#or interacted with Writeblr in general tbh

[thetruearchmagos]

Well, gonna answer this for a certain piece of very background worldbuilding I've been meaning to bring up for a while, but considering how little I've been posting on stuff there's a lot else I don't 'get to' talk about.

So...

Tagging @theprissythumbelina @hessdalen-globe @bureaumantic @dark-bear-productions if you wanna read something far too long for its own good!

Warp Navigation

For a refresher, the Warp* is the immensely vast 'sea' between the 12 Worlds which grants the people of it their only means of Inter-World travel and transportation. Important physical attributes of the Warp include the 12 Transit Zones which each interface with a specific World, the exceedingly corrosive and mildly carcinogenic 'swash' that its seascape is made of, the continent sized and unceasing storms that dominate its surface, and the thin slivers of calm, called 'Contours', which form the boundaries of these storms and wind gregariously between one Transit Zone and another, offering the only peaceful and reliable routes of travel them.

Being an endless howling sea without any conceivable end, it should be no surprise that getting your vessel from one place to another you have in mind is actually quite hard. Physical landmarks like 'coasts' and 'islands' straight up do not exist, and the storms and contours themselves shift and morph with time under forces almost impossible to predict. Compasses spin and spin endlessly without meaning, without any worldly magnetism to align with, and dead reckoning through the storm will leave your ship and crew just so.

Thus, generations of sailors seeking to cross the Warp have relied on the Contours alone to get where they're headed. Over time, reasonably accurate maps have been made of the webs they made between various Zones have been compiled and continuously updated as the Zones move and Contours shift, die, or come into being. It was obvious enough that none of these routes were anywhere close to the shortest straight line between two destinations, but they were better than anything else anyone had, and much safer than feeding yourself to a Warp storm.

In this way, a ship with up to date charts and a savvy skipper and navigator could be reasonably certain of bringing their vessel safely across the Warp wherever they wished, and most journeys between Worlds took half a year or a little longer to complete. Seasoned captains had a few tricks up their sleeves to shave off some time, cutting through storms for brief periods or reading the subtle signs the waves gave to warn of new or dying contours, but by and large this way of doing things would persist for as long as anyone can remember.

Steam And Steel

Things on the navigation side would start to change not long after the rise of steam powered, steel hulled ships. After all, finding your way through it wasn't the only thing that kept sailors to the contours; the raging waves and roaring winds of the storms were known to turn solid men of war to matchsticks with a flick of their wrath, and their demented squalls nearly were impossible to sail with or against. Outside their bounds, the reliably strong prevailing winds that circulate through the contours provided a safe, if meandering, path. To a degree, then, even if the innovations to come had been made earlier, it's debatable how much they alone could have accomplished.

With new, sturdy ships, and a means of propulsion which cared not for belligerent winds, came at last a means for the sailors of the Worlds to brave the Storm and come out alive. If existing charts were accurate, a straight or near enough line between most Zones could cut travel times by weeks, or months for the longest and most winding paths.

It was a heady time. Now, all they needed was a way to know where, exactly, they were.

The Harthport Compass

The rise in inter-World mercantile trade would have incredible effects on places and people everywhere, but it would fall most profoundly on the great shipping and shipbuilding cities of the Worlds. One of these was the Albish city of Harthport, the heart of the Kingdom of Albion's** maritime grandeur, and the home of an invention which would change the face of Warp navigation forever --- the Harthport Compass.

A Harthport, or 'Harthport-type', Compass takes advantage of one of the Warp's most esoteric properties. Each individual Transit Zone effectively exerts a cyclical 'pull' and 'push' effect on the rest of the Warp, acting not through the physical reality but the 'Underlay', which, to keep things short, is the un-reality that exists within 3-dimensional space through which all the other magic-stuff takes place in. This phenomenon has been identified as main driver of the Warp's endless storms, but the actual forces at play were so obscure that even the most learned Navigators*** could barely perceive them.

It would be a Harthport engineer who first discovered this phenomenon, and they would swiftly seize onto the opportunity it provided. Further research showed that the forces at play could be made to interact with crystals of an appropriate design, aligning them towards a Zone in much the same way as a compass points north, and that each Zone produced a subtly different effect which forced only certain crystals to become aligned at all.

Through careful calibration and measurement, then, it became possible to create twelve crystals, each of which would become aligned with the effects of one, and only one, Transit Zone, a force which could be felt across the Warp. The ultimate result, crudely drawn by yours truly, was this;

===

===

With precise knowledge of each Transit Zone's relative location from each other, and each individual crystals relative angle of bearing to their respective crystal, a means of finding a ship's location in the featureless expanse of the Warp was finally, at long last, achieved. While nothing in the Warp ever stays right where you left it, the relative positions and distances between various Transit Zones was well known for being the closest thing to 'static' in the place. Thus, as long as you kept up to date records of these Zones' gregarious changes to reference, a Harthport Compass could tell you where you were anywhere in the Warp, and with that knowledge bring your ship wherever you wanted in it.

Rippling Consequences

Now that I've gotten all that off my chest, I won't keep you all too long.

These back-to-back innovations in the maritime realm would collectively usher in an unprecedented golden age for much of the 12 Worlds. The wealth and connections that would grow as a result would reshape the international order, and would be among the innumerous factors leading, in due time, to the birth of the United Commonwealth itself.

A/N...

Notes below, but also I realise I have entirely left out the existence of the Warp's 'Layers' from this post. Basically, the Warp is made out of (infinitely???) many identical layers, of which all but a handful are completely unstable and immediately annihilate anything in them, leaving only a few safe for transit. Everything in this post applies to all Layers in the same way, the only differences are in the 'scale' of distances between Zones and other dimensions, and the relative intensity of storms (the former goes down as the latter goes up).

* Name still, somehow, pending (I am very indecisive and also fear Games Workshop's legal wrath, the hypocrites)

** This one too, because as much as I like it and have a satisfactory explanation to myself for its existence I can't shake the feeling that someone's gonna think that using an archaic name for Britain is stupid

*** basically, magic users who can transit themselves and their vessels into or out of the Warp, or between its layers.

I don't do this but I wanna start so

@akiwitch @verba-writing @littleshopofchaos @a-scaly-troublemaker

Tell me something about one of your WIPs (spoiler free) that you don't get to talk about as much as you'd like

Can be anything, characters, backstories, worldbuilding, anything as long as it's spoiler free

And feel free to pass on the sentiment and ask others the same!

[cataclysmicwriting]

hello, once again i am putting out a Writeblr Want Ad of sorts. theres plenty on my dash but i would like more like. interaction/community stuff on my dash and just in general. after seeing a post come through my dash talking about writeblr engagement and such, I thought my best bet was to put out feelers for exactly what I'm looking for and go from there!

a little about me!

I'm a 26 yo queer transboy (he/they pronouns)

i am completely normal about space and i have two cats i will not shut up about ever in my life

i moved across the country (usa) almost two years ago and my new home has mountains and my old home did not and i am in continual awe about mountains being right outside my door

a little about my writing and what i like to read!

i primarily write fantasy and sci-fi and really enjoy mixing the two together!

i am entirely weak towards Pyrrhic victories, bittersweet endings, and tragedies in general. love dark fiction, cannot get enough of it

favorite tropes and themes include: enemies to lovers / friends to enemies / friends/lovers to strangers type things | morally grey/villain protags | time loops | anything soulmates | heavy world building | conlangs | old/dead gods

more things i enjoy can be found here and here

What I'm looking for

people who want to and will send each other asks for ask games / tag games / themed days! I am not very often available or around when most people are doing the themed days like sts or wbw, and I really want to participate in them but like. I'm never around for them when the people on my dash are doing them. would love to have a solid group of people i interact with who i can send these types of asks to just. whenever. not just specifically for those days, and will receive them in turn!

i tend to keep things in my likes to look at later for. sometimes weeks at a time. would like people i interact with regularly to be aware that i sometimes get to things really late but know that I will get to it!

just people I can talk to regularly (either through tumblr's messaging system or over discord, though i prefer discord tbh) about writing or just general life stuff, i feel like my friends list doesn't have a lot of writing buddies anymore and I want to make more friendships with people who Get Stuff like this, ya feel?

would love a solid beta partner or two! I'll read your stuff, you read me, etc etc

if you also make conlangs, pls hit me up bc i would love people to talk to about conlangs with

just in general i'm looking for more writeblr friendships to form than just people to reblog posts from and such

If you'd like to see more about my main WIP, you can find its tag right here!

[thewritingcoroner]

I done got frustrated

My desire to keep my opinions to myself managed to last most of the day. New record tbh.

So like I wrote this big long rant a couple of weeks ago and decided against sharing it while I was still frustrated. But I do feel like maybe there is a larger discussion to be had! I think it's important that we as a writeblr community really take a look at why so many of us are getting so frustrated so often and how we as a community and as individuals can work towards an actually community vs a corner of social media. @blind-the-winds did an excellent job of explaining some of what I'm seeing as well in relation to why a lot of positivity and support posts and such ring hollow to so many of us. I wanted to bring a slightly different perspective to things coming from a marketing/social media marketing background. Under the cut out of respect for everyone's dashboards lol

This is going to get INCREDIBLY LONG. So I have a read more here. Behold, the bitchfest.

So this started today when I was chatting with an irl friend and expressing my frustrations about writeblr in general as a community. And what I've recognized now is this: writeblr isn't really much of a community, and it is very rare to find other creators and writers who are willing to treat you (the hypothetical writer) as another human being with a love for the same craft they do. Those people who do treat you like people are some of the loveliest people I've found on the internet, but they are hard to find.

Now, to be clear, I don't think the problem is completely writeblr's fault, nor do I believe it is any one or two or five hundred individual's fault. The problem comes from a number of different sources, and my friend did a great job of helping me see the problem from a number of different perspectives.

The problem being this: it is impossible to get engagement on posts that feature original long-form writing, and it is exceedingly difficult to effectively foster meaningful connections with other writers.

Some disclaimers: it's not impossible, and the people who successfully receive engagement on their long-form writing tend to be the people who are the exceptions proving the rule. Also, by "engagement" I mean any interaction that serves to both consume the content and spread the content. "Original" writing refers to writing that is not fandom related, and "long-form" means 1k words or more.

Do you think 1k words is a little short for "long-form" writing? Me too. I'll get to that.

I'll start my explanation here with what catalyzed these revelations in my little head. Over night, I got quite a few new followers, all directly coming from a post that got mildly popular here on writeblr. So, I looked at what other posts of mine have been popular, and I started to notice a trend.

My most popular posts tend to fit into one of three categories: memes, tag games, and boost posts/recommendations. Memes tend to be popular because they're funny and easy to spread, and as long as they fit the theme, they don't ruin a blog's aesthetic. Tag games get more interaction because I am directly tagging people to see the post. But the popularity for those posts tend to stop at the half dozen to a dozen people tagged in each given post (the person or people tagging me, and the several people I tag to continue the game). The last category is most interesting to me, the boost posts and recommendations.

Here's the thing, I only boost or rec other writers and blogs if I have invested interest and care into the person behind the blog and their content. AKA, I only really boost friends and writers I admire/like their content. It's great to see that those posts get popular with people outside my circle, but out of those three categories, none of them feature my own content.

Why is that?

It seems like every day I see a new post with a few thousand notes at least complaining about a lack of interaction on writeblr and the importance of reblogs and blah blah I rarely stop to read those let alone spread them. And a few dots connected, I think.

If my content isn't getting interaction, and your content isn't getting interaction, then what is? And I think the answer is this: memes, advice, and boosts.

Memes and advice are self-explanatory. But boosts are interesting because you will see everyone hop on to rec other people or more frequently market themselves, but they stop there. And I see my greatest influx of interaction and new followers when I boost other people's works or blogs.

My conclusion is that many people are using writeblr as a hustle and not a community. In a community we engage with each other, talk to each other, enjoy each other's company. And I've found many mutuals to be very lovely people who I do enjoy and who I love to engage with and who I like to genuinely call my friends. I like a lot of yall for different reasons too! Some of you are great hype buddies, some of yall are all about that accountability buddy system, and I really love when I get to have intellectual conversations about the craft and different concepts with different members of writeblr too.

But largely, I find that a lot of people who engage once with my blog, usually on those boost posts, or who ask for engagement more frequently than when frustration strikes, tend to be the people who think of writeblr as a hustle. They see that I (and many other writers) will boost and rec our friends, and jump on that bandwagon, but instead of putting in the effort to get to know us and our work, they say what needs to be said, hop on trends, and avoid any genuine connection.

So what gives?

It's not the individual writers, I think. It's the nature of social media, marketing, and the medium.

Listen, I work in marketing, and long-form writing is a dying art that is very difficult to market. I genuinely think the concept of "tldr" really ruined a lot of people's ability to engage with longer form writing. Whether that be nonfiction opinion posts or actual fiction. Tumblr is one of the only places I can think of where long-form writing is a feasible medium to post at all, let alone gain a following for.

Think about it: instagram is best suited for images, videos, and short-form aestheticized poetry. Twitter has a character limit that requires long threads of individual tweets or images to get your message across. Pitch events are well-suited for twitter because your pitch by definition needs to be short. But sharing actual summaries, snippets, or excerpts? Not really possible. Tiktok is for videos, which as we know can be utilized, but is not the most efficient method of marketing written word. Ao3 is an archive with an excellent tagging system, but to get readers, outside marketing is required. Facebook requires a real name, and isn't really well suited for content creation either. Wattpad, Royal Road, and others are great for posting actual works, but they don't necessarily have well-functioning tag systems that help the author find their audience. That really just leaves Tumblr. Pillowfort is also an option, though it's still so in the beginning phase of development that it's pretty difficult to get started there.

It's well known in marketing that images and videos catch attention and long paragraphs of text (AKA what most prose looks like) tend to be scrolled past. The very nature of the long-form writing medium is against most marketing techniques. Marketing long-form writing needs to look different from any other medium.

All that being said: the culture of social media engagement has shifted, and this is a conversation that fandom has been having and I think has actually been doing well discussing the different facets of how the culture has shifted. Fandom (and content creation in general) is seen as a commodity to be consumed. Consumers want to see the content, maybe save it for later, and then move on to the next piece. This is easily done with visual mediums, but writing mediums are especially vulnerable to this culture shift because it does require so much time and energy to consume, let alone engage.

Creators don't see their work as a commodity to be consumed, but it is now. When consumers view a piece of visual media, they view the image (consume it) and then move to the next, some will spread it to others by engaging with the picture through reblogs or sending the post to someone else. But most often, there will be a "like" to tell the creator good job, and then scroll to the next. This is harder to do with written media unless one has the time and energy to read the piece. There's the extra step of critical thought.

To put it a different way, the market is flooded with content and creators. With so much to choose from, the consumer now does not have to participate in the community to ensure continued creation. There will be another creator tomorrow. The consumer no longer feels connected to a community of their interests, it is simply being sold to them.

So back to writeblr, this is where I am at a crossroads. I am tired of creating content to be consumed, I want community. But also, I have nowhere else to turn. I can either completely withdraw from what sliver of community I have found, or I can keep trucking along, create my stuff, play the games we play, chat with the people I do like and do care about, and hope that I don't get too frustrated one day and leave for good.

[mundanemoongirl]

Writer Questionairre Tag

Thanks for tagging me @leahnardo-da-veggie! I did the part 2 questions

how long have you had your writing tumblr/writeblr? a fast and loose estimate is fine!

Exactly a year!

what led you to create it?

I saw other writeblrs and wanted to show off my writing too.

what’s your favourite thing about the writeblr community?

The games. It’s a fun way to connect with other writers.

what’s one thing you’d like your mutuals to know about you?

I’m not just into writing. I also love science!

is there anything you’d like to see more of on your dash?

Idk. I think my dash is great right now. I have a mix of a lot of things I like.

which wips or writing projects are you noodling about, lately?

Spiritwalker. Tbh I don’t even remember when I last worked on We Faceless Folk. I do have another idea…but I want to finish my current projects first.

how long have you been working on them?

I’ve been working on Spiritwalker for 3 years and We Faceless Folk for 1 year.

do you remember what inspired them/what got you started?

Yes! Spiritwalker was inspired by Kendara Blake’s Three Dark Crowns series and We Faceless Folk was inspired by a mix of one of Rotten Mango’s true crime podcasts, Going Dark by Melissa De La Cruz, and our sucky world in general.

how much time, in your best estimation, do you spend thinking about them?

Literally all day.

when someone asks the dreaded, “what do you write about,” question, what do you usually say?

Fantasy. It’s not all I work on, but it’s what I started with and what has my heart so that’s what I say.

name any characters you created. side characters, protagonists, antagonists, characters who’ve never been written, the first original abomination you ever pulled from your ass; whomever you’d like!

Ok, my main characters are Daron Spiritwalker, Maya Wisp, Catalina Hemlock, Aria Fang, Cassidy Tempress, and Naomi Lunaire. Some of my favorite side characters are Iris Arsonite, Amiliana Hemlock, Rosemary Nightshade, and Leon Starling.

who’s the most unhinged?

Maya. One of my favorite things to write is how unhinged she is. She once asked Daron to break her hand just for touching her.

who comes the most naturally for you to write?

Cassidy. I always say I ran out of character traits by the time I got to her so I modeled her after me.

do you ever cringe at them?

Yes.

how much control do you feel you have over your characters? do they ever “write themselves,” refuse to cooperate, or do things you didn’t expect? to what degree? are some less cooperative than others?

During my first draft I had complete control, but in the second draft I lost it. I think it’s so funny though because it’s like some of my characters were so upset at my failed attempts to get them right that they just took the keyboard from my hands and started writing themselves.

what makes you want to follow another writeblr account? do you follow ‘em as you see ‘em, or take time scoping out the blog to make sure you align with its content? do you follow based on wips, or vibes?

Sometimes I follow just to follow. Sometimes it’s because we have similar interests. Depends on my mood.

what makes you decide against following?

Idk I just feel sometimes that no one wants me to interact with them.

do you interact with non-mutuals often?

Not really. I don’t want to seem like a weird stranger randomly liking and reblogging from people who don’t know me.

do your mutuals’ characters occupy space in your noodle?

Some. There’s so many it’s hard for me to keep track lol

Gently tagging @pixies-love-envy @wyked-ao3 and anyone else who wants to answer! Feel free to use any or all of these questions

[vacantgodling]

Writeblr Interview

On the Tumblr Writing Community

How long have you had your writing Tumblr/Writeblr?

been on tumblr in some way since like 2013. been on writeblr specifically since like 2020-2021... ish?

What led you to create it?

ended up leaving twitter (back when it was still twitter) around the time the pandemic happened. i wanted to get back into tumblr because i'd been focusing mostly on twitter for awhile and the yeehan community/my old friends kinda weren't doing shit for me so i wanted to focus more on my original stuff. so i ended up making a writeblr when i heard that was a thing.

What’s your favorite thing about the Writeblr community?

how we really do just be on here talking about our blorbos and having a good time. its nice to have a place to escape with people who also get the importance of not being connected to reality at all times.

Is there anything you’d like to see more of on your dash?

i feel like ask games have kind of died down compared to how they were a few years ago so it'd be nice to make a resurgance of that.

What tips/advice do you have for someone who made a Writeblr today?

honestly just post what makes you happy and actually interact with other people. just trying to promote your own stuff doesn't really work (unless you're an artist tbh) but interacting with other people and making posts talking about what you're making with enthusiasm instead of the "woe is me idk how to talk about my wips but i hope someone will talk with me... :((" like bro idk just talk about it. have a good time. you don't have to follow for follow or follow someone just bc they're a writeblr either i kinda hate that shit. like only follow me if you're actually interested in my shit and vice versa. but that's just a pet peeve. tumblr isn't twitter we are about having a good time here not about promo.

WIP it Good

Which Works-in-Progress (WIPs) or writing projects are you noodling about, lately?

that's a funny way to put this. rn its mostly been tcol just because i've been on a worldbuilding history kick because i've been cramming my brain full of a fucking alternate history youtube channel that my brain is mildly hyperfixated on. but my brain kinda flip flops around to any of my main wips when its convenient.

How long have you been working on them?

tcol's a wip i've had since i was 12 so like. pff 14 years at this point? jesus it sounds so old when i put it like that. paramour just had its 3 year anniversary on 6/19. vdtrt i've also had since 12. btaf is a couple of months old. like. maybe 2 months old lmao.

Do you remember what inspired them/what got you started?

tcol -> the video game etrian odyssey, lotr, history (in general) paramour -> there's so many influences frfr. but the original start was crimson peak and wanting to make something like that but also beauty and the beast and goth lit or whatever vdtrt -> percy jackson btaf -> twilight, but specifically the bella pregnancy arc

How much time, in your best estimation, do you spend thinking about them?

literally all day every day in some capacity

When someone asks the dreaded, “What do you write about,” question, what do you usually say?

"fantasy" i don't really talk to people about my writing at all in general irl anymore tho. just sets up for annoyance and disappointment.

What do you want to say (if it’s different from what you do say)?

"fantasy" like. i really don't like people knowing about my wips esp if i don't think they have the bandwidth to appreciate them. not to sound uppity but like ik the people who i'm around and the shit that intrigues them is just worlds away from what i'm writing whether it be because its fantasy, because it's horror, or because it's queer.

Let’s Rotate Blorbos

Name any characters you created.

so as of counting (and not counting the plethora of flesh blood recently added to tcol) i've got 419 characters and counting. this also doesn't include any of the ocs i have with my partner which is a decent amount. i'll just stick with the mcs of the main wips. so those would be:

hyacinthus, amon, darren, sjaak, biscella, azelie, piper, forte, deux, san, clear

Who’s the most unhinged?

least to most hinged of this list:

SJAAK -> amon -> san -> piper -> hya -> clear -> deux -> biscella -> azelie -> darren -> forte

Who comes the most naturally for you to write?

hya and amon are the easiest to write because i've written them the most. darren is a close second but not first because his whole thing about not using adverbs really trips me up.

Do you ever cringe at them?

nah. i don't cringe at them. i disdain at them. but not really cringe. i get really bad secondhand embarrassment so i don't tend to make characters that make me have that actually cringe reaction.

How much control do you feel you have over your characters?

kinda a weird question for me but tbh i feel like its sort of a 50-50 situation. i tend to make characters firstly out of some utility (aka i need a character to fulfill this role in the plot) and then as i develop them its like the two of us become collaborators on writing the story together. sometimes characters can be a bit stubborn about what they do or don't tell me about their backstories (hya is notorious for this) but for the most part they can't really "hide" things from me or wholly not do what i want them to do. a lot of times i'm going to put them in a situation anyway, they just need to tell me how they'll react to it. if any of that makes sense.

Do you enjoy people asking questions about your characters?

of course :) i sound kind of dead in this questionaire because i'm at work ready to kms. but, sending me asks or talking to me on discord/tumblr messages about any of my idiots is always loved

On Writeblr Engagement

What makes you want to follow another Writeblr account?

i look at the vibes of the account, who they are, if they have an intro and what kind of wips they're writing. i mostly only follow people if i see that their wips interest me. some exceptions can be made, ie: if they interact with a lot of my stuff first and we become friendly and i'm not following them i'll follow after the fact and then get invested in whatever they're doing. but on initial contact i like to see who you are and if your wips are interesting to me.

What makes you decide against following?

wips don't interest me or have things in their wips/in their sphere of focus that i just don't care about or aren't really my cup of tea. like let's say someone puts in their wip/personal intro that they hate fantasy. i write fantasy all the time. so like. probably not gonna follow you. that kind of thing.

Do you interact with non-mutuals often?

not often? i wouldn't mind it bc i actually don't follow that many people (always under 100) but this is bc i can't keep up with people that much and i want to make sure i properly give attention to others if i'm going to be invested in them. but like. i enjoy talking to people about my shit so like. /shrug. i have way more followers than i follow which is why i mentioned i hate when people follow me just bc i'm another writeblr lol. i'd much rather you follow me because you have interest in Me but like, i can't control people frfr.

Do your mutuals’ characters occupy space in your noodle?

yeah! that's why i try to keep who i follow kind of in lower ranges. i have bad memory and it takes me awhile to warm up to people, but when i follow someone its because i want to be friendly and get invested in what they do. so like, i try to do that. i'm not the best but i do try.

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

Should I make a writertblr? I’m trying to get more into a writing community. I would love to geek out about some of my work and do the same for others. But I’m not like a professional writer or anything.

Do you have any tips for starting one? And what are the pros and cons?

UMM YES! If you want to, I would say go for it! I’ve been here for 8 years and tbh, I’ve never loved it more. There’s something really lovely about writeblr (this doesn’t feel like social media to me lol—and as a social media Person, that’s a huge thing!). You certainly don’t need to be a pro writer to be on writeblr—I think the majority of people I see/interact with aren’t! Writeblr is a really welcoming community for writers at all stages (in my experience).

Tips:

Don’t be afraid to talk about yourself & your work—people really like to see other writers being passionate. It’s kind of magnetic!

You can share as much or as little as you want about your projects. On writeblr, I find specificity matters less than genuine passion. You can totally be vague about what you’re writing if you want to (I just happen to share a LOT but most people I follow don’t—and I love that too!)

Interact with others if you like their work! I took about a year break from posting original content on here & within just like a month, I’d managed to recreate a beautiful community by interacting with folks on my dash! And it keeps growing and growing! In general I know most people really appreciate reblogs on their work, as this helps with reach & community building! I don’t think it’s weird at all on Tumblr to reach out to people when you like their stuff (even if you aren’t mutuals).

Figure out how you’d like to start. Lots of people start with writeblr intros & WIP intros but tbh, when I started here, that was not really a thing & I just posted whatever lol, so you can also take a more chill approach (or a mix of both!)

Follow the writeblr/writerblr tags! I have no idea which label is more popular now lol (I used to use writerblr but now I think it’s writeblr?? So I tag both!)

Not to be cliche but just be yourself. I’m so much happier with social media since I’ve started being myself & I genuinely think people respond well to that!

Customize your dash & unfollow/block when needed! This is pretty typical on Tumblr :)

Other people can weigh in on the finer details like creating tags for your work etc, but I honestly have never done this all that much besides vaguer tags I keep up with like #writing and #fostered for my projects HAHA (and even then I don’t tag my stuff)—and at this point I’m like well!!! It’ll be disorganized forever! But I know people have lots of very specific tags they create!

Pros and cons are hard to say. Biggest con might be not being able to delete other people’s reblogs haha (there’s some writing from years ago where I’m like… oh that’s immortalized - even then I don’t sweat that much :)) but Tumblr now has a new feature where you can turn off reblogs! Otherwise I don’t think I have other cons? I’ve found my experience really positive and I’ve been here for almost 10 years (omg 🥺).

If you do join, lmk, I’d love to follow you & check out your blog!

[albatris]

I’m a little awkward at social interaction, but gods if “. . . attention?” isn’t a mood. So a question! What part of your WIP do you consider the most underrated?

hello!! :D

ah, don't worry, I'm also awkward at social interaction ;-; I feel ya, I feel ya

a question! thank you for the question!!

hm, it's actually pretty difficult for me to pick parts of my WIPs that are the most underrated, I'm not sure how other people perceive them...!

I feel like some of ATDAO's more specific Adelaide/South-Australia-based jokes n things I poke fun at are probably gonna be a little underrated, 'cause they might only be properly funny to or even noticed by people who've lived in South Australia :P or perhaps even some of the broader Australia jokes? idk tbh

similarly for Rental Car and its alternate reality Australia where things like "Darwelaide" and "New South Queensland" exist.... in particular I think the existence of "Moppe" as an alternate reality version of "Broome" is fuckin hilarious but it's Only funny if you know that Broome exists and I don't know how many people are familiar with Australia's geography in that way??? I really have no concept :P

but ye, either way, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the ways I've tweaked real world Australia go a little underrated in a lot of circles, but especially in writeblr since a lot of my pals are all the way across the globe :P

but also I don't have a super great grasp on what the general Australia Vibe Knowledge is outside of australia so who knows

OH and for Rental Car, the Ethels, the Ethels, the Ethels. idk if they're underrated, but I've only really talked about like.... how they came to be, what their role is, that they're creepy as hell....... I haven't really talked About Them, as people. which is a topic that delights me

I legit ADORE the Ethel worldbuilding stuff and the freaky little system they've got going on

like don't get me wrong the Ethels are the worst but they do fascinate me so. they're one of my favourite little corners of Rental Car even though they make me so incredibly uncomfortable

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

hi, i'm someone who was in the violet vineyard discord before it was closed (and then archived, then deleted). i joined semi-recently and the entire time it was like a regular writing server. not around for the drama 'cause timezones.just want to say that the reason **given to the people in the server** for its closure was related to the mirror sites thing. some people on vv didn't like tumblr in general, this was just extra incentive to leave. mods said "a lot of people are leaving writeblr and

vv is a tumblr-based community so we're shutting down." mina herself said she'd leave discord and writblrr cuz security.  i personally did find their reasoning weird cause not a lot of vvers actually left writblr. ig cuz the mirror sites incident happened around the time that the drama happened it was convenient? (idk much about the drama btw, not one of the vvers involved)  also, i haven't had any negative experience in vv myself. other people haven't said anythng to me either

im a fly on the wall ig. the dogpiling was limited to just a couple of people who had been mina's friends. most of us didn't really keep up with the drama? i didnt engage with the drama myself, i just backread sometimes. im going anon not because im scared of the mods but because tbh idk what's even going on,dont have much info to give, this is wild to watch and also probs a waste of time. idk all i can say is that the server itself was never culty, normal writing server.

also not really secret? anyone could send in an application to join.   but again im a fly on the wall, this whole incident tbh is stupid to watch, tho honestly sometimes the behaviour of ppl clsoer to mina ws weird. didnt interact much w/them so didnt care. a lot of us didnt really even talk to mina? ever?  idk i just dont think id call it a cult. it was sketchy&i agree the closure was clearly mina trying to cover her back, but as long as you didn't engage with drama it was fine.

First of all. Mirror sites? Huh what huh? Was it one of those that uploads people’s stuff to make money off of? Cuz that would be an ironic reason to close, wouldn’t it? Forreal tho can someone fill me in on this cuz I’m curious and I would like to know.

I personally think that she’d probably leave with much more fanfare if she hadn’t been called out, to make sure as many of her existing audience would follow her to her new destination. Obviously we can all only speculate on why it happened and why the server closed. AND SPECULATE WE SHALL. LIKE VULTURES WE DESCEND UPON THE CARCASS OF THIS ONLINE PERSONALITY. Until I get bored, that is.

Second of all: Yeah, I imagine the vast majority of people in VV were probably super chill and not involved in the drama, just based on how huge the server was. And while it’s hard for me to judge what the atmosphere in there was like since I wasn’t in it, all my judgments are based on like, the most extreme reactions in the server/on tumblr itself, which will obviously consist of the most vocal minority. For what it’s worth, the cult comments are a jab at those people and not the rest. Again, I had friends in the server.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your experience!

[dove-actually]

Hey Dove!! For writerblr positivity week 🧇 🥞 🧈 and 🍳 because you said you struggled to pick just one 😉 (@kosmosian-quills)

Hey Abi ;) thanks for the ask and the chance to flail about MORE OF THE THINGS yes i love that

🧇 — Tell you about a WIP that I’m really excited to see more of!

@adie-dee ‘s sequel to Lies in the Lilies GDI I forgot its title LOST IN THE LILIES. (i knew it was an alliteration but I couldn’t think of the right word lol). Tbh if you haven’t checked out Lilies, GO FOR IT, it’s such a suspenseful adventure full of hot ridiculous buffoons dynamic and exciting characters and nail-biting twists.

🥞 — Talk about how much I love an OC of mine!

Since I’ve already extolled the virtues of Dayoni & Lady Ahni, let me now tell you about my actual protagonist, Lady Sarra. Sarra has so many traits I admire: loyalty, the desire to protect others, sharp wit, strategic thinking, AND the ability to beat absolutely anyone in a swordfight. (Seriously she’s probably the best sword-fighter in the world even though currently only she and I know that). And I know I’m biased because she’s mine, but I tbh find even her flaws -- distrust, grouchiness, stubbornness and occasional impulsiveness -- endearing.

🧈 — Compliment that last person in my notifications! 

[snort] well look who that is! 

I didn’t plan this I promise it just worked out this way?? lol

 I think we’re still semi-recent writeblr buddies, but tbh it was v quick love b/c (a) you WIP “Angel” looks an amazing celebration female friendship in a lot of ways, and I utterly adore Anjelika and her MOHs and all their interactions and (b) you’re so sweet and kind and supportive, and just a general delight to talk to. 

🍳 — Thank someone that’s made a huge impact on me and my writeblr experience!

I’m going to take this chance to thank @ardawyn and @cirianne both -- they’re among the first writeblrs I met here, and I fell in love with their WIPs almost instantly (if you haven’t seen The Dawnbringer and Blackborn by now, pls check them out b/c they’re beyond fantastic); but beyond that, their kindness and support truly helped coax me out of my introvert shell and emboldened me to explore more of writeblr and share my own work. Huge thank you and big hugs to both of you lovely, talented ladies 💕💕

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

if you really want advice: read books. GOOD books, not snarkable ones, ones that fill your soul even if they make you jealous. refilling the creative well is a commonly discussed issue in creative circles, and the basic truth is that you can't put out what you aren't putting in. (Also, frankly, as an aspiring author, writeblr comes across as self-congratulatory and toxic, and i've had a lot more luck finding CPs and even befriending published authors on twitter.)

Tbh this isn’t really about writeblr or about books. I have tried to leave writeblr and only interact with it the way a strange child would poke a cadaver with a stick and laugh when it twitches.

It’s more about me having all this pressure on me to produce content for so many different platforms and outlets and me just not feeling it. 

I’m just not feeling it, SpongeBob. 

And I do get that you need to refill your creativity sometimes, and I’m definitely working on doing that (though most of that creative juice has gone into a new WIP idea so whoops), but I’m an extremely slow reader and reading in general takes a lot of spoons for me because of my attention problems, so I dunno if it’s something I could do regularly enough that it’d “fix” me.