#get on your zoom and start that novella

[ride-thedragon]

Nettles, a sacrificial lamb.

I think Nettles is an actual sacrificial lamb in the story she finds herself in.

Sacrificial Lamb Defenition:

"someone or something that is deliberately sacrificed to promote a cause or for the benefit of others."

Within the story, Nettles is the character explicitly tied to sheep.

She kills them to get close to Sheepstealer. Later on, she kills the biggest ram in Maidenpool before she escapes, and then she lives in the Vale, famous for sheep.

However, her place in the story makes her a sacrificial lamb. She's the only dragonseed Rhaenyra explicitly seeks to kill. The reason Rhaenyra wants to kill Nettles is because she believes Nettles used spells to seduce Daemon, and killing her is the only way to free him.

Later on, in Maidenpool, her death is a trade for the unprecedented violence they can expect if she is killed, and Daemon finds her.

Nettles' death is a sacrifice for Daemon's character. One that he's unwilling to make.

He will either be free and return to Rhaenyra by her own expectation or burn Maidenpool to the ground in the wake of her death.

When they show him the letter and make him aware of the sacrifice being called for because of him, he actively avoids it. He puts his sword to the maester who brought the demand to him, actively fighting against the sacrifice, his freedom, or wrath.

By the morning, he lets her go, unwillingly judging by her tears as she leaves him and his dragon's screech. He refuses to make the sacrifice for the "greater good." He would go back to Rhaenyra’s side and fight in the war. He can even do that after Nettles goes. But:

NETTLES KILLS DAEMON.

" The most commonly symbolic sheep will be that of a lamb signifying Christ or innocence. In secular art a lamb may represent a gentle nature and childhood, whilst grown sheep may evoke romantic notions of countryside life and a ram is likely to represent male strength and virility."

"As a symbol, the ram often represents strength, determination, and courage. Rams are also seen as symbols of fertility and abundance due to their ability to produce large litters of offspring. In some cultures, the ram is also seen as a symbol of virility and masculinity."

Now, the description of a ram and its symbolism does fit Daemon. He is the Rogue prince. Father of many, many wives and according to some a very masculine presence.

Nettles killing a sheep is not a big deal. She does it every day before she flies, but finding the biggest, 'black,' ram and killing it before she leaves is kinda symbolic.

Daemon does a lot at Maidenpool that we don't expect him, the him we've gotten from the story so far, to do.

He saves Nettles, lets her escape, and goes on to fight Aemond. The person who was with his pregnant woman, evading the threat of Daemon and Nettles for months. He was not doing anything other than terrozing the riverlands.

He isn't their biggest threat either. He's just there, and Rhaenyra is calling Daemon back to her side, understanding that it's not a priority for them right now.

But Daemon decided to go fight Vhagar and Aemond. Something we are explicitly told by him is basically a suicide mission to do alone.

His response to Aemond saying he's lived too long is, " On that much we agree."

When has Daemon Targaryen ever in his life done that?

Admitting that his life has gone on for too long? He wouldn't have done it before.

Daemon becomes the sacrifice for Nettles' departure. I don't doubt the fact that she would prefer him to go with her, her tears yet again as reference, but he doesn't. He ensures she escapes and finishes the mission that almost costs her life and lets it take his.

He becomes and makes the sacrifice in her place.

Additional Tie In: "Dark Sister was made for nobler tasks than slaughtering sheep."

Daemon uses his sword to defend the sacrificial lamb instead of using it for slaughter because defending an innocent person is nobler than killing someone in their sleep.

(Me and my besties when George gives a man beautiful symbolism but makes women suffer to ensure it)

The sheep thing also plays a part in the way Nettles bonds with her dragon and the overall narrative with her perceived 'innocence', but that's another post.

#house of the dragon #hotd #a song of ice and fire #nettles #nettles asoiaf #house targaryen #netty #daemon targaryen #daemon x nettles #George's favourite kid #get on your zoom and start that novella #I'm so tired #two concepts one post #dattles

[butchhamlet]

are there any shakespeare retellings you recommend? i really enjoy retellings but it's also difficult to find ones that like. actually understand the source material... i've read your novella duodecimal and really liked it btw! excellent take on twelfth night :-)

THANK YOU SO MUCH WAH... yes, i can recommend some retellings! i keep intending to make a big post with my recs, actually, but there are so many out there that i haven't read yet... so for now here's an incomplete list:

a thousand acres by jane smiley: the first one that came to my mind seeing this ask. it's a retelling of lear set on an american farmstead, and the adaptation is done beautifully and smoothly--it's just distinct enough from OG Lear that you can judge it as a book on its own but also as a lear retelling. and it's sooooo good. it starts a little slow, but the character work is so excellent and it almost made me cry (i will note that there's a pretty hefty cw on this one but... saying what it is is technically spoilers? but feel free to send another ask or message if you want to know up-front)

the last true poets of the sea by julia drake: books that made me have to turn my camera off in zoom class so i could bawl properly. books written for me specifically. this is a loose YA retelling of twelfth night (looser than some of the other retellings on this list) and it's like. perfect. the teenage dialogue actually sounds like teenagers. every emotional beat clubbed me over the head. the love triangle is present--and done really well; it's not present for drama but because sometimes being a teenager is confusing--but more than that this is a book about the relationship between violet and her sibling, and about mental health, and god it makes me CRAZY. also girls kiss in this one

rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead by tom stoppard: i mean. i think most people into shakespeare know r&gad. but in case you haven't read it yet, it's an absurdist play from the point of view of rosencrantz and guildenstern and it's absolutely fucking brilliant. not sure what else to say about this; you've really just gotta read it

teenage dick by mike lew: another play, this one on the modern side--a retelling of richard iii set in a high school, focusing explicitly on disability issues. kind of more a reimagining than a retelling, honestly, but i really like the exploration of r3's themes and also it's fucking hysterical. although i will say there's a kind of jarring tonal shift in this one near the end, so don't go to it for something 100% comedic

american moor by keith hamilton cobb: okay this isn't exactly a retelling but if you've ever read othello you have to read it. you just have to. please god if you've ever read a shakespeare PLEASE. it's a monologue from the perspective of a black man trying out for the role of othello, half-resigned to being pigeonholed into playing that specific role in a very specific way as directed by a white director, but also half-chafing against that resignation, and also exploring the complexities of loving shakespeare as a black man, and it's soooooo so good

exit, pursued by a bear by e.k. johnston: this one is kind of cheating because it's not really a retelling, in that it has next to nothing to do with the winter's tale except that there is a hermione character and a leontes character and a paulina character. i still think it's a very very well-done YA book, though, and one of the only ones i've read that deals head-on with abortion

foul is fair by hannah capin: okay, i will admit i read this one some years ago when i was more into YA, so i'm not sure i would still go crazy over it now, but the plot of this book is that the modern lady macbeth character gets assaulted by a guy at a party and decides to kill everyone who let that happen. and then she does. and idk i read it in two days it felt like being on crack

the wednesday wars by gary schmidt: this one is DEFINITELY cheating, because this isn't a retelling of anything. but if you like shakespeare and you're open to reading historical fiction about a kid in the 60s using shakespeare as a lens through which to understand the chaos of his life (from the vietnam war to his school crush)... it's so good. it made me nearly sob. beautiful book

i'm also a fan of ryan north's shakespeare choose-your-own-adventure books, but those aren't exactly retellings and also the humor will probably not work for everyone. but i like em <3

and finally, i would be remiss not to shout out the fact that @suits-of-woe wrote an INCREDIBLE retelling of the two gentlemen of verona that, like, redeemed the fact that that play exists. if you've read that play and you thought, "wow, i wish this were explicitly homoerotic, or not a rape apologia, or good in any way," you will LOVE macy's book. unfortunately it isn't fucking published yet but WITH YOUR HELP--

#max.txt #feel free to send me recs for shakespeare retellings at any time btw! #i've been collecting a list #i just haven't gotten around to most of the books on it yet #asks

[concerningwolves]

Hi. Hope you’re well! I’ve been focusing on writing my first book for months but I’ve yet to complete an outline (I need an outline to be able to write). I know the start and the end and have developed characters but the rest feels impossible. I get overwhelmed by the possible ways I could take the story and the different concepts I could incorporate and yet any ideas I have for conflict feel hollow and not true to the characters and story. My novel is a fantasy and I just keep falling into the ‘protagonist fights bad guy somehow’ route, which I know isn’t a bad thing but it all feels very forced and false in my story. I don’t know how to fill the gap between the start and end and I feel like even if I did, it wouldn’t be enough to be a whole novel. I want to focus on the relationship and conflict between the main characters but can’t think of actual things that need to happen. I really hope this makes sense, apologies if it doesn’t!

Hello hello, I'm absolutely mortified to realise that this ask came in seven months ago and I am SO sorry. I hope I'm not answering so late that my answer is of no use at all.

I’ll answer in two parts: first, some tips for outlines and what to do when you’re stuck with them; second, some thoughts on what counts as conflict and different ways it can be used to create plot points. The TL;DR version of this answer is:

Instead of trying to make an outline "stretch" to cover a whole novel, shrink the story to fit your outline.

Reverse-engineer plots of stories that you find inspiring and see how it’s done there.

Conflict and relationships between characters absolutely count as “actual things that need to happen” in a story.

What we consider the actual events of a story are basically the result of various reactions between sources of conflict and characters.

The conflict and reaction – i.e., the actual events – look different depending on the genre

Genre can offer a guideline, but you don’t have to be defined by it.

Part I: Troubleshooting Outlines

1) Scale down the story

Instead of trying to make an outline "stretch" to cover a whole novel, shrink the story to fit your outline. Try a novella or short story first! You may find once you've written the short version that you've learned enough about your world, characters and plot to expand it – or you might be happy with it as it is. It may even be helpful to ditch the confines of novel/novella/short story etc altogether and just outline without regard for length (unless of course you like having that structure to work within!).

The fun thing with working on a smaller scale is that it's easier to try out all those different ideas, too. No writing is ever wasted, even if you don't make a finished piece out of something.

2) Try a different plot structure

Reedsy has a very helpful article about seven different types of plot structure – it’s not exhaustive, but these are the most common types, and they’re very well-explained here. If you feel like you’re trying to make your outline meet with certain genre expectations, then choosing a more “adaptable” structure such as Dan Harmon’s Story Circle might help shake something loose.

This is also the point where studying media that uses these plot structures is useful – study how the plot moves from point to point, and ask yourself what you could to replicate that.

3) Cut up the outline

Instead of looking at the big picture, zoom in and work out the series of events for a smaller section of the story. If you’re following a set structure, work out the series of events of the first part/act. So if you were working with the aforementioned Story Circle structure, you’d take maybe the first part (A Character is in a zone of comfort) and break that up into questions like:

What is their comfort zone/status quo? – sets up the story.

Why do they still keep it? – tells readers about your character and their situation.

What could possibly compel them to step outside of it? – sets up the character’s/characters’ goals in life; leads into the next stage of the plot structure.

You could even only write that first part, as if it’s an isolated piece of story, and see if any more inspiration pops up while you’re writing. Sometimes you need to grease the wheels of your brain by experimenting before they’ll start turning.

Part II: Plot outlines, conflict, and genre-blending

In any genre, the plot points are (basically) generated by the character’s reaction to conflict. There are different “sizes” of conflict. Some are big and have stakes that could make or break the whole world. Some are small, and boil down to the relationships between characters, or a character’s own inner conflict with themself. All of these can drive a story forwards.

Fantasy typically deals with those broad, world-sweeping conflicts, but the smaller conflicts can drive the plot just as well as the big ones. Let’s take The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien as an example. The initial source of conflict – the reason the story exists – is the existence of The One Ring, and the threat that if the Ring ever returns to its creator, the entire world would fall into shadow and destruction. By a series of unlikely chances, the Ring is now in the hands of a hobbit called Frodo. The inciting incident – the thing that sets the story moving – is when Frodo learns that the Dark Lord has sent his agents to reclaim the Ring, forcing him to flee his home in fear for his life (and also for the fate of the world, but that’s less of a consideration for him personally at that point).

The first major arc of the story concerns Frodo and his friends’ flight from the Shire to Rivendell. Many things happen to them in that arc. Sources of conflict include a sentient (semi-sentient?) forest, the enemies pursuing them, undead kings, traitorous humans, a guy called Bill Ferney, and the mysterious absence of the man who was meant to be their guide and protector. It’s a series of events presumably devised by Tolkien asking himself “how can I draw these characters deeper into the plot?”, “what could make their situation worse and/or better?” and “what cool worldbuilding can I make relevant/utilise here?”. (These are all very useful questions to ask yourself when building an outline!)

What I find the most interesting about the plotting of The Fellowship (and the entire trilogy) is that, for all the high stakes and despite the sheer scale of the threat, it’s often the “small” (i.e., interpersonal or internal) conflicts that have the biggest impacts on the story. At the climax of The Fellowship, the company breaks up, not because of some devastating blow from the bad guy they’re fighting, but because of

Interpersonal conflict: two characters fundamentally disagree about something (Boromir and Frodo disagree about who should carry the Ring/what to do with it).

Inner conflict: Frodo is overcome by his fears that he’s bringing his friends into danger and that his own friends could become a danger to him.

Granted, there are other narrative and fantasy world aspects going on as well (because there can be layers and/or multiple sources of conflict), but ultimately it’s the conflict between characters and one character’s reaction to this that decides the outcome!

In other genres, the plot is entirely built up from these kinds of personal conflicts. Romance is the strongest example, but not the only one – soap operas, family dramas, slice of life and certain classical novels all use them as a framework. Perhaps romance isn’t your cup of tea, or you don’t want any romantic relationships in your book, but I think there is still a lot to learn from studying the plot of romance stories – particularly if you want to write something that focuses more on character relationships, as opposed to genre-typical conflicts. Authors like Rainbow Rowell (The Simon Snow trilogy) and Joy Demorra (Hunger Pangs) have blended romance and fantasy genre elements to tell stories that feature the best of both.

And if you want an example of a story with a plot that’s mostly driven by a non-romantic relationship, look at the video game The Last of Us. Although there’s the overarching plot of travelling across the country in hopes of finding a cure for a zombie virus, it’s the found family relationship between Joel and Ellie that carries the story. Just off the top of my head, there’s a significant plot point created by Ellie thinking that Joel is using her as a replacement for his dead daughter, so she runs off. It’s compelling because by that point, the big stakes (Ellie is humanity’s last hope for a cure, on her own in a dangerous world) are almost secondary to what this might mean for their relationship. At the final climax, it’s Joel’s internal conflict (his affection for Ellie VS the possibility of a cure for everyone) and his reaction to it (choosing Ellie) that carries the story to a superb ending which has haunted me for well over six years.

Which is all to say that genre is far from being a rigid box you have to work inside of. You can absolutely borrow elements from other genres and recontextualise them to tell the story that feels more authentic to your characters; the story that you want to tell. Play with different possibilities! Write multiple outlines if you need to, and see which one feels right. Try asking yourself a series of questions such as:

If my story was a [romance/family drama/medical drama/slice-of-life, etc.], what might happen next? – i.e., what kind of conflict could your characters face next, and where might it come from?

How would my characters react to this plot point? – what choices would they make that could then move the plot forwards? (Note that a character not reacting can also create a plot point: the important thing is there needs to be some sort of consequence, which acts like a stepping-stone to the next plot point).

What kind of influence does my fantasy setting have on this? – i.e., What parts of my fantasy worldbuilding can I use here? What are the external/background sources of conflict/stakes in play? What other consequences might there be for me to work with?

Or, would this plot point have an impact on the fantasy setting? – does it change something big or have far-reaching consequences?

Hopefully something in here will help you get unstuck (if you haven't already (⌒_⌒;) Again, apologies for the long wait!).

Best wishes with your writing! x

#writeblr #writing advice #plotting #outlines

[itsanidiom]

Hello hello!!! Hope your having a wonderful day!! I have a very serious question, I'm thinking about writing things that like aren't just fanfictions, I've been thinking about it For a LONG while!! I just don't know WHAT the hell to do, how to do it, and figured I could maaaybe ask you!! since you are the only other writer I'm following who published books besides Neil Gaimen... I just thought you could give some tips and basic things, like do I need to go to school for this? Can I open the gates and zoom right into it?? Can I make illustrated novels? How do or would I publish?? Overall everything?? Also again hope your having a nice day! Hope the weathers good in your area!!!

Hello! Thank you! Yes! Writing advice! That I can offer!

Wow! Me and Neil Gaiman, huh? That’s a really honoured place to be 🤣👌 Honestly his advice has always been my fave: Just write.

If you have a good idea just write it out. Hell, it doesn’t even need to be a good idea. You can edit it later! Just write! Get it out of your head and you’re already most of the way there!

If you’ve only written fan fiction and you’re nervous about the transition to original work, I recommend thinking of original stories as AU fic with renamed character as a starting point. Almost all the biggest writers today basically started in fanfic (ever heard of 50 Shades 🙈 worst example but HEY it’s true)

So yeah you’re in a good place when it comes to practicing the craft since you’ve been writing fanfic!

I never went to school for writing. I studied linguistics and German in uni 😂 So you definitely don’t need to go to school for writing. From what I’ve seen you can gain good connections in writing programs, but the academic programs at universities tend to focus on more “lit” genres. So if you’re writing like Murakami/Kafka or planning to be the next Atwood/Hemingway, writing programs can be good.

I’m published with an LGBT+ indie publisher, NineStar Press. They’re not one of the big conglomerate of publishing houses obviously, but they offer wider distribution than self publishing AND they do all the work, apart from making the suggested edits obviously. The process of submission to publishing with them takes about 9 months. With traditional publishing it can take years.

I found I learned a lot working with my editor so that was an important part of my development process. I definitely recommend finding an editor once your story/manuscript is nearing a final draft stage. If you publish traditional or indie your lit agent or editor will help with that. If you self-publish you’d have to pay an editor usually.

Which brings us to the open the gates and jump right in part: Self publishing! It’s fun. It’s easy. Its instant. It’s free! You can put it out there for free or make a few bucks, a lot if you’re lucky and your book goes viral! You can do ebook and or print and illustration as well as far as I know! My favourite thing about self publishing is that it really closely mimics fan fiction. You can basically self publish anything on KDP as long as it doesn’t go against their guidelines.

I’ve really enjoy self publishing for my shorter (smuttier) work, but I probably wouldn’t have jumped into it without a friend showing me the ropes and the experience of having published with NineStar first because I learned a lot through that process. The nice thing about self pub is you can publish any length so it’s great for things that are shorter and don’t fit regular publishers’ criteria. For example two of my self-pub stories (Whisky and Pearls / His General’s Gambit) are only around 10-20k words. That’s barely novella size. Most publishers want 50k at least.

Last but most important: publishing should NOT cost you anything. It might not make you rich, but it definitely shouldn’t cost a penny. If you’re self-pub you might choose to pay for marketing or an editor or a cover (I make my own covers and trade off editing projects with a friend so that saves money haha). But if you’re working with someone and they offer to publish you for a fee…RUN. That’s not legit. Publishers need writers, writers don’t need publishers.

My bestie @inaseaofmidnightblue went to school for writing and is publishing her first book traditionally next year so when she’s less busy (she’s VERY busy getting married right now 😂) she might be able to add more context around the traditional publishing perspective.

But yeah that’s what I’ve got! Happy to follow up if you have any other questions! Happy writing!

#writing #publishing #advice #this has been MY personal experience #others may have different POVs #mypost #answer #long post

[rmhashauthor]

Hi there, its Athena. Welcome to my new Thursday Ask-A-Thon where its basically a Thursday version of my Sunday Ask-A-Thon where I ask ya'll about your wips: How are things going, hows life and how's your characters? What are they up to?

It's been a HELL of a year for me, in a myriad of ways. Last year I started publishing my first book Starfish over on Wattpad, and it's been a massive success by my account. I thought I'd get a few reads, maybe even 100, so imagine my surprise when it hit 20k. I'm at something of a loss about it, as I didn't expect it to make much of a splash (haha). I'm really proud of it, though, and I'm still getting new readers and comments all the time and I'm tickled pink over it.

Also last year I was working (from home) until November, when I was laid off via a pre-recorded Zoom meeting which ended about five minutes before they cut my access and remotely shut down my computer. After that it was a long, terrible five-month slog trying to find a job - any job - while the world was screaming RECESSION and WAR and all that jazz. I started a new job back in April, though, at a place I never thought I'd work in my WILDEST dreams in an industry I know NOTHING about, but so far it's been pretty freaking fantastic! I'm surrounded by people who do stuff I can barely understand because they're all STEM people, but every single person I have met seems genuinely kind, patient, understanding and over the moon about my BA in English. Apparently STEM folks need someone with communication skills, who knew?

My characters are, in a word, SUFFERING. They're reaching the point in the story where they're realizing separately that they're falling for each other, and it's problematic because the MMC has made a promise to the FMC, but if he can't keep that promise he's worried that she'll hate him. FMC is concerned about her feelings because this was supposed to be a ploy, they're supposed to be pretending to be in a relationship to convince their respective people to work together. All that trust they're building with each other is turning into some steamy bedroom escapades and that's not helping. Well, it is, but not in the way that they mean it to.

That story, The Dragon Prince's Consort, is also currently going on Wattpad and I update it every Thursday following the publishing schedule of the previous book. I'm working on a series of books (and short stories and maybe some novellas) that take place in a stand-alone universe I've devised with its own history and a handful of weirdly wonderful alien species. I've been playing with some names for the series and I'm leaning towards "The Lonely Stars" - I'm trying to evoke the feeling of lying on your back in the middle of a field and looking up at the sky, contemplating the distance between you and each star and the next. Since the majority of my stories are sci-fi romance, I thought it had a star-crossed-lovers bent to it.

I hope I did this right, I have a terrible habit of rambling and giving way too much detail so I tried to keep this brief but interesting. I'm still cautious about giving away too much story information and very guarded about personal information for... reasons, but so far Wattpad and Tumblr have both made me realize that I'm NOT that weird - in fact I'm pretty tame, I'll have to fix that 😈

Thank you, this was fun!

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #creative writing #authors #scifi romance #author #romance #book blog #fiction #booklr #ask game #ask #ask to tag #ask blog #inbox #my wips #wip stuff #wips

[perpetual-stories]

22 Essential Literary Devices and How to Use Them In Your Writing

hello, happy Monday. Hope you’re all having a wonderful day!

I will skip the pre-info and dive right into it.

What Is a Literary Device?

is a tool used by writers to hint at larger themes, ideas, and meaning in a story or piece of writing

The List of Literary Devices:

Allegory. Allegory is a literary device used to express large, complex ideas in an approachable manner. Allegory allows writers to create some distance between themselves and the issues they are discussing, especially when those issues are strong critiques of political or societal realities.

Allusion. An allusion is a popular literary device used to develop characters, frame storylines, and help create associations to well-known works. Allusions can reference anything from Victorian fairy tales and popular culture to the Bible and the Bard. Take the popular expression “Bah humbug”—an allusion that references Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol. The phrase, which is often used to express dissatisfaction, is associated with the tale’s curmudgeonly character, Ebenezer Scrooge.

Anachronism. Imagine reading a story about a caveman who microwaves his dinner, or watching a film adaptation of a Jane Austen novel in which the characters text each other instead of writing letters. These circumstances are examples of anachronisms, or an error in chronology—the kind that makes audiences raise their eyebrows or do a double-take. Sometimes anachronisms are true blunders; other times, they’re used intentionally to add humor or to comment on a specific time period in history.

Cliffhanger. It’s a familiar feeling: You’re on minute 59 of an hour-long television episode, and the protagonist is about to face the villain—and then episode cuts to black. Known as a cliffhanger, this plot device marks the end of a section of a narrative with the express purpose of keeping audiences engaged in the story.

Dramatic Irony. Remember the first time you read or watched Romeo and Juliet? The tragic ending of this iconic story exemplifies dramatic irony: The audience knows that the lovers are each alive, but neither of the lovers knows that the other is still alive. Each drinks their poison without knowing what the audience knows. Dramatic irony is used to great effect in literature, film, and television.

Extended Metaphor. Extended metaphors build evocative images into a piece of writing and make prose more emotionally resonant. Examples of extended metaphor can be found across all forms of poetry and prose. Learning to use extended metaphors in your own work will help you engage your readers and improve your writing.

Foreshadowing. At its core, storytelling has one ambition: to capture and sustain your reader’s attention and keep them reading your story. Foreshadowing, or slyly indicating a future event, is one technique a writer can use to create and build suspense.

Humor. Humor brings people together and has the power to transform how we think about the world. Of course, not everyone is adept at being funny—particularly in their writing. Making people laugh takes some skill and finesse, and, because so much relies on instinct, is harder to teach than other techniques. However, all writers can benefit from learning more about how humor functions in writing.

Imagery. If you’ve practiced or studied creative writing, chances are you’ve encountered the expression “paint a picture with words.” In poetry and literature, this is known as imagery: the use of figurative language to evoke a sensory experience in the reader. When a poet uses descriptive language well, they play to the reader’s senses, providing them with sights, tastes, smells, sounds, internal and external feelings, and even deep emotion. The sensory details in imagery bring works to life.

Irony. Irony is an oft-misunderstood literary device that hinges on opposites: what things are on the surface, and what they end up actually being. Many learn about dramatic irony through works of theater like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet or Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex. When deployed with skill, irony is a powerful tool that adds depth and substance to a piece of writing.

Metaphor, Simile, and Analogy. Metaphors, similes, and analogies are three techniques used in speech and writing to make comparisons. Each is used in a different way, and differentiating between the three can get a little tricky: For example, a simile is actually a subcategory of metaphor, which means all similes are metaphors, but not all metaphors are similes. Knowing the similarities and differences between metaphor, simile, and analogy can help you identify which is best to use in any scenario and help make your writing stronger.

Motif. A motif is a repeated element that has symbolic significance to a story. Sometimes a motif is a recurring image. Sometimes it’s a repeated word or phrase or topic. A motif can be a recurrent situation or action. It can be a sound or a smell or a temperature or a color. The defining aspect is that a motif repeats, and through this repetition, a motif helps to illuminate the central ideas, themes, and deeper meaning of the story in which it appears.

Motif vs. Symbol. Both motifs and symbols are used across artistic mediums: Painters, sculptors, playwrights, and musicians all use motifs and symbols in their respective art forms. And while they are similar literary terms, “motif” and “symbol” are not synonyms.

Oxymoron. An oxymoron is a figure of speech: a creative approach to language that plays with meaning and the use of words in a non-literal sense. This literary device combines words with contradictory definitions to coin a new word or phrase (think of the idiom “act naturally”—how can you be your natural self if you’re acting?). The incongruity of the resulting statement allows writers to play with language and meaning.

Paradox. “This sentence is a lie.” This self-referential statement is an example of a paradox—a contradiction that questions logic. In literature, paradoxes can elicit humor, illustrate themes, and provoke readers to think critically.

Personification. In writing, figurative language—using words to convey a different meaning outside the literal one—helps writers express themselves in more creative ways. One popular type of figurative language is personification: assigning human attributes to a non-human entity or inanimate object in an effort to express a point or idea in a more colorful, imaginative way.

Satire. Satire is so prevalent in pop culture that most of us are already very familiar with it, even if we don’t always realize it. Satire is an often-humorous way of poking fun at the powers that be. Sometimes, it is created with the goal to drive social change. Satire can be part of any work of culture, art, or entertainment—it has a long history, and it is as relevant today as it was in ancient Rome.

Situational Irony. Irony: it’s clear as mud. Theorists quibble about the margins of what constitutes irony, but situational irony is all around us—from humorous news headlines to the shock twists in a book or TV show. This type of irony is all about the gap between our expectations and reality, and it can make a memorable and powerful impression when we encounter it.

Suspense. No matter what type of story you’re telling, suspense is a valuable tool for keeping a reader’s attention and interest. Building suspense involves withholding information and raising key questions that pique readers’ curiosity. Character development plays a big role in generating suspense; for example, if a character’s desire is not fulfilled by the end of the book, the story will not feel complete for the reader.

Symbolism. An object, concept, or word does not have to be limited to a single meaning. When you see red roses growing in a garden, what comes to mind? Perhaps you think literally about the rose—about its petals, stem, and thorns, or even about its stamen and pistil as a botanist might. But perhaps your mind goes elsewhere and starts thinking about topics like romance, courtship, and Valentine’s Day. Why would you do this? The reason, of course, is that over the course of many generations, a rose’s symbolic meaning has evolved to include amorous concepts.

Verisimilitude. Verisimilitude (pronounced ve-ri-si-mi-li-tude) is a theoretical concept that determines the semblance of truth in an assertion or hypothesis. It is also an essential tenet of fiction writing. Verisimilitude helps to encourage a reader’s willing suspension of disbelief. When using verisimilitude in writing, the goal is to be credible and convincing.

Vignette. A writer’s job is to engage readers through words. Vignettes—poetic slices-of-life—are a literary device that brings us deeper into a story. Vignettes step away from the action momentarily to zoom in for a closer examination of a particular character, concept, or place. Writers use vignettes to shed light on something that wouldn’t be visible in the story’s main plot.

I’ll make a post going into each of them individually in more detail later on!

Like, reblog and comment if you find this useful! If you share on Instagram tag me perpetualstories

Follow me on tumblr and Instagram for more writing and grammar tips and more!

#writing #writing advice #writing tips #original writing #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writersconnection #writersofig #writersofinstagram #writings

[deberiaestarescribiendo]

Fools who dream #Writer Wednesday 07/28/21 Javier Peña x f!reader

For #Writer Wednesday created by @autumnleaves1991-blog and tagging @clydesducktape that creates the masterlist every week. Thank you for the amazing work to both of you!!

Paring: Javier Peña xf!reader (addressed as you/she)

Summary: Long time ago, Javier met a girl full of dreams living a hard life. One day, driving around town he finds out that maybe, dreams do come true.

Warnings: smoking, swearing, +18 SMUT not very descriptive sex but it’s there, allutions to prostitution.

A/N: This is the lovechild of: me being angsty, listening to Lalaland’s soundtrack, and rereading a novella I wrote a long time ago about an escort girl that I was planning to rewrite (I thought that it could be an interesting Javi’s fic, but I don’t know). So to conclude: a mess, voilá! bear in mind, there’s mention of sexwork and we respect sexworkers in this house.

Sorry for any mistakes and bad grammar!!

Fools who dream

She turns and faces the camera, they make a dramatic zoom on her while the orquestra rises in a beautiful romantic crescendo. With pink parted lips she smiles at the protagonist, her eyes glow and shyly she lowers her gaze.

Back to the male lead he’s looking at her like there’s nobody else in the room, the camera blurs everything except his face and hers. Love, romance.

The movie was not really interesting until the moment she appeared. Same old story about a guy in search of that perfect girl, his life is miserable; making him fall into very comedic and not very surprising adventures and misfortunes on a very normal life up until she appears and then she shows him the meaning of life and live life to the fullest or some bullshit.

Javi didn’t pay a ticket for a good story, fuck he didn’t even read the plot before buying it. But he saw the sign while he was waiting at the traffic light, the local drive-in cinema and its yellow lights against the night presenting:

The right one (or something like that) starring some guy and then her name.

So he drove in and asked for a ticket, probably looking a bit weird being just a guy alone buying just one ticket to a romantic comedy surrounded by couples. It looks fucking sad, Peña he thought. But he has to see her, he has to see if it is true.

“Hi”

she says on the screen and it takes him away from his thoughts. Hearing that voice again after many years hits him so differently. To think that those sweet lips moaned and called his name pressed against his skin, so close that he can almost feel the heat of her body on him in his cold lonely car.

The guy smiles at her and makes a fool of himself gaining a sweet giggle from her. And it reminds him of the times she danced in his apartment or made fun of him for being such a grump.

Deja de fruncir el ceño, Javi, que se te va a quedar así (Stop frowning, Javi, or it’s gonna stay like that) she used to say, brushing her index finger over her nose giggling just like now in the movie.

She said something back, but he’s not listening. Javier just puts the words he remembers she said to him on her lips. A fantasy within a fantasy.

What is more real? those intimate moments years ago or him watching her on a movie alone in his car?

He has lost the plot, but who cares? She laughs and pushes the protagonist's hand to the empty streets of New York and the lights shine on them, and as the world perfectly bends to lovers in movies, it starts raining and she receives the drops with open arms and a wide grin. And they kiss, a perfect one, soft lips over the other. Nothing like the kisses they shared

Their kisses were hungry, knowing that they were borrowed and paid in time, rushed sometimes, others slowly and messy pouring all the heat and the pain and the adrenaline in which he lived in those years.

Now he wishes he could have kissed her once last time, just like that, softly, the world far away from them. Perfect just like a movie.

The audience claps rejoicing in this celebration of love, some young couples are celebrating love in some different kind of way, the movie merely an excuse to have some time alone under the stars.

And Javier is suddenly aware of his loneliness of the empty space by his side, he’s the antonym of what he’s seeing on screen, of having the luck of finding the one and being delighted in love.

He could’ve been in love, once. He certainly felt something growing and shattering the hard shield he had on his chest when they were together.

And now watching her mimic those feelings, those desires, he feels jealous, of what? he doesn’t know, it’s not like they had a chance...did they?

Colombia, 1984

“You’re going to laugh” you say the fan above your head blows waves of hot air that still smell of sex and the cigarette Javi’s smoking languidly over the window.

He has barely put his jeans on, the zip and top button undone. He looks tired, the dark circles under his eyes are way more visible today than ever. You can even see the weight on his shoulders, he’s hunching, his neck curved down as he smokes.

He doesn’t say but you know there’s something bothering him, he’s quieter than usual, rougher.

He called you late in the evening, paid a taxi to get you to his house and you barely made it to the door when he grabbed you by your hips and pressed his body against yours. The kiss was ardent, his tongue invading your mouth in a mix of coffee, whiskey and smoke and need. You tried to push him and talk, just maybe say hello how was your day but he whimpered, he’s dark eyes pleading while he caressed your cheeks. And you let him, you know what he needed so you said nothing when he impatiently fisted your skirt up your navel and pushed your panties to the side so he could bury himself in you.

Covered in the dim lights of the scarce traffic in the middle of the night, silent apart from the rhythmic thumps of your hips hitting the door and both of your whispers and moans, Javier performed his usual rite of expelling his demons away on you. Each thrust, each second he was in you, the world became nothing, just white noise, there was only you and the primal need of achieving pleasure skin against skin.

Your soft voice, those sweet lips gasping brushing against his ear, he thinks it’s the only time he likes to hear his name being called or actually being aware of himself. With you there’s no Javier running to and from monsters and there’s no brutality or violence.

There’s only your soft hands locked on his neck, fingers curled in his hair and when you smile at him, eyes up the sky, lost in pleasure, he feels good and the world seems a little bit better.

“I even didn’t offer some water before…” he said after he recovers his breath still inside you

“I’ve never had a warmer welcome in my life, Javi, it’s alright” you laugh with legs trembling

“Still” he kissed your wrists and held you close, walking slowly towards the bedroom.

You barely made some small talk before his eyes grew darker, lost in something that chokes him, and he quietly covers you with his big body

“I just need to make love to you...please” he said with his forehead on yours. And here you are, body exhausted and numb, cooling the sweat with the sweet waves of air from the fan.

“I won’t laugh at you” he answers resuming the conversation, you were lost in your thoughts but when you look at him, you see he watches you intently and you believe him

“I mean it’s so cliche how I ended up doing this...it’s ridiculous” you shake your head

None of your clients has ever asked you about how you ended up doing this. None of them are really interested in you anyway, they prefer a fantasy, a character. But not Javi, and that scares you. He sees right through you.

“I wanted to get out of my small town, I had big dreams, big plans” you smile “I came to the city and I tried and tried to succeed but...well, long story short, a friend proposed it once and the money was too tempting”

“What did you want to do in the first place?” Javi approaches the bed. His skin shines against the moonlight, his disheveled hair makes him looks younger

“Now you’re going to really laugh” you cover your face with one of his pillows

“C’mon tell me” he smirks squeezing your tight

“I wanted to be an actress, do novelas, films, everything” you shyly confess. For a moment, you don’t look at him, expecting him to chuckle at your stupid little dream, but seconds pass and he doesn’t

“ I think you could do it” Javi’s hands draw small circle over you hip bones

“You think?” you bite your lip

“I do” he shifts position, resting his back on the bed and you open your legs so he can rest his head over your belly “Would you send me a dedicated picture once you made it?” you brush his hair out of his face and you see he’s smiling

“Of course, To my very first fan, who always believed in me” you wave your hand over the imaginary paper “And a kiss just under it”

“Would frame it and put it in my office...nah” he shakes his head “I put it right here” he motions towards the nightstand “I don’t want my colleagues greasy hands over my picture”you laugh out loud at his comment

“Sure, so you can dream about me” you joke stealing his cigarette and smoking a long drag

Present day

You don’t know how many times he has dreamt about you.

How many times that stupid movie has played in his house late at night, he bought it, foolish at it may seem, he has rewatch every frame, stopping to admire you.

You look happy now, your sweet eyes shine more and he’s happy, really is, that you have made it, but deep down, he wonders, as much as it makes he’s heart ache, Do you think about him? surely you don’t.

Probably you left that part of your life buried somewhere in Colombia. You changed your name, your past, everything, how could you think about him?

You’re probably living your best life, full of glamour, opportunities opening just in front of your eyes. How could you remember him?

You don’t (surely) so he has to content himself with the fiction. He replays that scene where you turn to the camera, smiling

Hi

and just for a second, he thinks, he dreams, it’s for him.

#writer wednesday #javier peña fanfic #javier peña fanfiction #javier peña x you #javier peña x f! reader #javier peña fic #javier peña #javier peña smut #Javier Pena #Javier Pena fanfic #Pedro Pascal #pedro pascal characters #pedro pascal fanfiction #Pedro Pascal characters fanfiction #jose pedro balmaceda pascal #Narcos #narcos fic #narcos fanfiction

[wheremermaidsdwell]

I had my monthly zoom call with my highschool friend group and things went off the rails because our New York Gay had been drinking for like 3 hours before it started and I got bullied (lovingly) about my life choices and making my portfolio and I made the mistake of going 'rn I'm writing a novella' and I meant it as a 'i get off track and do a lot of different creative projects' but HE heard 'i want to be a novelist' and somehow that spiraled including the statement 'you're not prolific' at me and I had to just sit there are take it because no way could i explain the several hundred thousands of words of rp I have written.

sure, that's different than writing on your own, and I definitely do have problems there! but his point was 'you're not going to be a novelist' (which wasn't what I was saying in the first place but w/e) and it's just like. I have written several novels worth of creative writing over the last decade lol

#nattering

[nanowrimo]

You Can’t Spell ‘Community’ Without U and I

In an era of unprecedented isolation even for those of us who find ourselves drawn to solitary occupations, Malaysia-based NaNoWriMo veteran Ali Gallo offers some sage advice about the possibility and importance of staying connected despite the obstacles. 

I thought I’d go with a particularly naff title to get your attention.

This time last year I wrote a blog about writers and the importance of community and I called it ‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Writer’ which was a much better title. At that point the world had just started down the slippery slope of Covid and the whole idea of building a community was something that we needed to think about because we were going to be stuck at home for a whole two weeks with (or without) our nearest and dearest.

A year down the line most of us are still in the same position and I’ve run out of clever and quirky titles to express how it feels to be a writer in these strange times. Over this year we’ve all become painfully aware of the importance of having a community not just to keep us motivated but for our mental well-being in these times of stress and uncertainty.

On the plus side, I have been more sociable this last year than ever before in my life. I’m part of various online writing groups that I can turn to when I want to share my writing or just have a good moan about life, the universe and everything. I have even been known to get up at 3am here in Malaysia to join a reading night Zoom with my playwriting group in the UK, and I haven’t been awake at that time for years—not since I was a teenager and dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Even for someone as unsociable as me, it’s become obvious that we need that human connection and to know we’re not alone. Writing can be a solitary pursuit at the best of times, and this is far from the best of times. This is why whether it’s a collective writing challenge or a group where you can swap ideas and critique work, we all need to be part of a community.

As humans we are naturally happier and healthier when we interact with others, and as writers we feed off people-watching and creative feedback, all of which are hard to come by at the moment.

The right community will support you, challenge you, and keep you motivated.  They will be there to commiserate when you’ve had a bad day and your writing seems only fit to line the cat’s litter box with. They’ll also be there to celebrate when you get good news such as your book being published, your play being performed or even just that you completed your word count for the day. We all know it’s hard enough to sit down in front of that blank page or screen and create something new but without people in your corner it becomes almost impossible at times.

There’s also something remarkable about being part of a worldwide community of writers. I like that I can check in with my friends in America to see how their writing day went or is going and I make sure to check my emails and messages when I wake up to see what my UK writing group has to say about things.

Having said that, I am just getting to know a local writing group here in Malaysia, which is small and very much locally-based but no less supportive or encouraging.

You just have to find what works for you, what you’re comfortable with, and what makes you feel supported and valued.

Community is important to everybody and this year has proved that beyond a doubt; I’m not alone, and neither are you – remember that. I hope that whatever and wherever your community is, it is your happy place. I hope there’s just enough critique, support, and friendship to fuel your imagination and keep you coming back for more. 

Originally from Scotland, Ali lived in Africa and now Malaysia – which has taught her that reliable internet, electricity, and good cheese are luxuries not to be taken for granted. She writes blogs, plays, short stories, and shopping lists but not necessarily in that order. With a trilogy of novellas on Amazon (thanks to NaNoWriMo and a family that leaves her in peace to write) she is currently working on her first full-length book when not distracted by shiny objects. You can read more from Ali on her blog, Love the Sky Ur Under!

Top image licensed under Creative Commons from United Nations (artist: Catherine Cordasco) on Unsplash.

#nanowrimo #writing #amwriting #community #support #connection #camp nanowrimo #by nano guest #ali gallo #writing community

[englandsgray]

Sherlolly Self-Interviews 2020

Well hi 👋

Ignoring the internal image of Gilderoy Lockheart smiling smugly while flashbulbs pop and saying ‘In my autobiography, Magical Me...’ 🙈😆 I shall take the opportunity of this lovely event to introduce myself as a writer of Sherlolly fanfiction on AO3...

I am English and somewhere over 30.  I watched the show as it aired, and lost my heart as quickly to Molly Hooper as to Sherlock Holmes.  The kiss is British television history.  Series 4 is my favourite.  Moriarty on the beach is life.  The Holmes brothers break my heart every time.

I am extremely lucky to have been provided some questions to answer here by @ohaine and @mybrainrots - huge, huge love and thanks to these two lovelies, and not just for this.  I admire you both so much as writers, and your support means the world to me ❤️ Thanks too, to @sherlollyappreciationweek!

Where did you begin to write, and have you written for other fandoms?  I wrote my first fanfic when I was eleven years old - a 100 page ramble about The Monkees.  Oh yes.  Then in 2018, I fell for the characters of the Disney Pixar film Cars and began writing and publishing.  So far so random!  Writing in this fandom sprang from binge-watching all four series of Sherlock during lockdown.  I remembered reading Louise Brealey talking about being disappointed Molly didn’t get chance to ‘roundly kick Sherlock’s arse’ and agreeing with her wholeheartedly.  That, over a few weeks, turned into my first fic - Who You Really Are.  

You’re a recent (and welcome!) arrival to the Sherlolly ship, and I was wondering if writing in an established, less active than it used to be fandom has been a challenge?   Thank you, firstly.  My experience of this fandom has been incredibly positive - the sense of welcome has been wonderful.  I will admit I was terrified posting the first fic - there are hundreds of times more stories posted daily in the Sherlock fandom as in the one I had some experience of.  But I needn’t have worried, it’s been a blast.  I will also admit, that it’s no small thing to be surrounded by such brilliant writing and the long-standing passion which goes with it.  But I find that inspiring in itself, and I’m very glad to be here - how supportive the fandom are makes me feel like I always have been!       

What’s your favourite place and way to write?  My aesthetic is Lin-Manuel Miranda in his in-law’s laundry room 🤣 I wrote my first ten-thousand words on the notes app on my phone before my other half told me to stop being ridiculous!  I switch between the laptop, my phone and longhand (I’m a sucker for a nice notepad and a Uni-Ball Eye) and, more often than not, not sat up properly at a table.   

Since you’ve (done something I’ve never managed successfully and) written a novella length fic... how did you organise/keep track of all the details and where you wanted the story to go?  Did you outline/plot in advance?  First of all - I would love to see a novella length fic from you @mybrainrots!  The final scene of Who You Really Are came to me very early on and I knew I wanted the fic to fit within TFP - a lot of it takes place in the timeframe of the final montage.  At first, it was going to be much more about Sherlock’s relationship with the ideas of sentiment and love (the phrase ‘I’m not sentimental about you, I love you,’ haunted me for a while) and I spent some time researching the psychology and playing with scenes from throughout the series - one of my favourites I didn’t go on to use was inspired by the final scene of THoB.  Using scenes from the canon gave an automatic structure, and I was always aiming for the final one I wrote early on - the two of them on the beach (everything is about the beach, with me!)  As I went along and started, inevitably, to slow down, I mapped out the chapters with a short note of what I wanted to be in each, then would add notes or phrases as they came to me - often emailed from my phone!  I had to force myself through a tricky section set in Baker Street at one point, but it came together in the end.  I did plot The Pathologist’s Skeletons on paper first, as I found with a casefic which remains a WIP, that I can get confused and lose focus when it comes to details and how to reveal them in a way which stays paced and interesting.  I’ll certainly do that from now on with longer stories and cases.  How did you keep up enthusiasm for the work?  I want to write an original novel, so I am forcing myself to work through the knotty bits and blocks as a learning experience.  Not everything is destined to be finished or finessed, of course, but I’m finding this process is building my confidence that I can overcome problems and slow periods.  I also find I know when I need some external inspiration - some of my favourite scenes have come to me while out walking the dog or sitting on the beach.  I’ve also been inspired by books or other series or things going on in the world, as we all are, and sometimes that’s pushed me on.  Plus, of course, I’m a newbie - I’m very much in the honeymoon period of my writing, even though I’ve loved Sherlock for ten years! (Ten years! Bonkers.) 

You’ve got a knack for writing Sherlock’s thoughts and capturing his voice.  That said, which character do you find easiest to write?  Which is the hardest?  Thank you so much.  I absolutely love writing Sherlock and Mycroft, and I’m sure that’s because they suit my somewhat over-the-top writing style!  I find Molly and her POV really difficult.  I want the scenes I write from her perspective to sound completely different to Sherlock, but that means writing in a style which doesn’t come as naturally to me.  I’m a long way off happy with that at the moment, but I’m enjoying the challenge.

Is there a scene or character that specifically inspired you to start writing Sherlolly?  The whole of TFP, but especially from the moment Sherlock arrives at Musgrave onwards.  I am desperate to see what a Sherlock Holmes who has been reacquainted with his own heart would look like.  I find his emotionality in those final scenes hugely compelling (Mycroft’s office is one of my favourite moments from across all four series) and, as I have always believed in him and Molly, I practically jumped up back in May after watching it and said ‘right, where’s my notebook?!’.

There’s a lovely peaceful, quiet feeling to your fic ‘We’re All Right At The Moment’.  Can you tell us what inspired it and if you’ve thought of doing the backstory that goes with it?  Thank you!  Like everyone, I would go back to January of this year and start again in a heartbeat, but I am hugely fortunate to be able to say that I have a lot to be grateful to the UK lockdowns for.  I might never have begun writing in this fandom otherwise, for one, and I have had a brilliant time so far and met some lovely people. Honestly, I don’t feel able to do any sort of justice in my writing to what has happened in the world in any broader sense than drawing on my own experiences of staying at home and enjoying my family.  This particular super-short fic sees Molly cutting Sherlock’s hair at home in Baker Street.  I wrote it in the evening after I had cut my other half’s hair and had been reminding myself that despite how horribly worried I was - and still am - about everything, we were all right in that moment, and to focus on that as much as possible.  I wanted to try to capture that, if for no reason other than to look back on this entire experience and remember something lovely, so I am so pleased to hear you felt the fic did that.  It was only after I finished it and reread it, that I realised it is ambiguous as to whether Molly is worried about Sherlock contracting the virus, or whether she is remembering him being treated for it... As I say, I don’t think I could write more about these extraordinary circumstances - perhaps it’s just too close at the moment - so I don’t plan on extending it.  But you know how it is, the plot bunnies hop where they will... 

Do you have a Sherlolly music playlist?  What are your top five favs from the list? Here’s a run down of (6 🙊) songs I have been getting emotional over in the last little while, leading my brain to assign their significance to my favourite couple...

Kissing You - Des’Ree - It’s so 90′s, it’s a bit cheesy, it’s oddly disturbing.  It helped me write A Request, Made Properly, and that gave me an excuse to have Sherlock kiss Molly in the snow.

How Long Will I Love You? - Ellie Goulding - part of the playlist, but also in remembrance of a friend who passed away recently.  Life is very short, love is forever.

High and Dry - Jamie Cullum - It’s made me emotional for a very long time.  The original is my partner’s version of choice, this is mine.  

Think About You - Delta Goodrem - Okay, this one isn’t emotional, and it’s not my usual vibe!  Blame the zoom exercise class I do!  But oh my goodness, it’s Molly.  Bless her.

Blinded By Your Grace (P.T.2. F.T. MNEK) - Stormzy - One of the best ever, I reckon.  Spent an awful lot of time thinking about angels and demons, grace and what it takes to save someone, while writing my latest - The Pathologist’s Skeletons.  This has been in my head most of the (blimmin’) time!

Love Me Like You Do - Ellie Goulding - I didn’t know I was a fan of Ellie until I wrote this list... I don’t subscribe to the theory that the love Molly wants or that which Sherlock has to offer is any lesser because it isn’t ‘normal’ or expected. I don’t think romantic entanglement would come easy to either of them. But it’s still love and it would be beautiful.

Thank you so much for reading.  Thanks and love to @ohaine and @mybrainrots. And thank you @sherlollyappreciationweek for the event and for everything you do ❤️

Feel like I should sign off with a quote from the show...

“You’re not a puzzle-solver, you never have been. You’re a drama queen!” Dr John Watson (Moffat & Gatiss) 2014 😜

X

A fav fic of mine by @mybrainrots

https://archiveofourown.org/works/7563193

A fav fic of mine by @ohaine

https://archiveofourown.org/works/10562904

My stuff:

https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnglandsGray/works

#sherlolly #sherlollyselfinterview20 #sherlock #sherlockbbc #writing #fanfic #ao3 #ao3 author #read on ao3

[shinrasfirst]

-> Mun meme <-

Repost rather than reblog, thanks!

Basics

name (or preferred online name): min. age: 28. birthday: november 15. fluent in: english, german. and soon portuguese. watch me.

Writing details:

preferred genres/tropes/aus: horror, angst, psychological, thriller, dark genres in general, romance. <-- i’m stealing this answer 1:1 from kay because it’s perfect. disliked genres/tropes/aus: domestic fluff without a purpose, pregnancy and childbirth, fight scenes, social media aus like wtf do you even do there write out youtube videos??, religion themed things (based on real religions), “celebrity” aus, college aus without any further plot (that’s a setting), hogwarts based aus (again, what’s the plot that is just a setting). preferred writing styles: multi-para to novella. tho i don’t usually write novella because it takes me long enough to write multiple paragraphs. sometimes it happens though. i don’t really do one-liners anymore. personal icon preferences (do you use them? do you prefer certain sizes? ect.): mine are like 75x75 to 100x100. i like using them because i think they complement the post, but i don’t always have one that fits or even any for certain characters, so i also write without them. i don’t mind when people use no icons. any other details about your writing preferences you want to include: i like both present tense and past tense (i tend to write present tense). i kind dislike first person narrators, but i can live with them. what i really fucking hate is second person narration, that’s only acceptable in homestuck. i don’t like double small text because i can’t read it; seriously i already zoom in to 150% sometimes on the regular dash. i also can’t deal with these posts that are so formatted every other word has a different font size, italics, boldness or color. it LOOKS great, but it’s annoying to read, tbh. that, and it’s usually accompanied by purple prose which i absolutely despise. i find it laughable that some people consider that “high quality writing” like no. it very often doesn’t make sense, it’s overly complicated, it sounds like the writer had a sentence in their head and then looked up an archaic synonym for every single word just to sound cool. and it usually creates long paragraphs in which literally nothing happens but someone dropping a pen and saying “ur dumb” but in very fancy. i’ll let this slide as poetry, but not as epic writing. stop making people feel inferior for (luckily) not being “able” to write like that, it’s seriously not better at all. go back to college and ask any literature professor (who doesn’t specialize in poetry - or maybe even them) if they think this is good writing. i dare you.

Get to know me:

what fandoms do you consider yourself a part of, even outside of this blog?: SO MANY! just gonna give you the ones i rp or rped in the past (and haven’t rage quit). star wars, the originals, harry potter, tmi, the witcher, dragon age, baldur’s gate, gentleman jack, lord of the rings, sailor moon. what fandoms are you entirely uninterested in?: 50 shades of misrepresentation, 13 reasons why not every book should be adapted for tv/cinema, game of ra/pe and torture, overwatch (i don’t hate it i’m just not interested), steven universe, adventure time, american horror story, ... favourite foods: pasta asciutta favourite drinks: coffee, sprite, hot chocolate, elderflower spritz hobbies: writing, video games, watching series/movies, spending time with my doggo, drawing, hiking/going for walks list ten things you want to do in the future: be healthy, finish my stupid studies, pay back my debts, live in brazil for 1+ month, visit new zealand, learn how to use worbla, buy a better car, meet bts, meet monsta x, become better at baking what do you wish would change in the rp community?: i want to go back to how it was when i first started out rping on tumblr. where people still understood that fanon is not canon. when everyone still remembered how to mind their own business. when anon hate was a rare and unusual thing. when witch hunts were a thing of the dark ages. i’ll take back the gigantic gifs and unformatted, uncut, messy posts filled with all the fanfic tropes, if you take back all the vile fake social justice bullshit and the sky-high anxieties it causes. literally, take me back to the start. what are some of the things you love about the rp community?: the shared excitement over certain things. the memes are fun. the birth of bizarre ships and dynamics (incl. crossovers). generally the possibilities of meeting great writers and lovely people. anything else you’d like to add?: please proceed into android hell. 🙃

#( munday. ) #( psa. ) #( tag game. )

[huachenyu-news]

2019 Mars Concerts Postponed, New Single About to Drop, and More

This just in: On October 22, Hua Chenyu Studio posted on Weibo that the 2019 Mars Concerts had been postponed due to force majeure. Efforts are being made to ensure that Martians (as Hua Chenyu fans are called) will still get to "come home (aka. attend the concerts)" this year. More information will be released within the next seven days. I was just about to post the following article when I got the news. But I don't really know how to pivot from the shocking turn of events to normal everyday Martians news... and it's way past my bed time and I'm too lazy to rewrite it, so I might as well post it as is... Pop artists have been obsessed with hiding clues and callbacks in their works for fans to find lately. From Taylor Swift’s months-long bread crumb trail of clues and cryptic foreshadowing prior to the release of her new single, to Vampire Weekend’s latest album sprinkled with all sorts of references and homage both obvious and obscure, not to mention the new releases of every Marvel and DC movie, plus video games like “Fortnite” and “Mortal Kombat”, it seems that Easter egg hunting might become the new favorite sport for pop culture fans. Though on Mars this has always been the case, since its eccentric prince has a childlike fondness for puzzles and brain teasers, and forging interconnectivity among seemingly disparate events through the thread of a central theme. In as early as 2016, Hua Chenyu’s Mars Concert Tour, intriguingly taglined “Puzzle” that year, was preceded by a series of promo videos filled with riddles, and a “Finding Hua Chenyu” livestream reminiscent of a scavenger hunt that led a group of Martians down many a rabbit hole around Beijing. Hua is also prone to posting obscure clues to his upcoming works on Weibo, such as a blurry picture of a rose, intended as a reference to the French novella The Little Prince, to allude to his participation in SMG’s celebrity travel show Flowers on Trip, or a photo of his flute-playing self obscured by underbrush, cryptically announcing that he would play the flute in his 2017 Mars Concert, or a hotel selfie coupled with the seeming non sequitur “Spring had not ended; the moon was shining”, a hint at his then-new single “Heaven’s Equal”. By either necessity or predilection, Martians have all become hardened sleuths, over-analyzing everything Hua posted, finding meaning where there is none, using advanced photo-processing technologies to zoom and enhance all Hua Chenyu-related photos, from which many major discoveries were made, like that one time Hua posted a selfie on a train, and got off to throngs of Martians waiting for him at the station, because during the short train ride, Martians had already deduced his precise location and train schedule just from the background of his potato-quality selfie (scary, I know). Or that time when Martians zoomed in on his make-up artist Vincent’s Weibo photo and discovered Hua in the reflection of Vincent’s sunglasses. Or that time when Hua posted a photo of himself watching good friend Zhang Xinyi’s new movie in the theatre, and Martians adjusted the contrast and lighting of the photo to show that Hua was the only one in the theatre – he bought all the tickets. Though Hua himself has been laying low and writing songs for his new album these past two months, Martians have been pampered with a constant drip-feed of information about his new songs and upcoming concerts, mostly through interviews, articles and short videos. On October 21, Hua Chenyu studio released a video prelude to Hua’s new song “Conversations with the Martian Child”. Video & translation by 華晨宇 HuaChenYu (official channel) Speculations about Hua’s new album have already veered towards the whimsical and absurd, with theories about the number of chairs in the above video signifying the number of songs in the album, and correlating that with the stage design in a similar Hua Chenyu video featuring an inexplicable surplus of chairs on Super Boy 2013, and then some Martians started adding, subtracting or multiplying various numbers derived from the video and creating new numbers with new mysterious meanings… It’s all going bananas. At this rate, if Hua didn’t release a new single soon, Martians would all be wearing tin-foil hats and hovering over John Nash pinboards plastered full of screencaps, maps, and newspaper clippings connected with strings and arrows by the end of the month. I was originally planning to post an article when the single actually drops, but all this suspense and tin-foil hatting is killing me. Here's Hua's new commercial for Hair Recipe to soothe your pre-new-single jitters. Video & translation by Hua Chenyu English Subs In other news, Hua will be featured in the October 31, 2019 issue of SoFigaro magazine. Click here to buy it on Taobao. Here's a video clip from the magazine. Read the full article

[transfemmbeatrice]

Where should I start listening to Friends at the Table?

A short novella by me

Friends at the Table is one of the best actual play podcasts out there and you should listen to it because they tell amazing stories with both diverse characters and a diverse cast (the GM is a queer black man and almost everyone at the table is some flavor of queer). They put character development and good storytelling at the forefront while creating incredible and complex worlds to play in. They make you laugh, cry, and laugh so hard you cry (and also give you chills on occasion) and I genuinely cannot recommend them highly enough. Whether you like a good story, characters to fall in love with, learning new ttrpg mechanics, or listening to friends have a good time together, FatT is for you.

FatT also has an enormous backlog that can make it hard to dive in so here is a handy guide for when you want to listen don’t know where tf to begin.

The Friends have provided some resources for this: there is a flowchart that gives you the quick and dirty deets (though it hasn’t been updated to reflect their current season) and also Austin made a 20 minute ep of him explaining the show and stuff and put it at the beginning of the podcast feed which could also be helpful (which I haven’t actually listened to bc they put it out after I was already deep into the show)...but this is my over detailed take.

There are currently 4 seasons of FatT. In order: Autumn in Hieron, Counter/Weight, Marielda/Winter in Hieron, and Twilight Mirage. Marielda is a mini season that takes place in the Hieron universe but before the Hieron seasons; Counterweight and Twilight Mirage are both standalone but do take place in the same universe, tens or hundreds of thousands of years apart. 

Twilight Mirage is approaching its endpoint and will be followed by Spring in Hieron which should be the last Hieron season. There are pros and cons for starting with any of these seasons so depending on your taste and preferences you can take your pick!

(Also, each new season begins with an Episode 00 which is just the friends discussing the setting and pitching characters. It’s not required listening and they’re pretty long so you can skip them if you want but for people like me who live for worldbuilding and behind the scenes, they’re great prefaces to each season!)

Autumn in Hieron: The very beginning! This is where I started because I’m a hardcore chronological completionist. There is definitely something very fun and satisfying about watching them develop over the past 4 years, in confidence and skill and in production quality! They’ve been amazing since the beginning but it only gets better. 

However, because it’s early, the audio quality is not great, so if that’s an issue for you, this probably isn’t your best starting point. Some extremely good shit goes down in this game and I highly recommend listening to it if you can parse the bad audio. Also, starting at episode 5, they split into two smaller groups and the audio improves, so if you want to start here but find the sound unbearable at the start, you can try skipping to here to see if it works better for you! The first few episodes are just a mini quest and it’s definitely fun but not deeply plot relevant so you’ll be fine to skip it. This is also a season potentially worth returning to even if you don’t start here because as I said, it’s good, and the bad audio might be more listenable once you know the players’ voices better. But if you absolutely can’t, no worries! They recap this season at the beginning of Winter in Hieron so if you don’t listen to it you won’t be lost as the story continues!

Hieron is a high fantasy setting in what Austin describes as the post-post-apocalypse. It’s been long enough that they’re past just surviving and have rebuilt tons but it’s still a wild world out there, and no one alive really remembers what apocalyptic event happened, but they all know something bad went down. Over the two (and a half, counting Marielda) seasons they’ve done they have really built out the world. It explores a lot about the concepts of divinity and entropy and so much more. I think Hieron is a great place to start because fantasy is the usual setting for actual play podcasts so it’s a familiar touchstone. And also just, really fucking good.

Counter/Weight: Welcome to SPACE. The second season of FatT is a good starting point because it’s self contained--it’s longer than the Hieron seasons but when you reach the finale, you’ve gotten the whole story. It starts off a little slow as they adjust to a new system and new characters for the first time...but there are some hilarious bits in those first couple of missions that I love. Then they switch systems again to something that fits more what they are doing and things pick up from there. 

The “ground” game (the majority of the episodes with characters going on adventures as usual) is interspersed with the “faction” game--Austin and two other players not in the other half of the game zoom out and use mechanics and roleplaying to decide what the big factions/corporations/etc are doing around the sector, and eventually we see these events trickle down to effect the player characters in the other half of the game. These are a bit slow, especially when they first start, but I recommend listening to them because it’s cool to see how things are moving around on a more macro scale than one little crew of fixers, and it really informs the world they’re operating in. It’s not strictly necessary if you really find these episodes untenable, but you’ll definitely be able to follow along better if you’ve heard them. Also, around the 3rd or so faction game session, they cut down the number of factions significantly so it goes a lot smoother. I’ll also put in here that Counterweight is probably my favorite season of the show at least thus far even though I wasn’t sure I would like it at all when I first started it, for what that’s worth.

Counter/Weight is a cyberpunk/scifi setting somewhere in the Milky Way. It is set less than a decade after a war in which two rival powers united in an uneasy alliance to drive back an Empire. They succeeded, but now things have settled into a good old fashioned cold war. There are lots of robots and mechs and they use the cyberpunk genre to explore labor and capitalism and feeling small and helpless in the face of such massive, powerful corruption. Or, sadness and robots in space. (Also, literally none of the PCs ended up being cishet.)

Marielda: Marielda is a mini season they did right before Winter in Hieron. Set in Hieron before the events of the other seasons, it provides some context to the world. It’s also fucking delightful. This is probably the most recommended starting point for FatT because it’s short, has high production quality, and some of their best work. It really encapsulates what this show is so if you’re unsure if this is the podcast for you, this is a great starting point. 

Since it takes place long before Autumn in Hieron, you don’t need to have listened to it to follow along; but I do find it somewhat helpful because there are callbacks to the events of that season as they show how some of the things they encountered then came to be in the first place. Marielda (and Winter in Hieron) were made with new listeners in mind, so Autumn definitely isn’t required.

Marielda is of course also high fantasy, but it has a tinge of steampunk too because this island has more technology for....reasons that will be revealed as you listen. The only train in Hieron is there, and the crew stages a heist on it, and it’s amazing. Marielda has two parts--the first couple episodes are some of the players playing The Quiet Year, a collaborative mapdrawing game, to build this city. Then the other players played a few missions in Blades in the Dark as scoundrels who steal information to sell to the highest bidder. Their shenanigans are hilarious and occasionally heartbreaking and I’ve relistened to it so many times.

Winter in Hieron: Hieron season two of three! Winter begins with two episodes recapping the events of Autumn in Hieron, so if you skipped Autumn you can listen to them and be good to go, and if you didn’t...you can skip the recaps! (Unless maybe you listened to Counterweight in between and you need a refresher). There are two new PCs in Winter because Andi and Janine joined between Autumn and this season, and they only make Hieron better.

This season is a little heavier than Autumn because it’s Winter and...Winter is usually darker than Autumn. I’m in the middle of relistening to it now, though, and it’s still incredible the second time through and a great starting point. I would not recommend starting with Winter without listening to Marielda first, partly because Marielda is so good, but also because Marielda informs so much of what happens in Winter. 

Since Twilight Mirage is getting close to finishing up (as of writing this, anyway) if being Current In The Fandom is something that’s important to you, I’d start with Hieron (whether that be Autumn or Marielda/Winter). After Twilight Mirage wraps up, they are reportedly planning to return to Hieron for its final season--Spring, so if you start catching up now you can be ready! I don’t know for sure yet but so much has happened at this point that I find it hard to imagine that they’ll do a recap before Spring that lets you jump in there very easily. I could be proven wrong but even if I am....I don’t recommend it. You’ll miss too much Seasons of Hieron is a joy to listen to.

Twilight Mirage: The current season! Usually I say to start here if you find the backlog intimidating--it’s current and you can jump in to what’s happening now and get to the rest when you feel ready. And that’s still somewhat true, but Twilight Mirage has gotten pretty long so it’s potentially still intimidating? And they have said they’re nearing the endgame, but I have no idea if that means weeks or months. But regardless, it’s still less to get through than starting further back, and it is a standalone season so it’s a great starting place!

Twilight Mirage is another game in space. It is set in the same universe as Counterweight, and there are some callbacks to it, but it’s set far in the future from the events of that season and was intentionally made so that people who hadn’t heard Counterweight could listen fine. It’s more like easter eggs than important backstory.

The premise is a dying utopia: a massive fleet that has slowly been whittled down, still home to millions of people, but they’re starting to look for somewhere to hopefully colonize. This game does a great job of questioning what a utopia would look like--what does prison look like in a utopia? how do we treat synthetic beings?--and exploring the themes of self/identity and colonization and so much more. It’s the most philosophical FatT season to date but the narrative is also great and stands on its own--you can engage at whatever level you want. (I, for instance, don’t get a lot of the philosophy referenced, but I’m still deeply enjoying it because it’s a great story and I love all the characters!) So much shit happens to alter the original premise and it’s fascinating to see the characters have to adapt to all these evolving circumstances and question their values as they themselves also change. Also, lots of robots and mechs and aliens and shit. One of the PCs is just a cat person. One of the PCs is a downloadable hitman who is losing their memory every time they die and get downloaded into a new body. It’s A Good Season, they friends are extra af (more than usual, even) and it’s a Delight.

And that’s my answer to the age old question, where do I start listening to Friends at the Table?, answered in more detail than anyone ever wanted. If you have any questions or anything feel free to shoot me an ask or a message, I’m literally always here to talk about FatT!

#friends at the table #fatt #f@tt

[badrpstories]

Ugh a new rper showed up in the fandom the other day, and… Man. I promoted them bc I want to be a supportive member of our small community, but their blog is /unreadable/. And if it weren’t for the fact that someone /else/ had used a similar theme before, I wouldn’t’ve been able to find their pages either, with how greyed out and inconspicuous it is. I have pretty good eyesight (not 20/20 but close), but I had scoot within inches of my computer screen to try to read it. And before someone suggests zooming in, zooming in doesn’t help the fact that the text is like 2 shades lighter than the background. I tried to read it, I really did, but it’s /impossible/. This is what I mean guys, with the graphics.

OH AND GUESS WHAT. EVERYONES CLAMORING TO RP WITH THEM. They literally have two posts: one is a promo, the other is a starter call. They haven’t even started posting starters for the starter call. I’m extremely hesitant to follow them back after they followed me. I usually reblog promos to help people out, not necessarily follow them. Plus, it seems pretty clear to me they’re not about to follow my rules (it says that for interacting, they need to send my PW before I follow back and guess what? Mutuals only. So I guess they just wanna “read” my blog right? No? Who the fuck knows bc when someone presses follow it could mean a billion different things).

The people who have been fucking ignoring me are clamoring to rp with them.

I mean to be fair we’re rping different canons, but for all I know, almost all my duplicates are inactive or slow right now. I’m the only one left who consistently writes multipara and novella. So what gives?

I guess this is just another ranty, rambly post about how much I really hate this trend towards grey aesthetics and all that. I don’t find them appealing at all. I find them blurry and horrible. I find fancy, curly text, or double small text, unreadable.

Like there’s no good explanation at this point for why no one interacts with me, but all of them are perfectly happy talking to one another. Zero. Well, at least no positive explanation or at least a neutral one. At this point I’m ready to say they care more about “aesthetic” than writing skill bc I guess they’re more willing to rp with someone with zero RPS on their blog and no writing samples than someone who has been writing their canon for more than two years and going. Someone who does everything from multipara to novella… And someone who for some reason is writing a canon who is getting less and less popular or something. I don’t know what it is. I just don’t know. I’m hurt, a little confused, and very spiteful, and it’s been harder to contain these feelings with the rise of burn blogs and being stressed due to other factors. I want to call people out for this. But I know it’s just out of jealousy and spite… Sigh. It’s hard I guess, being old school and coming from humble beginnings. And I guess hard because I used to have so much activity when I first started out. No one cared about whether you formatted or wrote with icons. And this was only two years ago. When did the icons come into play? Formatting? “”“”“"Aesthetics”“”“”“? I’m just tired i guess, of school, of these invisible standards, of some glass ceiling I’ve been hitting because for some reason I have to /prove/ I’m good /despite/ my theme being actually accessible (for the record it’s not the default theme, although tbh I have mad respect for people who do use it bc man there’s a reason? Why that’s the default? Because it’s user? Friendly?) or /despite/ not using icons. Can I just not have despite? Can it just be "and”? I’m fed up and frustrated, because this new blog is just the epitome of “people only care about aesthetic and not about actual writing”. It’s true. They literally haven’t even written anything yet and have people calling them “a quality writer”. Like what the fuck? And the same people turn around and apparently can say I am “a perfect writer” when there are people watching in a discord channel, but can’t be bothered to write with me or reblog my promo or write an ooc post on the dash saying my writing is perfect. Thanks. Really makes me feel like y'all are genuine. You’re only welcoming to people who match your aesthetic, not people who bother to put their effort into writing instead of graphics. Actually I do put effort into my graphics. I reckon I’ve put more effort into my graphics than all of them combined. They’re all done from scratch, from art to filters to backgrounds. But I guess this means nothing when you can just slap a lead-colored filter onto a badly cropped picture of your muse’s foot and call it a day.

#rp #submission

[alexsfictionaddiction]

‘We make up horrors to cope with the real ones.’

Despite being a huge thriller and mystery reader, this is the first time I’ll be taking part in the official readathon celebrating the genre and I’m so excited. Hosted by BookTubers Harriet, Nicole and Victoria, Thrillerathon is the perfect opportunity to stack up a load of amazing fast-paced reads and blast your way through them. 

This round begins tomorrow on 19th August and runs until 26th August. As you can see, there are nine challenges and of course you can use one book for more than one of them. I always love to really push myself with readathons so I’ve selected nine individual reads for my TBR that I’m hoping to be able to complete over the week. It’s a ridiculously ambitious task but I tend to read thrillers quite quickly so I’m up for it!

1. Oldest thriller on my TBR

THE VET’S DAUGHTER BY BARBARA COMYNS

I first heard about this strange little 1959 novella on BBC’s Radio 4′s A Good Read. Literary crime author Kate Hamer picked it as her Good Read and the discussion of it had me thoroughly intrigued. When I saw that the Kindle edition was reasonably cheap and only 176 pages, I knew it would be the perfect fit for a readathon. Set in South London in the early 20th century, it follows a young girl who escapes the restrictive unpleasant life she lives by retreating to fantasies and dark powers. I’m expecting it to be very eerie, atmospheric and unique.

2. An author I’ve read before

TWO CAN KEEP A SECRET BY KAREN M. MCMANUS

I really enjoyed Karen M. McManus’ debut YA One of Us is Lying a couple of years ago and I’ve been eagerly anticipating this companion novel. I’ve heard mixed reviews about it with a lot of people preferring the first book. This time we’re following Ellery in the small town of Echo Ridge, which seems to have a reputation for homecoming queens going missing. That’s pretty much all I need to know!

3. A thriller with a trope I love

THE FURIES BY KATIE LOWE

The Furies is a recently released novel following a suspicious murder of a teenage girl on school property. I tend to be drawn to books that feature unwavering loyalty and fierce friendship between females, particularly between teenage girls. The bonds between teenage girls fighting for the same cause or agenda are unlike any other and when they’re done well, they’re fascinating to read. I believe there is also an element of witchcraft involved in this book too which is doubly exciting!

4. A host’s favourite thriller

SLEEP BY C. L. TAYLOR

Each of Thrillerathon’s hosts chose their favourite thrillers for participants to choose from for this prompt. They are The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter (chosen by Harriet), Sweet Pea by C. J. Skuse (chosen by Victoria) and Sleep by C. L. Taylor (chosen by Nicole).

I already had this latest psychological read from C. L. Taylor on my Kindle (it’s also currently only 99p on Amazon UK -grab it while you can!) so it made sense that I’d pick it for this challenge. It will be my first read by her despite owning quite a few of her other books. Sleep follows seven guests in a remote Scottish retreat when it becomes apparent that a killer is on the loose. 

As for the other hosts’ picks, I’ve not read The Good Daughter but I thoroughly recommend Sweet Pea if you haven’t read it. The protagonist Rhiannon is the most relateable, witty and likeable serial killer I’ve ever read and it’s an incredibly shocking compulsive read!

5. My most anticipated thriller

THE LONEY BY ANDREW MICHAEL HURLEY

This has been on my shelf for the longest time and I’ve never heard anything but high praise for it. The Loney follows the story of two brothers, one of whom is mute, as they search for a cure and visit the desolate coastline every year. However years later, a dead child washes up on the coast and The Loney begins giving up its secrets. I’ve heard that it’s heartbreaking and disturbing -I’m excited!

6. Newest thriller on my TBR

THE TURN OF THE KEY BY RUTH WARE

If you know anything about my reading tastes at all, you’ll know how much I love Ruth Ware. I’ve devoured all of her previous mysteries and I’m sure I’ll do the same for this one. The Turn of the Key was released on 8th August and tells the story of a young woman who takes a fantastic job as a nanny in a beautiful house in the Scottish Highlands. However, tragedy and secrets lay just around the corner. I’m expecting to zoom through this one!

7. A new to me author

SUNBURN BY LAURA LIPPMAN

I’d not heard of Laura Lippman until Sunburn came out last year. It’s a literary thriller featuring a red-hot love affair between two travelling strangers who meet in a bar in Delaware one summer. When someone dies, secrets and lies start to unravel. I imagine this is going to be thoroughly absorbing, intense and a fascinating study into the fragile mindset of the lovesick. 

8. Shortest thriller on my TBR

THE STEPFORD WIVES BY IRA LEVIN

I’ve been intrigued by this story for years and at just 160 pages, it’s the smallest thriller I own, so I’m delighted that I’m getting an excuse to pick it up. When a young mother moves to a new area, she begins to suspect that there may be something slightly strange about the ‘perfect’ housewives in her new neighbourhood. I know it has been described as a satirical thriller with a lot to say on gender politics so I’m expecting a thought-provoking read.

9. The thriller with the creepiest cover

BEHIND HER EYES BY SARAH PINBOROUGH

Ok so this may be the US edition of this book but this cover has really got to me every time I’ve seen it. I read Sarah Pinborough’s latest book Cross Her Heart last year and was blown away by the clever structuring and constant twists. I think Behind Her Eyes follows a love triangle of some kind with a lot of unreliable narrating, zero trust in anyone and an apparently unforgettable ending. I don’t want to know anymore!

So that completes my very ambitious Thrillerathon TBR. Will you be joining in for this round? Let me know what you’re planning on reading!

#thrillerathon #readathon #tbr #thrillers #mystery #books #bookworm

[angeltriestoblog]

I was supposed to stop writing about this pandemic

When it comes to self-improvement, I have tried just about every trick in the book. But I’ve never figured out how meditation works, what more how to get right. I always make sure to get up at the exact time the house is just the right kind of quiet and the sunlight filtering through my bedroom window is not too harsh. My 19-year-old self props up pillows to support my 90-year-old back, and spritzes some perfume to add to the ambience. I switch off the WiFi, ignore my notifications, and choose to focus on the soothing voice that makes my phone buzz to life. Give yourself credit for getting started with us, she tells me. Like I had to do much more than search “best meditation app 2020” “meditation app that oprah loves list” “meditation app with best basic plan” on Google and make the necessary downloads.

Within seconds, I am met with consecutive orders. Keep your feet planted firmly on the ground. Just keep breathing. Straighten your posture. I have no problem completing these, although my legs are begging to be crossed and my back aching to be slouched. But when she tells me to “clear my mind and keep my eyes closed”, this is where things start to get tricky.

When I close my eyes, I see a 24/7 marathon of probably every single thing I’ve done or thought in my lifetime, in crisp high-quality definition. When I reopen them and am asked to ground myself by pointing out three things I can see, I spot the brown paper bag sitting snugly in the corner of my room, the broken guitar split in two after an endless period of cessation, the perfume box bearing the faces of boyband members I used to love. My mind makes an endless number of seamless connections until I manage to associate these seemingly insignificant things to a distant, repressed souvenir from my childhood or a conjured image of what I would like tomorrow to be. Needless to say, I end up oceans away from the bedroom I’m supposed to be in.

I can’t remember a single time where my brain wasn’t buzzing with activity. I am not used to the silence nor am I comfortable in stagnation: I must always be working or thinking of or doing something, literally anything but the rise and fall in my chest. As a writer, this is rarely an inconvenience because I am able to generate ideas at the drop of a hat: these past three months, I’ve produced so many think pieces because, for the lack of a better reason, I literally could not stop thinking. 

But as a person living in a world governed by the coronavirus, I would like to be capable of focusing on one thing at a time, thanks! Now that the virus basically calls the shots on how our world as we know it functions, I feel like it’s more important than ever to be aware of “the now”: which aspects of it are subject to change and which ones we’ll have to begrudgingly accept, and to regulate my emotions and expectations accordingly. But my brain refuses to give me a rest. I am constantly teetering between recollections of the past: a time pre-COVID when I could hug my friends and not worry about the mask that is hurting my earlobes, and visions of the future where all is good and I am free to plan out the rest of my life: academic achievements, org involvement, romantic prospects and all.

I am hanging on to meditation as a last resort: a desperate attempt to clear my mind of the unnecessary so I can put the current situation at the center again. Hopefully so I can regain a little bit of sanity and figure out how I can best contribute to those around me. At this point, the app is reminding me that if my mind starts to wander, it’s completely normal and okay as long as I’m able to redirect its attention to the way I inhale and exhale. Normally, I’d indulge myself but today I’ll choose to guide it back. Congratulations, you’ve completed your session.

Last June 30th, I participated in Novella’s first ever virtual salon, where writers from all over the United States (and me!) came together and created on-the-spot pieces revolving around the theme PRESENT. I chose to talk about my struggle with practicing meditation: I wanted to make it my first attempt at CNF but I think I circled back to the personal essay because it’s what I’m most accustomed to. 

For as long as I could remember, I have practiced my creative process in solitude: within the confines of my safe space, only my blank document and a Spotify playlist serving as company. Although I do have a long way to go before I’m fully comfortable with reciting my work before a crowd (whether via Zoom or IRL), I did love witnessing the brilliance people could conjure in a half-hour. There’s just so much to learn from the community! I can’t wait for the latest post of The Stacks to be released so we can all revel in their greatness.

#personal #quarantingz #angeltriestoblog #queue