WIP Tag Game

I got tagged by the fantastic @knightsofeclipse with this game soooo long ago omg February, and now that I’ve got some brainspace I’m going to be spamming my lovely followers and taglist with all my backed up tag games.

1. When starting something new, how much do you know about the story before you start writing?
Some of my wips (Stillcity and The Gathering) have pages of outlining, backstorying, character developing and mapping (just The Gathering for mapping because for Stillcity that’s been kinda difficult lol) before I started actually writing. Other stories, admittedly ones that are being written on as much bad bexminx lol, only have a couple of characters and a setting or something.
A wip I think I introduced on here, can’t remember, Insurgence and Thrall, started as a fanfic idea with two characters and a Prince and the Pauper style theme.

2. What draws you to your WIP(s)? Why did you choose to write that/those over anything else?
I guess I write what I’d want to read. That’s it. I like rereading my stories (haha even though I get pissed that author doesn’t finish most of them). And sometimes it’s because I feel like I’ve got something different or significant to add to the world… But that feeling comes and goes.

3. Favorite writing spot? Why?
Ooooh my stars, I’m so bad with my writing habits. I sit slouched on the couch with my laptop on my knees. A coffee by my side and often a crappy video playing for background noise in half-screen. I can see out the windows and skylights so it still feels like I have a touch of the world around me.
I am however working on getting a proper battery for my laptop so I can be more than three feet away from a powerpoint and therefore widen my horizons when I’m writing… Possibly out in the courtyard under the tree. I like that idea.

4. Share your favorite line of what you’ve written so far!
I feel like I should totally have a document with lines that make me go ‘Ooooh yeah, that was good!’ I’m going to go with this though…

Even the oldest in Stillcity couldn’t remember the time spoken of only in myth when the land moved in predictable, ordered stateliness after sunset, and uncounted star-turns ago the lands of Tírathrú had gained the name The Undulating Lands or The Mother of Many Faces.

5. If you had to choose one OC to bring to life as an actual person, which one would it be and why?
I think Cait from my wip Stillcity. She started as a side character who was going to play a minimal role and now she’s rapidly becoming a linchpin of Book Two. She’s a sarcastic smartass who loves learning… And I bet she could help me sort out some gosh-darn world-building issues I’ve been having because she’s spent her whole life learning about the Undulating Lands.

6. Are you looking to get published? If so, do you hope to make it a career?
I’d love to get published and I will one way or another at some point. I’ve self-published a book of poems (something I’ll probably do again before I look like publishing a novel) and that got me the bug of seeing my work in print and watching other people read my stuff. It’s still scary knowing that people I know are reading my work, but it’s exciting scary lol.

7. What’s something you would read but would never write (or the other way around)? Any reason?
I love reading political thrillers and mysteries. I’d love to write them too, but I don’t have the twisty, scary-smart brain or the attention span to write something convincingly intrigue-y. I don’t think… Maybe some day…

8. What’s something you are most proud of about your work so far?
I love my fight and battle scenes. I’ve been told I do them pretty well and I’m working on admitting that I think I do them well too. Also, I’m proud of my poetry book because it turned out awesome lol. I think I need to work poetry into my wips more Tolkien I’m not, but I like my poetry.

9. Badly describe your WIP(s) in one sentence
The Mother is pissed so the earth moves and people fight over still ground and social norms.

10. Why did you want to be a writer?
Well it all started (oh yes, I’m going far back) with my Dad being a poet. I’ve loved words from a very young age and a love of reading translated smoothly into the urge to create my own worlds and characters. Sometimes I feel like my words are more real than I am, like I’m just a way for the worlds in my head to become real.
It’s funny, I sometimes try and think about the world from the point of view of someone who doesn’t have a thousand stories swirling through their head, a thousand unreal people from a thousand worlds that never existed living inside them… I can’t do it. I can’t imagine what it would be like to not write.

Tagging @marewriteblr @vhum @sheabutterskyes @esoteric-eclectic-eccentric @writingwordsanddrawingpictures @intheeunder@aarrimas @thatchaoticneutraltrainwreck @ivegotfireforaheart-studyrecipe @focusdumbass @cawolters @jaywrites101 @writings-of-a-narwhal @drist-n-dither @inkspilledqueen (if you’re not doing tag games just give me a shout because I’ll be doing a few of these. No pressure to do the game either :) Just tagging you because I like you and feel free to tag me and do it if I missed you I’m so disorganized)

So, it’s been a hot minute (actually since 2019) that I have consistently partaken of the joys of the writeblr community, and I think I’m back :) Tomorrow I will be posting my second tag game post in soooo long, and it will be my first proper tag game with a taglist attached.

I’m mostly posting this to sound out my old (oh so very old) taglist and see who would still like to be tagged. If you want to be removed from the tag games and excerpts taglist just holler at me lol. And I do apologize if you have requested to be removed before, there will be actual organization this time in the updating of the list.
Also, if you would like to be added to my tag list (for writeblr tag games) also give me a holler.

Going forward, there will be (intermittent) tag games, and my goal is to finish this particular rewrite of my beloved WIP Stillcity before I go grey of hair and lined of face. To narrow that down a little, I hope to get through the rewrite before the end of May. In aid of this, tag games galore lol.

For anyone interested in catching up on my previous Stillcity worldbuilding and assorted posts, the link is Stillcity.

Yes, so, tagging @knightsofeclipse @writingwordsanddrawingpictures @cawolters @jaywrites101 @raevenlywrites @dramaticvoiceover @druidx @pens-swords-stuff @innocentreticent

So, I’m very behind on my tags lol. I was tagged in variations of this game by @drist-n-dither @focusdumbass and @jaywrites101. Thanks peeps and sorry for the late response. The WIP I’m using for this is Stillcity (Book One of The Undulating Lands).

Rules: Go to your current wip, seventh page, seventh line, paste the seven sentences following that line here and then tag seven people.

‘…Now get out of my kitchen so I can finish the honey biscuits you love so much, I’m sure Ciaran is dying to get out of house and spend some time with you.’ 

Dorrell smiled fondly at his fiery sister, able to see the deep love that lived beneath her brusque manner. Leaning over Edana and kissing her fleetingly on the cheek Dorrell turned to find Ciaran standing in the doorway and smirking at him. Attempting to look serious Dorrell said, ‘Well? Are you going to stand there grinning like a halfwit or are you going to get your knife and see if we can’t hunt your aunt some juicy rabbits to improve her mood?’ 

The look of joy and love shining brightly in his son’s eyes warmed Dorrell to the core. He waited for the boy to snatch up his knife belt then they were out of the door and off towards the city gate and the unknown of the land outside. Long legs settled in an easy lope and within fifteen minutes the pair had found a small grove of trees that looked like it could contain a rabbit’s temporary nest or at least a few birds of some type.

Tagging @knightsofeclipse @crowswritetoo @vhum @focusdumbass @jaywrites101 @writings-of-a-narwhal @intheeunder

I was tagged by the charming and splendidly creative @vhum in this tag and I feel like I have a couple of new followers so it will be a good one to do :)

What genre(s) you write

Fantasy – I would class my WIPs as mostly fantasy/adventure/romance :)
Lol now that I come to write this however, I realize that most of my fanfiction isn’t fantasy and could be classified as Angst/HurtComfort.

What’s on your reading wish list

I’ve just read ‘The Name of the Wind’ (omfg love love love), so the rest of that series is on my wishlist. I’m having a Stephen King craving at the moment so I might burn through Firestarter, 11.22.63 and maybe Needful Things. Also I feel like it’s been a while since I read my Neil Gaiman collection, so there’s that to lose myself in too :D Oh and David Gemmell. And Raymond Feist. And there’s my reading for the rest of the year <3

Your favorite character from your current WIP

From Stillcity… I find it really hard to pick a favorite. Currently it would probably be Ciaran, but that’s because I’m rewriting a really angsty bit about him and it involves a lot of fight scenes, which I looooove writing.

In my new WIP Tempus Fugit - The Time Creature, it would be Alawin, the future-hunter. I haven’t written very much for her yet, but she’s awesome and I’m in love with the story idea even though it has so far to go.

Some writing tropes you like

Happy endings. I went through a phase of dark and tragic, but I just love me a happy ending when characters have had a dark and tragic time. Found family is always a fave too :)

The story behind your WIP’s name

Stillcity is the titular city where the majority of the story (first book at least) is set. It took me a loooooong time to settle on this title and it still may change, but I feel like ‘Stillcity - Book One of The Undulating Lands’ sounds cool and intriguing.

Are you a pantser or plotter?

A bit of both. I try and plan, but I very often go off-script, awol and rogue lol.

Do you post your work somewhere?

I have excerpts, world-building and random trivia on my WIPs on here lurking in the depths of my writeblr. I’ve attempted to tag my excerpts etc to make them easy to find, but I’m unsure how well I’ve done that.

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

Yup yup, I love me some fanfiction. I write AU angst and hurt/comfort and really tend to read the same. Fanfiction has been a huge influence on me for many years and a lot of my favorite stories that I come back to again and again are fanfics.

Your favorite dessert. Because why not.

Trifle. Hands down. Give me a good old English trifle with jelly, fruit, sponge, custard and a cubic craptonne of sherry mixed in… Mmmmyumyumyum.

Alrighty… Tagging @cawolters, @thatchaoticneutraltrainwreck and @sheabutterskyes for this one, but if you like this game then feel free to do it and tag me so I can see your answers :)

Last Line Tag

I was tagged last month by the fabulously fantastic @vhum in this last line tag and because I’ve been so marvelously slack I’m only just getting round to it.
So, here is my last two paragraphs (mainly because I’ve written new stuff for the Stillcity draft four and I’m so happy to be adding instead of editing).

To the best of his ability Torin projected a convincing façade of ‘okay’ to cover the yawning emptiness that ate away at him and as long as nobody looked too closely he appeared to be his old self. He joked his way through trainings and socialized with the Guards in his squad almost as much as he ever did, but when he was alone he existed in a twilight state of blank mourning.

Nearly three moon-turns after the Battle of Last Resort, Torin wandered listlessly into the barracks and was jolted out of his daze by the sight of a pristine, cream-coloured envelope resting on his pillow. Never having received a letter from anyone apart from the royal clerks, Torin opened the envelope with a certain amount of confusion.

Tagging @mvcreates @writingwordsanddrawingpictures @intheeunder @writings-of-a-narwhal @thatchaoticneutraltrainwreck @aarrimas @focusdumbass @ivegotfireforaheart-studyrecipe @marewriteblr @cawolters and @knightsofeclipse (hope you don’t mind being tagged because I’ll be doing a few of these in the next few days hopefully lol).

So I haven’t done a tag game for freaking ages (thanks for keeping on tagging me, I swear I’ll catch up on some of them eventually). This is from back at the beginning of April when @cawolters tagged me in a last line tag. Lol my last line is not from April, it’s from just now. 

The crash of the battering ram mingled with the roar of the Míshásta soldiers, a terrifying thud that sounded like the heartbeat of the Mother herself. Even through the battle-haze that filled his mind Torin felt a chill of fear, but he gritted his teeth and sank into a fighting stance, feeling the strength of his sword-brothers beside him and the stones of his city firm beneath his feet.

Whoo! Battle scene :D Lol I seem to write a cubic-craptonne of those. Stay tuned for more tag games from me and drop me a message if you want to be added to the #Stillcity tag or just be tagged in tag games :)
Tagging @marewriteblr @vhum @sheabutterskyes @esoteric-eclectic-eccentric @writingwordsanddrawingpictures @intheeunder @aarrimas @thatchaoticneutraltrainwreck @ivegotfireforaheart-studyrecipe

Back into my tag games of yore lol, this one was from March again. I was tagged by @jaywrites101​ and got to read about her amazing female characters… I thought I would use this to have fun with and basically create a couple of wonderful women in my new WIP Tempus Fugit - The Time Creature.

Characters - Alawin Thess (A) and Keril Parrah (K).

Rules: Answer these seven questions in the voice of a female OC and then tag others.

Who was your mother and what did she teach you?

A: My mother is Shalara Thess, teacher of everything. Haha, no, well, kinda. She’s the head of the Harmonium, the school in our home, Holdring Fen. She’s fifty-five and has pretty much taught everyone in Fen for their formative years.
What has she taught me… She’s my hero really, she taught me everything honestly. How to be strong, how to look at the world and find the treasure wherever it’s hidden, how to learn, how to treat others… My mother is amazing.

K: Oh come on Alawin, really? You haven’t left me anything to say. So, Shalara has pretty much raised me too because my parents were too busy running away from the Orderfolk and stealing things to actually take care of me. She taught me that blood doesn’t make you and thanks to her I ended up in the raphern apprenticeship program. If it wasn’t for Shalara I would never have had the chance to find out that I have a talent for raphei magic or that folding starril was what my hands do best.

Do you have any sisters (related or not)?

A: Keril is my sister in every way that matters. I wouldn’t be half the woman I am without her. I do have a kin-sister, but she’s almost six years younger than me and she went to live in Holdring Dell over by Eastlake a while back so we never see each other.

K: Shadows save us! Winwin! Are you trying to make me cry? Hush your mouth and stop making me blush. Seriously though, Alawin is my sis from Shalara-miss. She’s been beside me through everything and just between you and me, she was the one responsible for talking the whole Harmonium into singing off key that one time, I had nothing to do with it.

A: Nightghosts take you Keril! How old am I going to be before you stop calling me Winwin! I thought you grew out of that…

K: *smirks triumphantly*

How has your gender shaped your path in life?

A: Being a woman has been really helpful in my life as a future-hunter. The time creatures of all kinds are well known to respond better to female hunters as a general rule. No one really knows why, and there are male hunters who are very successful, but all of the scholars who study Timekind agree that women are more likely to enrapture them and be gifted a futureview.

K: Having small hands is good for rapherns, so that’s played in my favor. Being a woman… There are a few who reckon that men are better at magic in general, but that attitude is way better than it was and seems to be dying out for the most part.

What does the woman you admire look like? Who is she?

A: I think I ranted about my mother in a previous question. And Keril. And I better not talk about Keril any more because her head will get too big to fit through the archways in the Holdring Main Circle. If you’re after a description, my mother… She has curly dark hair that falls to her shoulders and blue-beaded plaits behind her ears that are almost down to her hips. Her skin is darker than mine, but I didn’t inherit the golden tones she got from the Yilliren blood on her father’s side. She always wears the red head-scarf that signifies her status as a teacher in the Harmonium. As long as I can remember she has dressed in practical leathers coupled with earth-toned wraps.

K: You know what I’m going to say Winwin. Nothing you can do about it, nope, covering my mouth won’t work! 

*Brief pause for scuffling*

Alawin is the woman I admire! Hah! Said it and I’m not taking it back. She’s got long, black, curly hair that hardly ever goes frizzy and dark brown eyes that are almost black. She’s got gorgeous deep brown skin and the biggest smile ever. And she’s short and tough and… Hey! She didn’t describe me as her most admired woman! Oh my wounded heart… How dare she say that someone as awesome as me has a big ego!

A: Just ignore her, she’ll go on like this for a while. *whispers* Honestly, I do admire Karil, Dammit. Okay, so I admire Karil. She’s so tall that she gives me a crick in my neck sometimes and it’s great that she can get things down for me from high places. She’s got long pretty light brown hair that reminds me of autumn and greeny-blue eyes. Sometimes I worry that she’s so skinny, I’ve seen her forget to eat for a couple of days, but then I see her inhale a whole loaf of bread in one sitting and I don’t worry so much. Oh yeah, and she’s so pale that I’ve seen her get sunburned walking between patches of shade. I think that’s about it.

K: There. Was that so hard? Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go put something on my sunburn and eat a whole chicken. *sticks out tongue*

Why do you think women are considered the gentler sex?

A: Gentler sex huh? I like your sense of humor. I haven’t met anyone tougher than me except my mother. Oh and Keril definitely isn’t any gentler than any of my male friends.

K: Yeah, that sort of thinking fell out of fashion a while ago. The last guy to try and treat me like a delicate flower got pushed in the lake. Admittedly that was when we were about four years old.

What is a piece of your personality that you’re proud of?

A: I’m generally pretty proud of myself really. I’m a good person and I try to make other people’s lives better as much as I can. What can I say, my parents are a couple of great role models and Karil doesn’t let me get away with being an ass for very long.

K: I’m wonderful too! Better than Alawin, that’s for sure! Haha just kidding, honestly I’d say it’s my fantastic outlook on life and my sense of humor. Even Winwin will admit, I’m just a ray of sunshine come to earth.

A: *muttering darky* I’ll give you blood Winwin.

When did you accept your own body and its strengths/weaknesses?

A: When I was younger I was a bit jealous of Karil and the other girls who could wear dresses and not look like a dressed up marlcow, but I got over that when I was in my mid-teens. Being strong and tough lets me do things on my own and I’ll admit that I like being able to rely on myself and my strengths.

K: Now it’s my turn to give Alawin a big head. She kind of knows this, but I’ve always been a bit envious of how strong she is. And fit. Oh spirits preserve me, she could run rings about me while I’d be busy passing out. That being said though, I believe I’m doing precisely what my body is made for and I’ve never really been terribly critical of my physical shape and that.

Tagging @pens-swords-stuff @writingwordsanddrawingpictures @marewriteblr @intheeunder @aarrimas @thatchaoticneutraltrainwreck  @vhum @cawolters@sheabutterskyes @focusdumbass @storiesandaisies @bookishdiplodocus @inkspilledqueen @drist-n-dither @fourohfourlifenotfound (remember just give me a shout if you don’t want to be tagged in tag games :) I don’t want to be tagging you if you’d rather not).

Lol so I have not been posting very much actual writeblr stuff at all. Here is a random last line of what I’ve been writing because I have been writing a little. And in fact, now that I post this, I realize that this is more of a last paragraph :P (Rules - If you feel like it please post your last line and tag me so I can see, no pressure if you don’t want to).

Delicate bells began to ring in mournful tones, intertwining with the vocal melody and echoing over the still land. In unison the green-robed Healers bowed their heads and moved their hands in the graceful gestures of consecration, guiding the souls of the departed on their way. Along with many others Torin bowed his own head and let his hands dance through the series of movements, sending a silent prayer to the Mother for peace for Dorrell’s soul.

Tagging my taglist :) You may have forgotten about me because I never post… @writingwordsanddrawingpictures @marewriteblr @intheeunder @aarrimas @thatchaoticneutraltrainwreck @ivegotfireforaheart-studyrecipe @cawolters

Favorite First Line Writing Tag

rules: pick a favorite first line from a scene or chapter in your book or story and share it. then tag four people to share their first lines!

I was tagged by the lovely @luna-evans-writes

As Torin opened his eyes to the first light of a new dawn he spent a few disoriented moments trying to figure out where he was, why his barracks bed felt like a pile of dirt, and why, oh why was his right arm deader than a week old corpse.

Tagging: @writings-of-a-narwhal @drist-n-dither @knightsofeclipse @sheabutterskyes