#and to any writeblrs who accomplished stuff

[may-shepard]

Hey I completed nanowrimo! according to the site, this was my 10th win which I think is a big deal? Giving myself a gold star on this one!

[writeblrcafe]

Digital interview with @lemondroplibrary

Our member Heaven sits down at a table in Writeblr Café and orders a chai latte. We start talking about her writing. She mostly writes poetry and dips her toes into paranormal storytelling.

What got you into writing?

"When I was in school, I had a lot of trouble feeling connected to other people. I had always loved reading, sometimes diving into dozens of books a month. It was really the love of the form from my English teacher (senior year), that feeling of being understood when I expressed difficult things. I’ve been addicted to it ever since."

What inspires you to write?

"I love feeling like someone sees my art and feels seen. The way I think of and the structure of poems in my mind is chaotic and almost manic, but being able to distil that into something that reaches anyone at all and makes them feel less lonely? That's like Orpheus singing his way through hell, an incomprehensible accomplishment for me. I want to help people like me, with trauma, with heavy hearts and heavy lives, with a sense of detachment from everyone else. You deserve the happiness and truth you have fought for all this time."

Which are recurring themes in your writing?

"My latest works have been focused on the minutiae of healing from trauma and escaping a toxic environment, the heart-rending power of little acts of kindness and the softest, most real parts of humanity. Ghosts in the walls of hundred-year-old houses, the calluses on my grandfather’s huge yet gentle hands, the act of turning off the lights and settling into bed next to someone who you know went to sleep thinking of you fondly. I try to smash big things into their smallest pieces and make something new like I’m experiencing being human for the first time. After all, being isolated does not make you feel particularly in tune with humanity."

How would you describe your writing style?

"I write what I feel, speaking my heart’s truth as neatly as I can, so there isn’t much structure. I do try to create an experience that feels raw and honest. I format most of my titles at the bottom of my poems because I like it when you can enter straight into the text. The title gives that little bit of context at the end, whether it be the last thought on the subject or something that adds to the feeling of the text. I know I write a lot of very heavy/dark material, but I think part of healing is being able to address those dark feelings or thoughts and spit them out. I’ve seen awful acts, and I like to think that by addressing the worst, I can see clearly the best. I hope that I make the heavy things beautiful, in their own way."

How do you deal with writer's block?

"I force myself to make something else. Anything, even if I don’t think I’ll be good at it. I’ve recently baked a cake, created a watercolour work or two, and started making my own earrings, all to various degrees of success. I can’t force myself out of a block because my writing doesn’t come from my actively thinking of ideas, I just hear them while I’m doing something else and rush to write them down. But the process of creating something does the best job of bringing new ideas out, even if that project doesn’t turn out good."

Have you already published your writing? Include a link to your published work so we can share it.

"I’ve only been in small local circulations but would love to gather all of my works and publish them together someday. Until then, I’m on Instagram and Tumblr @lemondroplibrary."

You can tell us more interesting stuff about you here:

"I’ve got four parakeets, and each and every one of them is a different colour but equally as criminal. I love video games, thunderstorms and hot tea with honey in it, but most of all, I love everybody who took the time to read this all the way through, from one space cadet to another."

Thank you for trusting us to share this information about you and your writing process.

Get interviewed by Writeblr Café!

Any writer can participate. Just fill in this form. Maybe we will host interviews in an audio format if you are more interested in listening to an interview than reading it.

[isanyonetoknow]

[ID: black screen with a vulture on the right. It is looking to the left at a block of text. The header of the text says “Writeblr (re)Introduction” and the text underneath says “aka @isanyonetoknow has been here for a while and realized they never actually made a writeblr intro. oops.” End ID]

*waves* hello! so it turns out that i apparently? didn’t do a writeblr intro? at least, if i did, i can’t find it. so here is mine + a bit of a wip/writeblr search, because it has come to my attention that there’s not enough content on my dash.

who am i:

absolutely not a vulture posing as a human

like come on. where on earth would you get that idea. 

anyways i’m not a vulture. obviously. and you can call me ash. 

they/them pronouns please and thank you

i mainly write + draw on here, content wise

from time to time i’ll put out a post asking if anyone has something they want me to draw, like an animal. you’re free to send these recs anytime as long as they are safe for work/not outrageous/not you being entitled to my time. you know, basic things like that.

i also post thoughts into the void, as you do. 

what am i looking for:

fantasy (low/high/urban, it doesn’t really matter) ; scifi ; heist-esque ; containing crime families ; containing revolutions/rebellions ; containing road trips or people on the run

found!!! family!!!!

preferably minimal to no romance

SFW

character driven / character-centric

oh yeah and preferably a happy ending or at least, things aren’t as awful and terrible at the end. 

if your WIP has any or several of these, then i’m probably going to be interested. if not, let me know of your WIPs anyways, because i’m interested in learning about more WIPs!!! (i only ask that you only let me know about SFW/not overly filled with romance WIPs, though. i’m not comfortable with a lot of romance or things that are NSFW)

and of course, i have to plug in my own stuff, so under the cut, i’m going to talk about the WIPs i talk about on here.

the WIPs you can find on here are To Win A Prince, The Prison, Narrations, In the Name of a Capitalized Lord, and This Time Around. 

To Win A Prince | intro

After receiving three ridiculous tasks from the king, ex-Knight Aurelius Lijne embarks out on a journey to accomplish them so that they can finally marry their best friend, the crown prince, in peace.

Along the way, they’re saddled with people from all forms of life–from the bard who’s only here for his finals to the elf who might be a spy but is definitely a convict and fugitive to the Fae who’s spent more years among cowboys than their own kind.

Then again, what did Aurelius expect, when one of their tasks involved stealing the Dark Lord’s shoes of all things? 

fantasy + found family + a road trip essentially + forgiving (yourself) + healing + prying the teeth of the past from you because you can’t live there anymore, you can’t, that land only exists as long as you let it, it only exists as the teeth and the memory of pain. 

The Prison | intro

A traumatized teenager, the magic that they’re a vessel for, and the human experiment they rescued along the way journey together to save the last remaining sources of magic, while trying to avoid their tumultuous pasts.

found family + magic + mystery + some things you can’t get over and some things you shouldn’t get over and some things you’ll get over regardless of if you should or can because getting over it is the only way to live

Narrations:

One: a rebellion in a city that’s been stretching on for years; magic churning when before, it had been barely stirring; we finally figure out where the missing go. 

Two: people fall in between the cracks, and it hasn’t been a problem, except that the cracks have been growing larger and larger with each passing day. 

Three: the story is never what it looks like. no one knows where the truth ends and the lies begin. 

Four: a conversation between two prisoners, and their subsequent escape. 

aka four interconnected parts that span worlds. intro(s) + more details coming soon. 

found family + magic + space + time/dimension/reality travel + corrupt governments/agencies + revolution + possible apocalypse but not in the way that you think + fighting apathy and the desire to watch the worlds that failed you crash and burn because there are people worth saving 

In the Name of a Capitalized Lord:

Sasha has been wandering between lorddoms for almost as long as they could remember. And if there was anything they had learned, it was to never try and gain entrance to the walled lorddoms. The walled ones always had something to hide, something to protect, or something to fight against, and none of those was what Sasha, who always wished for a simple life, wanted. However, when hunger and fatigue grow too great, they try to gain admittance into a walled lorddom. And they get in. 

And they can't seem to leave. 

So they’re stuck in this walled lorddom, avoiding the lord that absolutely no one wants them to encounter, without anyone ever telling them why. 

It looks like they have to do all the work themself. 

mystery + historical fiction-esque + family dynamics + found family (literally) + mending relationships + sometimes it’s so much better to think that no one’s there watching and sometimes it’s so much worse

This Time Around

The one time Aleksei Aband tried to be of help, they got kidnapped and thrown on a pirate ship. The one time Hiro Kumagai tried to make his life interesting, he almost got killed, and then kidnapped, along with the resident “Kid You Stay the Hell Away From”, by pirates. 

Well. 

At least he did make his life interesting. 

pirates + curses + found family + healing + redemption + you shouldn’t have to owe your family for taking care of you or for being existent but that doesn’t mean you don’t feel that way and that doesn’t mean you don’t feel guilty every time you think you’ve let them down. 

[lilquill]

Are you doing okay what with all the VV stuff that happened? It seemed like you and Mina were close

Hey hey, thanks for the worries anon! Mina of mvcreates/Violet Vineyard and I were properly talking as friends for only a few months quite a long time ago. Emotionally I’m completely fine, but I do have stuff to say and I do want to help document things if any of it is useful in any way. A lot of it will be dry because it’s just documenting, but some of it will be “juicier” I guess, and I’d like to corroborate some of the things my friends are saying. I’ll put this under the cut for people who don’t want to scroll through all this and/or have no idea what I’m talking about and want to keep it that way!

You guys can check @nuwuhorizons‘s blog to see what exactly is going on and I believe they’re also reblogging some things others who were members are saying. The case of people dogpiling a 19-year-old trans person and making fun of their name is on the blog (post here, wayback machined here).

I can corroborate a bunch of what @rrrawrf-writes (post here, wayback machined here) and @gingerly-writing (post here, wayback machined here) have said. I backread through the interaction that Ginger talks about in her post (of course not the DMs, but the interaction itself).

I know some people may be confused about why Ginger only has that one screenshot of what she said and may not see that as full evidence, but Violet Vineyard had a super strict “don’t screenshot and post anything” with lots of scary looking legal stuff attached to it policy and, well, Ginger can’t be sharing stuff without anyone’s permission if it’s just the message she herself sent, but they’d have grounds to take god knows what action with what backing against her if she posted something else. But, well, for what it’s worth, as someone who read through that conversation a little after it happened, it was certainly a case of dogpiling and left a bad taste in my mouth, and it strikes me as really odd that the mods would try to shut someone down like that.

I haven’t really been doing stuff in writeblr lately as you can probably tell from my blog, but yeah, Mina herself and a lot of people in that particular friend group of hers, as Lisa mentions, have just disappeared off Tumblr. I can also attest to the dogpiling tendencies and this Mina Is Always Right tendency, and the fervor with which people would defend her.

I was honestly never close enough to Mina to be in that friend group. She and I were only really talking to each other for a few months over a year ago. I don’t think I was “writeblr-y” enough to fit in with them. I was also not super active in that server. I didn’t post much about my wips because I in general don’t think I really post a lot about them. Therefore I didn’t get like, massive benefits off of the whole “network” thing, but  I’d reblog some stuff when I saw it. I was probably most known for posting pictures of my plants, lol. And I would occasionally hop in to talk briefly about kpop with like, one person? (They went by Kay and their url was like, lvcrezia? lvcrezias? Something like that.) In fact, probably the last thing I ever said in that server was a super quick conversation about Red Velvet’s “Monster” music video around the time it dropped.

In fact, for the sake of being super transparent/establishing credibility, and for documenting purposes, I’ll list all the non-plant-pictures and non-kpop conversations I can remember actually participating in. Some of these will lead off into bigger topics, and I’ll specify those. But first, a word.

TO ANY OF THE FORMER MODS WHO MIGHT COME AFTER ME FOR SAYING THINGS ABOUT THE SERVER, SINCE THIS HAS APPARENTLY HAPPENED TO OTHERS: The server is deleted, and so is the text of the whole “contract” (yes, really) that people had to agree to in order to join VV. I remember that the agreement made sure we didn’t post screenshots publicly, but other than that I genuinely do not remember the text and I have no way of referencing it to keep in line with it since the server is deleted. I do not remember if documenting things like this is against anything I have agreed to, I have no record of the agreement, and I have not been notified of any place to access a record of the agreement before the server was deleted. If my post is some sort of violation, you cannot hold me accountable for rules that I am unable to follow, and I would greatly appreciate not being targeted with empty threats shrouded in scary legal language. If you have any point of contention with what I have said, feel free to take it up either publicly or privately. Please do @ me if it’s specific to me; I’m not really the vagueposting kind. If any of you want me to delete this post, you will need to provide actual proof of the agreement that I made by joining Violet Vineyard, and you will also need to prove that the rules were not edited after I agreed to them. If any of them were follow-up rules not from the beginning of the server, it’s possible that I did not see them and therefore you need to provide proof that I agreed to those, too. In addition, since image editing is what set off this avalanche in the first place hence we’re all aware that there’s software that allows us to edit images and pass them off as an original thing, you’ll need to provide proof that any screenshots/images are undoctored. Furthermore, since the rules have been deleted with the server, as the method I used to agree to follow them, you must prove that my agreement is still valid, since it seems to me it’s been nullified since it’s, well, gone either through deletion or kicking me out alongside everyone else. Tl;dr you don’t scare me lol.

Anyways, back to a list of the non-kpop, non-plant-pics, non-my-wips-promo conversations I can actually remember:

On January 5, 2020, the server had a conversation about Roshani Chokshi’s book The Gilded Wolves. I can give the date because during/in the aftermath of the conversation, which I talked about the book in, Mina DMed me quickly. (This was also the last time Mina ever directly contacted me.) I’ll talk about this later.

In February 2020 I believe I quickly mentioned getting concert tickets.

Either early this year or late last year I think I posted some stuff about landscape photography, with some photos of the beach.

I believe I posted a couple fashion pics at some point?

Back in May 2019 I got some kinda weird asks about Violet Vineyard and I think people were talking about that, and I assume I participated since I was the one who received the asks. At that time VV was like a super new server and didn’t really have much as far as the issues we’ve been talking about go, so I defended it. (I’ll be talking about this later.)

Probably in June/July 2019 people in the server had a discussion about Black Muslim characters and representation, initiated by me for one of my WIPs.

I think we talked about South Asian sweets at some point???

I believe in April/May 2019, there was some stuff in that server reagarding “drama” with Castor who at that time went by the url pilipalea that I honestly don’t remember much of. Castor was never in VV, but I believe they were in a server with Mina at some other point. There was something about grammar and proofreading?? (I’ll be referencing this soon as well.)

I helped someone with their computer science homework at some point.

I asked for r&b music recs at some point either late 2019 or earlier 2020.

I’ve also talked about ethnic clothes I think.

We’ve talked about Hindu nationalism and how awful it is.

I think we’ve talked about tone policing and how woc are often portrayed as “aggressive.”

We’ve talked about health/fitness and exercise.

I recommended Jade City and some other books I’m a fan of in there.

Probably talked about Bollywood movies at some point.

The fact that I can remember probably most of my conversations that lasted more than like, one message in there is, I think, a pretty good testament to a) me having at least a kind of decent memory and b) I wasn’t participating in the server so regularly that the conversations kind of blend together. I know this is all kind of long and dry for anyone who’s here for drama purposes lol, but I did want to establish that I’ve been in that server for quite a while and that I wasn’t monitoring it heavily; in fact, I had it muted very soon after joining it.

I wasn’t super close to anyone that I’d met through VV. People who are friends that I still regularly contact who were in VV with me, I had met through other servers and other interactions on Tumblr. I’ll disclose right now that I have been longtime friends with Ginger, Lisa, and Eff (@time-to-write-and-suffer), who have all come out against VV, and that we are in our own servers with people from writeblr. Ginger and Lisa were both in VV, Eff has never been.

Okay, back to maybe “juicier” stuff.

Mina had always positioned herself almost as this “tumblr mom” type. She’d reference her age a lot, which would contrast a lot with how a significant portion of the members were much younger and, I think, set up the dynamic of people looking up a lot to her and always coming to her defense. After all, we’re talking a bunch of passionate kids who’d found a writeblr network. And the server definitely seemed “legit”; I myself was pretty impressed with just how tightly organized everything was, and like I mentioned, there was fancy legal language to ~protect their rights~ and whatnot. Mina herself seemed so accomplished with so many talents: she’d post her writing and artwork, I believe she’d made a couple pieces of music, she’d work out and keep in shape, she had a seemingly wonderful loving relationship with her husband, she was active in research fields professionally and as an outbreak responder, and she, of course, had a significant online presence as a “big writeblr.” I remember when she’d started blowing up, so soon after her blog had been created, because of her prolific content and friendly persona. People, especially younger ones who had no other writeblr support group, looked up to her and trusted her. And the nature of the server was to shower everyone in praise, so Mina found herself on the receiving end of quite a bit of it. Mina would also actively boost and review other writers’ content, genuinely engaging with it and providing feedback, support, and valuable resources.

Mina also had a tight-knit group of adult friends. Some of them I believe carried over from pre-VV times (incuding CJ of typewriter-jade if I’m remembering correctly, who made fun of the trans person’s name in the reblog chain in the link to nuwuhorizons’s blog), while some were made afterwards. They would act super friendly and familiar with each other, which I think contributed to a lot of people falling into this little “friendship” super fast. They were also authority figures and role models, and tended to agree with each other, so everyone just went along with that.

These factors, I think, heavily influenced the dogpiling tendencies. People were eager to defend their community, where they’d found so much love and support for their work. Minors would go along with adults in conversations. When someone said something, others would enthusiastically support them. And people were just so into each other that I really couldn’t keep up, which is probably why I didn’t participate too much. People became just super fast friends and the server was so large and so seemingly “professional” and structured in how it was made. I think people just kind of assumed everyone in there was great and their friend who could be trusted deeply, when in reality that’s just impossible if there are like, 100+ members. Meaning if something minorly negative happened (like on that literal eleven-year-old’s blog), everyone would come in to say something to demonstrate their emphatic loyalty, even when it became excessive for something as small as an ask game done wrong.

This happened with the Gilded Wolves discussion as well. Someone stepped in to say that the way Gilded Wolves coded its antagonists as this shady secret society of people was antisemitic, and everyone joined in to rip the book apart without having even read it. I joined in the conversation to state that I didn’t see it that way, since that shady antagonist group was very much coded as white Christians (their names are all French Christian names) and were colonizers (meaning making them this shadowy group of powerful and evil people was accurate) and one of the protagonists, who is Jewish, is opposing them and antisemitism is portrayed as horrible, and that the book had had (if I’m remembering correctly) Jewish sensitivity readers and multiple Jewish book reviewers really enjoyed and recommended it. Then Mina stepped in to say that multiple Jewish journals she followed rated the book highly and recommended it meaning the accusation of antisemitism clashed heavily with what a lot of other people thought, and that since me and the other person who was saying the book was antisemitic were the only ones who had read it or were familiar with it in any capacity, it wasn’t fair for everyone to be judging it like that. It was like she’d flipped a switch: people were suddenly much more “reasonable” and “fair” and willing to give the book a chance, just because she’d stepped in. (As a quick note, I don’t remember exactly whether Mina stepped in first or if I stated my opinion first. I also want to mention that Mina DMed me to state that the person who accused the book of antisemitism had expressed some Zionist sentiments in the past and to say that maybe their take on the book could have come from Islamophobia with them maybe assuming obviously ethnic name of the author was a Muslim name. The Zioinist stuff is something I can’t actually speak on since again, I have no access to the server anymore and I don’t remember that person’s url. This was the last time Mina DMed me or I her.)

I wrote all that out because I think it illustrates a few things. Firstly, a good example of the tendencies of people going with the flow of things even when it led to dogpiling/drastic conclusions. When I say they were really trashing that book, I mean it! Secondly, it demonstrates the willingness of everyone to go along with what Mina said. Third, it shows that Mina was capable of stepping in to prevent dogpiling (and, seemingly, she would, at least if her beliefs aligned with the opposite of whatever incited the dogpiling) and that people would listen to her and actually change their minds. 

Whether or not Mina supported something was pretty important. Of course, it was her server, so she was definitely allowed to run it how she saw fit, but she would very swiftly pass judgement on things and everyone would just comply. One time, I think there were more than one different threads of conversation happening in the general channel of the server. Jess suggested making a second general channel to allow for other conversations, as is common in a lot of servers, including ones I’m in and moderate/own/have some power in. I don’t remember if I supported that suggestion or if I only backread that conversation, but I know at least one other person agreed. Mina said that as an older person (she’d very frequently bring up her age) she thought people could just wait for their turn in a conversation and didn’t even consider trying it out. Other mods, I believe, backed her up and said no to the second general conversation channel. I remember being a little confused as to why nobody even considered trying a member’s suggestion to make the server more easy to participate it and help provide additional structure/support how big it was, and why it was shut down because people could just wait for their turn, when clearly the general channel was getting overloaded before our eyes. But Mina didn’t see the need, so therefore nobody else wanted to do anything about it, and nobody ever mentioned it again, I think. I know this is a super minor instance lol, but I do think it illustrates something about the behavior in the server and how it was run. It’s not like other channels weren’t added based on need; one was created for the 2018 elections, one was created for talking about race in June during the height of BLM protests having news coverage, I’m pretty sure one was created for talking about the coronavirus. So, the mods were watching conversations and responding as they saw fit, they just wouldn’t field this request, for some reason. Obviously conversations getting muddled in a general channel isn’t as significant as major political events, antiblack racism, or a pandemic, but these channels were made to improve the server experience and likely to prevent these topics from completely overloading other channels, so, well.

Okay, the Castor/pilipalea stuff and dogpiling. I’ll say this stuff now because Castor has opened up about it (here [wayback machined] and here [archived in a google doc]), so I see that as permission for others to comment on it. If I’m remembering correctly and looking back at the right things, there was something about Mina giving advice on a grammatical error to one of her mutuals, or something asking if her mutuals wanted grammatical advice? Castor vagueblogged, presumably about that, and talked about classism in expecting good grammar from people, which is a valid issue, but seemed misapplied to this instance of someone consenting to receive advice on grammar/syntax/mechanics, if that’s what the vagueblogging was about. I reached out to Mina to let her know that I thought someone was vagueblogging about her, and she told me about past conflicts with Castor. I also reached out to Castor over DMs to ask what the vagueblogging was about, because you genuinely never know; classist prescriptivism is harmful and bad, and so many people on Tumblr are in so many different circles that similar topics may come up coincidentally. Castor wasn’t clear with me either about what the post was targeting and skirted around naming names.  

At this point, looking back, it still seems to be that it was about Mina, especially considering that Castor had previous history with her and others in her circle. Mina was irritated by the vagueblogging (who likes being vagueblogged about?) and also informed me, all the way back in April 2019, about this past server drama that Castor mentioned. It seems to me that it stemmed from a misunderstanding: Mina and I believe other mods noticed another person using Castor’s PSDs without credit. Mina checked with Castor about whether people should be crediting them for PSDs and Castor said that, yes, they wanted credit; you can see this interaction in the screenshot Castor linked on their post. 

This is where the accounts of what happened diverge: Mina expressed to me that she and the other mods weren’t very harsh since they’d seen that Castor’s friend had credited Castor in the past, so they just wanted to remind Castor’s friend to give credit, without knowing that Castor’s friend had permission to use the PSDs without crediting. I was told that Mina and the team of mods were professional in their handling of this; Castor has stated in their post that the group was extremely harsh. Since I don’t have any screenshots or exact records of what they said before I was in contact with Mina, I can’t comment, so I’ll withhold judgement on that. According to Mina, she and the other mods had not been very vocal about this crediting/PSD stuff, and very few people knew about it, so it did seem like Castor had attacked Mina out of nowhere.

What I can say is that the VV members were certainly quick to respond to the grammar vagueblog, and that if I’m remembering correctly, readily jumped to Mina’s defense. I distinctly remember that one VV member specifically asked whether it was about Mina in a reblog. This happened pretty early on in VV’s existence and I believe was the first major “drama” that VV got embroiled in. Looking back, I do think it was fair to be critical of Castor’s post. But this was also the first look at the tendencies people had of getting embroiled in the fervor of any perceived slight against a member (in particular Mina).

I noticed this again when I received anons that were sort of bitter about VV’s existence in May 2019, way before VV had gained the reputation that it has now. People were very quick to respond with hostility and slightly amplify the anger expressed by other members, and little by little things got really out of hand. I can totally understand being upset and irritated, since the asks were kind of unwarranted and the sender did apologize if I remember correctly. But there was a huge outpouring of vicious language from a lot of the members, and this was, I think, the first instance of proper dogpiling in VV, especially since it was an easy antagonist; the sender was out of line, and they were totally anonymous.

These were the only two instances of going to bat for VV that I ever participated in. For the other things, I either only backread or missed them completely. While they don’t really paint VV in a super bad light, not like the dogpiling of an eleven-year-old that Jess mentions in her post, it did give me a pretty good idea of how VV handled controversies.

I’ve mentioned some of my theories of why this dogpiling/toxicity happened. I’d also like to add that Mina would often send concise, decisively-worded statements about things. I think this may have come across as final-word judgments to a lot of people, so they would take that as the last say on a certain matter and escalate in severity of their response from there. And like, you should trust your friends and take what they say in good faith. But you still need to be thinking critically and considering your response, especially when you haven’t known someone for very long. And this, I think, was a big source of toxicity in the server. There were just so many people responding to the same issues and aligning their beliefs, and they’d build off each other and create an environment where these kinds of responses were okay. Plus, VV was always portrayed as a tight-knit family when not everyone knew each other and not everyone was active (as is totally normal for a massive server), so this also contributed to people wanting to defend each other all the time. And I don’t think the mod team did an adequate job of shutting it down, despite the veneer of a structured, sort of more “professional” space.

Okay, now onto the art stuff.

Disclaimer, I don’t draw digital or physical art. I was always aware that Mina was certainly at least using references for her work. In some cases I could even pinpoint which pictures were used, like one where the faceclaim was Ranveer Singh. I also received fanart of one of my characters that, of course, looked very similar to the faceclaim. It certainly was clear some tracing had happened in that picture because of the level of detail in the chikankari embroidery, but like…..it’s free fanart, chikankari isn’t copyrighted, and that embroidery is super difficult to draw anyways. What I was not aware of was Mina apparently tracing images and using them to advertise for commissions, which is something I do not condone. I also know my photography and photo editing tools, so I was aware that there was some filtering/editing going on. I’m not sure if Mina traced and didn’t disclose it for commissioned art.

Okay, now the server shutting down stuff!

I was completely unaware of the dogpiling/transphobia stuff happening in the server because I had it on mute. I only found out about all this two days ago. I received the message where everyone was @’ed about VV’s “migration” off Tumblr and that the server would be shut down. I can confirm that the concern was about mirror sites and that the server did discuss these mirror sites as a big intellectual property issue. I didn’t know people wanted the server shutting down to be kept so secret, and I honestly cannot think of a reason why; I feel like if those mirror site concerns were serious, people would be trying to spread the word on writeblr? So I think that people are right to be a little suspicious of the exact reason for the server’s closing.

I think I should mention also that people were pretty much always friendly with me on VV. I met a bunch of cool people, and Mina was always kind and supportive with me. @radley-writes has echoed similar sentiments here (wayback machined here) and here (wayback machined here) while being critical of the environment in VV.

I know this post is like, wildly long and probably quite dry and rambly at points, but I hope it does provide some specific examples to back up some of the criticisms of VV and document it a bit better.

Thank you for reading! I’ll make sure to edit this to add stuff if I remember things/see the need.

I also want to state that my post is more a critique of the environment than anything. I’m not trying to attack anyone at all, I’m just giving an account of stuff that has happened, my level of involvement, and my own thoughts on all this.

I also want to say that I am completely open to hearing what any of you have to say. Feel free to critique/discuss anything I’ve said in this post with me. If you want to vent about your experiences in/with Violet Vineyard, my inbox and DMs are totally open. If you want to keep things confidential, I won’t break your trust or reveal your identity (unless you start idk, spouting racist stuff at me or something). If you want to anonymously tell people about an experience, feel free to shoot me an anon.

I hope you’re all having a wonderful day! I’m sending you lots of love. Take care! <3

[moariin]

10 questions tag game

i was tagged by @montevena and some of the questions you gave me are intriguing so we’ll see how this goes! 

rules: answer the 10 questions, ask a different 10, and tag 10 people. 

1. Which trope you’re writing is the hardest for you?

this took a while to think about. so i’ll say anything dealing with time or ether dimension is the hardest to write about. for me, part of the problem is my mind trying to wrap around physics and making sense of it because i want to be realistic (which broke me a little). 

jokers game (a wip currently on hiatus and should be renamed since it’s cheesy) and wicked seven deals with this kind of dimension travelling trope...i’m starting to get an idea as i’m sketching out the outline and notes. 

2. Who are five of your favorite characters from books/tv shows/etc.?

okay so, im listing out my favorites so they’re re-l and vincent law (ergo proxy), zoya from the grishaverse...she’s everything a girl/boy/person can dream of and i am gay, and i hate to say this but i have to include it bc he’s a persona/brand...richard papen from the secret history. lastly, zhou ying (nothing gold can stay)...i just dig characters that are down to earth but headstrong and resilient af 

3. Who are five of your favorite ocs?

etienne, an oc from @popovs, he’s such a cool, refreshing character and my mind is still in awe from the excerpts shown abt him. a little mysterious bc i want to hear more about this dude. 

i have to mention that isadora or izzy, is one of the few characters i’m really rooting for, hope she could accomplish her goals in finding nadine and more (her relationships with maris and patrick is goals, honestly and also my favorites). bless @wiipciity coming up this amazing character! 

throwing this out bc it’s obvious, @montevena...ines, just ines. 

4. What literary devices do you enjoy reading most? Are they the same ones you like to write most?

zeugma is one of the literary devices i enjoy the most, there’s something short and melodic about it that makes me excited to read on (funny i found myself using zeugma as if it’s my second nature). oh, i especially love euphemism and personification though i tend to write more of the latter. irony is also something i like to find and read about but not so much writing it...it tends to fall flat imo

5. If you could only have one WIP, which would it be? Why?

i’m keeping these hungry dogs, i rather not lose my other wips tbhh but having thd sticking with me for years made me biased...ope

6. Fantasy or Contemporary?

fantasy, it is my roots 

7. Romance or Bromance?

bromance, i just find them enjoyable to read and write about, also we need more of bromance in literature/media, they deserve the same spotlight 

8. Do you have any pet peeves in writing?

i typically find it’s insulting to have writers ‘spoon-feed’ their readers information, thinking they aren’t smart enough to figure the plot twist or foreshadowing by themselves. it’s very obvious when it does happen and i find it as a turn-off and quit reading. it’s sigh, most of the time it’s the writers not trusting their readers and this has to stop 

9. If you had to choose one album of some musical artist/band to represent your WIP, which would it be?

as a playlist kind of person, Ramsey could be a perfect fit for heir of the alchemist, she is an absolute phenomenon and powerhouse in vocals, the rawness of it, yes 

10. Do you have any pet peeves on writeblr?

hope everyone agrees to this or else i’m going to the corner. so this is for taglists, mainly. whenever i explictly said that ‘ask me to be added/removed to the taglist’, i ACTUALLY meant that, send me an ask. 

it’s been years and it bothers me a lot. instead, i keep having people writing in the tags asking me if they could be added, and chances are, i won’t be able to know or see them. trust me, i don’t have to the time to go through every reblogs/tags to look for them. and i am sure it isn’t just me who had this problem. i think i discussed with @montevena about this a while back and it’s tiring. 

but i need to throw this out that this isn’t an attack, i happen to make the same mistakes but actively trying to fix that. i think it goes with writeblr etiquettes, i believe there’s a post about this by @pens-swords-stuff...i apologize for this heated essay 

TAGGING: @wiipciity @vandorens @viciousvenganza @allimaycreations @heritane @astorsa @asablehart @ladywithalamp @samplewriting @summersromance(+anyone who wants to do this, say i tagged you, no pressure to everyone i tagged) 

here’s my 10 questions for you

1. Are you a plotter, pantser, or in between? 2. If you had to chose one wip to be adapted into screenplay, which would it be? 3. Pen or pencil?  4. When do you usually write, during the day, afternoon, or night? 5. Is there any inspiration put into your wip? Why? 6. Do you prefer writing with or without music?  7. Enemies to lovers or lovers to enemies? 8. Do you have a favorite line/paragraph from your wip you’re proud of?  9. Who are three of your favorite writeblr?  10. What niche genre or tropes you wish it could be presented more. Why?

[ratherinterestingmilkshake]

Rules: Answer ten questions and then tag some friends and fellow writeblrs and ask ten questions

thanks @wildswrites for the tag!

1. what is your ideal writing spot?

Probably my Bed xD I don’t really write anywhere else for long periods of time? I mean my desk exists but .... yeeeeeeeeaaaah no

2. what’s your favorite genre to write? to read?

I mean to write in ... Fantasy, probably.

And to read I can‘t decide but Mythology, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and the odd Mystery.

3. what types of locations do you find inspiring? the beach? the mountains?

I live surrounded by mountains xD like, all sides. Mountains. So those, definitely, just because I’m always around them.

But also ... uhhh places ... Scottish Highlands at the moment - mostly bc the Goblin Prince is so Fae centric and those give off EXACTLY that vibe to me.

4. do you write with anything on in the background? i.e. a movie, a show, music, a fan?

Music. I can’t do ANYTHING without music. not even sleep, so xD always got something running in the background.

5. do you eat and write? if so, what do you eat?

Not normally. Cereal Bars sometimes just because I haven’t eaten anything that day and it’s already like 10 pm but I don’t wanna take the time to make something that can actually be counted as a meal.

6. what about drinking and writing? what do you drink?

If I took the time to make something (or really, just to walk the few metres to get myself a bottle of water) it’s tea or warm milk or just water.

7. do you have any writing buddies? siblings, s.o.’s, pets?

the cats xD if they ever come in while I’m writing. no siblings or SOs to write with, sadly :/

8. what do you do as a hobby when you’re not writing?

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fuck uhm play ... Stardew Valley? OH! Embroidery, Sewing, “Cosplay” (I’m trying okay), Rune- and Cardreadings

9. do you do writing sprints? why or why not?

YES! Sprints get me to actually sit down and WRITE so yeah xD I mean mostly bc it’s thing that tells me “okay you got this much time where u GOTTA write, after you can get back on tumblr”

10. what was your biggest writing related accomplishment of 2019?

I ... dunno tbh xD uhm ... I THINK I finished a few short drabbles and poem-like stuff in 2019? I have no feeling for time at all so that could very well have been in 2017 but who knows.

My Questions for you:

1. How much of your writing are you willing to share while working on it? (i.e. full link to the doc you’re writing in, snippets, etc.)

2. What are some things you HAVE to have ready before you start writing?

3. Does your writing style change if you read a book in a different style?

4. How much do you want to have plotted before you start writing?

5. What do you think is your maximum time you can write non-stop?

6. How do you make up a Character’s appearance? Do they come to you while writing or do you need a Pinterest board full of Character art to shuffle through?

7. How do you handle changing perspective in the middle of a story? (from one character to another OR from first- to third-person)

8. How do you sit when writing?

9. What helps you with writing blocks?

10. Do you say dialogue out loud while writing it to see if it sounds like you want it to?

Tagging: @izzuniiwrites ; @the-writing-rat ; @adayforducks ; @books-of-lunacy ; @pulcherri ; @arcemo17 ; @kentwrites ; (and you kae, if you wanna end up in an endless cycle)

[charleewritesabook]

10/10/10 Tag Game

Thank you @boredwriter-16 for tagging me!

Rules: Answer 10 questions, ask 10 questions and then tag some friends and fellow writeblrs!

1. What genre do you want to write for but haven’t gotten around to yet?

Dystopian or Mystery, The Croatoan Chronicals started out as a Dystopian until it decided it should be Fantasy instead.

2. What are some tropes you like to see (no matter how cheesy)?

People reluctantly admitting they've fallen in love, bad guys with good hearts forced to show the world that they're not actually Bad Guys (TM)

3. What tropes do you dislike and why?

I know its unpopular but I don't like love triangles. At all. I'm also not a fan of the we-grew-up-together-and-don't-know-we're-in-love-but-one-of-us-has-a-crush-on-the-other thing.

4. What does your writing space look like? (Or your ideal writing space)

Right now it's a rocking chair with a fuzzy blanket, soon it will be an actual desk with a chair and a fuzzy blanket.

5. What do you like to snack on when you work on your WIP/writing?

I'm trying to stop snacking, and be healthier but I like Hersheys kisses SO MUCH. Also, Ghirardelli's Dark Chocolate w/ Sea Salt Caramel squares.

6. If you were transported into one of your projects, which would you rather be in? Which would be the worst?

I only have two active ones right now, and despite there being a major war with lots of danger and death going on, I'd rather be in TCC because 60 Seconds is just our normal world but back in like, 2016.

7. If you went on a date with an OC, which OC would you choose? How would it go?

Hmm, either James from 60 Seconds or Kadir from TCC . As long as they don't know I'm the one who created them I think they'd go well

8. What’s something you’d like to see more of in the Writeblr community here on Tumblr?

More Character/WIP introductions. I'm always looking for more stuff to read and more OCs to get emotionall attached to

9. Do you have any scraped WIP ideas you would like to go back to?

I have some short stories I bring back up whenever I get Writers Block, but there's none that I've permanently scrapped that I would bring back. It takes a lot for me to give up on an idea and once I do, its gone.

10. Name something you’re proud of achieving this year.

I'm doing this for 2019 bc I've accomplished absolutely nothing in the past two days of 2020. But anyway, I finished the 2nd and 3rd drafts of 60 Seconds and I'm super super proud of that!

I'm going to tag @ajbrooks-writes @writings-of-a-narwhal and @james-stark-the-writer to just answer the same 10 questions bc I'm lazy like that.

[onebighumanheart]

11/11/11 Tag!

Well, looky here. My first tag game of my Tumblr career(?). Huge thanks to @hyba for considering me for this after us just having met! I deeply appreciate it.

Without further ado.

#1: If you could choose one character (one of your OCs, but you can choose another character as well) to hang out with for a night, which would it be?

Any character... Temperance Brennan, Bones. We wouldn’t be doing much in the way of having fun, perhaps, but she could teach me all her anthropological ways. Maybe then I could finally decide whether that���s the career I want to pursue or not!

#2: When did you get the idea for your WIP(s)?

This is assuming I have a WIP—I don’t, really. That said, though, for each of my stories’ prompts? My best friend whipped up a list of them for me, one word a day for a month. If you check out my blog, you’ll see that they’re real inspirational! I’ve come up with the best stuff I’ve ever written from the words they gave me. 

#3: What’s the one thing you want to accomplish in your life?

I want to change a life. One way or another, I want to have been influential enough on this planet to have improved somebody’s life, however small or however long-lasting. Make somebody’s day better, keep them smiling through the week, give them the strength to make it through the month. Maybe even to live another day, with my work. 

#4: Where do you go when you need to take some space away from whatever is frustrating you (your writing, or anything else)?

I don’t have a place I go, no. When I’m frustrated, I usually just stick it through. Is that healthy? No, probably not, but I’m not the kind to stand my ground by stepping away. When I do, though, it’s usually to my room, where I’ll just lay there, contemplating. 

#5: What’s the funniest book you’ve ever read?

Funniest book... Probably Counting by Sevens by Holly Goldberg Sloan, my second favorite book of all time. It tells the story of an orphaned and adopted gifted child entering middle school who ends up losing her pair of adoptive parents, too. It’s poignant, touching, but also hilarious. If you haven’t heard of it or haven’t had a chance to pick it up, do that. Give it a read, it deserves it.

#6: Of all the characters in books that you have read, which one is your favourite?

Look. I’ve never actually read the book, but Howl’s Moving Castle means the world to me. It’s my favorite movie of all time since my older cousins first showed it to me when I was younger along with My Neighbor Totoro (I just love Ghibli, man). Sophie Hatter is one of my favorite characters of all time, a well-written woman who regains and maintains her strength despite (and, perhaps, because of) her affliction. If movie Sophie’s anything like book Sophie, I’m swooning. 

#7: Have you ever abandoned a story/book for over a year and why?

I abandoned writing in general for many months before these two weeks of immersing myself in it again, for personal reasons. In the general sense, putting words on a paper (or, more accurately, on a screen) felt... wrong. I’m trying to break through that the best I can lately, and I feel it’s working.

#8: If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where you would be?

Canada, no second thoughts. Why? Beats me. I haven’t ever been, I hardly know anything about it, and it’s cold enough to freeze my nose off up there. Do I still love it as if it were my home country? You bet. 

#9: Name one writer whose writing and style have influenced you.

Is this basic? You tell me. Stephen King. My favorite book of all time is It, after sifting through a PDF version because What Teenager Has Money To Pay For Books. (I’d like to, but a guy has to economize. King probably wouldn’t mind too much.) I’ve tried to take his level of description and tone it down a bit for my own writing, for I’ve had many run-ins with the ill-fated Purple Prose!!!. That aside, though, his pace and tone set up for the onl  book that

#10: Do you have an end in mind for your WIP(s)?

N/A, for the time being. But again, in terms of my short stories, I usually begin with a loose idea and flesh it out as I start writing, letting things come to a stop wherever they do. Then I prune a bit before showing them to the world. 

#11: Which WIP have you enjoyed writing the most so far?

My favorite story of mine so far is the deity prompt with Renata and Ludo. I feel it’s one of my stronger pieces thus far. A friend even said it sounds like something out of a fanfiction.

I’m going to tag a few people I’ve seen around the writeblr community. If you’re uncomfortable with being tagged, by all means, send me a message and let me know that’s not something you’re up to! I won’t mind one bit. @akingsleywriter @francestroublr @writer-jessicac @iannicellis @kidsarentallwrite @push-the-draft 

Have some questions of my own!

1. What’s the scene in a book or movie that’s most memorable for you?

2. If you have a WIP, who’s your favorite character in it? Why?

3. What inspired you to start writing? What continues to inspire you to keep writing?

4. List five of your favorite things.

5. What genre of content do you most enjoy? (Books to read/write, film, video games, etc.)

6. Setting goals is the biggest way to make your ideas a reality. What are some of yours?

7. Describe your closest friend.

8. What time period do you most write in? Why?

9. Do you have any other hobbies? Let’s hear them.

10. Is there anyone in your life who inspires or influences your writing? How so?

11. What makes you happy?

[sulfurousmirrorscapes]

Sulfurous Dreamscapes Turns 3

Hello!

Today marks three years since I resolved to write five hundred words of fiction daily.

These three years have brought tremendous growth for both the blog and for myself. I have made advances that I both did and did not foresee. Today, I’m going to talk a bit about what I’ve accomplished in the past year, and what the coming year holds for Sulfurous Dreamscapes.

The third year of Sulfurous Dreamscapes shattered every statistic. I’ve now written for 1,097 days in a row, totalling upwards of 548,500 words in all. The count of standalone story stands at an estimated 909 stories.

Around this time last year, I had a little under 1,000 followers. Today, the follower count stands more than tripled, at over 3,400.

Reader comments have always been very dear to me, but over the past year, they have become particularly regular, and I love it! Lately, I seem to get at least one or two comments for every story I write.

I live and breathe for your kind words, be they comments, reblogs, or even tags (looking at you, @tracle0​). It’s awe-striking to know that something I’ve created has resonated with someone.

However, my progress in the past year extends beyond the blog!

Early in 2018, I set a goal for myself. I was going to do my best to get accepted by five different publications by the end of 2018.

I got published in six.

I’d like to thank the editors of Déraciné (@deracinemagazine), Constellate Literary Journal (@constellatemagazine), Spitfire Literary Magazine (@spitfirelitmag), Quiet Storm, Selah (@selahmagazine​), and Strix, for reading, considering, accepting, and ultimately featuring my work.

For a full list of my published work, check out this page!

A special round of thanks goes to Déraciné for being the first to reach out to me, back in 2017, which set me on the path to publication. Another special round of thanks goes to Strix, who were kind enough to nominate my story “The Music of the City” for the Pushcart Prize.

To those of you aspiring to get published, I will inform you—not warn you—that I went through many, many rejections to get to this point. In fact, the piece I mentioned above was rejected by some ten publications before getting accepted.

Don’t stop aspiring!

What I’m doing in Year 4

I’ve long been told by friends and followers to write a book. Rest assured, the idea of writing a book has been with me since I was six. Compiling the finest stories from Sulfurous Dreamscapes into a book has been a plan of mine since the first year, and I think I’m ready to take on that goal now.

For the fourth year of Sulfurous Dreamscapes, I will continue to develop and polish stories for publication, but with the goal of creating a book of short stories. I might continue to submit my works to magazines throughout the year, but that will be a secondary priority now.

Some of the stories that will go into the book will be much longer than my usual fare. To make this possible, I am doing my best to upgrade my skills, particularly my plotting and outlining skills.

I plan to overcome my aloof nature and blog about my journey as I go, sharing the ideas and strategies I develop over time. I’d also like to be more involved in the writeblr community and interact with other writers more.

If you’d be interested in all that stuff, remember to follow this blog, i.e. Sulfurous Mirrorscapes!

Unlike last year, I won’t be doing anything special with Sulfurous Dreamscapes. Instead, I’ll focus my energies on the book and on Mirrorscapes.

As usual though, I will continue to write fiction on Sulfurous Dreamscapes every day. No one’s missing their daily story!

Shoutouts

The bigger my blog gets, the harder it gets to keep track of all my regulars. Nevertheless, I’m committed to keeping up the shoutout tradition as long as I can. I strongly believe that the followers, messages, and interactions are all as much a part of Sulfurous Dreamscapes as the stories themselves.

If you have read or interacted with the blog at any point, I thank you for your time and interest!

I’d like to thank these readers in particular for sticking with me:

@babybird5558687, @mad-as-the-stars, @random-with-garlic, @harrybpoetry, @bodoramzap, @sphenhools, @maximooxi, @jasperwoke, @crochetingabonsaiblanket, @7artisticphosphenes, @nivalis-iratus, @matthewconsole, @inexorableblob, @infranaut, @disturbedbycoffee, @ramblebrambleamble, @kiingocreative, @sassyfandomtrash, @lilac-written, @revissartlord, @fanboysstillexsist, @bloodora, @honeybonesnovel, @pumpkinsplicer, @cursesofdiv, @thomaslefteyebrow, @c-vendett, @sentientpiggybank, @finandleaf, @oh-itsdevek, @thespaceduchx, @highladyofsartaqscourt, @little-sylvie, @ishanijasmin, @driedclementine, @littlefearsdoodles, @sinen0mine, @porchswingstories, @drowsy-quill, @inmotusveritas, @ephirae, @uselessxeni, @the-face-of-gaud, @hyper-dorphin, @spoopy-sapphy-skeletons, @sadskeletonscientist, @alchemyfeline, @aj-the-satyr, @stealthpoptarts, @legendary-wild-chicken, @blackcat-midnight-thatsme, @isabelmoore6, @leadernovaandthemacabre, @franticfandomfanatic, @tranquilsuggestion, @princesslyoka, @ultramarineiris, @qrow-ismyspiritanimal, @mbxg, @lostmymuseagain, @nikihxri, @toolameforlife, @wchwriter, @the-mountains-shadow, @rroberts845, @talisren, @brooksandart, @kajsaschubeler, @rogue-rosha, @catloveswriting, @pen-and-sword-writing, @vampireboyfrlend

I know that this time around, I probably missed a lot of people who do regularly read and interact with the blog. Sorry about that! Just know I deeply appreciate your support, and I hope you continue reading my works.

Finally, I’d like to thank these friends of mine who have often supplied me with prompts and ideas for what to write about:

Ana

Breker (Check out his funky art here!)

Cranes (Check out her origami here!)

Thank you for reading! I’ll see you at the next milestone!

[tenacious-scripturient]

Writeblr Spotlight #1

hi! this is my first time doing something like this, so forgive me if some things are a little off.

the first writeblr in the spotlight is the incredible:

@waterfallwritings !

fall writes in all kinds of genres, but his favourite one has to be YA fantasy, which is evident in his two stories: Scarlet Silence and A Selkie's Home.

Scarlet Silence is a fantasy novel about dragons, magic, prophecies, and war—all that good stuff! it also features a diverse cast of LGBTQ+ characters, including a wlw relationship between two main characters, Melody and Savannah! (their first kiss is especially gorgeous; my god, the metaphors and writing is just beautiful.)

the worldbuilding and rules of magic are especially creative, and one of the tropes is found family. catch me crying in the club, dang it ;(

i haven’t read much of it anywhere, but i really hope i get to soon! maybe if y’all go follow fall, he’ll post more about it!

A Selkie’s Home, also known as ASH, is still fantasy, but it’s more than just your typical dungeons and dragons! it focuses on the ocean, pirates, and sailing, and features lots of diversity. lgbtq+ rep, poc rep, badass women rep, and more!

join Adrian, an exiled Triton who just wants to do the right thing, Lorelai, an expert sword fighter with a dark past, Miles, a cheerful sailor who comes from a village that hates the sea, and Morgan, a mysterious selkie that washes up onshore with her selkie skin stolen, as they attempt to accomplish their goals whilst stranded in a ship whose crew wants them all dead.

he’s posted a few excerpts for ASH, which are all amazing and interesting! you can find them here.

he posts excerpts and is super interactive with the writeblr community, so be sure to give him a follow! :)

if there are any specific things you’d like me to add or remove, please tell me so i can make my spotlights better and brighter for these amazing writeblrs!

[softarchieves]

12/12/12 tag game

Thanks to Iivywriters for tagging me in this :-)

Rules: Answer 12 questions in character as an OC, ask 12 questions, and tag 12 people :-)

My answers:

(Answering as Millie from Hellhounds)

1) What teachings from your parents still affect you to this day? Do you wish they didn’t?

“Never met my mom, my dad was never the parental-kind of a father, so I never really learned anything fro them. But I guess Lady Marlowee counts, though most of her teachings flew right over my head. But one thing that did stick, was to plan things out, to not just do thins impulsively. I’m both grateful for that and pissed about it too. It feels like a restricting cage, but sometimes that’s what I need,”

2) Who is the person who made the greatest impact (good OR bad) on you, and who you are today?

“Rose and Castor are two other hellhounds that live on the run, and I really don’t know them all that well. But they made a huge impact on me that one time I met them. It had never occurred to me that I could live outside of a safety zone like the one Lady Marlowee had created,”

3) If you could do anything, without strings or consequences attached, what would you do?

“Okay, here’s the thing: It doesn’t matter what I would do, because there are consequences for your actions in real life, and you can’t just do things anyway, ignoring all the red flags, letting yourself believe that everything bad will work itself out. That’s not how it works, because if it did, I would have gone to the Underworld long ago, and brought my brother with me!”

4) A genie gives you three wishes. What would you wish for?

“When a genie gives you a wish, you have to be pretty careful about what you wish for. It’s not just jins who are tricky. Though genie’s do have your best intentions at heart when they grant a wish, they too have to obey the laws of magic: Nothing comes out of nothing. So I just stay away from wish-granting all together,”

5) When you go and pack for something- whether it be as simple as tucking items in your pocket for a normal day, or an overnight trip- what are three or so items that you couldn’t live without?

“Kay makes some amazing cinnamon buns, so I would have to take those with me. And probably a picture I took in the 50′s, with Tala and Phyrra. The last thing would depend on the situation,”

6) Is there someone in your life you can’t live without? Who are they, and what is your relationship like?

“My brother, but I already live without him, and I obviously survived it,”

7) What do you think your childhood self would think of you now? How is your life different from what you pictured then?

“I don’t know. I was so young and lost and hopeless, and now I’m here, in the Upperworld, and trying to have a life. I honestly think, she would have dismissed me as a dream. Nice, but not real,”

8) How do you feel about where you are now? About the person, you are now? What, if anything, would you change about yourself?

“I’m stronger and smarter than I was as a kid, and better than when I thought everything would be fine. I’ve survived this far, and sometimes I can even appreciate it, have moments of joy, which is more than I had back then,”

9) What do you do to de-stress, and take your mind off of things?

“Smoke something. It’s not like the smoke will kill me, I grew up in literal Hell. Tala used to say, that I should get a hobby, like her obsession with crystals. But nothing ever really sticks...”

10) What is the most ridiculous thing that you recall doing? Do you remember why you did it?

“Stupid things don’t really happen to me, just bad things if anything. But after I met Tala, stupid things became the norm, because they seemed to follow her everywhere, and I just got dragged with her into it, way to often to name anything specific. But it was always because Tala didn’t know when to stop anything,”

11) If someone were to record what was happening to you, the story of your life, how would you want to be portrayed?

“Why would anyone do that? My story is not interesting, I’m not the first hellhound to leave the Underworld, I’m not even the first to leave without their sibling. The things that happened to me afterward with Elaine and how everything went to hell, it had nothing to do with me. I was the side-character, who had to live with the consequences, and I am,”

12) What is your ideal future like? When all is said and done, what does peace look like to you?

“Peace and quiet, I guess. It is pretty peaceful right now, have been for a while, and I really just want it to continue on like that,”

My questions: (Dunno if I’m supposed to come up with new questions or not, haven’t tried this before, so I’m just making new ones up!)

1) What color do you really just hate? You get mad just by thinking of the color and want to punch the color far away.

2) Do you have any siblings? If yes, what are they like, how was your childhood together, in which order were you born? If no, would you like to have had them?

3) What would both be your worst nightmare, and greatest dream, if those two were the same thing?

4) If you could apologize to one person in your life, for something bad you did to them, what would the apologize be? 

5) If you could transform into an animal, what would the animal be, and how long would you stay in the shape, if you could only do it once?

6) Who would you sacrifice everything for?

7) If auras were real, what would yours look like?

8) Do you have a childhood memory that you are especially fond of?

9) Greatest fear?

10) Biggest insecurity? 

11) What do you want to accomplish most in the world? 

12) What would you leave behind to be remembered by?

Tagging:

@writernights @pens-swords-stuff @astroswords @artofkace @astams @heyabella @svnshinewrites @honeywharf I would love to tag more people, but I don’t know that many in the writeblr community... Most of the people on this list, I just found by searching around Tumblr, I don’t even know them... Sorry if the tag inconveniences you! 

[waterfallwritings]

11/11/11 Tag Game x2

Rules: answer 11 questions, tag 11 people, give them 11 new questions!

I was tagged to do this game by two different people! So here we go

@maple-writes questions were:

1-      Do you like to have a snack or a drink while you write?

Not usually!

2-      What kind of genres do you think that you’ll never ever write (for whatever reason)?

I’d never write a book that was just a romance novel. Could never ever do it, do not want, I could never get through that. And although I absolutely adored mystery novels as a kid I’d don’t think I’d ever write one-- my standards for them are too high, I don’t think I could do the red herring and leaving clues but having the reader think it was someone it wasn’t. I don’t think I could pull it off.

3-      When did you first start writing?

Technically, elementary school. But it was mostly creative writing for and in class at that point. 

4-      Why did you first start writing?

I had always loved books as a kid, I was naturally decent at writing as a young kid because of it, and I loved being able to weave my own stories and watch it slowly come alive on the page. I also loved the satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment.

5-      When you work on the computer, do you like loud keyboards or quiet ones?

It doesn’t matter to me. My keyboards usually make a bit of noise tho.

6-      Do you have any writing friends in real life?

Ha. Yeah. Hey, hey @quilloftheclouds hey, why don’t we do this again and mention again that we’re friends IRL? You can never mention it too many times, right? 

But anyway in all seriousness, Quill is a great friend of mine and we can and do spend literal hours just talking about out WIPs to each other. I also have another writer friend back in my hometown who was a big help with Scarlet Silence, and a long-distance writer friend. Writer friends IRL are, honestly, a necessity. I’d never have written/finished anything without them.

7-      What kinds of things do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Spend hours with my friends just hanging out, talking, listening to music, watching netflix together, or occasionally going out. I also did pick up drawing and really need to get back into that.

8-      Do you ever draw on your own experiences in your writing?

Hell. Yes. Anytime a character is questioning their sexuality or gender, its almost directly me there. In SS I even had a character go on a very, very similar first date to one I went on and based the location off of a real one in my hometown. For example.

9-      Who (if anyone) do you share your writing with?

My writer friends :)

10-   What are your favorite themes to put in your writing?

Love (of all different kinds), courage and heroism, beating the odds, does ‘grey morals’ count?

11-   Would you ever want a movie or tv series adaptation of your wip? How do you picture it?

That’d be fun, maybe.

And @bigmoodword asked:

1. using one sentence summaries, can you tell me about your wips?

A bunch of sea lovers with very different lives and secrets to keep end up stranded on an island and forced to work together.

And

A reluctant-at-first teenage lesbian gets literally pulled into a magical universe, told shes the Chosen One who needs to defeat the seemingly impossible to defeat big bad, and goes off on an adventure with a ragtag group of other kids.

2. what inspired them?

Literally nothing except a desire to write. Waiting for inspiration = never writing with me. I just came up with a few character ideas out of basically thin air and then started planning and writing the type of book I wanted to read. In both cases.

3. which of your ocs do you most identify with?

OOOooooooo.... thats a tough one. I might have to go with Melody from Scarlet Silence. Just, the figuring out she’s gay, having a twin brother, liking blonde girls, being shy and timid at first but growing to become more confident, and overcoming a lot of obstacles? Yeah. There’s quite a bit of me in her.

4. if you’ve ever cried while reading, which book cued the waterworks?

Hasn’t happened! I’ve gotten super emotional and sad, but no actual tears

5. how do you conduct research for your wips and what’s the most interesting thing you’ve discovered in said research?

I write fantasy and do barely any research for my work. Right now I’m just learning that a lot of things we take for granted didn’t exist in the 1700s. Google all the way

6. thus far, which scene has been the most difficult to write?

ohh. Well. Theres a very dramatic, heart-wrenching scene near the end of Scarlet Silence where somebody dies and I had to rewrite it a couple times to get it right. Also, it made me sad to work on. In ASH... I mean honestly the one I’m working on/should be working on right now is seeming to be the most difficult. Introducing this character and how to go about it is proving to be harder than originally thought.

7. which of your ocs do you like the least?

Wow. How dare you. I love all of my children. Do I have to answer this? ........ uuuugggggghhhhhhHHHHHHHH ... maybe Miles. Love him and all he’s just the most one-dimensional which is a little boring (working on it) and I write his accent in which is, on the rare occasion, not what I want to be doing for a few whole pages.

8. which pov and tense do you prefer to write in?

I prefer third person past tense. Trying to stretch myself and write ASH in first person

9. do you write poetry?

Uh. No? I mean. I have like, maybe three times in my life or something like that. Slam poetry > every other poetry

10. who is your writing role model?

I don’t think I have one?

11. if you could give your younger writer self some advice, what would it be?

Oof. It would have to be... keep going. Keep writing, write what you enjoy, you don’t have to share it. And keep reading. Keep reading while you still have time and are able to get into it properly. Never let anyone tell you you read too much, and ‘nerd’ really isn’t the insult you think it is :)

Thanks for tagging me guys! Great questions!!

Tags and my questions under the cut!!

I’m tagging @livvywrites @livingthedragonlife @kriss-the-writing-nerd @abalonetea @yetmorestories @marlettwrites @pens-swords-stuff @adenhamcreations @bookenders @surroundedbypearls @alterrawrites

1. How do you come up with ideas for your WIPs?

2. How do you get past gaps in the plot?

3. What motivates you to keep writing?

4. Do you do any other kind of creative writing?

5. Do you have any other creative hobbies besides writing?

6. What do you do when you’re stuck on a scene and don’t know how to get it out / write it?

7. How do you decide how to end your WIP?

8. When in the process of writing do you decide how its going to end? Or do you kind of just wait til you get there?

9. Why did you decide to join writeblr?

10. What’s your favourite food?

11. If you had to kill off a character in your WIP, who would it be and why?

[rivalwrites]

get to know me tag

i was tagged by @pat-writes! thank you!!! 💙

What genre(s) do you write?

fantasy!! mostly ya, but it’s sometimes borderline regular ole fantasy. i’ve also dabbled in fan fiction, but i don’t write that much anymore.

What’s on your reading wish list?

ooh gurl, there’s a solid 22 books/series on that list. but at the top rn is Six of Crows, The Cruel Prince, and The Song of Achilles.

Your favorite character from your current WIP?

oh gosh this is so hard to answer bc i love them all so much. diana definitely has my heart bc of her optimism and kindness. she’s such a soft soul in a book of callousness. keelie is iconic given everything she’s accomplished despite the world knocking her down every step of the way. and hayden is honest to god the most loyal and protective friend who also happens to be a pirate that you’ll ever have. and this isn’t even to mention marian, shaye, orianna, or any of the others. they’re all very complex characters, which makes me love them all so much.

some writing tropes you like?

enemies to friends to lovers, injured characters being taken care of by their lovers, FOUND FAMILIES!

The story behind your WIP’s name:

it’s set in a world with no stars, so the name starless just seemed fitting. not much to it.

Are you a pantser or plotter?

little bit of both, but mostly i just pants it.

Do you post your work somewhere?

not really. i posted some old chapters of starless to one of my blogs, but i’ve scrapped those chapters since. i haven’t posted any of the new and improved stuff yet.

Do you also read/write fanfic? If yes, for the same genres as what you write?

yeah kinda. i don’t read to much anymore, and i haven’t written a fic since last summer. maybe i’ll write some more now that school’s let out for the semester. and yeah, same genre.

Your favorite dessert. Because why not:

i’m not too big on desserts, but i really love ice cream!!

i’m tagging @queen-abraxos @librarian-of-orynth and since i’m not too involved in the writeblr community, anyone else who wants to do this can declare themselves my friend and say i tagged them!

[lilquill]

Could you please delete those asks I'm so sorry I sent them it was wrong of me okay, I get that. Please delete them I won't send any more I promise!!!

Hey there again, anon!

(For people who want to know what’s going on, here’s part 1 and part 2 of this latest installment in the writeblr drama saga I guess! With some very  reblogs by some people in the notes.)

Unfortunately, anon, I’m afraid I have to decline your request.

I understand you’re coming from a place of pain and regret, and I do know how much it blows to feel like you’ve made a mistake and can’t take it back. I also understand that it must be really painful to see so many people very publicly disagreeing with you.

However, you did still say what you said. You still hurt people. And you did it on anon, where you really have no accountability. This can’t come back to bite you because your name isn’t attached to it (unless anyone decides to go and hunt you down or something, which I don’t think is possible, so).

Bottom line, you’re safe but you specifically singled out actual people from behind the anon shield and by using my blog as your platform.

Deleting these asks isn’t going to accomplish anything for you. People are still going to remember what happened, and people are still going to be bitter about it all. There will be no conclusion, resolution, or closure if I just shove it all under the rug. It happened, people saw it, people will remember it.

If you want to be remembered as someone who grew and is willing to own up to their mistakes, my suggestion would be to publicly apologize to Mina and me, under your actual url.

Otherwise, your legacy is to be yet another person who decided to shit on someone else and then tried to play victim, all the while being too cowardly to actually air your shit out with any sense of responsibility.

If you want this to end (and I’m sure everyone does), you’d be genuine and upfront about it.

Also, I’m not going to delete my responses because I put actual damn effort into them, and I’m not getting rid of them.

Listen, I’ve had problems with people in the past and explained them publicly on my posts. And even when those people apologized and were kind, I kept those posts up, while also publicly showing that I’m on good terms with them now.

Pretending it didn’t happen isn’t gonna work.

People like @aslanwrites have offered to open their DMs to you. I’m willing to talk to you briefly if you’d like, but also I’m not your therapist and it really seems like you need to sort some stuff out because you’re taking out your frustrations with other people and using me as a vessel to deliver those feelings to my friends.

I’m sorry if this was hard to hear, but I really don’t think your attitude to all this at the time of you sending this ask is going to improve the situation.

[isanyonetoknow]

Well, well, well, if it isn’t week one of WAT (Writer Accountability Team).

For now, I’ll just answer the asks I got about it. 

“As a fellow Writeblr accountability team participant, I wanted to ask: What’s the last “new” thing you remember learning about a character or your world and did it have any lasting effects on how you view them? (Ask coming from gottaenjoythelittlethingzz)”

I guess this would have to be the extent of poverty Sean goes through and what affect having his magic stolen* from him did to him. The magic part was new and I already knew he went through poverty and some Really Bad Stuff*, but I never really acknowledged how much that changed not only his mindset towards his family, but his behavior in general. @gottaenjoythelittlethingzz

“wip accountability: what did you enjoy the most doing this week?”

Trying to draw my characters. I’m not a terrible artist, so I’m kind of proud of the drawings. @quartzess

“For the writer accountability team: what accomplishments from the past week are you the most proud of?”

Probably figuring out Sean’s recent backstory. It was just a vague blur, as he was just a minor minor character, but I recently elevated him to minor character which meant actually figuring out what happened to him. @jojoscoffeeandwriting

If I get more asks today (feel free to send me asks about anything), I’ll either just edit this post or make a new one. Probably the latter. 

Taglist and some explanations (for things with * by them) below the cut.

FYI, the Really Bad Stuff (which is one thing) is described pretty briefly/not too graphically and it’s how Sean lost his leg. It implies some things relating to acid. If you don’t want to read that, then don’t click Keep Reading.

Stolen magic: Magic in the Narrations-verse comes from the planet and it’s not a gift but an infestation. The power seeps out and if it finds a recipient host, goes there. Signs of magic start to appear at age six. Sean, before anyone could realize he had magic, had his removed and stolen. Due to the process, he doesn’t remember it at all. Magic, once stolen, can be ingested and the person who ate/drank it has the power. The original Power, on the other hand, will get more prone to mental and physical ailments. Eventually, Sean’s magic returned to him, though he didn’t realize it. At that point, though, he had depression (among other things), and magic feeds on stability. If there isn’t stability, it kind of goes crazy and makes its host go crazy too. So that’s what’s happening with Sean. :)

Really Bad Stuff: He may or may not have gone to a different time/alternate reality and worked in a town that had acid/poison rain. As a result of a pissed off customer, he got pushed into the rain and fell into one of the deep holes they have to kill vermin. As a result? A lot of scars from where the acid hit and an amputation because he lost quite a bit of his leg to the acid/infection.

Taglist:

@gooseandcaboose @katerinarevel @writernour @call-signtracer @amaranthine-inscriptions @rainy-rose @ quartzess 

[drowsy-quill]

11-11-11 Tag

(I think thats what its called) I was tagged by @pens-swords-stuff  

1) What do you do when you’re stuck?

Cry- but usually, I just put it away and watch CR for a bit or listen to a true crime podcast until motivation returns

2) What inspires you?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯  its weird man

3) What’s a writing pet peeve you have?

When you spend 4 1/2 hours trying to format your stuff so it doesn’t physically pain you to read it but then end up giving up and going back to the original

4) What’s your favorite trope?

Hmmm, found family, enemies to lovers and big scary character adopts little pure cinnamon role

5) What’s your least favorite character archetype?

Born-sexy-yesterday, abusive asshole ‘bad boys’, 

6) Describe your very first OC!

Chocolate, a lesbian hamster in a fantasy world who lived on an island that was plagued by weird pterodactyl shark alligators- she lived with her wife vanilla and their kid cherry

7) Describe a recent writing accomplishment you had.

I won a flash-fiction mini competition & a short story competition on Wattpad!

8) Any advice for other writers you have to share?

Don’t be disheartened by how bad you think your draft is- just remember that everyone has to get through all of their bad words before they can get to the good stuff. All those published authors you see and the hundreds of amazing authors on here just have gotten to the good stuff. Just breathe, and keep writing

9) What’s your favorite literary device?

Imagery! 

10) Why did you make a writeblr?

Honestly I have no idea- i’ve had this blog for a  w h i l e

11) Say something nice about your writing!

I feel like my beginnings are really good! I tend to start off strong and then lose steam after but hey, you win some you lose some

Here are your Qs!

1) Who is/are your fav OC/OCs

2) How many unfinished WIPs do you have?

3) How long have you been writing?

4) Do you want to write full time professionally?

5) If your WIP was adapted to a tv-show, movie, cartoon, or graphic novel- which one would you prefer?

6) Who is your writer crush?

7) Do you have a muse? If so who are they?

8) What is your fav. writing snack?

9) What are your other hobbies?

10) Do you have a least favorite OC?

11) If you could talk to your younger self, what would you tell them?

No pressure tags for @thebloodstainedquill @supersaiyansadie @abalonetea @forlornraven @killer-badass @approximately12lbs-of-ducks @pixel-is-writing  @thepotatowearsprada @pazwrites @girlnovels @esoteric-eclectic-eccentric