#not me thinking that first symbol was a heart monitor...how very med school of me

[inkovert]

Hey it's 🌌🧭! [Side note: Do you say the emojis when you read or do you skip over them as like a name?]

I just want to start by saying your writing holds such a good emotional weight to it, I really love the way you string together dialogue the part were Jeremy said "You’re grieving. We both are. We just do it in different ways.” actually made me begin to tear up a bit. I just wanted to let you know since I know how important hearing from readers is.

I also really want to know what podcast it is, I personally have been listening to Unresolved Textual Tension a lot recently. Seeing others talk about things that bother them in writing makes me want to write.

To answer your question Alchemist are part of The Society of Scholars and could lose their right to preform magic if found out to be going against the rules. However they can repent in a way by washing in cold water and taking an extra hour of studying.

This was a smaller project I was working on with a friend and in it the main alchemist character has spent months in a foreign land learning all about the different ways they handle magic as well as collecting books to bring back. In one moment he brushes hands with someone and shivers really badly so I'd say that is the main reaction. Though by the time he goes to leave he's made great friends with someone, and knows he probably wont see her again so he gives her a goodbye hug for the first and last time.

Random and completely unrelated however, I got a fortune cookie and it made me think of you. Not the fortune itself but I guess the idea that even the littlest of things could be a story.

Have a good day 📎

Hello again ☺️ (I skip over the emojis as I read them as if they're a singular symbol representing a name haha....I don't even think I know what that first emoji is. stars? all this time I thought it was a heart rate monitor oops).

Anon. I just want to say I am deeply deeply grateful for you coming into my ask box and sharing your thoughts on that excerpt I posted - I wasn't expecting that at all! Because you are right, hearing from readers is super important. But it is especially meaningful to me bc I've been considering lately whether or not I want to stay on writeblr for various reasons. Lack of feedback is really only like 5% of the reason, if that, but receiving any kind of interaction or thought about my story makes me tip back toward hanging on a bit longer.

That said, I'm glad - not that I made you tear up per se haha - but that the excerpt moved something within you. That's really my main goal with my writing since many authors have had that same impact on me with their writing. And so to see that I'm succeeding with that is always great to hear ☺️ (also I feel dialogue is my strongest writing skill so your compliment of that made me especially smile).

Oh! Haha. Re the podcast it wasn't one talking about writing in any way (although now I have to check out that podcast you just plugged 👀). It's just two black women talking about their personal life/opinions on things that affect them as black women. And around the same time as I was listening to that podcast I was reading a black romance novel that just...severely disappointed me, which has been the case with a lot of books in that specific genre for me. Romance is not my go-to genre by any means in terms of reading or writing, I typically just read it if I want something light or am in a slump (as I currently am). And so, in the vein of what you brought up last time of being able to find stories anywhere, the combined experience of hearing black girls (specifically a dark-skinned black woman) talk about their struggles with romance/finding partners and this disappointing book just drove me to write a black love story out of spite, specifically one centered around a dark-skinned black woman. So that's what I'm working on now unfortunately (I say unfortunately as a joke bc I really never thought this would actually manifest into something. I've never been able to write or think up a true story outside of my wip SCIF. But apparently this is happening so. Yeah. Truly tragic).

Aw that poor Alchemist ): I can't imagine not being able to show physical affection to a friend who I love dearly. Also their lifestyle sounds very monastic, makes me wonder if there's a religious element infused in there or that you draw inspiration from.