untied states with my cats. I'm not published yet, but I've gotten some very kind rejections on my werid books.

Beela is my main book, featuring a main character who realizes they're non binary halfway through the series. It's a portal fantasy that spends most of its time on not-earth. Nona is the "sweet one" and Beela's best friend. Ellis is her boyfriend. Santo is the one who taught them how to use magic. Vadeen is the "tough one", but he's sweet, I promise. Maisie, though, will pick a fight for fun. I'll be tagging this one "Beela baby"

Wysteria and Pants follows a witch who's only barely skilled enough to be called that named Wysteria and her familiar, a turtle named Pants. Other notable characters are Priscilla, her fae. best friend, and Ariel, her soon-to-be boyfriend. There is one reoccurring cis-het character in this entire novel and one of the main themes is queer joy, specifically that of aces. I'm adding a few more chapters to this one, then I'm going to try querying it again. It'll be tagged "Wysteria and Pants"

Xie is the Architect and You are Nothing is one I had a lot of fun writing. The MC doesn't remember who they are or how they got where they are. They wake up to a dark room and a sense of panic. One of the fae, a being called the Architect, stole them and put them in a maze. They want to get out, but xie wants them to stay as xyr pet. This one is surrealist horror fantasty but still very queer. I'm on final edits for sending this one out for queries too. Got a few nice rejections, which is more than expected for "overwrought prose about trans identity" to land me, honestly. It's tagged "xie is the architect and you are nothing"

Lastly, I have the project I've been calling "trans pirates" because that is the premise I started with. The piracy is significantly lower than I expected, but it's still been a fun one. Any story that has a character with bad impulse control is fun to write. Riix is enby and kills someone on page for misgendering them. Clementine just wants to learn nice, feminine crafts like knitting and sewing, but she ended up on a smuggler's ship, so there's not a lot of time for that. They're captured by--and escape from--a pirate known as Ambrose Baker and spend quite a lot of time trying to get back to their ship. I'll probably tag this one with "Riix" because I had used "trans pirates" before and it didn't feel like a tag I'd use exclusively for the story

#writeblr #writing #about me #book list #my works #am writing #beela baby #Riix #xie is the architect and you are nothing #wysteria and pants

[ftmerriweather]

Finally got to cut loose with one of my boys, thank goodness. I've wanted to have him be properly mean for a while.

#I hate Ellis so much #he infuriates me #just think of the most Basic White Man and that's what he's like #emotional depth of a teaspoon etc etc #beela baby #snips #writeblr #writing

[ftmerriweather]

Okay, another round of "posting a line after each sprint to keep me motivated"

First up, Ellis having some Feelings about his relationship:

Not when Nona was the only reason he’d agreed to come here at all. It had been to protect her from her own impulsive urge to pet every dog she met. That was his role in the relationship. She pulled him out of his shell and he reminded her what was realistic.

#snips #beela baby #This chapter feels so clunky #I think I'm not used to writing with Ellis pov #and also worldbuilding a non human race at the same time #my poor brain is goo

[cheadarchesse]

I'm about to start rewriting my super-angsty scene and I'm SO PUMPED

#beela baby #thing scene is so melodramatic #it's such a blast #I love writing angst #cheadar sauce

[ftmerriweather]

My shy, anxious, horribly withdrawn character just got mad at their bestie being hassled and instead of handling it with grace, has decided to kick the hornet's nest

Important notes: - Maisie has an anger problem - It is unclear if she's killed the person Beela is accusing her of

#things are getting very interesting around here #everyone's miserable #favorite way of writing #writeblr #snips #beela baby #writing community #writing

[ftmerriweather]

Beela hasn't come out to their whole group yet. My previous draft had someone telling them "you're the girl" for a job.

Deciding to keep that because they'd hate it and I get to show Beela being cagey from someone else's POV

(We need to antagonize them about this or they'll never finish coming out. It's for the plot, I swear)

#writeblr #writing #merriweather's diary days #beela baby #I'm never doing a coming out story again #this is such a hassle #Like it'll be worth it #but dear lord