insertpenname-here

[insertpenname-here]

[insertpenname-here]

Finals Week anxiety/I love you!

i graduated a few years ago and i want to share with you some things:

I grew up being called ’gifted’ and smart. I did really well in school, to the point my identity depended on it. Then in college, I failed entire semesters, more than once. I also dropped out at one point.

It was devastating and I was terrified.

And yet: EVERYTHING TURNED OUT OK. 

B/c despite what they’d have you believe, this is not the end of the world, and you are going to be okay. 

Repeat it with me: You are going to be okay. 

It’s common to feel like “everything depends on this.” I promise: it doesn’t. A couple things I want you to know

***Your worth & intelligence is absolutely absolutely ABSOLUTELY not based on or reflected by your grades.*** 

The atmosphere you’re currently in breeds stress. Educational institutions have this messed up culture that pushes our minds into an ’emergency mode’ that does not reflect reality and forces you to panic unnecessarily. That’s why:

Things are never as desperate as they feel.

The panic you’re feeling is something you’ve been trained to feel, but it is not truthful. 

If you don’t do as well as you hoped: sweetheart, that Is fine. We naturally aim for more than we can reasonably manage, in order to push ourselves. Not reaching a goal doesn’t mean you ‘failed’, it means you aimed high and I’m proud of you.

Everyone who has ever done anything has failed at some point. People who never fail are people who never try.

Failing a class/classes is NOT the end of the line. Sometimes we need more time, or a second chance. Sometimes we need a different direction

For years I thought I wanted to be an engineer. I declared that major as a freshman. I ended up retaking several classes before realizing that no, this subject was not actually a good fit and didn’t me happy. 

The subject I eventually got a degree in? I actually had to retake a few of the introductory classes, alongside classmates who weren’t even in the program but seemed to have an easier time than me. At the time I was embarrassed. Now, I’m proud that i stuck with it

Please do not be afraid to ask for help even/especially when a deadline has passed/you feel ashamed for not asking sooner. Or rather: please ask for help even when you’re scared and it’s late in the semester. It literally cannot hurt. 

You are still learning how to learn, teach yourself, and self-monitor. This is a Huge Big Part of being an Adult that very few of us don’t get formal training for. So of course you will make mistakes along the way. Mistakes are a symptom of progress.

You are making progress, and for that alone you deserve to celebrate yourself

[insertpenname-here]

Tips for naming your wips

I know a lot of people really struggle with naming their stories, and after that people also struggle with naming second, third, and fourth books in a series and making it sound consistent. Here are a few tips I’ve gathered that help me!

* make a list of any and all possibilities that come to mind, even if you think they’re dumb or weird! They might lead to the title that works

* think of various one to three word descriptions of your story. For the first book in my series, the one word description was “gods”, since there were lots of gods in my story! That ended up leading to the title “Godly”!

* just make a list of anything that is of importance in your story, things that have important symbolism, the names of important magical cities or items in your story. The magical city in my story is called Relawaia, and I possibly could have fit that into my title somewhere, but I decided against it.

* ask your betas/critique partners of one or two words they think describe your story, even if it’s silly, write it down. You will quickly notice a few words that come up multiple times, and you can use those for the base idea of your title.

Now, if you have a title for the first book in your story and don’t know what to title the next one or more:

Think of the elements of what makes up the title of the first book. For mine, the title was just “Godly”. Short and sweet, ends with Ly and is only two syllables. I would suggest looking up words that are similar.

Example: I searched up “words that end with Ly” in order to find out the titles of my other books. This works best if you already have an idea of the plot of the next books, so you can see which words fit. My only rules with my titles for this series were that they were short, and ended with LY. I got a bunch of words, but in the end, chose Lovely for book two, and Simply for book three.

If you don’t want a title that’s as short, you can do the same thing but with a sentence. An example of this is my other wip, “If Tulips Had Thorns”. Four words, starts with if, sounds very contemplative and deep. The layout for the next stories in the series, with my method, would be “If _______ had _____”, and any words that fit the story could work there.

Thank you for reading! If you have any questions, make sure to send an ask!

Tag list: @incandescent-creativity @illiteracy-is-for-woozles @kit-tells-a-story @knox-novels @roselinproductions @writings-of-a-narwhal @kclenhartnovels @elaynab-writing

[insertpenname-here]

First painting I did on procreate! 

[insertpenname-here]

And with it we create life. 

[insertpenname-here]

Tips for Writing Healthy Romantic Relationships

Don’t base them exclusively on physical and/or sexual attraction. While these kinds of attraction can certainly strengthen relationships, they can’t create anything but a weak foundation for a relationship on their own.

Know how your characters like to show and be shown affection. Not everyone shows their interest in others the same way. Some people like to give gifts. Others like to cuddle. Still others like giving compliments. Different people like to receive different kinds of affection as well. 

Remember that love at first sight is a myth. You can have lust at first sight and romantic interest at first sight, but true love takes time to develop.

Show the characters interacting and getting to know each other. This should be obvious, but it is all to common for a character to be given a love interest at the last minute or to be paired off with someone the reader hasn’t seen them interact with much. Remember, the reader doesn’t have to see every little thing they do together, but the relationship will feel forced to the reader if they don’t see the characters interacting and establishing that they genuinely care about each other in a significant way. If the reader views your character’s significant other as little more than a stranger, then you’re doing something wrong.

Have both characters do things for each other and contribute to the relationship in meaningful ways. Relationships are two way streets. While you don’t need to keep score of exactly who does what for who (Relationships are not a competitive sport!), the relationship should seem fairly balanced or, if it’s not, then the characters should be working to change that.

Don’t give your characters completely incompatible traits. While it’s healthy for people to differ from each other, there are some differences that even people that are otherwise perfect for each other probably can’t overcome. For example, a environmental activist would have a hard time having a healthy relationship with someone who wants to chop dow a forest. Basically, know your characters’ deal breakers so that you won’t try to match up characters who are simply incompatible with each other.

Have them share interests. This is a great way to add substance to relationships outside of physical attraction and compatible personalities. Maybe they both like fishing. Maybe they share a passion for baking. Whatever you decide to have them like, don’t be afraid to use your characters’ shared interests as opportunities for them to bond. Also, if your characters don’t share a lot of interests/hobbies, consider having one character introduce the other to their hobby or have one character take initiative to try something the other likes. This is a great way to show how much your characters care about each other because it demonstrates your characters’ genuine interest in what makes their partner happy. 

Let the relationship experience at least a few bumps in the road. No relationships are perfect. Let your characters disagree, argue, and maybe even have a full on fight. Relationships that withstand obstacles seem stronger to readers, especially if the characters grow as people because of these hardships. 

[insertpenname-here]

Introducing my WIPs

Potent poison, treasured tonic: Her Enchanted Garden series

Approximate Word Count: No more than a few hundred words (still outlining)

Series or standalone?: Three-book series (tentative)

Genres: Young adult fantasy, folk/myth fantasy

PoV: first person, present tense

Main (PoV) Characters: Elowen Fleetwood

Blurb:

Fifty years after the great faery-human war, and the treaty remains blissfully intact. Now married to the mortal monarch of one of four human kingdoms, faery queen Ileana Fleetwood, daughter of the famed and feared Alder king, rules alongside her husband— their seven daughters a living, breathing symbol of unity between both factions.

The Festival of Fortune—a celebration held once every decade to commemorate the pact between worlds—draws nearer by the day. Four mortal courts and four immortal courts will gather in the Realm Between. And this time, chaos will reign.

An eternal life yields to a pilfered poison.

And none but Elowen and he family hold antidote to peace—or ruin.

Commentary: The premise and first few beats of the first book areplanned. Beyond that, I’m still developing the plot.

Zenith Code

Approximate Word Count: Roughly 20k

Series or standalone?: Standalone

Genres: Soft Military sci fi, biopunk, dystopian,

PoV: Third person, present tense

Main (PoV) Characters: Theander, Felicity (dual PoV)

Blurb:

In the midst of infertility, war, and famine, the Gould Administration restored equilibrium. Gould’s dominion over this country was a blessing—at first. But in the wake of Code Zenith, no one is safe.

To cull the blossoming rebellion, President Gould’s scientists concocted a scheme: sixteen powerful beings were created—man-made gods, products of human ingenuity, live among us. Styled after ancient greek deities, these sixteen gods-on-earth foster stability, quell the rebel dregs, and enforce the totalitarian Gould regime.

Or do they merely serve a monster hiding beneath a powerful man’s skin?

Theander, Captain of Basement Zero’s inhabitants, isn’t so convinced…

Commentary: I wrote a few thousand words of this story a year or so back. But, due to plot changes, most of that will need to be rewritten. I’m going to focus on the revisions after I nail down the last few beats in my outline.

Lost Souls Night Series

Approximate Word Count: 25k (ish—darnrewrites)

Series or standalone?: Five-book series (tentative)

Genres: Young adult fantasy, new-age mythic fantasy,

PoV: 3rd person multiple, past tense

Main (PoV) Characters:

Ariadnei Flamekind

Phreya Vedaera

Druscylla Ton Dorro

Rheannen Calamicus

Stellena Croft

Lethe Truthsayer

Blurb:

Six daughters of Idum will stand poised before Fate’s ethereal veil.

Magic reemerges in a fledgling realm rife with injustice and political turmoil. Such magical “plights” were eradicated centuries ago by the very family now in power. A cunning warlord lounges upon the Lord Conqueror’s throne. Will he bring about a magical renaissance, as he claims?

Six young women of contrasting backgrounds will converge in order to unwind Fate’s design. Idum is theirs to raze or restore.

Six daughters of Idum

Five cultures

Four promises to keep

Three tragically gifted sisters

Two realms

And one twisted history all unravel within this five-book saga.

Commentary: The first three books are outlined to varying degrees. It’s those final two that concern me most. I know how it all ends—I think. But that other stuff in the middle? Ehhl…not so much…

Shadefyre: Lost in the Wildwoods series

Approximate Word Count: Maybe 1k?

Series or standalone?: Multi-book series, each from a new PoV; very character-driven

Genres: New adult, supernatural fantasy,

PoV: third person, past tense,

Main (PoV) Characters: The Blackburn “sisters” Sage, Arden, Flora, and Maeve, along with Lydia Hawthorn and a few others.

Blurb:

Four young witches, while en route to perform an ancient ritual upon which their coven’s wellbeing is dependent, are kidnapped by a band of their people’s most dangerous foes: werewolves.

Now in the den of their deadliest enemies, witches Sage, Maeve, Flora, and Arden Blackburn uncover secrets surrounding the time-honored rite for which they have prepared since age thirteen, as well as unravel the truth of a centuries-long feud.

Commentary: This series is fully outlined. Now I just need to actually write it. Yikes.

[insertpenname-here]

[insertpenname-here]

Amirah Everett

[insertpenname-here]

New Writeblr ~

Hello all! I’m new to the writeblr scene - this is me attempting to scream into the void and see what comes of it.

I’m a graduate student by day, and a writer by night. I have one finished story that is going through the motions of being published via amazon self-publishing, and I’m currently working on the sequel. I look forward to seeing where this takes me!

Scream back if you’d like to connect, talk, or whatever! 

[insertpenname-here]

hi! Writeblr exchange partner here. :) Do you have a title/working title for your WIP? (Which is fantastic by the way. I'm having such fun exploring these characters.)

Hi there! So happy to meet you! The working title is “On the origin of magic” though this will probably change at least three more times. I have the absolute hardest time with titles. 

[insertpenname-here]

What’s the most difficult obstacles Amirah and her wife had to face in the early stages of their relationship? 😊

Oh my goodness thanks so much for the question, first of all! I love talking about my OCs. When they first got together, the hardest thing to overcome was their different ways of communicating love. Lilly wears her heart on her sleeve. She cries during any movie that features a dog (doesn’t matter if anything bad happens to the dog, they’re just so cute and she can’t help it). She constantly showers Amirah in compliments and puts I love you notes in her lunches for work. 

While Amirah didn’t even say, “I love you,” until a year into their relationship. Showing love with words isn’t her thing. Instead, she shows her love through actions. Through the way she runs her fingers through Lilly’s hair while they watch TV, and through the way she refuses to watch an episode of their favorite show without Lilly being there. She brings home Lilly’s favorite meal whenever she has a bad day at work. 

Now, they recognize and do their best to speak each other’s love language. Lilly doesn’t end every text with, “love you!” anymore, and Amirah makes sure to verbally say she loves Lilly at least once a day. 

[insertpenname-here]

Writeblr Winter Gift Exchange

A Quick Intro

Name/nickname and pronouns: Jeana (pronounced Gina) she/her

Is your Writeblr a sideblog? Nope! Main blog.

Do you celebrate a specific holiday? What and when is it? I celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25th

Do you have any special time constraints (exams, traveling, holiday observances, etc)? Nope! I’ll be working throughout my winter break, but I’ll make it work. 

For the Giving

What would you like to give? Bold which apply

Short fics/writing, moodboards/edits, playlists/music, drawing/art, Other (please specify) I love narrating stories. If you want a story of yours turned into audio, or for me to send you an audio instead of short fic, that would be awesome!

Content you DO want to do: I love writing sci-fi, romance, fantasy. I’m fine with writing pretty much anything, including erotica and erom. Also, if you want fanfic of your own work, I’m down. (I know it’s a dream of mine to have fanfic written of my stories, so it might be your dream too)

Content you DON’T want to do: Just no art. I can’t art. 

How many slots do you have open? 2 or 3, what ever works out best!

How would you like to be contacted? Message is best!

For the Getting

What source material would you like used for the gift you receive? Something based on Your Original Content, Their Original Content, or Fandom? Please include reference links or tags to make your giver’s life easier.

I’d love to see you use my original content or your own! If you want to use mine, I only have one full chapter posted for my story here. If you need to read more to get a feel for it, just let me know! I have three other chapters that are very rough, but I’m willing to share with you!

Moodboard I made for a few of my characters (along with some info about them):

Richard: Senior Agent for the MPS, uses his magic to manipulate the air. His personal song is a classical symphony. He’s very organized and hardworking. Without his work, he’d be lost. He doesn’t have many friends, or any aside from Amirah, Hazel (his cat) and his family, but he doesn’t mind. He enjoys being alone. Despite his outward serious demeanor, a big softy on the inside. He’s the youngest and only deaf agent in the MPS, both facts that he is extremely proud of.

Amirah: In charge of the Junior Agency. She’s a black gay woman who’s risen through the ranks due to her incredible power over manipulating light and her attention to details. She’s loud and proud, and loves getting into arguments with Richard. She’s married to her wife Lily who is pregnant with their baby boy. Her personal song is a rock anthem.

Chrysanthemum: Often describe (by Richard) as the lovechild between a unicorn and a rainbow. She loves heels and skirts and pastel colors. She’s incredibly kind and smart and tends to ramble when she gets on a topic that she is passionate about. She studies Necromancy, though due to her magic license being revoked, can not practice it. Her humor is on par with that of a middle school boy. Also, in mood board she is shown to be white, but I decided that she has vitiligo. Her song is a folksy love song.

What type of content would you like to receive? Bold which apply

Short fics/writing, moodboards/edits, playlists/music, drawing/art, Other (please specify)

Content you DO want to see: Anything dealing with my characters. Want to make a playlist for them? Awesome! In my world, magic is based off of the manipulation of energy (kinetic, potential, thermal, light, chemical, nuclear, and life). Each mage chooses one niche to study, such as the manipulation of fire, light, or wind. Energy can be harnessed and transformed to other kinds, but not created. This energy is heard as music. Plants, water, air, other natural things like that are individual instruments that make up the song of the world. While animals and humans and mages have individual songs that come from their soul (or life energy). 

Want to write an original story you think I’ll like? Awesome! Or you could send me an excerpt from your story! 

If you draw a picture of one of my characters, I will most certainly squeal with delight. I will squeal with delight over any gift I receive tbh. 

Content you DON’T want to see: Just don’t kill any of my babies. 

Anything else we need to know?

[insertpenname-here]

New look. New name. Same old me, minus the crippling anxiety and depression. Slowly healing, and slowly getting back into the game of writing and enjoying it! 

I recently got Ommwriter, and I have to say I love it. First time opening it, and I wrote 3,000 words. 3,000 after months of not being able to write a single sentence. The scenery and music is so relaxing, and my favorite part is that there’s no grammar or spelling check. No angry red and blue scribbles beneath my words reminding me how crappy my first draft is. 

Also, I’m not sure if anyone needs to hear this today, but your anxiety symptoms are bad enough. Don’t ignore the symptoms of anxiety or depression because you don’t think yours are bad enough to seek help. That’s what happened to me. I had no reason to be anxious. But then I refused to open emails because I was too scared to read them. Then I got panic attacks whenever I stepped foot on campus. Then I started failing classes. Soon, my body became exhausted from the constant physical and mental state of anxiety. That’s when the depression came. 

I eventually decided that my symptoms were bad enough, and I sought help. I’m still trying to find the right balance of medication and counseling, but it’s getting better. Please don’t wait until your symptoms are “bad enough.” Please seek help. If you are in school, go to the school counselors. If they try to tell you it’s just stress from finals, go to someone else. 

And above all else, I want to tell you that what you’re feeling is real. You don’t have to have a reason to be anxious. You’re not crazy. Your body has a sympathetic and a parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is in charge of the flight or fight response, and in those with anxiety, it can be active all the time. All the time! This leads to very physical symptoms of nausea, heart palpitations, diarrhea, vomiting, and dizziness. This is also very taxing and exhausting for your body. Getting help won’t fix everything at once. I did wonderful for a few weeks, then fell right back into my old ways. It takes time, but your health is worth everything. 

Here’s a link to a site that helped me with my anxiety disorder: https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/anxiety-disorders

And here’s a link to a quiz I took that made me realize I need help: https://depression.org.nz/is-it-depression-anxiety/self-test/

[insertpenname-here]

"Magic is not governed by the first law of thermodynamics. Magic is governed by the entropy of the universe. The music of the universe. The song that never ends, but decrescendos into a screeching disharmony between pitches. The universe does not like structure. They say out in space the music is hardly music at all. Just screaming. Screaming and clashing pitches that resemble the sound that door on the third floor of the science building makes. That awful squeaking, that plea for someone, anyone, please put some WD-40 on me. Bathe me in its slippery essence. Relieve me of this desert I’ve grown to call home."

[insertpenname-here]

I went through a super rough patch, but I feel like now I’m healed and have a newfound excitement for all the great things life has to offer. Time to get back to doing what I love, writing, reading, and learning new things.

[insertpenname-here]

mood: i want to read a story exactly like one of my favorite stories i’ve read a thousand times but not THAT story because i’ve read it a thousand times and i want to read a new one but it should be exactly like this one.