konigsberg

[konigsberg]

Midnight Ocean: Update

Fandom: Hades (Game) Pairing: Thanzag Rating: E Status: In progress Word count: 694,235 Tags:  alternate universe, romance, mystery, secret identity, strangers to lovers, marriage of convenience, fake/pretend relationship, domestic, hurt/comfort, gentleness, family secrets, self-discovery, inspired by eros and psyche, first time, cuddling, sharing a bed

“Please consider what I’m about to say. Think of it as you return to your mother. You must put as much thought into it as you can. Will you? Please, promise me you will.” “Yes! Whatever it is, I’ll consider it.” “Eventually Lord Hades will have mercy upon you. He will. I know that must sound strange—the most severe of the gods showing mercy where his kindred won’t—but it’s the truth. The Olympians are more… unreliable. The only way I can see to protect the Underworld and in turn you and your mother is this: Bind yourself to me.” His hands tremble. He brushes his thumb along the crook of Zag’s throat, so very sweet, even when he’s rigid with tension. “Wed me.” Raised by his mother far away from both Olympus and the Underworld, a strange series of events leads Zagreus to meeting a faceless, nameless Chthonic god.

Start from the beginning or go to the latest chapter.

Reblogs, likes, comments, kudos, etc. are all very appreciated!

[konigsberg]

I just wanted to say, I'm sorry I haven't updated, I was in a pretty bad car accident, so my stress and pain have been even worse than usual lol. I'm not hurt, too be clear, but it fucked with my already fucked up joints so I'm having a time of it.

[konigsberg]

Midnight Ocean: Update

Fandom: Hades (Game) Pairing: Thanzag Rating: E Status: In progress Word count: 694,235 Tags:  alternate universe, romance, mystery, secret identity, strangers to lovers, marriage of convenience, fake/pretend relationship, domestic, hurt/comfort, gentleness, family secrets, self-discovery, inspired by eros and psyche, first time, cuddling, sharing a bed

“Please consider what I’m about to say. Think of it as you return to your mother. You must put as much thought into it as you can. Will you? Please, promise me you will.” “Yes! Whatever it is, I’ll consider it.” “Eventually Lord Hades will have mercy upon you. He will. I know that must sound strange—the most severe of the gods showing mercy where his kindred won’t—but it’s the truth. The Olympians are more… unreliable. The only way I can see to protect the Underworld and in turn you and your mother is this: Bind yourself to me.” His hands tremble. He brushes his thumb along the crook of Zag’s throat, so very sweet, even when he’s rigid with tension. “Wed me.” Raised by his mother far away from both Olympus and the Underworld, a strange series of events leads Zagreus to meeting a faceless, nameless Chthonic god.

Start from the beginning or go to the latest chapter.

Reblogs, likes, comments, kudos, etc. are all very appreciated!

[konigsberg]

Hello! I hope you don't mind me dropping an ask on your Tumblr. I just started reading midnight ocean and yk that thing you can do as a writer when you read stuff and you feel your neurons activate and your writing skills level up?? ME RN. Your prose is just so good on a technical level that it kinda blew me away, like I really thought you were a fifty year old fandom veteran writing fanfiction because of how experienced (lol) you sound. When I was reading i was like: "ooooh this person is old" because in my head old = good writers LMAO. Do you have any tips on how to develop a writing style that's as descriptive/poetic as yours? How to write good character and plot? Or just writing tips in general? <3

I’m so sorry I didn’t see this sooner! Thank you so much, you’re so sweet! I saw your other ask where you mentioned finding my writing blog, but I honestly haven’t added anything to that in a long time, so I figured answering this might still be useful. It turned long, so I'll put it under the cut haha.

One of the biggest things that I find helpful personally and have suggested to others who have expressed that it was useful is collecting fragments of writing that speak to you—those things that make your neurons activate.

I think there’s an unfortunate tendency for people to see writing and many other forms of art as something you simply produce rather than a set of skills that you have to learn and practice. And a part of learning for me, at least, is essentially a combination of studying and mimicking. That’s where “fragments” come in, especially if we’re talking about descriptive writing.

Basically, “collecting fragments” to me means saving specific lines, passages, etc. from others’ writing that stand out to me. Seeing how other people form descriptions (or other things, like dialogue) and taking the time to really focus on those details helps me then attempt to mimic what I like in those specific sections. It might be the flow, the diction, or some combination of elements, but I think this approach helps with identifying what specifically makes something resonate with me and once I identify that, I can more easily attempt to implement it in my own writing.

You can sort of see examples of that on this blog. For Midnight Ocean, I often reblog things here as #mo that would be relevant to it specifically. I put more general quotes and stuff on @bones-ivy-breath and use the tags to keep track of different things. Sometimes I’ll be reading and just send myself screenshots or type up passages in a private Discord server just for me to remember. Maybe just save it to my phone. Maybe write it in a journal somewhere. There are all sorts of ways to do it, of course.

Honestly, you can do this with a lot of aspects of writing, but I find it easiest with something like prose or descriptions. It can be somewhat harder to collect little pieces of writing that contribute to something like plot, that’s so overarching, but you can do it for things like characterization, too. Little things from your favorite books or any sort of media, really, that stand out to you as conveying character very well, like specific dialogue or maybe details where a character’s mannerisms are described. It can really be anything.

When I’m trying to focus on specific types of scenes I’d like to get better at, like fight scenes or whatever else, I try to refer back to pieces of writing that I think do those things well. How does this author convey movement clearly? How do they manage to maintain flow in this sort of scene? How do I take this and make it mine?

Of course, I don’t want to simply copy whatever it is for so many reasons. Sometimes, especially if this is an approach that just doesn’t mesh well with you, it might feel unclear how to take inspiration from something, especially if you’re focused on one piece of writing alone, without just ripping it off. When you’re practicing and writing something just for you, that you aren’t going to publish or anything, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with messing up and making it a little too much like someone else’s work, though. It’s sort of like when visual artists do studies of other visual artists’ works to learn. You’re not claiming it’s yours, you’re just trying to learn from someone else’s example.

It can take time to grow familiar with what you’re mimicking to the point you can adapt it into something that’s your own. Slowly but surely, as you learn from studying other’s flow, diction, or whatever else, it becomes familiar and thus you see how to not just mimic but make. As you curate your influences and make them your own, your own style will start to develop and shine through.

I think a good example of this is Haruki Murakami and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Murakami is heavily, heavily influenced by Fitzgerald and you can really tell when you read his work. It's something about the flow, both in the sense of how he structures sentences and the overall flow of the plot, though it's almost difficult to put into words. And yet, Murakami still has a very distinct voice and tone. He's very open about this influence, too, which I think is good for any author to be.

Fanfiction is a much lower stakes chance to do this sort of thing. You definitely don’t want to go around plagiarizing other authors, whether they’re writing fanfiction or anything else, of course! Hopefully it’s clear that’s not what I’m suggesting lol. But there’s room to be a little messier and less practiced in a fic.

There’s also freedom to even quote other people and give credit pretty easily due to the format of fanfiction, especially on Ao3. For me, writing a fic about ancient Greek gods provides even more chances for this. I’ve done this honestly countless times in MO. Both quoting to the point I do give credit (ie. I’ve put quoted poetry at the beginning of a chapter, then also quote it in the text; I’ve put in quotes from various ancient texts directly into dialogue, etc. though quoting an ancient text often doesn’t require the same sort of credit as modern lit, of course, which makes for more freedom) and just sort of loosely referencing other works (ie. lots of references to ancient Greek epics, poetry, and plays, and the sort of language used there, like mentioning “dawn’s fingers” which is a common phrase used in The Odyssey, for example).

As for characters, I think this can be pretty different between original fiction and fanfiction. Of course, there’s overlap, but making your own character and trying to capture someone else’s sometimes require different skills. My approach to characters in general isn’t so different from anything else, though. I often refer to other pieces of media and think to myself, “How did the text make this character compelling?” Sitting with questions like that helps me a lot, because it usually enables me to figure out how to do that myself.

I do think fandom can make it so characters feel detached from the text. This isn’t a bad thing, of course, but I think it can sometimes mean we forget that they’re essentially tools within a narrative. They’re entwined with the overarching story: the plot, the messages, everything. Especially when crafting your own characters, fully embedding them in with the themes and whatever else you’re focused on conveying in a work is important. It can feel, at least to me, very different than, say, taking characters I like from a piece of media and building a narrative around them.

Of course, people can have very different approaches when it comes to this sort of thing, and different stories may simply work better if it’s character-driven vs. plot driven, or whatever else. Some authors sort of come up with OCs then build very compelling stories around them, while some start with more of a plot that they then fit characters into. It really depends. It’s just something to keep in mind, I think.

Other than that, the basic advice you'll see from most people is true: Reading a lot, and a lot of different types of literature (poetry, nonfiction, all sorts of genres, from all sorts of places), will always help you grow. It's sort of like digging a well. The more you read, the deeper you dig your well, the more water you have to draw from. But also, you don't want to read and read and never write. Practice helps.

And I think it's good to approach writing a lot like visual art. You don't sit down and paint a masterpiece in one go. You sketch, you edit, you go little by little. You mess up, you try again.

If you find yourself stressing over a single sentence, always remember you can come back and edit it. Fresh eyes help so much. Another thing I sometimes think people forget is when you're writing something like a fanfic... you're not going to be "as good" as a published work, because that published work you're used to reading has had editors and so many rewrites! When you're just on your own, writing a first draft, or writing something chapter by chapter, there will definitely be things that don't get caught. Even if you have someone helping as a beta or an editor, of course, you're doing something without the sort of backing of a traditionally published author. Things aren't going to be perfectly polished, and that's totally okay. And if you're writing the first draft of something you want to traditionally publish, remember, you haven't had someone edit it yet. Of course, it's not going to be as perfectly polished as the final works you're probably used to reading.

As for editing, one thing that can help a lot is changing your font. As you write something, you get used to what you're looking at. Your brain will gloss over what it's familiar with, sometimes filling in blanks without processing them, that's just sort of how it works. So if you're writing in a text document, for example, when you go to edit it, change the font and maybe the text size. The shift will help your brain actually process it anew. Sometimes, if I'm having trouble, I'll even print out what I'm working on so I can physically write on it. Some people like to even hand-write whatever you're working on, especially if it's shorter, then when you type it up you process it in a different way.

I also want to stress I'm definitely still learning. When it comes to something like writing, you probably will never stop learning more. But either way, I'm no expert and shouldn't pretend to be lol. So I can only give advice as a sort of novice, I suppose. Still, hopefully something here is good.

I hope this makes some sort of sense and can be at least a little helpful! Thank you again for your kind words <3

[konigsberg]

Not me checking the original Latin and three translations of Apuleius' Eros and Psyche to check one... one thing. lmao... god help me

[konigsberg]

Midnight Ocean: Update

Fandom: Hades (Game) Pairing: Thanzag Rating: E Status: In progress Word count: 682,140 Tags:  alternate universe, romance, mystery, secret identity, strangers to lovers, marriage of convenience, fake/pretend relationship, domestic, hurt/comfort, gentleness, family secrets, self-discovery, inspired by eros and psyche, first time, cuddling, sharing a bed

“Please consider what I’m about to say. Think of it as you return to your mother. You must put as much thought into it as you can. Will you? Please, promise me you will.” “Yes! Whatever it is, I’ll consider it.” “Eventually Lord Hades will have mercy upon you. He will. I know that must sound strange—the most severe of the gods showing mercy where his kindred won’t—but it’s the truth. The Olympians are more… unreliable. The only way I can see to protect the Underworld and in turn you and your mother is this: Bind yourself to me.” His hands tremble. He brushes his thumb along the crook of Zag’s throat, so very sweet, even when he’s rigid with tension. “Wed me.” Raised by his mother far away from both Olympus and the Underworld, a strange series of events leads Zagreus to meeting a faceless, nameless Chthonic god.

Start from the beginning or go to the latest chapter.

Reblogs, likes, comments, kudos, etc. are all very appreciated!

[konigsberg]

Midnight Ocean: Update

Fandom: Hades (Game) Pairing: Thanzag Rating: E Status: In progress Word count: 673,412 Tags:  alternate universe, romance, mystery, secret identity, strangers to lovers, marriage of convenience, fake/pretend relationship, domestic, hurt/comfort, gentleness, family secrets, self-discovery, inspired by eros and psyche, first time, cuddling, sharing a bed

“Please consider what I’m about to say. Think of it as you return to your mother. You must put as much thought into it as you can. Will you? Please, promise me you will.” “Yes! Whatever it is, I’ll consider it.” “Eventually Lord Hades will have mercy upon you. He will. I know that must sound strange—the most severe of the gods showing mercy where his kindred won’t—but it’s the truth. The Olympians are more… unreliable. The only way I can see to protect the Underworld and in turn you and your mother is this: Bind yourself to me.” His hands tremble. He brushes his thumb along the crook of Zag’s throat, so very sweet, even when he’s rigid with tension. “Wed me.” Raised by his mother far away from both Olympus and the Underworld, a strange series of events leads Zagreus to meeting a faceless, nameless Chthonic god.

Start from the beginning or go to the latest chapter.

Reblogs, likes, comments, kudos, etc. are all very appreciated!

[konigsberg]

I'm returning to posting MO tomorrow AND getting married (barring something crazy happening), which feels like such an AO3 author thing to do.

[konigsberg]

Okay this really is the last one unless someone has a really funny proposition for Moros

i put this on twitter but it feels like the sort of thing i should subject everyone to

[konigsberg]

I have an update: the into short men brothers

i put this on twitter but it feels like the sort of thing i should subject everyone to

[konigsberg]

i put this on twitter but it feels like the sort of thing i should subject everyone to

[konigsberg]

Is the erotica in Midnight Ocean essential to the plot or can I skip over it?

I think it's generally important. Idk maybe someone can respond and give a second opinion lol.

[konigsberg]

really happy to see you posting again 💖 please let us know if there’s anything you & yours might need after helene!!

Thank you 💜 Right now, I'm doing very well all things considered. My house has power again, but we're still staying with my in-laws due to the water outage. Food is slowly but surely getting easier to obtain, too, so I've really been doing fine aside from the stress of it all.

Unfortunately, I'll probably end up taking another month off posting because writing hasn't been a priority at the moment. But taking a little break was needed, anyway.

[konigsberg]

these are all so wonderful 💜

Love how zagreus is Medea’s favorite in the fic, she was so ready to throw down with doom incarnate (still a wip)

@konigsberg

[konigsberg]

Wip for @konigsberg fic

[konigsberg]

omg thank you! their expressions are so good lmaooo

Currently doodling a bunch of stuff for @konigsberg hades fic ‘midnight ocean’ cause I finally caught up with it.

[konigsberg]

Hi, sorry to bother, but I have a question. I started reading Midnight Ocean last night but I'm having a difficult time understanding and picturing Than's pall thing. From what I understand, a pall is like a cloth, but if that's so, how can Zag see him frown and smile? Is it more of a thin veil? Sorry for all the questions and if it sounds awkward, I don't normally send asks

I put together some reference images on twitter that I don't think I ever posted here, so I'll put those below, but I think fanart people have made probably expresses it best, so I'll start with some links to those:

Phybe's version of the pall

Sasha's version of the pall

Some versions that come up later in the fic:

Suugiiart's version of the pall

Riptide's version of the pall

I think all of these pieces do a really good job of showing both the concealment and visible expression I had in mind, whether it's interpreted as the pall being slightly sheer (like a wedding veil) so you can make out just enough of Thanatos' expression to interpret it, or for light to almost project his features across it.

The pall is based on the shawl Nyx gives Zagreus, but it's also meant to be a dual reference to both funeral palls and wedding veils.

Galaxy bride from Robert Wun Fall 2024 collection, is a good example and one people often send to me because it resonates well, I think.

This is Jan Punt’s “The Four Corners of the Pall” which depicts a royal funeral procession. The pall over the casket is the sort of thing I had in mind, at least in a symbolic sense if nothing else.

Like Nyx's shawl, I wanted it to have a nature both akin to something celestial, like a nebula's almost "cloudy" form, but also to move like fabric depending on the situation.

Part of how Zagreus is interpreting Thanatos' expression is there being colors moving across or beneath the fabric that outline Thanatos' features and/or correlate with his moods in some capacity. Some of the movements of colors across its surface are also inspired by auroras.

This was also influenced by the way octopuses change colors.

I don't want to put this in here because it's... very slightly adult. So I'll just link to the twitter posts. First, a man in a sort of veil but it's wet, so it clings to his skin. The way wet fabric clings to skin in general is also a big influence, the way it can make the outline of a body clear while also concealing it. Second, body painting.

Hopefully this helps some? There are a few more images on twitter, but I think these are probably the clearest.