exe-writes-sometimes

[exe-writes-sometimes]

if you're writing and find yourself thinking 'this is too weird/gross/offputting/esoteric/ambitious/catered to my specific interests + sure to push away a broader audience' that is the devil speaking and it is a lie. you are already firmly on the right path and you need to double down

[exe-writes-sometimes]

narrator who's terrible at social cues & describes every facial expression as "unreadable"

[exe-writes-sometimes]

wip acrostic tag

I was tagged by @willtheweaver Thank you for the tag!! My word was INCLUDE. (all of these are from various Rook snippets/vignettes/writeups)

I (from Snakebite) - In the washroom, he rolled back his sleeve and inspected the wound. It was small and narrow, no more than a couple of inches long, and had stopped bleeding some time ago. He splashed it with water, gritting his teeth as some soap touched the raw skin.

N (from Liars Will Be Shot) - Night had fallen, and the few street lamps flickered in the sea breeze. Zara stayed glued to Rook’s side, keeping a close eye on his limp form as they made their way through the streets. Every tiny movement made her tense.

C (from RHVBNGW* #1) - Cherry snatches the ship out of Rook’s hands. “It’s you, see? And he’s a captain!” She gently slots the figure onto the ship, positioning him so that his hands rest on the wheel.

L (from RHVBNGW #2) - Looking down at himself he saw a bloody mess. His shirt had been shredded, and the once-white fabric was now stained a vibrant red. He could see deep gashes on his torso that were barely starting to heal where something had ripped through his stomach.

U (from RHVBNGW #2) - Unable to tell up from down, he blindly reached out a hand. It met stone, and as his vision cleared, he found himself kneeling on the floor. Aki raced to his side, helping him up. 

D (from Ship in a Bottle) - Dark silhouettes rise out of the murky water. As he grows closer, a sinking feeling sets into his stomach. The shapes are not natural rocks or stony ruins. They are wrecks, so densely packed that he can’t see the sand beneath them. Hundreds upon hundreds of ships lie at the bottom of the bottle, stretching as far as he can see in every direction.

E (from Out of One Box, Into Another) - Eventually [Warren] spoke again. “Those scars, did she give those to you?”

Rook nodded. “Sometimes it was her personally, sometimes she was content to just watch.”

I'm going to tag @sleepyowlwrites @akindofmagictoo @ink-fireplace-coffee @reneesbooks @exe-writes-sometimes and @writernopal

Your word is OCEAN.

*stands for "Rook's Horrible, Very Bad, No-Good Weekend". He's had two of them. Technically both snippets are from the FIRST Horrible, Very Bad, No-Good Weekend, which was when he died twice in 48 hours. (Actually both of those snippets are from the same DAY, just several hours apart and talking about unconnected events that happened during different sessions so they were written at least a week or two apart, hence why they're different snippets in my docs.)

[exe-writes-sometimes]

"There's a reason it's called a ROUGH draft," I sigh, creating a keysmash with my forehead.

[exe-writes-sometimes]

jaw clenched, shoulders tensed, sweating profusely as i stare at my word document: it’s just a first draft i can repeat words in the scene and fix it later

[exe-writes-sometimes]

Heads up seven up

The wonderful @cherrybombfangirlwrites tagged me ages ago -- thank you! It's raining today, which means I can't do a garden job, so I got three hours of life handed back to me -- hooray! Perhaps I can get some writing done ;) Here's the last thing I worked on yesterday...

Elina Lieber beamed, her eyes vanishing in delight. “I’m glad to hear it,” she said, patting his arm once and taking her hand away. “Everyone needs to eat.” She was walking down the steps with a last wave over her shoulder before he could say more, and he watched until the last flash of her yellow kerchief was gone from view, using the doorframe to hold himself upright when his legs forgot to. Then he remembered his noontime appointment and rushed back into the apartment, trying to remember if he’d ever bought a comb or just thought about it.

I'll tag @exe-writes-sometimes @dontjudgemeimawriter @revenantlore @tabswrites @willtheweaver @talesfromaurea @tc-doherty @oddcryptidwrites and anyone else who wants to join -- no pressure!

[exe-writes-sometimes]

I know advertising in pride month can smack of rainbow capitalism, but hear me out: I am not A Rainbow Capitalism. I’m a queer professional freelance editor with five years of experience, here to celebrate and polish queer stories throughout the fruitiest month of the year (and all year round). From now until July 1st, you can get 15% off any of my single editing services so long as:

a) you have a story that’s longer than 10,000 words, and

b) there is some flavour of queerness in there that’s relevant to the story (i.e, more relevant than the off-page second cousin of your main character being mentioned as gay in an otherwise cishet cast).

Rest assured that I won’t ask you to share or ““prove”” your own identity unless you want to tell me, because that’s none of my business and also gatekeeping sucks.

Plus, this discount stacks – so if you’re also eligible for one of my self-published author discounts of 10% (30,000–99,999 words) or 15% (100,000 words or more), you can get a nice 25–30% off.

I can edit:

UK or US English (+ I do my best to factor currency conversion into the rates for international clients)

Fiction – SF/F is my happy place, but all genres are welcome.

Creative non-fiction – e.g., memoir, biography, essays and essay collections.

Middle Grade through to Adult.

If you’re not quite ready for editing but think you will be within the next two months, you can secure an editing slot with this discount now and use it later (ideally before September 1st, but I do understand writing doesn’t always happen when you want it to; just be aware that if you don’t pre-book my services for a specific time or if you need to re-schedule the edit, you may need to wait until I’m available again).

If you’re interested (or just have questions), check out my services page and get in touch:

[exe-writes-sometimes]

heads up seven up

tagged by @vsnotresponding, thank you! here’s seven (ish) lines from the new short story i’m working on~

Back in the dragonhold, I swim in hot, dead flesh. It shifts to make way for my squirming form, parting beneath and below until I drop, wet and half-blind, out of the dragon’s upper palate to land on its limp and lifeless tongue. Yellowed teeth encage me, but not for long; here is Astrum, prising them apart with metal rods; here is Astrum, grabbing my wrist and hauling me free of the creature I have spent the last hour puppeting for him. “Useless rat!” he spits, dashing me to the floor with a blow that sets my head reeling. A swift kick follows; I’m too slow to curl away from it and it knocks the air from my lungs. “Feeble, flinching worm! Forgotten, have you, that if his Lordship is displeased, you’ll be joining me at the gallows?”

no-pressure tagging @winterandwords @monstrify @exe-writes-sometimes and @revenantlore

[exe-writes-sometimes]

That Time a Published Author Told Me to Un-Queer My Novel

So, I don't think I ever shared this story on Tumblr before.

As you may know I've spent the past ten years turning my old Welcome to Night Vale fanfic into a stand alone novel called Echo of the Larkspur. Now, I haven't been working on it ten years straight. I'd pick it up, do a bunch of editing and rewriting, submit it to agents/publishers, get turned down, put the book away, wait 2-3 years, dust off the book, re-edit and rewrite, etc etc. A cycle that repeated itself far too many times that I would like.

Well, during one of these cycles when I was in the 'get rejected by every agent and publisher I submit to' stage I asked the writing group I was in what I was doing wrong. Because at this point I had reached a hundred total rejections and I was starting to suspect that the issue was with me.

One of the members of this writing group, a male author who was traditionally published, offered to read my first chapter and give his advice on how to fix it. This was, in retrospect, a mistake. But I was desperate. I sent him the first chapter and waited for his response.

Folks. The email he sent me changed my life.

First he said that agents wouldn't publish my novel because it was Sci-fi with hardcore gay erotica in it. This is curious because while the book certainly is queer, at no point in the conversation with this man did I say it was hardcore erotica. Nor did the first chapter feature any. It's almost as if he assumed that just because something was gay, it had to be hardcore erotica. Interesting.

He went on to say that a Human/Robot pairing was weird and that there was "No Way" my story could seriously address the issues of a relationship like that. Once again, he only read the first chapter. He just...assumed I wouldn't think of that? And that my book wouldn't cover it?

The author then said “I also felt that the LGBTQ inclusion really seems to cloud things.” Direct Quote.

And then this is when he said my favorite quote of them all:

The idea of a book being a sci-fi with romance AND a mystery is a Modern Art Marzipan Owl. It's just too confusing! No one can handle a story that is a mystery in a sci-fi enviroment AND has a romantic subplot! THEIR BRAINS WOULD LITERALLY EXPLODE!

Thankfully he had a solution to my book problem. His answer? Turn the book into an Action Spy Thriller and turn S.A.G.E., a robot that identies as a gay man, into a sexy lady robot who needs a MAN to teach her what it means to be human.

(I assume the male lead will teach the 'confused' female robot how to be human via his penis.)

Now my favorite part about this advice is that at no point did he outright say "Remove the gay part". No, instead he sneakily changed the robot love interest into a female robot as if I wouldn't notice. Just sort of swept away the gay bits as something totally unneeded and just mucking up the narrative. Also that's not the plot of my story, I have no idea where this virus thing came from.

(Also note that the female robot can't be robotic-like at all. Must preserve the average straight-man sex drive at all costs I guess)

He then finished his email basically saying that I should remove everything that 'traditional publishers' don't like (aka the queer parts) and make it easier for 'your average reader' to digest and my book will be good as published!

When I said this email changed my life I meant it. Because it made me realize I'd rather be self published and unknown than traditionally publish milquetoast trash like he suggested. Like holy fuck. If I removed all of the "Difficult" to digest stories out of Echo of the Larkspur then there wouldn't be a book left!

So here I am. Self publishing my Marzipan Modern Art Owl of a book. I know it'll never see the inside of a bookstore or top the charts on Goodreads but hey, I'd rather it speak to one person than have a thousand people get excited for the part where the male lead teaches the lady robot how to be human (via his penis).

If a Queer Sci-fi/Romance/Mystery novel sounds like your jam then consider preordering it!

Looking for something to read now? Can't afford the book? Willing to read in exchange for an honest review? You can join my ARC book readers here!

[exe-writes-sometimes]

writing is so funny because i could write nonstop for 9hrs and then hit a block where im like "how do i transition between this moment and the next?" and then i just dont touch it for 6 months

[exe-writes-sometimes]

Melting into a puddle, have this instead.

It's a very humid 25 degrees outside, I'm sweating to death and no writing is happening today. I wanted to post something to this blog regardless, realised I could just show y'all the image my header is cropped from.

So I got an extremely self-indulgent pin up commission a while back from bunny on instagram, of the OTHER character that occupies my every waking thought.

Everyone say hi to Altonnar, who has had me bewitched for a little over six years now, making him actually even older than Fang, current blorbo supreme. He was originally created as a slightly one dimensional villainous assassin archetype, but he's been through a ton of character development since then, and so many AUs that I can't keep track of them all any more.

He's currently a PC in a friend's Call of the Netherdeep campaign (where the image comes from), and the protagonist of one of my upcoming unnamed WIPs, set in Menzoberranzan, where he gets blackmailed by a particularly audacious wizard into helping him assassinate a political rival, pissing off a number of powerful drow in the process.

[exe-writes-sometimes]

I think 50 shades of grey did so much damage to BDSM writing in fic and like not because I think fic writers were taking inspiration from it, but we did get a lot of detailed explanatory posts about all the different ways in which those guys were Doing It Wrong, which is not in and of itself a bad thing but since then everybody got so hung up on making sure everybody in their fics was nothing like 50 shades of grey and actually demonstrates that yes I do understand the principles of safe sane and consensual and the traffic light system and safewording and aftercare and checking in that now everybody fucks like a 101 handbook and I think we've only just recently started to recover from it. love me a dynamic where it's two repressed freak idiots who accidentally invent BDSM all on their own and have to come up with the strangest most deeply harmful ways of navigating that situation

[exe-writes-sometimes]

Making good on the name.

My blog title is "mindless elf indulgence" and I'd be remiss if I didn't also post about elves on occasion. I'm working on a couple of small self-contained ficlets with Fang, but the multichapter project belongs to my other blorbo.

Y'all like drow?

Furious at the mage's dismissal, but wary of drawing the ire of a Matron Mother more secure in Lolth’s favour, his mother had simply glowered at the stanger's retreating back as though she meant to set his robes aflame with the intensity of her displeasure alone. Wizards, she’d scoffed, always getting ideas above their station. Altonnar had not missed the trace of envy in her voice, beneath the contempt. Neither of her sons possessed much talent for the arcane, after all, and the position of House Wizard had remained empty since Elgguin's passing, a glaring weakness in their family's defenses.

[exe-writes-sometimes]

Actual work in progress things?

So, I've been working on the first pass at that one fic I have in the works where Fang gets possessed by a demon lord! The working title, tentatively, is ghost in human shape.

That faerzress stuff is everywhere, too. It’s so dense he can see it in the air, lazy ribbons of magical residue with an unhealthy looking, rainbow-slick sheen to it, like lamp oil spilled into a puddle. It reflects his own face back at him in places, and the flickering shadows from their torches against cavern wall just behind him, all distorted and weird.

Fang has a fun voice to write in, but it was a little difficult at times to reign myself in because this boy would not know the words iridescence or refraction, for example.

For just a moment, he tastes metal and acid on his tongue, blood and salt and something else–

I want to talk about this line a lot but I can't.

Graz'zt is also fun to write, but in a scummier way:

The boy struggles at first, because they always do; he jerks and spasms and tries to cast him out. Graz'zt is feeling indulgent though, even generous, and doesn't take any special offence.

Even at a fraction of his true power, it's a simple pleasure, really no struggle at all, for Graz'zt to hold him down and sink into his skin.

[exe-writes-sometimes]

An introduction!

Hello! I go by exe, and I’ve been writing on and off for more than fifteen years at this point. Across the years, I've mostly limited my online presence as a writer to occasional forum posting or short anon fics on dreamwidth, and after taking an extended break from creative writing, I’m more than a little bit rusty. I made this blog to talk about writing and original characters (mine and others), and in the hopes it’ll incentivise me to really start writing again, and to post more often.

The current hyperfixation is Dungeons & Dragons so I’m writing a lot of fantasy at the moment, but I’m also into sci-fi and horror elements. Most of my characters are queer or neurodivergent and frequently both at the same time. I also write a lot of... just weird little fucked up guys.

Open to tag games, questions and just to talk! I can be a bit flakey with responses, at times, and I take frequent breaks for my health, but please do reach out! I love meeting new people and finding new authors and characters to appreciate, and I appreciate every interaction, regardless of how long it takes me to get to it.

This is also a sideblog! I follow from @exeiguess.

I may eventually return to update this post with a tag system but I still haven’t 100% figured out what I want to do with that yet, so please bear with the mess for now.