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Week one of this push to finish draft nineteen!

BEST DAY: 4,259 words ✨

WEEK TOTAL: 12,887 words 😁

I am finally back on Tumblr after a long stint using only Instagram for my art and writing! I am back and ready to go with draft nineteen of my urban fantasy novel 💪

You can also follow my writing journey at @grain.of.sander on Instagram 😊

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Seen in the window at Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick, Maine. Photo: Bill Roorbach

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planners problems during nano:

pantsing problems during nano:

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if someone makes you happy, make them happier

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I was reading my writing today, and let me tell you, it may not be good, plot is not the best, and characters are a bit stereotypical, but boy do I have fun writing it

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Can we normalize doing nothing, please?

I work with kids. These kids are at my program before and after school, and then some of them have sports/dance/music sometimes all of the above before they finally go home, eat dinner, and go to sleep. Then rinse and repeat everyday, and games and more classes on the weekend, etc.

I’m all for extracurriculars, but this turns into the teen who is not only in the school play, but they’re on the newspaper, the football team, and seven different clubs. In college they take double the courseloads, and then once they graduate…what?

They work themselves raw because they arent used to downtime. They’ve been told they can always be doing something, and they don’t know how to relax. This turns into the adult that has anxiety because there’s nothing left to clean, the adult that desperately wants to watch that TV show but can’t force themselves to sit long enough for it.

Then they turn into the moms and dads who spend all their free time ferrying their kids to extracurriculars.

Like, these kids don’t know what downtime is? I told a kid I did nothing last weekend, and he looked at me like I was crazy. He asked what I was doing this weekend and I said “Probably sleeping, mostly,” and he actually gasped. Then he rattled off a bunch of things I could do, to which I had to stop him.

“No, you don’t understand. I plan on sleeping. I’m booked.”

“But you could–”

“Nah. I’m just gonna rest.”

It was as if I had said a bad word or something. I asked what he does when he gets sick, and he says he goes to practice anyway. I asked him what he does if he doesn’t feel like going, and he said he goes anyway. I asked when he takes time to rest, and he said when he sleeps at night.

Bring back lazy Sundays. Bring back Saturday morning cartoons. Bring back the idea of relaxing and soaking in your day before moving into the next thing. Bring back the right to breathe, the right to rest.

Bring back mental health days, and taking a break. Bring back taking a walk or watching a show or setting a timer to remind yourself to stop cleaning and relax.

If you’re running at 100% all the time with no time to recharge, then your battery is going to die spectacularly, and probably at the worst possible time.

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I just cried ugly tears at my own writing. I screamed at the screen. It was so beautiful. Like, idk who the author is but it ain’t me. That shit was heartbreaking.

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That one time I was magic.

I worked for four years at Borders Books & Music. During the time I worked there, I got a reputation for being good at finding stuff and recommending books. I was the one the other sellers would come to when a customer had one of those “It had a blue cover” questions. My best dude friend B (who I met working at Borders) likes to tell the story about how he was attempting to help a woman who could only tell him that she wanted a book about this woman who took a vacation from marriage. He was stumped, until (in his words), I suddenly appeared out of nowhere and said “Do you mean ‘A Year by the Sea’ by Joan Anderson?” Which she did.

But that wasn’t my magic moment.

One time, the Columbus newspaper featured a little semi-self-published book about grammar written by a local woman. I know, it seems like an odd trend, but there you go. Fortunately I’d had a heads-up about this feature and had ordered thirty copies of the book to have on hand. I was working at the info desk and for expediency just kept about ten copies right there so when people came up asking for it, I could give it to them.

After awhile of working retail, you get to be able to read people’s faces and what it is they want. There’s a particular expression that says “I’m looking for a thing but I’m pretty sure you’re not going to know what I’m talking about but I’m going to try anyway” and every single person who had come in asking for the grammar book had been wearing this expression.

Around noon, and after having sold a good dozen of those books, I’m standing there and a woman comes walking up wearing the exact expression I just described. I decided to risk it. Before she could even open her mouth to ask for it, I just picked up a copy of the grammar book and handed it to her with a smile, saying “Here you go!”

She stared at it, and then stared at me. “How did you know??” she said.

“Bookseller magic,” I replied.

She wandered off to pay for it, still kind of shocked. I looked around and my co-workers were all staring at me like I’d grown a second head.

And that’s the time I was magic.

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The Milt Kahl Head Swaggle (Source: Cartoon Brew)

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Just Writer Things™️

“i don’t think this pen helps with my creativity, I gotta buy another one”

This is the third notebook I bought this month I need to s t o p. I don’t even write in them anymore

That overwhelming feeling when you found the perfect song for your work

One-word horror story: titles

Sequel to one-word horror story: summaries

“I know exactly how to start and finish this…I just…need to figure out how to bridge them…”

Me while reading an older work: what the fuck are you talking about :)

Me while reading a recent work: what the fuck are you talking about :)

Physically stops myself from using fucking as an adverb…again

Hello, constant self-doubt, my old friend

That one song you listen to on loop when writing a scene that by the end of writing it you’re already sick of the song and ready to fight anyone if you have to listen to it again

Me while writing a character intelligent in something im not: what the fuck should I talk about :)

Writing for a fandom and seeing people make passive-aggressive posts about fanfictions as if fanfic authors are fandom slaves

why are tenses so fucking difficult

That feeling when making a playlist for your wips

Writer’s block is so fun huh

Daydreaming about your wips

“is ‘fuck’ a curse word during the 1700’s”

Thinking of the dialogues/banter and not noticing that you’re saying it out loud until you see someone giving you a weird look

“im self-projecting too much aren’t I :)”

Looking for writing tips and following none of them because ‘you have your own style’

Someone seeing your google history and wondering if you’re a murderer because why the hell do you have ‘how to hide dead bodies’ in there

Not knowing how to feel when people are liking more the thing you half-assed than those stories you shed tears writing

This is a ridiculous idea but would make an interesting story

Me while writing: im never gonna be good enough I cant im horrible I should give up - | me when I finished something: I am god no one can stop me now I will take over the world | repeats cycle

Spends three hours researching about lamps

That one person you want to impress. You know, them.

Writing dialogues: okay, good, so poetic, much majestic | writing descriptions: the sky is blue and the water is blue too because of it

“wait, fuck, I already used this scene in my other story”

Me while writing using my third language: im using this word correctly right

Me while writing using my first language: im using this word correctly right

I thank god for the creation of thesaurus

That conflicting feeling when you read someone’s work and it’s really good, so so amazing that you’re both inspired and envious and you feel bad for feeling envious

I have 167 ideas and im writing none of them

Don’t listen to that voice in your head that’s telling you you should take a quick break when you’re on a writing roll. Just don’t. It won’t be a quick break.

When you have the time to write but you choose to do other things that there’s really no need to do

Like me writing this post

And you browsing tumblr

Open a document now

Write

Your wip is waiting for you

And it’s gonna be amazing and all so worth it

So don’t be too hard on yourself.

Someone out there fell in love with your style. Someone out there will fall in love with your style.

I love you and keep creating. :)

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Creating a Fictional Language Step-by-Step

The first step in creating a language for a fictional universe is deciding the feel. How do the words flow? How do they sound? Is it a goblin language that’s spat out in short, rough bursts? A soft, melodious language of elves? Is it ancient or new? Once you’ve figured out how you want your language to feel, you can move onto step 2.

Research other languages. These can be fictional languages or actual languages that are similar to yours. When deciding on my language for my finished novel, I took a lot of inspiration from Hawaiian, Italian and Latin. If you’re not sure where to start, go to Google Translate, dump a sentence into the translator, and filter through a bunch of languages to see which ones you like. 

Once you’ve conceptualized and done the research, it’s time to actually start building. Make sure you establish grammar rules. These don’t have to be super complex. Figure out how you’d make something plural, (like English ‘s’ and ‘es’) or what an action verb looks like. (English ‘ing’) If you aren’t sure where to start I recommend looking up English grammar worksheets for kids and basically remaking them to fit your language instead. 

NEXT! Create a separate document where you’ll keep all the new words you create. Keep a guide, not a dictionary. What I mean by that is instead of just listing words and describing what they mean, keep words in categories like “Times of Day”, “Numbers” and “Greeting, Goodbyes, and Responses”. Chart them out so you have the word in your language, the pronunciation and the English equivalent.    

The fifth step is developing common phrases. For example, if you figure out how to say “A good morning to you” in your language, then you’ve figured out five full words and you’ve constructed a useful sentence for future use all at the same time. You don’t need 300 pages of words, just enough to fake like you might have actually done that much work!

Lastly, think about dialect, accents and slang. If this isn’t an ancient ceremonial language and it’s something your characters use in their day-to-day lives then there’s a good chance that they’re using short forms of words, contractions and slang terms. Additionally, if two characters speak the same language but come from different parts of the world, their versions of the language will probably differ. These things might not even be evident to the reader but they should be to you. 

And that’s it, really. I could honestly write a whole other post on how to USE a fictional language in a story. So if you guys are interested in the formatting and general use then let me know. Oh, and I also recommend @worldanvil to help build your language. I didn’t know it existed when I wrote up mine or I totally would have used it.

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Art by Lina Kit

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Hi! Do you know of any books featuring wlw characters with a disability? Thank you ahead of time 💖🌸

Far From You by Tess Sharpe and As I Descended by Robin Talley both feature MCs with chronic pain. All in the Family by Q. Kellyhas a Deaf MC. I know Ascension by Jacqueline Konayagi has disabled women, although I’m not sure what disability is present. Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis has a mute bi female lead. And check out this post, too: http://www.goodlesbianbooks.com/2012/07/books-about-lesbians-with-physical.html