On Leaving Or Dying 

You know what? Maybe the iceberg on top is how much words there are on the paper. But you wrote that entire chunk of rock. Because a word is not just a word. With every sentence you weave, you are conveying a multitude of meanings, you are juggling different characters with different agenda’s, you have pages of background info rolling around in your head.  After writing, the iceberg may just be two characters having dinner together and talking about their spaghetti for a full paragraph. Yet beneath the surface you have written two characters carefully scanning each other’s reactions for any sign their dinner-date is in love, too.  The iceberg might be a stiffening of character A’s stance, a look, the balling of fists. But you know the trauma that happened when A was sixteen and you have been digging and groping for the most subtle and yet most right way to convey that.  For every action you write, you have written thoughts, discussions, motivations in your head. For every scenery you have plannend a country. Even if you only write a hundred words per hour, you are writing half a life. And your readers might not see the entirety of your work. But as they admire the iceberg, part of their awe will come from sensing something vast and enourmous underneath the water.  

working on my Sheith fantasy au and it’s… going. slowly

Because the story of your life // becomes your life 

- Lisel Mueller 

Phoebe Bridgers, I Know The End / Augusto Boal, Theatre of the Oppressed / Lisel Mueller, Why We Tell Stories / Sleeping at Last, East / Pat Barker, Silence of the Girls / Brandon Melendez, How to Write the Quantum Mechanics Uncertainty Principle into a Promise to Return Home / Lisel Mueller, The Story / Richard Siken, Litany in Which Certain Things are Crossed Out 

25 Writing Questions

Tagged by the amazing @ally-thorne. Thanks!

1. Is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason? Apart from a few vague ideas, I'm holding off two major ones at the moment. I don't want to let them interfere with my current WIP.

2. What work of yours, if any, are you embarrassed about existing? Not many, actually. I've written a lot of bad stuff, (I'm still writing a lot of bad stuff), but that's how a writers grows. What I ám embarrased about is that I've allowed some people back then to read those pieces. Grown up people. Who knew full well how awful it was.

3. What order do you write in? Front of book to back? Chronological? Favorite scenes first? Something else? I mostly write from start to finish – not a chronological line per se, but the order in which I want my readers to read it. Sometimes I jot down little things for future scenes, but I don't fully write them till I reach the right point in the story.

4. Favorite character you’ve written? This is damn near impossible, but I think at least one of my favorites is Frank, a character from the only novel-lenght story I ever finished, called The Seasonschildren. He is gentle and stubborn in his beliefs and he tries so hard to fight in all the little ways for his great cause. He wants to keep all his loved ones safe, but he also feels so much pressure to keep all other people safe. I think he's one of the most human characters I've written, a balans of bad and good that turned out real well.

5. Character you were most surprised to end up writing? The Clockworker surprised me. He’s another characters from The Seasonschildren. The work is set partly during World War II, something I didn't expect to write in general, since I don't generally like war stories. He's not sympathetic and quite a bad father (though he tries, in his own way), and he doesn't grow in that aspect. He became a fascination to me.   

6. Something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late / complicated to change now If I am convinced it should be changed, I change it, no matter how much work it is (or I lose interest in the story altogether). Right now, I am considering wether or not I should get rid of one of the characters in my current WIP.

7. When asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write? I used to be embarrased (really embaressed, I actually hid the fact that I wrote completely till I was fourteen), but now I'm enthusiastic! Especially in college, where I am surrounded by people who love art and creativity, and who genuinly want to hear about it.

8. Favorite genre to write Fantasy and childrens literature will always have a special place in my heart.

9. What, if anything, do you do for inspiration? I mostly try to find places with a good view to sit, and I listen a lot of music that makes me feel things. Sometimes I rewatch scenes from movies or series.

10. Write in silence or with background music? Alone or with others? Silence and background music are both fine, it depends on my mood and what I am writing. I always write alone, thought I sometimes do so surrounded by others (during lectures, for example).

11. What aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing? The first story I wrote was this: 'Kees wanted a chicken. He did not get a chicken. He did get a cat. He plays with the cat.' My plotting stayed somewhat the same, but I'd say I'm more creative with words now.

12. Your weaknesses as an author? I'm not that good at plot, and I can never finish a single thing.

13. Your strengths as an author? I like playing with words, which I think strengtens my descriptions. And I can create likable characters (I hope).

14. Do you make playlists for your work? No.

15. Why did you start writing? Well, the first time I ever wrote a story I was four, so I don't know. But when it moved from something all kids do to something that felt special to me, I think it was the need to escape and the need to explore. I was eleven, I disliked my life and I wanted to go on adventures.  

16. Are there any characters who haunt you? I've got some characters that have been with me for years, even though I still haven't written their stories. And their are characters types I somehow always end up writing, like two young kids, a shy boy and an adventurious girl. They come around in my work in different forms fairly often.

17. If you could give your fledgling author self any advice, what would it be? I am still a fledgling author, but I would advise myself not to be ashamed so much, and just enjoy having a passion. Let go of that perfection.

18. Were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? What were they? I have this thing were I can copy a style pretty easily, but only just after reading it. It doesn't stick. I think my style is a combination of hundreds of books.

19. When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, etc.? Endless lists, fifteen documents, drawing with colours and arrows.

20. Do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts? Either, depending how much time I've got.

21. What do you think when you read over your older work? Most of it makes me cringe. I used to be horribly pretentious. But cringing means you've gotten better, right?

22. Are there subjects that make you uncomfortable to write? Among the things I actually want to write about, I mostly struggle with representing minorties that I do not belong do. I think it's hugely important to be diverse, but I' scared as hell of doing it wrong. So I tend to ask around a lot.

23. Any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing? Maybe my dad? He loves fantasy and he's got a lot of swords, and he knows material arts. So I learned some usefull fighting techniques at young age and I could get easy information/access to swords.  

24. Have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or a story? I always do a lot of research, so now I know, among other things, how to built a clock, the etiquettes of duelling and ervything about being epileptic in 1800.

25. Copy / paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of.

Most of my scenes I only like in context of the full story, or because they sound nice (but I write in Dutch, so these are hard to translate). I guess I like this bit: 'Look, growing up with four brothers and sisters, you learn at a very young age that your toys are never yours. Sooner or later they are going to be broken by someone who shouldn't have had his hands on them in the first place. Same goes for your plans, mate. Someone will always fuck it up, no matter how many times you lock the door. You just gotta glue the arms were the legs are supposed to be and laugh about it.' I'll tag @sancta-silje, @gracebabcockwrites, @create-and-procrastinate, @dreamsofbooksandmonsters and @anightravensecho. Only if you guys want to!

A moodboard for the soldier Jackson. Hope you like it, @spaceinvaydr! 

Girlpool—Before the World Was Big // memorial bench quoting Toni Morrison's Sula // @inanotherunivrse // Iain S. Thomas, I Wrote This For You // Zadie Smith, Swing Time // Fall Out Boy—The Kids Aren't Alright // Audrey Emmett // Mikko Harvey, "For M" // Mahmoud Darwish, Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut, 1982 (tr. Ibrahim Muhawi) // Langston Hughes, "Poem"

Hi everyone!

Do you know that feeling that you are writing a story, and for once, you are not suffocating in self-doubt? For once, you are actually quite happy with what you’ve written? You might have fallen in love with your own plot and characters, and the only thing you really want to do is delve into a fandom and share that love... right till you realize your novel hasn’t been published yet. Well, if you do, than this blog is the place you were looking for. I love talking about writing, and I love aesthetics, which means I will gladly make a moodboard for any character you entrust me with. You can give me directions, colors, specific wishes and whatever you want, but simply telling me about your character may also do the trick. The more details, the better it will be, thought! I hope there’s a little interest in this idea, and I hope to hear from all of you. Happy writing!

ethan

Hey everybody!

I've been hanging around on this blog for a while now. Seeing all your amazing projects combined with the enthusiasm of the lovely @anightravensecho and @dreamsofbooksandmonsters has convinced me to introduce myself a little more clearly ^^.

My name is Anne. I'm a student and enthusiastic reader and writer. I started this blog because I make aesthetics moodboards when I'm stressed and I enjoy talking about writing projects. I thought I should combine the two and make fanart for WIP's and OC's. I'll certainly continue this, but I want to throw in some more writing-related stuff, too!

I used to be hooked on fantasy, and though this genre still has a special place in my heart, I now read (and write) anything and everything. I play a lot with diversity and (art-) history in my work. My current WIP is called Elementary (as a working title). It's a historical fantasy, set in England around 1800. It’s about a band of traveling artists/magicians (The Elements), each of them having left their homes and joined the group for their own reasons. I follow a couple of them throughout the story as they slowely split up.

I'd love to hear all about your work! Please do come into my inbox for a ramble, a question, a talk, a rant or to request an aesthetic moodboard. And maybe like or reblog this, so I can check out your blog!

Love and happy writing! 

Anne Sexton, Suicide Note, The Complete Poems / Maud Hart Lovelace / Unknown / Unknown / Edgar Allan Poe / F. Scott Fitzgerald / Al Bernstein / Unknown / John Keats, To the Ladies who Saw Me Crowned /  Louisa May Alcott, Little Women / Frederick Seidel, June, The Cosmos Trilogy / Unknown / L. M. Montgomery / Iris Murdoch, The Italian Girl / Unknown / Greg Sellers, haiku journal entry, 16 June 2019 / Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath / Scout Clementine / James Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfal

Local Magicians Accidentally Start Gangwar to Save Society They Hate or Ten Things You Should Not Do with Art

New Game: Summarize how your WIP begins as a clickbait title

For example:

Local Teens Trapped in Fake Dating Scandal Spend the Day Psychologically Torturing Each Other