moonflowerwrites

[moonflowerwrites]

how to write monsters that actually scare and not sparkle

✦ first rule: don’t over-explain. once you give me the monster’s exact height, weight, claw count, and dental record, it’s not scary anymore. it’s a pokémon. mystery is the muscle. a shadow that almost looks human will always hit harder than a full description of a swamp beast. leave gaps. let the reader’s brain fill them in with their own worst fear.

✦ physics should not apply. horror monsters are terrifying when they break the rules of the world we think we understand. a body folding in ways it shouldn’t. joints bending the wrong direction. silence in a place that should echo. footsteps that sound like they’re coming from the ceiling instead of the floor. once you warp reality, the reader doesn’t feel safe in their own.

✦ chasing is fine. but waiting is worse. scarier than claws, scarier than snarling—try a monster that just stands in the corner and watches. even scarier? it smiles. because predators don’t smile unless they know something you don’t.

✦ let it act like it knows you. a growl is scary, sure, but a whisper of your name in the dark is worse. a hiss of your birthday. a laugh in your mother’s voice. monsters are no longer “other” once they feel personal. they’re invasive. they’re inside your head.

✦ bonus tip: give them wrong appetites. a monster that eats flesh is cliché. a monster that eats wallpaper? horrifying. one that eats memories, so a character wakes up without knowing their own name? disgusting. one that eats reflections from mirrors so you don’t see yourself anymore? revolting.

[moonflowerwrites]

Hey guys, it's another Yashita appreciation friday! ^-^ Thank you so much for all the positive reactions on my last shortcomic!! <3 Again, I'm very glad you like this AU idea I came up with.

These sketches were inspired by the YouTube channel Matthew and Paul that I've come across recently while I was doing research on blindness. They're a gay interabled couple (Paul is blind and Mathew fully sighted) and show glimpses of their life together in their videos. (I'm gonna ramble a bit more about them here, so if you're not interested in that just skip to the next paragraph.) Not only was it very interesting to learn more about how a blind person deals with daily life, their videos are also super entertaining because of all the pranks Mathew is playing on Paul (he's very cool with it, though!). xD They're so so sweet with each other - seeing that really was a balm for my soul. I haven't been doing very great these days mentally, but Paul's uplifting sunshine personality and them both being so happy together helped cheer me up a little. I can really recommend the channel. To anyone interested, here's one of my favorite shorts of them, maybe as a little sneak peak: [LINK]

So, as I said before, this was inspired by watching the channel above. In their videos it is mentioned that Paul occasionally runs into things he can't see or bumps into cupboard doors he forgot to close. I realized that this didn't occur to me before, but it was very inspiring to draw this piece - especially after watching another short where Mathew patches up a small injury on Paul's forehead (which I assume was probably a result of one of those accidents). I thought it'd fit very well to our expert nurse Mashita and also be a cute moment for the two. ^-^

Hopefully I will be able to finsish my next short comic until next friday, but I can't say for sure. If not, I will see to post something else again - it really is very important to me to keep my weekly posts going. Anyway, I'm hoping you all are doing good! Thank you for taking a look and have a nice week! : )

[moonflowerwrites]

being an adult and watching others succeed because they have stable relationships with their families can actually be so demoralizing, because while they were experiencing growing up you were only surviving

[moonflowerwrites]

I'm stealing this from Twitter

Here's the link

I am a high-definition gateway drug body double!

[moonflowerwrites]

So...

I opened my works to "viewable by everyone" on AO3 again.

It was a hard decision to go back on, but after discussing it with a friend, I decided that I value the engagement with my readers more than I fear having them stolen. So, everything can be viewed without an AO3 account again. I'd still recommend that people get an account if they haven't already, though.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still fucking pissed about 75k to 80k of everything I'd posted being stolen in the scraping back in March, and I loathe to death the pieces of shit responsible and the people who enable the theft of creative works by ignoring the impact of GenAI and CharacterAI. I sincerely hope these the developers of these tools (and I use that term lightly) get sued into oblivion and the rest of the tech industry cuts the shit with jamming AI into fucking everything.

Genuinely, if you have no problem with the AI industry treating everything and everyone as data they have a right to steal, stop following me and don't bother engaging with my work. I can and will block you if you have a problem with that. I am too goddamn old and cynical to entertain the attitude that creative works and their creators are worthless except when exploitative pieces of shit want to make money off them without giving proper credit or compensation. Respect the time and work that goes into creating your entertainment, you stingy fucks!

At any rate, I hope that fellow fans of Death Mark and the Spirit Hunter series in general enjoy my works. It truly makes me very happy to see others enjoying the stories I've written.

Speaking of which, I've been busy writing for a few different projects recently, and I'm hoping to have one of them ready for posting soon. I really am working on the next case fic for my current series. It's about 40% done; I need to rewrite some of what I already have, and I have the plot pretty much entirely planned out. I just have to do the writing, which is always easier said than done.

So, yeah. That's everything I have to say for now.

EDITED TO ADD: I'm a dumbass who forgot to add a very basic detail. The damn link to my account so people can actually see the things I've written. Here:

https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonflowerSong/pseuds/MoonflowerSong

I don't really have an excuse beyond I forgot. Sorry about that. 😓

TL; DR - My works are open for everyone to read again, and I'm working on adding new stories.

[moonflowerwrites]

..................

"By the way, Kazuo - what the hell are you wearing?"

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"That shirt. Was it a gift from Nakamatsu or somethin'?"

"Why, yes. Is something wrong with it?"

"................" "Nevermind. It actually doesn't look so bad on you."

"Ah, thanks, Satoru! (^-^)"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I did it, guys, I finally finished this AU comic I've been talking about weeks ago!! 'xD I'm glad it's done, this took me way too long... Anyway, thank you soooo much for your support and feedback, as always! <3 I really hope you enjoyed this one as much as my other comics. ^^

So, in case anyone is confused/doesn't know about this yet: this comic combines my two AUs of Blind Yashiki and Nurse Mashita (I know it's not very good to see because Mashita is not wearing his work clothes here 'xD).

The idea behind this was that Shou heard a rumour about a spirit/haunted place somewhere, decided to go investigate on his own and hurt himself in the process when he got scared. I know it sounds contradictionary to his characer, but let me explain why I think it could still fit! Shou is scared of spirits, but he has also shown that he wants to help/protect people he cares for and is able to conquer his fears for them. In Death Mark 2/Shibito Magire this clearly shows. My personal interpretation of his actions in The Departed's case is that he is worried about Yashiki and wants to help him to make sure nothing bad happens to him - which is also what inspired me for this comic. Shou knows that Saya and Yashiki are doing a dangerous job by taking on these spirit cases, he cares for them and doesn't want anything bad to happen to them, so when he hears about a potential new case he goes there on his own in his "act first, think later"-manner, hoping to learn anything useful or assess the "danger level" for them, to make sure it's "safer". Well, that was at least my thought process behind this, if that makes any sense. 'xD

A few thoughts/annotations about this comic (in radom order xD): I'm sure it's clear to you all why I didn't draw Yashiki walking with the help of his cane here even though he's blind, but my overthinking brain wants to clarify it just to be sure - he doesn't need it at home because he knows his surroundings there well enough to find his way without it. The reason why I drew Yashiki crouching down when asking Shou about what happened is because it felt better to me this way than him remaining standing tall and "looking" down at the other. Shou is already feeling pretty embarassed and defensive, so Yashiki is talking to him at eye level (well, not quite but close xD) to make him feel more comfortable and open up to him. I guessed Shou would feel uncomfortable because of his usual "tough-guy" act, which usually comes with not wanting to show weakness in front of others (especially people he admires/respects). But at least he seeks help instead of trying to hide/downplay his injury. ^^ About Saya's harsh reaction (making Muu bite Shou): Shou did mean well and it wasn't his intentioon to insult anyone, but his words were chosen poorly and hit a sore spot. It reminded Saya of how her and Yashiki's father had treated her brother when he became blind - seeing him as "weak" and a burden. That's why she might have overreacted a bit there - but she's not furious with Shou, just a bit irritated. (Muu's bite wasn't intended to do any real harm btw.) In general I see Saya as very confident and "authoritative" in how she acts and talks, and she can be very protective of her older brother, the soft and gentle goober. ^-^ I hope "sic' em" is the right term, I couldn't find any other translation to what I meant for this scene. Saya doesn't mean for Muu to attack Shou in a bad, harmful way, but to "punish" him in a only slightly hurting way to make him understand he's crossed a line. Btw, I added a few Japanese words and "title" (Onii-san), because I thought they sounded better than writing that in english. E.g. I always think it sounds a bit strange in translations when someone calls their sibling just "brother" or "sister" - in  Japanese it's fine but (as far as I know) in western culture you usually call your siblings by name. So I just kept it in Japanese (also in my personal opinion calling someone "baka" just sounds so much more funny and judgy than "idiot" xD). I hope it doesn't feel too strange/weird to read. About Shou's injury: I hope it's somehow accurate how I portrayed it (and Mashita's treatment). I've never had a sprain myself, so I had to guess about how much it hurts and all. Please excuse Mashita's harsh words and treatment of Shou - the poor guy is just very overworked and lacking proper rest, but he means well (he just has his own, very unique way of showing it xD). Let's just hope Shou has finally learned his lesson, though, it doesn't really seem like he did at the end, haha. xD 

And that's it for this week's post. I hope you enjoyed it! ^^ I am already working on another shortcomic for this AU - it will be covering some of the mentioned backstory of Yashiki and his blindness - but I don't think I'll manage to finish it until next time, so expect something smaller again for the coming friday. Thanks for dropping by and I wish you all a nice week! : )

[moonflowerwrites]

Like to charge reblog to cast

[moonflowerwrites]

since the yearly "certain medications can cause heat intolerance" PSAs are out in full force, let us fondly remember last year when I was at Pennsic (big ass medieval recreation event) and our group was tearing down our giant tent lodge we use for our kitchen and dining hall. and there's a part at the very end where the roof is sort of on the ground, but still tented on a pole in the middle. and someone has to go under there to unhook the roof from the pole. but it's hot as fuck in that part since it's been baking in the sun for two weeks, so it's called "Satan's asshole". which resulted in somebody VERY solemnly telling me, "going into Satan's asshole is NOT a job for somebody on SSRIs"

[moonflowerwrites]

Story time: In which my coworkers thought I was cheating on my partner…with my partner

Ok so B and I are very tactile people. We mostly work from home, spend 90% of our days together, and touch each other all the time in a deeply habitual way.

We also work in the same industry, which means sometimes we go to the same in-person trainings/conferences/events.

We were at one such event yesterday and while a couple folks in attendance knew we were married to each other, most did not. Though, importantly, they did know that we each were married. We both wear rings. We regularly mention our spouses.

So, we arrived together and walked holding hands through the parking lot and, yes, had a smooch while alone in the elevator before we had to be on our professional best behavior (he was wearing a suit, kissing was unavoidable).

When the doors opened we were still a bit close together and got some looks. But I didn’t really clock them until later. We also checked in with each other a couple times through the evening and stepped out for a quiet moment here and there, which some people likely noticed.

So toward the end of the night, I was chatting with some peers and B came to stand next to me with some of his peers and without thinking I reached over to pull a bit of debris out of his hair and without pausing in his conversation, he reached over to squeeze the back of my neck and run his knuckles down my shoulder/arm in thanks.

There was a sudden lull in the conversation and I realized multiple people were looking at us with obvious discomfort. I rewound the last few seconds, considered some earlier indicators, and then hastily said, “we’re married! To each other! He’s my partner!”

And everyone let out a relieved exhale, had a laugh about it, and we continued on.

Whoops.

[moonflowerwrites]

my parents visited today and their latest item of ‘what people you knew in school are up to lately’ gossip was about the absolutely BONKERS thing they’re trying to talk their friend out of doing to her daughter. I’m still in shock tbh

[moonflowerwrites]

Look at this cozy little beastie.

Completely dead to the world asleep in her nest (which is a body pillow folded in half and covered in soft blankets; these cats are spoiled). She didn't even stir as I tiptoed to get better shots.

Also, bonus closer pic of the rare pink beans.

[moonflowerwrites]

Another friday, man these come so quick! 'xD And I still haven't finished the comic.... -_-'' But I'm working on it, I'm sure it's gonna be done for next week! Also, thank you, guys, for the support and positive feedback on last week's post! <3 I am glad some of you really enjoyed my attempt at writing, even though it was a sad topic.

So for this week it's another of my old WIPs polished up a bit. The outcome is not quite what I hoped (a bit plain/boring, maybe?) but it works I guess. The initial sketch (lower image) changed quite a bit in the "polishing" process, haha - I just thought it would look a bit more interesting if I added Mashita in as well. ^^ This piece was inspired by listening to some of my favorite chillstep tracks. So there's not much thought behind this, I was just trying to create an image fitting to the mood of the music. (But a funny coincidence is that it has been raining a lot recently where I live, so it definitely fits to the mood of the past few days. xD) I've always loved the calming and relaxing atmosphere of chillstep music since I discovered that genre years ago. To me it is a really good source of inspiration - it's easy to get lost in thoughts, imagine and explore ideas while listening, and it has a kind of soothing effect - most of the time anyway.

The sketch for this piece was inspired by "Who can we be" by The Ambientalist, while the finished piece got more influenced by Sappheiro's "Escape" - I recently stumbled upon that old track in my playlist again and it got stuck in my brain since, haha. xD I put the links to the tracks in here, in case anyone's interested to listen. ^^

And that's it for today's post. Next time (probably) Shou's gonna visit the Kujou Mansion, giving everyone a headache with the "trouble" he got himself in. xD Hope you're gonna enjoy that short comic. Anyway, thanks for dropping by and I wish you all a nice week! :)

[moonflowerwrites]

Okay! Have some pics of my boy in a bag. He put himself in there.

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL CAT DAY EVERYONE POST CAT PICS NOW

[moonflowerwrites]

When writing an either mute, or rarely speaking character

Before we begin at all, i have to note that i'm not at all an expert, only a hobby writer, who still has much to learn! But still want to share every -and anything i know and learned so far. Sharing is caring afterall ^ ^

Anyways, let's get started!

So, there's the saying that every action has great gravity, right? That the way of how you describe a character's actions can vastly change their portreyal. An always sad, or depressed character's posture will always hang low, will be heavy with sadness. A happy, bubbly character will get either physical, or the verbal zoomies, always smiling.

There's no difference when it comes to characters, who are either mute, or rarely speak. In fact, when writing them, you have to put much more care into their actions, as those are THEIR way of communicating. Their every micromovement. The way of their silent plea. Their small, almost unnoticable way of smiling.

Remember, their small actions are their only way of communicating.

As some example, i've brought some bits from my w.i.p. novel. In it, the main character, Akuma, isn't mute, but has a hard time speaking. Therefore, every of his action is a message. Every of his action is an unspoken word.

,,He just screams like he's getting skinned alive, scratching and hitting on the walls and on the door. Scratching and hitting the hard surface to the point, his nails are dulling, his nail-beds are starting to bleed, as well as the joints of his fingers. His throat is also in an unbarable pain, but screaming and overall making noise is his only way to comunicate with this unfamiliar world. Like a newborn baby, who can only cry, whenever they want to tell something."

,,But he can do nothing, it's like his body got frozen in place. What he CAN do…is just baring his strangely sharp, canine-like teeth at the man, making a sound, akin to a growl, making his whole face scrunching up."

,,But he still doesn't fully trust him, so he signals to the man to put him down, by pointing with his shaking hand towards the spot he were laying moments earlier [...]"

,,And now that he's calmed down slightly and his wounds got treated properly, his body just realizes how tired he really was. Unable to comprehend any of his actions…he yawns a bit, and a shiver of tiredness runs throu his body from head to toe."

,, "Ah, you're up early this time." He says with a gentle smile, that's still tainted with underlying sadness, once spotting the boy in the corner, still baring his teeth in fear."

,,Then, he uses the…wrong end of the spoon, fishing out some of the rope looking things. He sniffs it. It's got the same smell as the ,,soup", so it does not help him in identifying what this is. So…with his hunger coming back stronger than before…he risks tasting it."

,,Just like from days ago, the food has a tempting smell. Not at all overbearing, or hinting towards any danger, no. This time however, it doesn't look to be a liquid. It looks like white grains, covered in something brownish, reddish looking powder, with bits of…he assumes meat. He clenches his book tight to his chest. He haven't ate meat for as long as he can remember, however, he knows consumable meat is just as hard to chew, as the flesh within the body. It was hard enough for him to bite onto his captor's arm, it would be even harder to bite onto this kind of meat."

,, "Can…no…chew…" The boy mumbles, yet unshed tears now rolling down on the sides of his face. "No…throw…me…away…" "

,, "Notebook…flower…heavy book on it…waight down." He struggles to articulate it, mimicing his actions with his hands, to help him out with conveying what he wants to say."

,, "Speak…hard…" His answer sounds more like a shameful admition, as if he had broke something."

,, "Name? What that?" Altho he's really confused, it's clear that he's all ears for learning new things, shown by the tiniest of returning spark in his ruby eyes."

,,He's still hesitant of meeting them, so he positions himself behind Red Eye. He notices it, but says nothing. Knowing full well, this is a habit, that won't change overnight."

,, [...] colorful flower field, stretching wide under the cloudless sky, emitting the mixed up, sweet scent of various wild flowers. Although his face is forever remains sad, his eyes often gleam at this sight."

,,To his last sentence, the winged man can feel the boy shake a bit, looking up with an expression he hasn't seen from him before. Eyes wide open, tear gatherin in their corners, eyebrow arched up, mouth slighly open, just enough for his two, wierdly canine-like upper teeth start to show their presence. Compared to Akuma's usual melancholic face, his current expression looks like a wild emotional outburst."

,,Akuma, without any more hesitation, starts to whistle a tune he uses on animals to calm them down, while in the meantime, slowly inching towards them, avoiding any rash movement."

,,While the snake curls around his arm, he tries to calm the terrified lizard hound down, gently patting the side of their long face with his free hand. Slowly, carefully, like he was brushing a feather against their skin."

[moonflowerwrites]

6 Quick Writing Exercises to Wake Up Your Imagination

We all hit those blah writing days. Your fingers are ready, your doc is open... and your brain goes static. That’s where writing exercises come in — small creative boosts to shake off the dust and get back into your story flow. Here are six to try when your words feel stuck in traffic.

1. The 5-Minute Word Sprint

Pick a random word (use a generator or close your eyes and point at a book), set a 5-minute timer, and write anything involving that word. No stopping, no deleting.

2. Dialogue Without Context

Write a short convo between two people. No descriptions. No setting. Just back-and-forth lines.

3. Rewrite a Scene in Another Genre

Take a scene from your current story and flip the genre. Drama becomes comedy. Fantasy becomes sci-fi. Romance becomes horror.

4. Describe a Place Using the Five Senses — No Sight Allowed

Can’t mention what anything looks like. Only sound, touch, smell, taste, and intuition.

5. Character Swap POVs

Write a paragraph from the POV of a side character reacting to your main character. Bonus if the POV is brutally honest or completely wrong.

6. One Line Story Hooks

Write 3 one-sentence story starters that make you want to keep writing. (Example: “I woke up married to my enemy, and worse — he knew it before I did.”)

You don’t need to write a masterpiece every day. But showing up — even for a silly exercise — keeps the creative part of your brain warmed up. Try one of these before your next writing session, and see where it takes you. 🍒

[moonflowerwrites]

Right, so I'm feeling a bit poorly (why my sinuses decided to pitch a fit in the middle of summer, I have no idea), so I've been distracting myself with cute/funny videos and now I gotta share what I've found so others can enjoy the goofiness with me.

First of all, this:

Because the best kind of pet owner humor is the fond insult kind of humor (I frequently call my pair of cats "goblins" and "hellspawn" for their nonsense). Also, making up dumb songs or riffing off known songs for your pet is hilarious.

Then, there's this:

The animator did NOT have to go this hard, but, man, it's fantastic. If you like this short, it's part of the animator's "animals as letters of the alphabet" series, for the letter G for goose.

So, now you know what kind of silliness amuses me.

[moonflowerwrites]

Reposting from tiktok bc I think it’s pretty awesome!