pinestreesandwriting

[pinestreesandwriting]

After a few minutes of wallowing, Reyes lifted zir head and took a sip of zir drink with a grimace. Aly really was mad if she served zir something this bad. Reyes took a deep breath, and downed the glass in as close to one swallow as possible. It wouldn't do to leave any behind. Zi put the glass back on the table gently, and thunked zir head back down.

Someone was yelling. They sounded rather drunk. Zi wasn't on duty during the mornings, and especially not right now. But Aly didn't deserve to have to deal with this shit, so up zi got.

Reyes channeled zir irritation at losing zir job into zir face. Even an eyebrow raise could make some folks quail, and a true grimace ought to make the drunk sit down and shut up.

A petite woman –her skin almost as dark as the night, and her hair darker– shouted at another woman, who was somehow even smaller. Reyes couldn't quite make out what they were saying to each other, but the tone was enough. It sounded like a nasty lover's spat. It was too fucking early for this.

With a quick glance, Reyes spotted an unattended pitcher. Zi grabbed it with a grimace. It was some sort of juice. Aly would have zir hide for wasting it like this. Zi tossed it over the squabbling pair and glowered.

The other woman, with more olive to her skin and russet hair, swore viciously at Reyes, and her companion. "Fuck you, and fuck you, Ottilie. I never want to see your lousy ass again!" She stormed out of the inn, the door slamming shut behind her.

The first woman stood still. The shock seemed to wear off, and she suddenly seemed quite sober. She took two steps after her… ex lover, before sinking to the floor and burying her face in her hands. Her shoulders shook with quiet sobs.

Reyes glared helplessly at the woman on the floor. What the absolute fuck was zi supposed to do now? This was not in zir job description.

[pinestreesandwriting]

[img cr: @akutibutenshi]

MY FRIEND JONATHAN HARKER, THERE'S THIS AMAZING PRODUCT —

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Zi slunk through the streets, avoiding the growing patches of sun with desperation. Almost there. The streets were slowly filling with people, and Reyes felt a snarl growing on zir face. All zi needed to do was make it to the in and then they’d be find. Just a hair further.

All of zir energy abruptly left in a snarl as zi stepped through the well-kept doors of the Silver Mine Inn. The room smelled yeasty and comfortable, completely familiar to Reyes’ sensitive noise. Zi hurried to zir favorite corner and glared at the patrons around zi. Everyone was altogether too cheerful for this time of day, regardless of whether it was early or late for them.

Reyes let zir head thunk onto the table. That was too fucking close. Zi needed to find a safer job, and a better place to spend zir days. The inn was lovely, but it was almost impossible to sleep during the day there. Someone came up behind zir and zi waved a hand limply at them.

The person just walked closer, and waited for Reyes to look up. Aly, a blonde haired woman glared at Reyes. "You stayed out too late again." She put a drink on the table in front of Reyes, and strode away before Reyes could reply.

Zi dropped zir head on the table once more. And now Aly was pissed. This day would be hard pressed to get any worse.

[pinestreesandwriting]

Reyes Nightwatch stared blankly at the slowly brightening horizon. Zir replacement was long overdue, and zi was hesitant to abandon zir post. Zi couldn’t afford to lose another job. As the sun slowly rose, Reyes crept further into the shadows offered by the overhang. Five more minutes and then zi was out of there, replacement or not.

At 4 minutes and 30 seconds, there was a sound of firm footsteps and some sort of jingling. Reyes pulled zir hood further down zir forehead to prepare to melt out of the shadows. Hopefully this was the damn replacement.

As the probable replacement came into view, Reyes slid forward. They looked too fancy to be a daywatch guard, but Reyes was no one to judge. Zi looked like an animate cloak on a good day, and a pile of rags on a bad one. The jingling was coming from the approaching figure’s belt pouch. Not a safe move in this area of town, but hopefully they knew that already.

Reyes left off their observations as the person came closer to zi. Zi tensed as they reached towards their belt, but they simply pulled the pouch off their belt. After a moment of weighing it in their hands, they held it out to Reyes.

“Your final pay. The boss needs someone who can work before sunset and past dawn, and you’re not it. Sorry.” They brandished the pouch towards Reyes again and zi took it in shock. "Good luck." With a gesture, they dismissed Reyes and took up the post.

Reyes stood for a moment longer, rigid with shock. The impending sunrise forcibly brought Reyes back to zirself and zi pulled zir hood further down zir brow. Zi could still make it to the Silver Mine Inn, hopefully.

[pinestreesandwriting]

I believe it's time to revive this blog and see if I can't get myself to be a touch more accountable about *actually* writing.

[pinestreesandwriting]

these are my asskicking boots. and these are my asskicking sneakers, and these are my asskicking bunny slippers–

[pinestreesandwriting]

okay here’s my controversial opinion of the day

it’s okay if the things you like aren’t, like, artistic masterpieces.

not everything has to be deep and full of symbolism and a groundbreaking. it’s okay to just like things because they’re fun or goofy or have characters you really like. it’s honest to god okay to say the things you like are bad, especially since all standards of artistic merit are basically made up anyway. 

enjoy the garbage for what it is. 

[pinestreesandwriting]

A small list of random ass sites I’ve found useful when writing:

Fragrantica: perfume enthusiast site that has a long list of scents. v helpful when you’re writing your guilty pleasure abo fics

Just One Cookbook: recipe site that centers on Japanese cuisine. Lots of different recipes to browse, plenty of inspiration so you’re not just “ramen and sushi” 

This comparing heights page: gives you a visual on height differences between characters

A page on the colors of bruises+healing stages: well just that. there you go. describe your bruises properly

McCormick Science Institute: yes this is a real thing. the site shows off research on spices and gives the history on them. be historically accurate or just indulge in mindless fascination. boost your restaurant au with it

A Glossary of Astronomy Terms: to pepper in that sweet terminology for your astrophysics major college au needs

[pinestreesandwriting]

I love how the Graceling series shows three ways to be a strong woman. In Graceling we get our tradition, badass women learning to love herself and fight for what she believes in. In Fire we get a traditionally feminine woman who creates a loving environment for the people around her, even when she herself is treated like shit. Her kindness is never her weakness, though. And finally, in Bitterblue we see this girl, a victim of abuse who has to pick up the pieces of her kingdom through her intelligence. Literally these books are so amazing, you should all check them out.

[pinestreesandwriting]

Prompt #357

She can feel it. Her heart is still beating and for the first time in a while she takes that as a good thing.

[pinestreesandwriting]

I have issues with confidence in my writing abilities but also have so many characters bouncing around in my head that I want to put their stories on paper. Do you have any advice to help with confidence? also i love your books and have for years!

Thank you! 

I had very little confidence in myself too, for years and years. I had people around me who seemed to be making it their life’s work to strip me of what confidence I had. I got lucky in that I had a college writing teacher who made it very plain that he believed I had the right stuff. Since he was an award-winning writer, I tended to listen to him more than I did to other people. 

Also, I kept telling myself that I was good, even though I didn’t believe it. The more you tell yourself you’re good, the more you come to believe it, at least a little bit. Look in the mirror when you’re doing it. And then you pretend that you believe it more. And you keep repeating it, tell yourself to believe it, and you keep faking it until it’s more true.

Never say that you aren’t any good. Even if you think it, don’t ever say it, don’t let anyone else tell you that. If they say that to you, walk away from them. If they say that they’re giving you constructive criticism or they’re telling you this for their own good, or they’re just giving you a hint, and it makes you feel bad, then walk away. If they keep doing it, walk away from them permanently. If you start to feel bad when someone is giving you feedback, ignore it. Ask them to stop. If they don’t stop, they’re not your friend. They’re just there to tear you down, and you don’t need them. I don’t care who they are, and neither should you. 

Just keep telling yourself you’re good.

[pinestreesandwriting]

Talk fantasy prosthetics to me.

An elf maiden dances on feet of living wood sung into shape, planted in soil and watered when she takes them off. Every year she plants the old ones and sings a new pair. (Incidentally, the pair of peach saplings from three years ago have produced an excellent crop- She makes preserves from them, and despite the inevitable jokes about “toe-jam”, they are appreciated.)

A dwarf king has a metal fist, all tiny gears and fine wires, kept wound by a mischievous mine-spirit bound to the spring as punishment- the more it struggles, the tighter the spring. 

An orc chieftaness is regularly asked for the story of how she earned the name Wyrmthrottler- she boasts of how she strangled the dragon that ate her arm, and had her shaman make a new arm from its bones, with its fangs as the fingers.

A necromancer simply re-attached his old leg bones- Sacrificing a few mice each day keeps it going.

A pirate captain lost her arm to a shark attack: a passing selkie saved her, and gave her tattoos of kraken blood. Now she has an arm made of salt-water, that grows and wanes with the tides, and swings a cutlass as well as the original. (She doesn’t sail as far these days though: she doesn’t want her wife to worry.)

A wandering swordsman was broken at the waist- his ancestral armour allows him to walk again, as long as he keeps it polished, and burns incense to the ancestors regularly.

A high priestess has an eye made from a crystal ball- to predict the future, all she has to do is wink.

A bard was struck deaf by illness- he struck a deal with the god of music. Now he wears hearing-trumpets made from his old pipes, and dedicates his every song to the god of music- the better he plays, the better his hearing. (It is said his music could make statues weep, and he can hear a mouse fart at 60 paces.)

A princess has the arm of a golem, enchanted clay with mystic words carved in- her music tutor despairs of how her harp playing has become even worse, but her calligraphy tutor is ecstatic over her handwriting.

A goblin pickpocket has an arm made of whatever he steals- no-one feels his fingers, and even if they did, they couldn’t find their possessions amongst all the rest.  

A witch has eyes made from shadow and starlight, given to her in a game with a demon. Nobody dares to ask what she wagered- they aren’t even sure she won.

A warg was born deaf and blind- his people learned of his power when the nearest birds started staring at them, and dogs pricked up their ears as he walked past.

[pinestreesandwriting]

I have a lesbian who is hunted by a monster for much of my book, and I've been avoiding it (she only barely escapes at first) but I think she needs to die. How do I do it tactfully? She's not the only lgbt main char but I want to do her justice

The Bury Your Gays Breakdown, from a Super Mysterious Assistant

Alright!  First, in case it’s helpful for anyone reading, I’m going to go into “should she die?”  It sounds like you’re pretty settled on that, but bear with me for a minute here.

So you want to kill your lesbian (or otherwise not-staight-and-cis) character!

The first thing you should consider is, does she have to die?  If so, why?  Is it the logical conclusion of her character arc to die?  Is there no other possible way the plot could be resolved?  If you can’t answer “yes” to one or both of those, you might want to reconsider killing her.  (If the answer to “why does she need to die?” is “so her girlfriend is single again and can be paired with another character” then you really want to reconsider, because it will not look good and there will be backlash.)

The second thing to consider is, do you have other living representation?  This is pretty simple: if you only have one lesbian character, killing her is more of a problem, because then you’re killing 100% of your lesbian characters.  If you have five lesbian characters, killing one-who is now 20% of your lesbian characters-isn’t as big an issue.  Keep in mind, you also want to consider how significant these other characters are: if you kill off a major lesbian character, you need other major lesbian characters to balance it out; minor characters who have two lines in the entire book don’t count, even if they’re lesbians.  (Whether other LGBT characters count is a bit of a gray area.  If you have one lesbian character who dies, but a bisexual, a transgender, a gay, and an ace character that live, it’s not quite as good as having several living lesbian characters, but it’s better than only having living straight-and-cis characters.)

So you’ve decided you have a good reason to kill your lesbian character, and your story won’t be bereft of any living representation when you do?  Let’s talk about how to kill her well!

The first rule is, however your character dies, it should not have to do with her being a lesbian.  She should not be seduced by a woman who turns out to be an assassin (or vampire) and murders her.  She should not run into Zeus, who kills her for refusing him.  She should, probably, not be shot and killed by a stray bullet, although five years from now that one might be okay.  What kills her should be just as likely (historically, in both media and real life, as well as logically) to kill anyone else.

The second rule is, her death has to be the result of her choice.  She shouldn’t die because someone else decided to kill her, and she didn’t have enough plot armor to stop them.  She should die because she made a decision-maybe not rational, maybe not fully aware of the risks, but her own decision-and that decision directly resulted in her death.  She stepped in front of the charging mook to protect the hero while he finished the spell that will save the world, or she decided to cross the canyon on the rickety bridge as a shortcut, and it broke when she was halfway across.

The third rule is, her death has to matter to the plot.  This one is a little hard to pin down, because “the plot” is such a variable thing, but the general idea is: imagine if, instead of dying, your lesbian character got exasperated with these idiots she’s been hanging around with, bought a bus ticket to California, and lived out the rest of her life in happy plot-free-land.  Would the rest of your story go the same way, minor details (such as a mention of her) aside?  Then there is a problem.  If, however, whatever she does while or because she’s dying, or what she does that results in her death, changes the direction of the plot, then her death matters.

Now, one last thing: if you do all this, your reader, or listeners, or watchers, will still be upset.  But if they’re upset because a favorite character of theirs died, rather than because another lesbian was killed for no purpose but sensationalism, then you’ve done your job well.

[pinestreesandwriting]

hey, are you looking for star wars-related words? like, ‘what the hell do they make buildings out of, was it durasteel or duracrete’ words? do you have questions like ‘what types of organic woven fibers exist in the star wars universe’? here’s an RPG campaign page that includes detailed dictionaries for materials and gear amongst other things! i still haven’t figured out what uneti wood is but oh well!

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uh…we had a slight weapons malfunction…and everything hurts