#just vibes no plot no worldbuilding none of it

[jeanjwould]

do yall ever have those ocs that are part of a wip in theory, but you have next to zero actual ideas for the wip in question, so the oc is just kinda floating around in your brain with no story attached, but you love them so much you can't bring yourself to actually scrap the wip?

[aroaessidhe]

2025 reads / storygraph

This Gilded Abyss

fantasy/thriller/romance, start of a series

gilded-age fantasy world where a rare magical substance is mined deep undersea

a sergeant struggling with grief and trauma of her best friend dying in a mine collapse, is asked by a young royal (…her ex girlfriend) to help her investigate a strange murder - on the luxury submersible heading exactly where she never wants to return to

when there’s another massacre, confirming their suspicions that it’s caused by an illness inducing a violence craze, they have to find a way to survive, trapped on the ship until it arrives at the undersea city

[aethersea]

another thing fantasy writers should keep track of is how much of their worldbuilding is aesthetic-based. it's not unlike the sci-fi hardness scale, which measures how closely a story holds to known, real principles of science. The Martian is extremely hard sci-fi, with nearly every detail being grounded in realistic fact as we know it; Star Trek is extremely soft sci-fi, with a vaguely plausible "space travel and no resource scarcity" premise used as a foundation for the wildest ideas the writers' room could come up with. and much as Star Trek fuckin rules, there's nothing wrong with aesthetic-based fantasy worldbuilding!

(sidenote we're not calling this 'soft fantasy' bc there's already a hard/soft divide in fantasy: hard magic follows consistent rules, like "earthbenders can always and only bend earth", and soft magic follows vague rules that often just ~feel right~, like the Force. this frankly kinda maps, but I'm not talking about just the magic, I'm talking about the worldbuilding as a whole.

actually for the purposes of this post we're calling it grounded vs airy fantasy, bc that's succinct and sounds cool.)

a great example of grounded fantasy is Dungeon Meshi: the dungeon ecosystem is meticulously thought out, the plot is driven by the very realistic need to eat well while adventuring, the story touches on both social and psychological effects of the whole 'no one dies forever down here' situation, the list goes on. the worldbuilding wants to be engaged with on a mechanical level and it rewards that engagement.

deliberately airy fantasy is less common, because in a funny way it's much harder to do. people tend to like explanations. it takes skill to pull off "the world is this way because I said so." Narnia manages: these kids fall into a magic world through the back of a wardrobe, befriend talking beavers who drink tea, get weapons from Santa Claus, dance with Bacchus and his maenads, and sail to the edge of the world, without ever breaking suspension of disbelief. it works because every new thing that happens fits the vibes. it's all just vibes! engaging with the worldbuilding on a mechanical level wouldn't just be futile, it'd be missing the point entirely.

the reason I started off calling this aesthetic-based is that an airy story will usually lean hard on an existing aesthetic, ideally one that's widely known by the target audience. Lewis was drawing on fables, fairy tales, myths, children's stories, and the vague idea of ~medieval europe~ that is to this day our most generic fantasy setting. when a prince falls in love with a fallen star, when there are giants who welcome lost children warmly and fatten them up for the feast, it all fits because these are things we'd expect to find in this story. none of this jars against what we've already seen.

and the point of it is to be wondrous and whimsical, to set the tone for the story Lewis wants to tell. and it does a great job! the airy worldbuilding serves the purposes of the story, and it's no less elegant than Ryōko Kui's elaborately grounded dungeon. neither kind of worldbuilding is better than the other.

however.

you do have to know which one you're doing.

the whole reason I'm writing this is that I saw yet another long, entertaining post dragging GRRM for absolute filth. asoiaf is a fun one because on some axes it's pretty grounded (political fuck-around-and-find-out, rumors spread farther than fact, fastest way to lose a war is to let your people starve, etc), but on others it's entirely airy (some people have magic Just Cause, the various peoples are each based on an aesthetic/stereotype/cliché with no real thought to how they influence each other as neighbors, the super-long seasons have no effect on ecology, etc).

and again! none of this is actually bad! (well ok some of those stereotypes are quite bigoted. but other than that this isn't bad.) there's nothing wrong with the season thing being there to highlight how the nobles are focused on short-sighted wars for power instead of storing up resources for the extremely dangerous and inevitable winter, that's a nice allegory, and the looming threat of many harsh years set the narrative tone. and you can always mix and match airy and grounded worldbuilding – everyone does it, frankly it's a necessity, because sooner or later the answer to every worldbuilding question is "because the author wanted it to be that way." the only completely grounded writing is nonfiction.

the problem is when you pretend that your entirely airy worldbuilding is actually super duper grounded. like, for instance, claiming that your vibes-based depiction of Medieval Europe (Gritty Edition) is completely historical, and then never even showing anyone spinning. or sniffing dismissively at Tolkien for not detailing Aragorn's tax policy, and then never addressing how a pre-industrial grain-based agricultural society is going years without harvesting any crops. (stored grain goes bad! you can't even mouse-proof your silos, how are you going to deal with mold?) and the list goes on.

the man went up on national television and invited us to engage with his worldbuilding mechanically, and then if you actually do that, it shatters like spun sugar under the pressure. doesn't he realize that's not the part of the story that's load-bearing! he should've directed our focus to the political machinations and extensive trope deconstruction, not the handwavey bit.

point is, as a fantasy writer there will always be some amount of your worldbuilding that boils down to 'because I said so,' and there's nothing wrong with that. nor is there anything wrong with making that your whole thing – airy worldbuilding can be beautiful and inspiring. but you have to be aware of what you're doing, because if you ask your readers to engage with the worldbuilding in gritty mechanical detail, you had better have some actual mechanics to show them.

[ofliterarynature]

APRIL 2025 WRAP UP

*I have no idea what went wrong with Storygraph's graphic generation that my books are so out of order? but here we go.

[ loved liked okay nope dnf (reread) book club* ]

Ninefox Gambit • The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye • The Priory of the Orange Tree • Mira's Last Dance • I Shall Never Fall in Love • Case Histories • The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows • The Prisoner of Limnos • (All Systems Red)* • A Stranger in Olondria • Everything is Tuberculosis • The Prince and the Dressmaker • The Cloud Roads • The Diary of a Bookseller • The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida • Axiom's End • Dog on It

* * * * *

Ninefox Gambit - I feel so bad saying this, since so many of my mutuals like this and it includes several things that *I* usually like, but this one just did not hit for me. It was interesting enough that I probably could have pushed my way through the other books, but I didn't want to sour my relationship with the author.

The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye - What a disappointment. Maybe this is just on me, but I was expecting a grand sweeping historical fiction of trials and tribulations... and this is not that. As a story, this is fine. It's an okay read! But as someone who likes historical fiction and loves a good boat book, there wasn't much depth to the history or tension to the plot or grit to the pirate of it all. It *did* feel like I was being bludgeoned over the head with "found family" and preaching about social injustice - not that these can't have their place, but their presentation was so modern that it felt massively out of place. I think this would be a great read for someone, but not if you're looking for engrossing queer historical fiction.

The Priory of the Orange Tree - this was...fine. Fine, but absolutely not worth the hype. Honestly I keep thinking about what @asexualbookbird has been saying about The Bone Season - that the author has really great ideas for her worldbuilding and then uses almost none of it, because that's exactly what's going on here! Ugh. No plans to read another Samantha Shannon book ever again.

Mira's Last Dance - a direct continuation of the same story from the previous novella, which was great! I found this one hysterically funny, despite the tense situation - I know it's not necessarily the best look, to laugh at a guy in drag, but this really felt like the first book to really bring forward the inherent gender/queerness of Penric and Desdemona's situation! Also everyone's consternation at the situation - including Penric's! And Des was having so much fun <3

I Shall Never Fall in Love - head over heels for this one!! As soon as I saw the cover I knew I had to read it (it was giving me incredible Greenwing & Dart vibes lol), and it was so much more than I expected! This is exactly the niche of queer historical fiction I enjoy reading, and the depth and complexity of story that the author managed to fit into a graphic novel!!! I've never seen anything like it, plus the art was fantastic. Absolutely adored it <3

Case Histories - What an interesting book! Rather than the tale of a hard boiled PI doggedly on the case, this is very much a character study of human foibles, using the unsolved mysteries as a center around which to explore our investigator and those left to live with tragedy. I think this connected with the parts of me that enjoyed The Spellman Files once upon a time, though this certainly seems less frenetic. I think I might continue the series at some point.

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows - I don't know. I definitely liked this more than the first book and appreciated the slow-burn of the romance, but I'm not as into it as I'd like. Conflicted about whether I want to bother with the third book.

The Prisoner of Limnos - another Penric! Still pulling on the same story thread, but at a slightly further remove from the previous book this time. As enjoyable as these always are, but most commendable for the fact that Bujold let one of the female characters step in as a second narrator.

All Systems Red - wonderful as always! I'm so glad that the book club loved it, and it was nice to read it in print for the first time in a while (I listen to it on audiobook a lot)

A Stranger in Olondria - I absolutely did not enjoy this book, but that's on me I think. The writing is very poetical and dreamy, and the story didn't really go the way I was expecting- if I hadn't wanted to read this for so long that I bought the audiobook myself I would and should have DNF'd it in the first half.

Everything is Tuberculosis - good! This was absolutely interesting, and I think John is a very thoughtful writer - I'd absolutely read any nonfiction he may choose to write in the future. I listened to the audiobook and honestly his voice is just very familiar and soothing 😄

The Prince and the Dressmaker - finally finished this! I read *most* of it a few years ago before my brain decided not to cooperate, so it's a relief to finally see the end. The art is absolutely stunning and the story is quite nice, but at least for me seemed to lack something.

The Cloud Roads - I am having such a good time with this series! (I'm actually on the second to last book as I write this). It's not the best series I've ever read, but it's wonderfully imaginative and like nothing I've read before - Martha Wells really built the world and its inhabitants from the ground up, seemingly on the principal of 'what would look really cool' (It's a bit handwavy, but it works!) Also a lot of thought was put into differentiating the different cultures, though obviously we spend the most time with the Raksura. And Moon! The saddest, wettest creature you've ever seen. Extremely similar character traits to Murderbot in all honestly, but I really enjoy this type of character so I'm all for it if that's what Martha Wells wants to write.

The Diary of a Bookseller - I wasn't entirely sure on this one at first, but it won me over eventually because 1) I do enjoy the petty day to day inconveniences of humans being humans, and the author is upfront about being a grouch and doesn't go out of his way to make himself look good, and 2) I'm fascinated by secondhand bookselling! Who knew? (I knew, haha. And having dabbled in the online portions myself I had much sympathy) Also the little tension with every diary entry of orders received vs books found :) This ended up being a very soothing and comfortable read, and I'll definitely read the next one. I feel half convinced to try starting a diary myself.

DNF

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (7%) - this one has definitely been polarizing with readers, and I can see why! I really tried and stick with this a lot longer than I wanted to, but it never clicked for me. It might have just been the wrong time.

Axiom's End (7%) - honestly I was just in a really bad streak and DNF'd all three of these within two days. Was absolutely not feeling this one, and it's not quite the flavor of sci-fi I prefer so I probably won't try again.

Dog on It (6%) - you all were right, darn it. This series was voted out in the original TBR Takedown series but I stubbornly hung on to them. On a good day I might have made it through this? But it was not a good day, so I gave up and moved on. I'm sure they're a great pick for someone.

[chronicbeans]

Hazbin Hotel Rewrite - Worldbuilding

A reminder to everyone that I made this for FUN. I'm putting the critical tags in for those who don't like hearing rewrites and criticism of the show (which I also put in to explain why I make the changes I do).

This post is mainly about some worldbuilding changes. These include things such as how sins work, what sins are, an extra... dimension...? Reality...? Whatever Heaven, Earth, and Hell are considered to be, there's another area just for God's and Goddesses (you heard me right, there's more than just the Christian God here).

TW: Criticism of Hazbin Hotel, Criticism of Religion is Mentioned (as I feel that's what Hazbin is Trying to do but Failing), Some Parts of Lore is Purposefully Confusing Because the People in Charge Have no Idea What's Happening

The world(s) of Hazbin Hotel is going to be changed to more accurately fit what I got the vibe it was trying to do - critique Christianity's ideas of sin and redemption. However, I feel like it fails in many departments simply due to the lack of worldbuilding revolving around it. For one, what if you aren't a Christian or don't believe in the Abrahamic God in general? What is considered a sin? What isn't a sin? How does redemption work? And on a side note, how did Alastor's use of (offensively shown and represented) Voudou actually work if, supposedly, Christianity is the "correct" religion of this universe and we can guess that Voudou isn't due to no mentions of it being so?

I have something that could possibly clear up some of those things, and while it probably creates some plot wholes of it's own, it still fills the very majority ones available: All religions are true and real, meaning all Gods, Goddesses, Saints, and anything in-between are true too. The only reason why Heaven and Hell are the afterlife at the moment is because Christianity is the most common religion in the world, and because most people are expecting to go to Heaven or Hell when dying, they decided to make that the afterlife until another religion becomes the biggest. When that happens, they'll change it to whatever that religion believes the afterlife to be.

This can help with the critique of sins that I mentioned. See, in this world, because all religions are technically true, the Gods/Goddesses themselves don't know. It's become a clusterfuck that they cannot keep track of, so they have decided that whatever you believe causes eternal damnation will be a sin for you. Which, in turn, causes no one to really know what a sin is. One person got into Hell for just committing suicide, which they believed was an unforgivable sin, while someone else got into Heaven despite doing so because they didn't believe it to be a sin at all.

This can also explain how Adam got into Heaven despite not knowing what he did to get in - he is full of himself and believed he did no wrong, and none of his actions in life were things he believed were sinful. And now that he's aware that all religions are technically true, and that everything is confusing because of it, he doesn't know how to answer the question in a way that isn't even more confusing. The whole "All Religions are True" thing is confusing, which is the entire point of it.

This can also allow people to still act in ways that could be critiqued. In Hell, critiquing anybody is still hypocritical, but when you believe your own sins were not as bad as another's, it wouldn't be surprising if you decide to criticize them for that. Meanwhile, that person may not have even been in Hell for that action because they didn't believe it to be a sin. The same goes for Heaven, where people who have a holier than thou attitude may criticize others in Heaven for actions they deemed sinful in life, while that person, again, didn't see their actions as sinful.

Essentially, sin is whatever you want it to be, which makes it practically meaningless to have those rules in the first place and pointless to judge others based on it.

This would also explain Alastor's powers (which in my own rewrite will be reworked and all of the offensive stuff cut out for obvious reasons, but for the purposes of explaining this rewrite I shall mention). Because Voudou is a true religion, the powers and rituals would still hold the powers they do. The same would go with any other religion, as well, even the religions made as a criticism of certain teachings. Even Pastafarianism, aka The Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster, which was created to critique the teachings of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution, has a place among the other Gods/Goddesses. Why? Because there are people who claim to believe in it.

Speaking of places, the place where the Gods/Goddesses and Saints all stay is called The Waiting Room. It's where they wait for their turns to control the afterlife and be the most common religion. The only ones not present at the moment are the Abrahamic God and Christian Saints, as they are in Heaven keeping things running. The Waiting Room is where you can find many religious figures simply hanging out and chatting to each other respectfully and on good terms, which is a stark contrast to how many religious zealots on Earth treat others with differing beliefs. This is the place where you can walk in and see Baron Samedi hanging out at the bar with Hades, the both of them complaining to each other about how the humans are depicting them so negatively in modern media despite them not really being bad people. Then, you can look to your right and see Shiva and Vishnu fighting on whether to demolish a broken piece of furniture or to try to fix it.

I am not entirely certain yet, but it may take the form of a small world with the religious figures staying in a large hotel. In that way, it can mirror the Hazbin Hotel. While the Abrahamic God and Heaven may not approve of the idea of the Hazbin Hotel, some within The Waiting Room might approve of it. However, since they are not part of the most common religion and have no big power over what goes on in Heaven or Hell unless it involves their religion specifically, they don't have much sway.

If I'll ever make designs for the other religion's figures, I'm not sure. I don't want to accidentally mess them up, so the most I might do is make a design I had in mind for the Von Eldritch family member tricking Alastor into thinking he is Baron Samedi, which is just the Von Eldritch member dressing up in an outfit based on the popular depictions of him. Which some might see as offhandedly designing a part of Baron Samedi. However, if I were to ever write down a chapter or something involving them, I'll try to base their personalities off their depictions in their original folklore/history.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Ok, ya know what? This is already a weird crossover AU, is there any Miraculous that focuses on healing? We can invent it if we have to, but that’s what I keep thinking of. Like, the Axolotl Miraculous, works with Healing, but also Disease. That's what I'd give Katara. Or is it just "vibes", like. Katara could also do the Turtle, she's a pretty protective presence.

Only Miraculous with any healing is the Ladybug, but I am adamant that Sokka gets the Ladybug.

I don't really want to bring in homebrew Miraculous and just keep it to the main set.

The Turtle could work too. Hm.

So my rules on giving characters a Miraculous is one of two things. Either

1.) This is a skill the character is already good at. Take Sokka and the Ladybug. He's a good strategist and an inventor, so being the leader and using Lucky Charm is good for him. Another example is in the LL AU, I have Marinette with the Fox because she's a creative person which lends to her ability to craft Illusions.

or

2.) This is a skill the character needs to learn. Kinda like what I said about Azula with the Fox: learning the more 'fun' and lighthearted side to trickery. Compare this again to LL and me giving Mylene the Turtle: she's not a natural protector but her arc is about learning to step up into that role.

Ofc I will make exceptions if it's 'funny'.

My thing with Katara is that she doesn't fit either category. None of the Miraculous really play to her pre-existing strengths.

But at the same time I'm.... not sure where her arc would go? Because Katara's story and character arcs are very much tied into atla and the worldbuilding and plot in ways that some of the others aren't. Like I can translate Sokka's issues or the Fire Family drama into the new setting, but not Katara's as well.

(I have this same issue with making bnha aus lmao).

Overall I think story-wise having a LB/CN sibling duo with Sokka and Katara makes the most sense to me so I may default to that.

[utilitycaster]

you got me. i binged all of midst in two days and it was great, but now i dont have a lot of other podcasts to listen to. do you have other good fiction podcasts you like?

DO I. I am not the Most Podcast Person I know but I definitely follow a lot because I drive a lot and walk a lot and put them on in the background while I do chores. Also, I'm sticking to scripted/plotted fiction here and not actual play but I can provide some actual play podcast recs too, though none are terribly obscure.

Wolf 359 is a completed podcast but a great binge. It also is science fiction and deals with capitalism and corruption and complicated characters and weird space stuff; it regularly makes the "great fiction podcasts" to check out and I think is closest to Midst in that it's also a tightly plotted work that goes to a natural end point.

I frequently talk about and recommend the Silt Verses and the thematic nature is remarkably close to Midst, but the vibe is very different. It has a lot of folk and body horror elements (audio-only, but they are absolutely present). Also covers the "man what if capitalism and religion were working explicitly in tandem" element of Midst with the added dimension of "what if there were many many gods and and they all demanded literal, physical sacrifices". Sister Carpenter is cut from a similar cloth as Lark and I love her dearly. To draw other comparisons would be to spoil it. It's on season 3, which will be its last. It is extremely intense in that when I fell behind I found it tough to binge without taking breaks, but it's really fucking good. (I also recommend this to people who like Candela Obscura, though that's more for eldritch horror vibes).

The Penumbra Podcast is great because it has two separate storylines (it was originally intended to be an anthology, but people fell in love with Juno Steel specifically). I like both, but Juno Steel is the more popular one - it's set in the future, in our solar system but in space, and follows Juno Steel, a private eye. It's extremely weird neo-noir. There is a homme fatale and a fantastic cast of characters, and it's also an interesting ongoing plot. The Second Citadel is more fantasy rather than sf though it's also kind of in that general New Weird bucket and is even harder to describe but I think it's underrated. It's also on its final season but it's been going on a while so it will take a bit for you to catch up.

Within the Wires is also a podcast I've recommended in the past. It's by the people who do Welcome to Nightvale which isn't listed here both because I assume you are aware of it, and because that's an ongoing slice of life sort of thing; there are plots but there's sort of that sitcom-esque "nothing really changes the status quo" element though the earlier era had some more structured stuff. Anyway, Within the Wires is found audio, so each season is different - the first is relaxation cassette tapes, the second museum audio guides, the third voice memos, etc. There are callbacks/connections between seasons at times, and I would recommend listening to at least the first two seasons in full (which are very strong) to get a sense of the world before hopping around later. The reason I recommend it here is because the worldbuilding is spectacularly done in a way that reminds me of the elegance of the worldbuilding in Midst, and because it's found audio, while it's one narrator per season you will get those weird asides and interesting tonal choices.

Tentative rec for Camlann, a roughly modern day post-apocalyptic take on Arthurian legends and the folklore of the British Isles only because it just started and has 3 episodes. I like it, but I don't know what plot it's building to (nor how long it will be; they have funding for one season but aren't sure about future ones.)

[puhpandas]

Out of Stock really is the best fazbear frights story because not only does it not have any weird stuff in it (which we know is relatively common with the FF writers), but it has the perfect blend of horror, fnaf, action, and characters.

Plushtrap is an already beloved character of fnaf, and they took its mechanic from fnaf 4 and made it into what it would realistically be in the fnaf universe, and also added more worldbuilding to the fnaf world as a whole by showing just how popular fazbear actually is (since they have smartphones, its later in the companies lifespan) to kids in their world

the horror aspect isnt only plushtrap attacking them, but its ALSO the fact that they did everything right, but EVERYTHING went wrong and just added up to put them in that situation. the power was out, they needed light to stop it, all of their phones died, there was no service so they couldnt call for help, they were stuck inside rooms trying to make a plan just as kids WHILE plushtrap was after them. like everything they could have done wasnt an option and they did everything right but it still was a scary situation

NOT TO MENTION the amazing characters. when i first read OOS i was actually blown away by how good of a character Oscar is. none of what we see is just some fanon made up thing where it would be good in theory, his character is genuinely written amazingly and no matter who you are you get really into his plot and his problems and feel for him, and want him to succeed

alongside Isaac and Raj being amazing friends. they could have just made them the average friends, nothing speical, or even bad frineds, but they didnt, and it works so well with Oscars character that he almost never gets what he wants and sacrifices so much for the people he loves, and his friends know this and make an effort to sacrifice for him, too. and after seeing how that affected Oscar for so long and then seeing his friends make the exact same sacrifices for him that he does for his mom... eeueue😭😭

also the halloween vibes are genuinely immaculate. like they nailed it on the head. idk how they did but they did. its just genuinely fun to read and you get so absorbed into it that it just feels like halloween

and even after everything, Oscar doesnt really get a happy ending. he finally rebelled and snapped and took something for himself after not being able to for so long, and it blew up in his face, putting his friends in danger and making him lie to his mom and drown in guilt to the point where he was willing to almost get hit by a train just to fix it. but he and his friends are okay and he came to the conclusion that even if things arent perfect or suck at times, he still has his mom and his friends and he has plenty of good moments, like when his mom hugs him or his friends risk his life for him. and hes glad that the bad things happened. so things dont really end happy, but content. and i think thats awesome

[venomouschocolate]

Why Do They Talk Like That: a stream of consciousness

Fantasy linguistics are so hard like where do you draw the line... I mean none of my characters are referencing major theistic religions or using real life loanwords or expletives but then there's quote-unquote fun stuff like "sadism" or "lunatic" or "sinister". i.e the Marquis de Sade does not exist in this world, but the concept of pleasure from cruelty does... Latin is not a language there, but I, personally, am writing in English, which has much of its etymology rooted in Latin (as well as pretty much every other language ever), even if there is no hate for left-handed people or indeed the left in this world, so "sinister" is inexplicable in itself now (odd how the left has historically been demonised and that it's also the socialist side of the political spectrum. not that odd really. thank you robert walpole?). The same with "lunatic": the moon is literally worshipped in some areas of my world, but it's still a term characters use, despite the moon having positive connotations.

Where Do You Draw The Line... I can't write in a conlang because a) I am not masochistic but b) I want my work to actually be read. You can imply different languages with accents and word choice and compound words, but ultimately I am writing in the same language for all (despite being bilingual, go me!) and ultimately that language is one that exists only in our world and not in the one that I've created.

While we're here, let's talk about swearing (cursing if you're american?) in fantasy settings. I don't mean "oh my god/s", that's arguably blasphemy and certainly not explicit; I don't mean "bloody" (not really explicit either) because frankly that does tend to fit a fantasy vibe with the type of characters likely to use it (considering the real world stereotypes and thus the archetypes an author will write using it). I mean expletives like "fuck", "bitch", "shit": STOP USING THEM. you absolute buffoons.

Recently I read a fantasy novel which included a whole magic system and several countries with absolute monarchies, etc, and they kept using expletives and it just did not work, and it never does. A step back: I believe that using expletives when writing in a real world setting (provided it's period-believable, of course) can work, and often (not always, not even mostly) works - I do it myself. However, believable expletives and exclamations and intensifiers can and sometimes do make or break worldbuilding, at least for me. The worldbuilding in the novel was fine, good even! But every time the (twenty-eight-year-old) mc used "fucking" or "bitch", I was immediately yanked out of the story and into reality. It was like reading a period piece (say, in the 19th-early 20th century) and seeing "bitch" in the expletive (slur) sense. I don't care whether it would be used: I don't BELIEVE that it would be.

Suspension of disbelief is everything, which (as a theatre kid...) is, I suspect, why musical films don't work: we're primed for a more true-to-life piece, whereas in a theatre, we're prepared to cast a lot more aside. We KNOW they're actors, we know bursting into song is unrealistic, but it's the stage! We believe it anyway. Seeing a fantasy character, particularly one that was meant to be a minor royal, consistently THINK in expletives (and not just exclaim them!) felt to me like watching Mean Girls The Musical The Movie. I did not believe the magic (which was a major plot point so it kind of sucked). I did not believe that the characters saying "bitch" and "fuck" would say those words, especially since those characters were almost exclusively limited to the middle-aged queen, an almost thirty-year-old established to be groomed into mild-mannered obedience, the former queen's guard and a (bastard) prince. I did not believe that the characters whose thoughts I was reading would think them, and thus I did not believe in the story.

If you're going to create a prose-based world intended to be separate from our own in terms of religion/history/sociopolitical structure/magic/etc, you NEED to think about the linguistics. I'm not saying think HARD or be super mega creative: in my sky-worship country, a common exclamation is "stars-be", short for "stars-be-dimmed", ditto "skies-be" and "skies-be-felled". My sun-based little sillies go "be-set" as in "sun-be-set"; the only country in a technological revolution (also the only country with guns): "I'm not wired that way"; "he's gearing for a fight"; "I was shooting for you". Furthermore, when explaining their culture in other languages, they struggle for words, because, for example, a train is a monolingual concept (one falters when about to describe someone as a "train wreck" and just goes "sorry"). It's not clever, it's not particularly original, but, in my opinion, it makes the language, and by extension the world, more believable.

While I'm mid-rant: there's a marked difference between characters of different class and upbringing. My more religious, self-righteous queen of skycountry says "my stars": she rules the country, she is a little crazy insane, she feels that she owns the sky, too. A less-educated character uses slang like "lunar", "feared", "heartfulness" where his posh boy counterpart says "insane", "afraid" and "empathy". And yes, I am totally neurodivergent, and I think about details, and I also study the development of the English language and want to continue to do so at university, so of course I am more drawn to it, but at the end of the day if you're writing prose then the words are really bloody important.

TLDR: worldbuilding is hard; do your high fantasy (or even low fantasy) characters NEED to say "fuck"?

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

The Principle of Moments

start of a scifi space opera series

a teen girl in the far future where humans are oppressed learns she has a destiny & a lost sister and escapes

and a young time traveler who’s given up trying to find his father through time, and is about to settle in 1812 with the prince he loves, but is unwillingly thrust into the future

they both learn their fates are entangled by a prophecy, and have to race across the galaxy, followed by a galactic emperor and the legacy of heroes from an ancient religion

[voxofthevoid]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by my one and only Jesus @eusuntgratie

I recently cleared out all the ask/tag games in my drafts because I realized I'd reached the pile-up stage of putting things in there and not doing shit. Thanks to everyone who's tagged me in those the last couple of months and sorry I didn't get to any!

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

148

2. What’s your total ao3 word count?

2,005,606 (crossed the 2 million milestone recently and am still buzzing about it)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I'm only writing for Jujutsu Kaisen, but I'm posting for Jujutsu Kaisen, Bleach, and MCU.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

I was so sure it was going to be all MCU, but nope, it's a mix of MCU and Hannibal. God, that was my first Ao3 fandom, and my Hannibal fics are from 2014. It's surreal people are still reading/enjoying them.

if you're looking for jesus (then get on your knees)—MCU

i'm a ghost, you're an angel (one and the same)—MCU

A darkness seen and shared—Hannibal

Ways and Means—Hannibal

the hand you want to hold is a weapon (and you're nothing but skin)—MCU

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! I enjoy the interactions and discussions. Plus, since I'm not a Discord (or group spaces) person, it's how I find fellow fans to chat with, especially during my initial foray into a particular fandom. I do have a huge backlog of some 1.1k comments from 2020 to mid-2021 because I didn't have much time for fandom in that period. I'm chipping away at it slowly, but I'm pretty prompt about replying to everything on my post-2021 fics.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmm, this Hannibal fic, I'd say: Till the bitter end

Let's just say I predicted the series finale in some weird way.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of mine end happily—a few are ambiguous, while others are dark.

8. Do you get hate on fic?

Oh yeah. It's only happened with MCU and Jujutsu Kaisen, and they're mostly cases of overgrown children unhappy that I didn't write the ships or dynamics they want.

9. Do you write smut?

It's my specialty now 😎

10. Do you write crossovers?

Nah. I've done fusion-style AUs, but full-on crossovers aren't something I'd like to write. I'll read them, but I'm picky.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Multiple times (MCU and YoI, iirc), both within Ao3 and offsite.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Multiple times, for multiple fandoms! It's always a delight.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I did write one(1) fic that way, but it got yeeted into the void when my co-author deleted her entire Ao3 account. I have a copy, I think.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I'm the kind of person who's most devoted to whatever is eating my brain at the time, so right now, it's Yuuji/Gojou from Jujutsu Kaisen.

15. What’s a wip you want to finish but probably won’t?

My writing superpower is that if I lose interest in a WIP, I also lose all desire to finish it and any guilt about it. And these days, I tend to start a fic and work on just that till it's done. So the answer is—none.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I write some smokin' hot porn, and I'm pretty good at threading character study through it. The porn is the plot, in most cases. I also enjoy doing background worldbuilding that serves to give the narrative a sense of depth despite the focus being on characters and relationships.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Fight scenes, ensemble casts, and sustained plotty plots.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Ah, I can feel my Hannibal-era Google-translate Lithuanian judging me.

In general, I avoid it, but when I write for anime set in Japan, I tend to work in honorifics. My mother tongue has those too, so I know from experience that there are no English equivalents that capture the same vibe.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Hunter x Hunter, I think. That account no longer exists. On Ao3, it's Hannibal.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

I tend to be biased toward my newer works, so this keeps changing. At the moment, it's (let me be clear) every version of the story ends with you being slaughtered (JJK, goyuu).

Tagging (no pressure) 20 people because why the hell not: @possibleplatypus, @actualalligator, @joeys-piano, @cursedvibes, @backwardshirt, @m34gs, @naamah-beherit, @dragongirlg-fics, @crossroadswrite, @spacebuck, @jenroses, @calamitouskings, @knivash, @lo-55, @bookwyrmling, @sorrythatwasamistake, @ddelline, @lilyfarseer, @roughkiss and @deunan306

[iobartach]

pssst have some r.esidentevil!mig plot bites for your eyeballs 👀, since it's been months and i've realised i haven't mentioned anything on here ftghy ( pssst @ascendedpath bleu, keep me honest if i am misremembering any of this 😂 )

slapping a large disclaimer of WIP as i'm continuously adding to this!

i wanna lead with saying the times and dates of when the following happens can slide around, as needed!

alchem.ax is a biopharma / biotechnology corpo in this version, the status and reach of which is.... complicated tm in this au (hiii, umbrell.a 👋)

miguel's work leans into / crosses over into virology - alchema.x acquires 'samples' of viruses, and miguel conducts research on it

stepping a toe more into worldbuilding here, but the corporate raider programme takes on a different name and purpose, alchema.x markets it as a means of 'immunising america's finest against [the most prevalent RE virus strains]', with miguel's research contributing to this effort still

george o'hara, still an asshole, died young, nobody cared, blah blahhhh. unlike canon though , george was more of an absentee father figure, was distant with miguel

miguel knows that tyler is his biological father, and they work together as always. what's different about it though , is that here miguel tries, foolishly or not to strike up a father-son relationship with stone, but ty is the one that shuts it down this time. kind of an inversion of canon. ( me @ myself; rewatch that one scene in netflix's eric that gave me vibes for this )

miguel is a mutate, but not a known / declared BOW yet (plot dependent). remains human-passing. future potential there for him to join a task force --

infected with t-virus , t-02 strain along with a cocktail of other unpleasantness (read: even he doesn't know what else was mixed in)

caused by jealous colleague still (either delgato or someone else, wink winkkk), who ambushed miguel by sticking a needle in his neck after an argument, rather than by accident

talons are the usual, retractable -- probably stronger and more... claw-like, as opposed to micro-barbs

fangs, this time, potentially retractable or at least more hideable, with a deadlier venom yield

can't spread his infection with a bite though (?) -- blood, maybe. still thinking this one over

both webbing production and venom are more susceptible to his dietary choices than ever.

carnivorous, as in my main verse

eyes remain brown. the red hue appears only when his mutation is active, and can get worse from there if he loses control, or is otherwise worked up to an extreme degree (i.e. sclera turning fully red / scarlet)

addition to the above, veins appear more pronounced along his temples when he uses his powers, just for an extra bit of spookiness / showing there's something definitely not right with him. it's kind of like what happens with byakugan users, when i picture it in my head

still has the enhanced vision, and need for special sunglasses <3

g.abriel o'hara's status is .... : )

other 2099 chars, haven't given much thought to

lots of connected plots with @ascendedpath 's samara (without whom none of this AU would've happened, so i cannot thank you enough <3 )

more to be added ... eventually!!!

[lemonduckisnowawake]

Having finished the Sumeru quest, I truly believe that the problems in Tevyat keep exponentially increasing per country because you have

Mondstad - standard fantasy quest about defeating a dragon and learning about the power of friendship; the more generic fantasy setting too, with the English-Germanic inspiration it's got going on. It IS good and sets up a lot of the lore, but in terms of thematic complexity, it's very straightforward even though it does go in depth

Liyue - I don't know what to say, man. It's literally just a god faking his death and having fun planning his own funeral and causing issues with a side of discourse about how gods and humans can coexist as society changes (that I think is minorly undermined with the looming presence of Celestia via Visions). Definitely deeper, develops the themes set up in Mondstad, has a unique lore inspired by Hoyo's own country, but still mostly good times (until you get to the Traveler quests, but shhh).

Inazuma - the people in here are NOT having a good time. You have oppressive oligarchies and tyrannies, the abuse of military and governmental power, and the cyclical nature of war/abuse contrasted with how power can be used for good (think Ayaka and Kokomi vs Ei and the other commissions, and Vision Holders vs also Ei) and how eternity DOES mean something only what does it mean when you stopped time and changing at your lowest and most traumatized point (by the way, IMO none of the characters really know what eternity actually is, fundamentally, and yet have skipped to establishing it...causing many issues). Fascinating worldbuilding based on Japanese mythology and ancient society and further plot development that's still pretty mild....and then you get to the Traveler Quests.

Sumeru - yeah, okay, the abuse of academics. Racism and discrimination, both in the narrative and metanarratively (and it's not just the skin color issue, too.) Taking advantage of kind people in power. The importance of education. The inherent classism found in it. Censorship. Government regulation of knowledge. Lowkey allegories for oppressive religious government systems AND radical religious groups. The importance of history. Being remembered and leaving a legacy vs being forgotten to save others. The lore deepens and so does the pain. The worldbuilding in Sumeru is DEEP and yes there are issues with packing two different land areas together but it still stands out REALLY well against your typical fantasy world, blending in elements of sci-fi and horror (right?) with a magic-school-but-it's-a-university setting. Lore explodes as we get more info and teasers that things get way deeper

I haven't gotten to Fontaine, but. Well. French Theater Kids is the vibe I've gotten.

[nyaagolor]

Oooh! What's Butterfly Effect about? I'm curious!

I AM SO GLAD U ASKED

I am, unfortunately, a huge Nuzlocke fan. A large part of why I love pokemon as a franchise so much is because of it's sandbox-y nature and the celebration of fans and even canon side content doing interesting spins on characters, stories, and scenarios (ie nuzlocke comics, pokespe, masters, etc). I also just adore the way that Nuzlockes provide new frameworks to play around with, and so I've been making stories out of my playthroughs for almost as long as I've been playing Pokemon at all. Butterfly Effect is one such story, and based off a playthrough of SwSh. I like the vibes of SwSh's plot but almost none of the story decisions, so I decided to really play around with everything the game presented to make my own version. One of the ways I often find plots is by adding a gimmick to the world and then worldbuilding and forming the plot from those constraints (for example, my Kanto story is based around the constant remakes all being canon at once, my Johto story is based off Legends-era stuff, my Hoenn story is based around the intersection of PMD and the mainline games, and my Unova story is based around a "bad ending" of BW)

For my Galar story, I decided to make the gimmick "what if like 30% of the population were gijinkas"? I ended up tying this heavily to the concept of Dynamax, and building the plot up around that and the power crisis (which I moved to the present day). The protagonists (there are three, Agnes, Tego, and Viking) end up wrapped up in the conflict and the shady dealings of the league just as everything comes to a head. It's more or less a fantasy story about nuclear energy but also there's dragons and radiation poisoning just turns u into a furry instead of killing you. If you look at the tag "story: butterfly effect" there's more info there-- I'm also going to make a post about the sliding scale of gijinka-ness and how that all works. Thanks for the questions and feel free to ask if anything is unclear / you want to know more abt anything specific :)

[yardsards]

Is Steeplechase good? I lost faith in TAZ during Grad, and then regained it during Ethersea until the end which made me lose it again, and then I appreciated Dust 2 as a short thing but idk if I'm ready to commit to another season.

i like it quite a bit, albeit not as much as some other seasons

it's very fun and makes me laugh a lot, possibly more than any other season. but if you want a serious high-stakes plot or lots of emotion, steeplechase doesn't provide much of that. the general vibe is a lot like early balance (but with more experienced players so it runs smoother) which iirc was quite intentional on justin's part

justin's gming style often has a vibe of like "i'm gonna put these guys in Situations and then give them quite a bit of freedom on how to get out of said Situations" and it fits the story pretty well

the characters are all varying degrees of absolute little freaks. their dynamic and the way they bounce off of each other is such a delight to listen to. none of them have defined backstories that we've heard yet, just a bunch of personality traits that make you question "what made them be Like This???". clint's character is my fav so far

the worldbuilding is super cool conceptually but what we know has been kept pretty small-scale thus far (tho with hints of potentially bigger things to come). the npcs are generally really fun though most of them don't have much emotional weight or complex motivations behind them, they're just kinda there for the player characters to interact with.

so all in all it kinda all depends on what you're looking for. if you want to laugh, steeplechase is for you. if you want to cry, steeplechase is probably not for you.

[pemokiandkenacia]

A More Thorough Introductory Post:

Hello, friends, and welcome to our semi-official P&K content blog. I'm @smzeszikorova, and I'm working with @adrielcastlyre on a series of four books, currently titled Pemoki & Kenacia, though that name may be subject to change. We've spent about ten years world-building and character-building. Not an ideal timeline, but I regret nothing. The joy's in the process.

We've laid out the foundations for all four of our books—made the transition from pantsers to planners. The outline's all there, and though there's a few important details to work out, we know what direction we're taking. Phase one's complete. Once I've submitted my thesis (UPDATE: SUCCESS) , we'll be set to hammer out our drafts.

For newcomers:

Pemoki & Kenacia's a bit ambiguous, genre-wise. The closest thing to it's probably hard fantasy. As for our target audience, I'd go with "adult". our POV characters' age range is pretty broad, and their interests and concerns vary accordingly, but they're written with adult readers in mind. I'm cautious to reduce P&K to a string of TikTok tropes. That said, here are some things you can expect to find here:

Multiple protagonists. Our cast is large. We've got approximately 90 named characters in-universe whose appearances in the end product are more or less guaranteed. Granted, most of these aren't central to the plot. But our main cast is on the large side. Each book generally has one to two protagonists; they change from book to book.

Multiple POVs. And to ensure that each character's arc comes to a satisfying conclusion, I switch between points of view somewhat regularly. (My tendency's to head-hop. For college degree reasons, I read a lot of old-timey Russian literature in the vein of Anna Karenina, and it influences my style, but I know head-hopping's a bit of a controversial writing choice these days. Whether we'll try to shift toward a purely omniscient style is currently under debate. Regardless, expect to get to know a lot of characters.)

War and international conflict. Our story's very concerned with the personal struggles of our characters—familial conflict, romance, friendship, betrayal, etc.—but it all takes place within the broader backdrop of these warring countries we've invented. And the war takes center stage often.

Deep worldbuilding. This universe is large—well suited for such a large cast. Currently, it involves five multinational regions, eleven countries, and nineteen cities. With limited space to explore all these places, we highlight what's essential and let the rest inform the narrative in subtler ways.

More reality than fantasy. People who’ve had a look at our works in progress say that we’re pretty grounded in reality for a couple of fantasy writers. All our main characters are human. Magic is a genetically-inherited phenomenon with rules loosely based in science. And while none of our fantasy regions, ethnicities, or religions are meant to be read as directly analogous to any real-world ones, they do draw influence from the real world at times. I’m sure you’ll notice this in the Russian-based languages of the Sitrii Elariny, the English-based language of Kenacia, and the language of Qhiron, which draws from both but perhaps not quite so obviously. In our worldbuilding, we make a point to give our invented nations believable complexity, heterogeneity, and political and economic motivations. We’re not too big on the “This region is inhabited by the stouthearted, down-to-earth Welverpeople who universally prefer farming tools to swords, are warm and inviting to outsiders, practice simple domestic magic, and make for extremely loyal allies” vibe.

Conlang. Fairly self-explanatory. Usually I'll just say, "[Insert sentence here]," Character X said in Pemokese. But now and again, when I feel it enhances the narrative, I'll leave it in my invented language and let readers draw their conclusions about the meaning.

Problematic characters, dark topics, and complex, incomplete redemptions. It's very important to us that we approach our darker topics with caution and sensitivity, but we're not writing Aesop's fables. Don't expect comfortable, obvious answers to the ethical questions we pose. Folks looking for escapism or retributive justice narratives should probably look elsewhere.

Queerness; disability; ethnic, racial, and religious diversity. Our story isn't really about these elements, per se, but our characters come from a variety of backgrounds, both real and invented, and it does inform the story. (We're both white and culturally Christian, and in terms of our relationships with queerness and disability, we'd both make for lousy representation, so we're operating with the understanding that we're gonna need hella beta reading once all this is done.) And on a similar note . . .

We take some unusual liberties with our world. Fake religions (Dzulyan, Kvotian, etc.) coexist with real ones. And though our languages and cultures are obviously influenced by the real world, they're all explicitly invented. We're not too concerned with making our universe consistent with real-world history, so while we do touch on issues related to queerness, ethnicity, etc., we don't go out of our way to align the experiences of our cast with those of people living within a certain real-world time period. When we decide what scientific knowledge and technology to include, our key is internal consistency. We'll guide you through the rules of this universe as needed, but if at any point you find yourself wondering what time period we're supposed to be in, just know that the answer is "none of the above".

Now, with all that said...

What are you likely to find on this blog?

Updates. If you want to know how P&K's coming along, here's where we'll ramble about the process.

Art or other related side projects.

Requests for beta readers, once we get to that stage.

This blog's a writeblr of sorts, but we won't discuss anything unrelated to P&K here. My coauthor's not very involved with social media in general, and I'm in and out of the writers' community on this site. So if you're here for tag games, community events, etc., @smzeszikorova's where you'll find all that. This blog's essentially a dumping ground for P&K materials. I can't imagine it'll be too effective as a hype builder, but once our books are released, everything we post here will be available for our readers to see. And on the off chance that our books get big (which I'm not counting on, but it'd be pretty cool), those of you who join in the fun now will have special clout. "We were here from the beginning." Do with that what you will.

We take asks! If you're interested in putting our characters in (non-erotic) situations, feel free to send in an art prompt.

As for the books themselves, I've tried to be sparing about plot reveals. (That'll be truer from here on out than it was on my other blog. Current mutuals, I swear I'm not kidding when I say all those art posts, quotes, and snippets I used to post are basically void. That's how much we've changed over the past few months. But the first book's premise remains the same:

As the threat of war looms on the horizon, Catherine Leures, an impoverished Kenacian woman living in the north of Pemoki, enlists in an effort to pull her family from the depths of financial ruin.

(I think I'll hold off on descriptions of the other books for now. They'd be pretty spoilery. But I'll post more thorough blurbs as I start getting these published. We do have titles for the second, third, and fourth books: Fledgling's Descent, Stirrings of a Silent War, and The Fallen Star of Thaeryvon.)

What do I mean when I say everything's changed, then?

I mean the process of filling plot holes, removing extraneous plotlines, and accounting for sensitivity in our characterization has resulted in a good number of our characters' personalities, relationships, and arcs being completely revamped. Lucky you! Aside from knowing the names, national and moral alignments, and general appearances of most of the first book's main cast, you'll be on about the same page as new readers if/when P&K gets published.

Before I go, a couple updates about P&K:

Since I started writing my thesis, my writing style has changed significantly. We've been making stylistic revisions to our original draft. Thankfully for our future editors, our first draft's gotten a lot more concise.

All the canon events are essentially set. The "outline" I did for my thesis is basically one long synopsis. All that's left for our first draft is to fill everything out with dialogue and detail. (Easier said than done, but I'm excited anyway.)

My coauthor and I have been playing with the idea of a character narrator: someone with a personal investment in the story. We're not sure yet, but it's a fun experiment.

If you've gotten this far, thanks so much for reading this incredibly long post.