camwritesbooks - Tumblr blog

[camwritesbooks]

wow... i’ve really made it ❤️

whoever originated this post congrats you’ve achieved Peak Tumblr, by which i mean your post has been stolen and uploaded without credit to twitter

[camwritesbooks]

ONCE STOLEN: out now!

When an autistic naga botches the robbery of a notorious cartel, a self-proclaimed hero is poisoned in his place. He strikes a deal with the dying hero: he’ll bring her to her cure in exchange for her hoard of coveted power-producing stones—stones which stop the pain caused by his sensory perception disorder. But to reach them, he’ll have to guide her through the desolate swampy homeland that banished him, with the cartel leader hot on his tail.

Once Stolen is a queer, fast-paced fantasy adventure taking place in the same universe as Our Bloody Pearl. It can be read as a standalone or as the start of a new series that explores the steampunk-inspired world and the fungal parasites that make their mysteriously renewable energy possible.

You may like this book if you enjoy…

Bantering hate-to-love

Insults turning affectionate

Fan boat chases

Magical swamps

Queer found family

Autistic and deaf rep

Purchase in ebook, paperback, or hardcover through Amazon or a variety of other distributors!

You can also add Once Stolen on Goodreads, Storygraph, or Bookbub!

Keep reading for a preview of the first chapter…

Keep reading

[camwritesbooks]

Hiii I’m opening commissions again! These are just basic prices, they may vary depending on level of detail and complexity so let me know upfront what you’re looking for so I can give you an accurate number.

3 slots open to begin with, might do more if there’s enough interest and I get the first ones done quickly! 

Write to me at effsmailbox@gmail.com if you’re interested! ^^

[camwritesbooks]

!!!!

[camwritesbooks]

hey folks, so i know i’m meant to be on hiatus from this blog, but i coincidentally found this post of mine from april 2019 and it reminded me that these conversations we have here on writeblr exist in a cycle, and our struggles with interaction and community too have existed for a long time and will probably continue to exist in the future. i still stand by what i said on this more than a year ago now, but to it i’d add that what has stayed with me even in my absence from writeblr are the friends and individual connections i’ve made, not notes or follower count. that is what has mattered. i know the feelings of insecurity, inferiority and disheartenment that can prevail here. but i also know they are not impossible to overcome

since there’s been a lot of discussion about follower count floating around, here’s my random 2 cents on the subject. i know it’s been said a million times before, but like, how popular your content/blog/whatever is (how many followers you have or notes you get) is not a judgement on its quality and you shouldn’t value the stuff you put so much effort into creating by any of those measures.

the way i overcame that feeling was by changing how i view the reason i create. this is hard to do but seriously it really helped. i write because i love the process and i love having my own content there for me to enjoy. if you create for follower count or notes and it doesn’t deliver then you’ll get to a point when it really hurts your ability to create, defeating the initial purpose anyway. and trust me that your standards will just grow higher if you do get the response you were expecting and your joy in creating will still be lost.

obviously it’s harder if your goal is to post all your content online (e.g. fanfic writer post on ff.net or ao3 or posting your story on wattpad, etc.) but still you’ve got to find a way for you to enjoy the process of creating and experiencing the outcome yourself!! not just the idea of getting positive feedback from the freaky mess that is the internet. and not thinking that because you only have so many followers that your content is only so good or worth so much. if you’re not enjoying creating, my tips would be a) take a break and reset b) try something new/start a new project and/or c) actively try to stop comparing how many followers you have/how many notes you get with other people. because it never helps. i love writing - the actual process of writing, while sometimes frustrating, is something i enjoy (most of the time, i still have work to do). it’s something i promise it’s worth striving for if you want to keep creating happily long term.

[camwritesbooks]

   “Watch it. You should be nice to me or else you might offend my little friend here.” They balanced the dagger on the tip of their finger. […]   “Is that a threat?”   Lin smirked at him. “And what if it is?”

[camwritesbooks]

absolutely disgusting that i have to create the the things i want to create

[camwritesbooks]

this blog is still on hiatus but proud to announce my 2020 word count (across all projects) has reached 150k with a total of ~45k written in june alone :)

[camwritesbooks]

Gentle reminder that often creativity decides to hibernate for a bit.

It’s okay.  You’re not broken, you’re resting, and much like spring, creativity comes back.

[camwritesbooks]

okay coming back from my hiatus on here just to say um wow i love it 😭🥺

Stealing Silvered Seas: an introduction

GENRE: YA fantasy; heist novel TYPE: standalone novel POV: six POVs, third person limited, past tense THEMES: found family, saving the planet, appreciating the beauty of nature TRIGGER WARNINGS: animal death

COMP TITLES: Six of Crows x Greenpeace TAGLINE: Young eco-activists must become thieves to steal back their leader and their ship before mercenaries slaughter the last magical whales.

When her partner is imprisoned and their ship is impounded, Kiana Silveira–an ex street thief turned teenage eco-activist–must lead a daring prison break to rescue them both in time to save the last magical whales. 

In a world of dying magic, creatures of legend hold the key to replenishing the magic stocks that humans once stole. Young activists fight to save these creatures from butchery, including Kiana, who fiercely protected the golden whales of the far north until mercenaries confiscated her boyfriend and her boat. Alone and stranded in snow-drenched lands, she enlists the help of a ragtag crew–a runaway assassin, an ex child soldier, a pacifist explosives expert, and a passionate local sailor–to execute the prison break of the century.

But the mercenaries that imprisoned Kiana’s boyfriend have their own plans: to slaughter the golden whales for profit before the activists can stop them. In six days time, the mercenaries will set sail and magic will die. To succeed, her team will have to break into a maximum security prison, rescue her partner, steal back their ship, and beat the mercenaries to the whales, all while fighting to overcome the outright lies and moral conflicts that threaten to tear them apart.

Kiana is no leader and no saint, and her past as one of the mercenaries threatens to drown her, but she’s determined to do what’s right. Together, she and her crew must survive the heist–and each other–to save the whales and the world.

[camwritesbooks]

self-editing for fiction writers

Showing vs Telling

Do you have any narrative summary, or are you bouncing from scene to scene without pausing for breath?

Characterization & Exposition

What information do your readers need in order to understand your story? At what point in the story do they need to know it?

How are you getting this info across to your readers? Is it all at once through a writer-to-reader lecture?

If exposition comes out through dialogue, is it through dialogue your characters would actually speak even if your readers didn’t have to know the information? In other words, does the dialogue exist only to put the information across?

Point of View

Look at your descriptions. Can you tell how your viewpoint character feels about what you’re describing?

Proportion

Look at descriptions. Are the details you give the ones your viewpoint character would notice?

Reread your first fifty pages, paying attention to what you spend your time on. Are the characters you develop most fully important to the ending? Do you use the locations you develop in detail later in the story? Do any of the characters play a surprising role in the ending? Could readers guess this from the amount of time you spend on them?

Dialogue

Can you get rid of some of your speaker attributions entirely? Try replacing some with beats. 

How often have you paragrapher your dialogue?Try paragraphing a little more often. 

See How it Sounds

Read your dialogue aloud. At some point, read aloud every word you write.

Be on the lookout for places where you are tempted to change the wording. 

How well do your characters understand each other? Do they ever mislead on another? Any outright lies? 

Interior Monologue

First, how much interior monologue do you have? If you seem to have a lot, check to see whether some is actually dialogue description in disguise. Are you using interior monologue to show things that should be told?

Do you have thinker attributions you should get rid of (by  recasting into 3rd person, by setting the interior monologue off in its own paragraph or in italics, or by simply dropping the attribution)

Do your mechanics match your narrative distance?(Thinker attributions, italics, first person when your narrative is in third?)

Easy Beats

How many beats do you have? How often do you interrupt your dialogue?

What are your beats describing? Familiar every day actions, such as dialling a telephone or buying groceries? How often do you repeat a beat? Are your characters always looking out of windows or lighting cigarettes? 

Do your beats help illuminate your characters? Are they individual or general actions anyone might do under just about any circumstances?

Do your beats fit the rhythm of your dialogue? Read it aloud and find out

Breaking up is easy to do

Look for white space. How much is there? Do you have paragraphs that go on as much as a page in length? 

Do you have scenes with NO longer paragraphs? Remember what you’re after is the right balance. 

Have your characters made little speeches to one another? 

If you’re writing a novel, are all your scenes or chapters exactly the same length? -> brief scenes or chapters can give you more control over your story. They can add to your story’s tension. Longer chapters can give it a more leisurely feels. If scene or chapter length remains steady while the tension of the story varies considerably, your are passing up the chance to reinforce the tension. 

Once is usually enough

Reread your manuscript, keeping in mind what you are trying to do with each paragraph–what character point you’re trying to establish, what sort of mood you’re trying to create, what background you’re trying to suggest. In how many different ways are you accomplishing each of these ends?

If more than one way, try reading the passage without the weakest approach and see if it itsn’t more effective. 

How about on a chapter level? Do you have more than one chapter that accomplishes the same thing?

Is there a plot device or stylistic effect you are particularly pleased with? How often do you use it?

Keep on the lookout for unintentional word repeats. The more striking a word or phrase is, the more jarring it will be if repeated 

Sophistication 

How many -ing and as phrases do you write? The only ones that count are the ones that place a bit of action in a subordinate clause

How about -ly adverbs?

Do you have a lot of short sentences, both within your dialogue and within your description and narration? Try stringing some of them together with commas

[camwritesbooks]

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something may have come in the mail 😳

read sevensworn here!

[camwritesbooks]

[camwritesbooks]

hello everyone! so i’m back from my semi-hiatus and super proud to announce that as of the end of may i have reached my year-long goal of 100k words! although i hoped to end up writing more than 100k, it’s a really good feeling to have achieved this goal in less than half the time. so, my plans for writing over the next few months:

JUNE: 10k words on the second death of sorrow fair, complete an in-progress fic (currently 25k, expected to be around 50k in total)

JULY: participate in camp nano july with the goal of completing tsdosf, around 30k. participate in a fandom event (5x min. 500 words fic)

AUGUST: continue participating in fandom event, take a break from original work unless tsdosf is still unfinished.

i think these goals are attainable and after tsdosf, i am hoping to write another original book this year. it’ll probably end up being where foxes say goodnight or a YA fantasy (introduction pending). until next time, love you all ♡

[camwritesbooks]

rereading a story you wrote yourself to satisfy ur own SPECIFIC thematic explorations and such

[camwritesbooks]

Look, the writeblr thing isn’t for every writer out there. I’ve tried it. My posts on writing don’t gain traction. I can’t make fancy mood boards, discord groups move way too fast for me, excerpts of mine get little interest, and, most importantly, I don’t have anything new to say about writing. Does that suck sometimes? Sure. But, at the end of the day, it’s fine!

I’ll keep writing. I won’t concern myself with making it marketable to this platform. I’ll submit to agents. Maybe one day, I’ll be published. Maybe not. But, really, most of the population isn’t on Tumblr which means most of your future readers aren’t on Tumblr either. They don’t give a shit if you can make a meme out of your ocs or overlay snow on a mood board. They care about your story.

So, while it might be nice to have people really excited about my work, it’s the work that’s the important part. So what if this community isn’t for you! So what if people aren’t sending you dozens of asks about your ocs! Just write, man. It’ll find the right people. You’ll find the right people. But, you’ve got to write it first and worrying about how to gain followers on here is only going to get in the way of that.

[camwritesbooks]