goblinscribe

[goblinscribe]

[goblinscribe]

Good stuff.

[goblinscribe]

as you see from this picture, i have to talk about my ocs every day lest they escape my mind anyway and cause havoc‼️

[goblinscribe]

🟢 You are still a writer even when you haven't written in a while.

🟢 You are still a writer even when you feel like you aren't writing enough.

🟢 You are still a writer when you feel like your work isn't good.

🟢 You are still a writer when other people don't like your work.

🟢 You are still a writer when you aren't published.

🟢 You are still a writer when you only have works in progress.

🟢 You are still a writer if all you write is fanfiction.

[goblinscribe]

[goblinscribe]

[goblinscribe]

so often when I see people say, "I hate my writing" it's less about the writing itself and more about the fact that its theirs.

that's not bad writing, babe. it's self-hatred. ❤️

[goblinscribe]

Just thought of something and wanted your opinion. Do you think while writing a novel, writing a few short stories on the side featuring the same characters is good practice? I'm wondering if it's a good way to play with how you want to write them.

Writing Exploratory Short Stories While Writing WIP

I think that can definitely be an interesting way to further explore your characters, their conflicts, potential scenes, off-page events, and even possible subplots. And if you're planning to share your story or publish it, this also provides you with interesting bonus material that can be used as promo/bonus materials for the reader. :)

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

LEARN MORE about WQA

SEE MY ask policies

VISIT MY Master List of Top Posts

COFFEE & FEEDBACK COMMISSIONS ko-fi.com/wqa

[goblinscribe]

let the message bake

someone on way of bluesky was asking chuck about WRITING PROCESS for novels and it is good talk so i am going to but my answer here

they said: I respect ur trot as a writer and I was wondering if u wrote in a straight line from beginning to end or if u start in the middle/end and fill in? I've got a great story idea but idk how it starts, so I'm not sure if *not* writing from beginning to end would even work.

for full novels i have 'ideas' (high concept) and 'messages' (WHAT i want to say) and these tumble around in head until crashing into a match to unlock something more. then i tell story in my head until i know it perfect. finally i sit to write it out in one straight line over a few weeks

so ideas and messages could lurk in brain for years, even decades. once the match happens i am telling myself story in head and working out details for a month or two. then when it is time to write the novel it takes about 3 or 4 weeks because i know story like back of hand. that is process

i always write MESSAGE FIRST and will not write until i have something important i want to say (sometimes message can change during process but this is where i start). by separating IDEA and MESSAGE i give time for each to evolve into something special in its own right

then when they come together it BLOOMS into more than sum of parts. for instance i have high concept horror idea i have loved for around ten years. but i did not have a 'what do i want to say here?' then recently i had big feelings about BI ERASURE and realized 'whoa that idea is PERFECT vehicle.'

on other hand with something like BURY YOUR GAYS the message and the high concept idea happened at basically the same dang time. these two trotted out so close on the timeline it was almost a whole piece.

so the pace of creation can change from story to story, but i always allow each half the time to bake until its ready

[goblinscribe]

Are all the themes in “in other lands” supposed to be a commentary on something? Or do you just like writing sex scenes between minors, age gaps, and reverse misogyny?

Genuine question.

Ohhh, my dear anon, I don't believe this is a genuine question.

But it does bring up something I've been meaning to talk about. So I'll take the bait.

Firstly. Yes, my work contains a commentary on the world around us. I wonder what I could be doing with the child soldiers being sexually active in their teens (people hook up right after battles), and the age gap relationship ending in the younger one being too mature for the elder. What could I possibly have been attempting when I said 'how absurd gender roles are, when projected onto people we haven't been accustomed by our own society to see that way'? I wasn't being subtle, that's for sure.

Secondly. Yes I do enjoy writing! I think I should, it's my life's work. Am I titillated by my own writing, no - though I think it's fine to be. The sex scenes of In Other Lands aren't especially titillating, to be honest. It is interesting to me how often people sneer at women for writing romance and sex scenes, having 'book boyfriends,' insinuating women writers fancy their own characters. Women having too much immoral fun! Whereas men clearly write about sex for high literary purposes.

… I have to say from my experience of women and men's writing, I haven't found that to be true.

I’m not in this to have an internet argument. I prefer to leave my anons open since not everyone has a tumblr, as @neil-gaiman says it’s an internet backwater, but a lovely one for those like myself who enjoys an essay about fictional characters! Still I will close my inbox to anons if I must. Mostly people use bad faith takes to poke at others from the other side of a screen for kicks. But I do know some truly internalise the attitude that writing certain things is wrong, that anyone who makes mistakes must be shunned as impure, and that is a deeply Victorian and restrictive attitude that guarantees unhappiness.

I've become increasingly troubled by the very binary and extreme ways of thinking I see arising on the internet. They come naturally from people being in echo chambers, becoming hostile to differing opinions, and the age-old conundrum of wanting to be good, fearing you aren't, and making the futile effort to be free of sin. It makes me think of Tennyson, who when travelling through Ireland at the time of the Great Famine, said nobody should talk about the 'Irish distress' to him and insisted the window shades of his carriage be shut as he went from castle to castle. So he wouldn't see the bodies. But that didn't make the bodies cease to be.

In Les Mis, Victor Hugo explores why someone might steal, what that means about them and their circumstances, and who they might be - and explores why someone else is made terribly unhappy, and endangers others, through their own too rigid adherence to judgement and condemnation without pity. The story understands both Jean Valjean the thief and Javert the policeman. Javert’s way of thinking is the one that inevitably leads to tragedy.

Depiction isn't endorsement. Depiction is discussion.

Many of my loved ones have had widely varying relationships to and experience of sex (including 'none'). They've felt all different types of ways about it. If writing about them is not permissible, I close them out. I'd much rather a dialogue be open than closed.

I do understand the urge to write what seems right to others. I've been brain-poisoned that way myself. I used to worry so much about my female characters doing the wrong things, because then they'd be justly hated! Then I noted which of my writer friends had people love their female characters the most - and it was the one who wrote their female characters as screwing up massively, making rash and sometimes wrong decisions. Who wrote them as people. Because that's what people do. That's what feels true to readers.

I want my characters to feel true to readers. I want my characters to react in messy ways to imperfect situations. I love fantasy, I love wild action and I love deep thought, and I want to engage. That's what In Other Lands is about. That's even more what Long Live Evil is about. That sexy lady who sashays in to have sexy sex with the hero - what is her deal? Someone who tricks and lies to others - why are they doing that, how did they get so skilled at it? What makes one person cruelly judgemental, and another ignore all boundaries? What makes Carmen Maria Machado describe ‘fictional queer villains’ as ‘by far the most interesting characters’? What irritates people about women having a great time? What attracts us to power, to fiction, and to transgression?

I don’t know the answers to all those questions, but I know I want to explore them. And I know one more thing.

If the moral thing to do is shut people out and shut people up? Count me among the villains.

[goblinscribe]

I think one of the Worst Things about wanting to find period clothing from other cultures, is trying to find fucking casual/work clothes. Like no, I do not want to see all these fancy intricate kimonos, I want to see jinbei, and field work outfits so I don't put a damn obi on this poor boy so he has a belt to hang his knife from.

[goblinscribe]

The dragon approach to self doubt.

[goblinscribe]

Scottish Folklore Creatures

I've been working on a little series of blog posts that bring together what I know about folklore creatures in Scottish traditional lore; rather than sharing them individually I thought I'd keep them all together and add to this post as I go.

Disclaimer: these blogs are largely what I've heard about these creatures from older family members and what I've learned from folktales in books (both children's collections and less sugar coated adult books) - folklore is notoriously complex. While I did secondary research, these posts represent my understanding as someone who grew up in the central belt of Scotland, so you may have heard different versions of the same stories, or read different stories entirely.

Gods I love folklore - anyway, here they are for those who want to read them:

The Baobhan Síth

Redcaps

Cù Sìth

Cat Sìth

The Wulver

[goblinscribe]

Writers keep in mind while you’re working on your current WIP, you’re learning skills that may not result in you being able to complete that particular WIP to your satisfaction, but WILL bear fruit in your NEXT WIP. Like, you might’ve blown up this science project, but next time (or the time after, or the time after…) you’ll nail it because of what you learned while setting fire to this one.

[goblinscribe]

sometimes a character fights me so hard on the situation I'm putting them in and I realize this is exactly what happened to Terry Pratchett with Rincewind. the characterization is so solid that not only would he not fucking say that, he would not fucking be here. he would not be anywhere near this. he walked out three hours ago.

[goblinscribe]

Leonid Pasternak  (Ukrainian, 1862–1945) - The Torments of Creative Work

[goblinscribe]

site that you can type in the definition of a word and get the word

site for when you can only remember part of a word/its definition 

site that gives you words that rhyme with a word

site that gives you synonyms and antonyms