My Main Oc Has Me Bsing My Way Through Blacksmithing...

⁉️"what do you do when stuck on a scene?"

❤️"what are your favorite scenes from your WIPs?"

Honestly? When I am stuck on a scene, there are two things that could immediately happen. I just decide to time skip to a different scene as a temporary fix, or (the reason I have so many WIPs) start a new story because my brain churns out new story ideas. Worst case scenario, the story gets abandoned for a few months only for me to decide to rewrite it entirely and, in such rewriting, circumvent the scene that had bothered me or write it in a way that I like. Rarely do I ever erase a scene to write a new one. Often, for me, it's the case of the story wanting the scene for reasons unexplained to my conscious mind, but rewriting the scene tends to help.

For my favorite scene, it has to be the opening scene for Stars Of The Sky. I am not going to write it out here, but I feel that it is a perfect blend between describing the scenery, the area around the main character and the main character herself while not throwing every detail out. It describes major things for the scenery, then describes Hades, the main character, and then a mix of the two without putting every little detail in one paragraph, but over many paragraphs, and it helps establish a bit about Hades' Clan while still giving her the primary spotlight. It was also done in a way that I haven't done before, which made it enjoyable to do because it was new to me while maintaining my style of not immediately using the mc's name.

I've posted seven sentences of this opening scene, but not the entire opening scene. Just a small chunk. In total, the scene is 765 words, which... It is only a coincidence that the number does that (counts down). I don't really plan scenes, especially at the start of my stories, but I like how this one turned out.

Note that this gives me permission to infodump back. Fair exchange.

Reblog this if you encourage/really want people (especially but not just moots) to infodump in your inbox and dms

Oh, that is nothing compared to what happens to humans if a dark god takes control of them. They become monsters that look vaguely humanoid, but are definitely not human. They also become bloodthirsty freaks in this state.

And this happens primarily when a human uses a weapon/item with the dark God's name etched in it.

These creatures are different from the followers of dark gods, but I am not going to get into that.

Magic system

How many WIPs

And

Challenges you have faced with your WIPs

Thank you for the ask <333

There's an essay incoming, beware

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How Many WIPs?

I have no less than four novel-intended wips (Flamebearer, A Healing for the Birds, Soulswapped and the Lady's Lament), plus a few shorter works (The Disappearance of Charimone Eschredaine, [Succession of the Underground*] and [The Assassin's Promise*]) and a developing anthology of certain characters' backstories (This Blood-Stained Charcuterie)

*Placeholders; I've no clue what to call them yet

Challenges Faced With WIPs

A Healing for the Birds:

The main challenge with this is dealing with all the plot threads. One thing that has remained consistent even after all the changes since the first ever iteration of this wip (it used to be called Seafarer, then Obsidian Sapphires, and now this), is there being loads of plot threads. The difference is now those plot threads are more centred around the Allaitri Chalice and the political chaos of it being unearthed.

Up until recently, I wasn't sure what the core of the story was, but now I know. It centres around familiar ties and the things that people do in the name of love. (Sounds a bit corny out of context, though lol)

Flamebearer

I put this one on hold because I know it's going to be complex due to the heavy political themes in this. Unlike A Healing for the Birds, where the political situation is a little bit lighter and more petty, in a sense, the political scene is very charged here. There's a lot of resentment pointed towards the royal family due to things like Serrantine trying to rejoin Selade or the legacy of the Twenty-Year Winter, leading to unrest, death, grief, a lot more sombre and complex issues to deal with. I hope to be more confident in my writing so I can do Flamebearer justice, I find people seem to really like the premise and starting ideas, its associated Flash Friday pieces do quite well 😅

Soulswapped

Again, another wip put on ice to focus on the bird wip. I do want to get back to this at some stage, I have some vague ideas for how I want it to play out. I don't envision it to be as long as the two above, because its concept (the main character has to fight her way out of jail and the court it's in) is more constrained. There's nowhere near the amount of plot strings here. (The darker intrigue happens around the end/slightly thereafter 👀)

The Lady's Lament

I do not have experience writing contemporary stuff, which I think is what made it hard to start it. The concept's there, easy enough, but it's just actually sitting down and planning it that's the main thing.

Another challenge that is unique for this one to an extent, is the presence of Gaeilge here. The book is intended to be an ode to Irish culture, and if I was to complete it, I do intend for there to be a Gaeilge translation.

This Blood-Stained Charcuterie

One word: timeline. The setting for this collection has thousands of years worth of history, and so the challenge is figuring out who killed who and when. And not to mention all the stuff going on in the background, some of it is more influential than others.

The Magic System

Basically, it's based on the idea of magic being a biological substance present in the world. Most living things have a tolerance for it, but not all living things can actively use it.

Even then, there's two broad categories; faerie creatures, whom rely on simpler magic like moving things or simple tricks, and then the faeries/Carithaikh [start with one fae/one human parent, subsequent generations by any combination that isn't two faeries; these people can also be dubbed as witches], who can perform magic in a wide variety of ways.

Most people are born with an affinity to an element (such as fire, plant, water/ice, air, light, shadow, blood, lightning, dust, rock, metal, etc), which is then honed as the person gets older. It is also possible to learn certain elements, but some are harder than others, going on into near-impossible (e.g, it's hard to learn fire if one doesn't have an affinity for it [the genes of those who do are adapted to prevent burns and manage the heat more efficiently], but water is fairly easy to learn).

Another aspect that some people have but is much less common, are skill-based abilities. Shapeshifting and teleporting are the most common ones, but there's also a select few who can weave souls or see/interact with the domain of the spirits. Those last two are about one or few in a generation. (And interestingly, in Helinda there's no records of anyone who can interact with the spirit world, likely because Helindians burn their dead!)

But sometimes you'll get people with bespoke abilities. Some are merely unusual powers, such as purple fire, wood manipulation, blending with the shadows etc.

Others, are actual divine elements. They manifest as fire, light or water, and usage of then can have catastrophic effects. If the user doesn't die after using divine magic, it can cause things such as blindness, burns, nerve damage/neuropathy, constant dehydration, reduced magical abilities/stamina, chronic fatigue and/or other symptoms.

If the user has a part of a deity's soul entwined with them, then the effects are mitigated to an extent. (It occurs frequently with Fate's reprisals [her element is blue fire])

And then, there's also the external systems. These rely on the magic of the world instead of/as well as the user's. Things like runes, languages, diagrams, items, gestures and/or other tangible things are used for them.

These systems vary from place to place and between cultures, they're like programming languages in a sense. Each system has strengths and weaknesses.

For instance, Helinda's five-pointed star is great if you are a) in Helinda [or Morilaste]** b) looking to do things like a locating or summoning* spell, as well as anything relating to Helindian geography. It's great with maps!

However, it's not great for highly complex spells with lots of rules. That's where Seldaika's system shines. It has a four-pointed star, but the main mode of it is its language. It's a spell language, the grammar and vocabularly are tailor-made to support spells. Intention is also important, which is an aid in differentiating normal speech from a spell. Gestures also come into play, as do wands (syrchels), which are used as social indicators and statements of magical intent as well as to apply runes.

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*summoning items is perfectly fine, as long as it's not someone else's item. Summoning people/spirits is illegal under Helindian law

**there's a decent amount of lore underpinning the reason for this phenomenon

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I'm going to end it here, I hope you enjoyed it :D

I looked on the writing site I use, as a test, and I found this font and- Oh my skies is it nicer to look at compared to the font it had been in. Guess I am swapping all my things for my current WIP to this now. :>

i think i got the major ones

Oh I don't even have backstories yet. I just have the mc's name, age, and gender. No backstory. Which I should do...

...

Pain.

me with my fancy lil character building template

Question regarding AI

The use of generative AI is a topic that people might have mixed opinions on, but I have a question for the artists and the writers here. What are your thoughts on the use of generative AI in your field? This does not include any spell checkers or things like that, but AI that generates content from a prompt, such as Chat GPT.

This is not taking the negatives of Generative AI into account, such as how it affects the climate. Just your opinions on its use regarding art and/or writing.

For a college class, I am writing a paper comparing human artists and writers to what AI can achieve, but these responses are more for my curiosity. I am unlikely to reference them at all in my paper aside from saying "If one asked 'what are your thoughts on AI' to writers and artists on Tumblr, this many people said this" and even then it is unlikely since reliability of sources and all that. This is more to see the thoughts of people regarding this topic.

I hope this doesn't intrude on anyone, but I would like to tag a few people that I know write or draw. Don't feel pressured to take a stance if you don't want to.

Feel free to tag others who you think would be interested in responding.

Again, I might be curious about this for a paper, but the results won't be mentioned. Not even a username.

@rumeysawrites @illarian-rambling @aalinaaaaaa

From the behind the scenes game:

❗"how many WIPs do you have?"

🖊️"how does your magic system work?"

Thanks for the ask!

Currently, I have one primary WIP (Temporarily titled Stars Of The Sky) and in the upper end of twenty that I sometimes return to and add on to, but those are primarily fanfiction, aside from one.

I do have a secondary WIP that I return to, which has more of a magic system than my current primary, which is the one that I will talk about for the magic system.

In the world of Sightless, the WIP that I have a planned magic system for, people are born with a set amount of magic power. Everyone has some amount of it, but not everyone is given the same amount, and no one can increase the amount. Most people barely have enough to enchant an item, which is the majority of the populace. The next level are those who can enchant items but can't cast a spell. Then are those who can cast spells.

One can increase how efficient they are with their magic power through repeated use, but for those who cannot use it at all, as in, those who can't even enchant items, this route is not possible. Of course, there are limits to the use.

The first stage of magic overuse is blindness. For those with higher healing factors, this goes away, but for most mages, this is the end of their vision. This doesn't mean the permanently blind cannot cast magic at all, but they would be relegated to being healers and farming spells. The stage beyond blindness, if a mage ignores the blindness, is heart attacks. For the more resilient mages, or those with healers nearby, they live. For most, they don't.

There are exceptions to the rules, but not for reasons most would expect.

The main character, for example, wasn't born in the world with this magic system, but she has quite the large magic power pool. She is also fairly resistant to the drawbacks of magic overuse due to having quite the fast healing rate without magic. She's also one of few whose occupation doesn't match her magic pool, as she's a guard/blacksmith, not a mage. Guards and blacksmiths tend to fall in the enchant but not cast spell range, and she can fairly easily cast spells without giving it much thought.

Her twin brother, Astro, works as a merchant, but he has a relatively good magic pool, falling in the enchant but no spells range, and he has less reason to use magic than his sister.

Their adoptive brother completely lacks magic power. Which is unheard of.

As for magic types, there are quite a few. Enchants and spells have the same types, but the range of effect is limited for enchants.

There are

Cultivation spells, which increase yield in harvest and mining

Fire, which has everything to do with fire (including fireballs)

Water, which is everything to do with water, but not ice

Steam, which occurs when mages or enchanters use both fire and water spells/enchants at the same time

Ice, which is everything to do with ice, including different shapes and temperatures

Holy, which includes healing, undo curses, and light

Dark, which includes poison, curses, and darkness

Holy and dark also include incantations for either banishing the presence of dark gods or evoking a dark god

Earth, which works with rock and soil

Location, which involves teleportation, locating, and gravity related things.

And many others.

There can be blending, as noted with steam, but one has to be careful not to mix the wrong elements because things can go wrong. Extremely wrong.

Yeah, Sightless has a lot just in the magic. That is ignoring the possible classification of powers as magic, in which case... That would be too much to get into.

Hope that satisfies any curiosity. Might add a magic system to my current WIP, but I haven't yet.

If a side character interests me more than the main character they might become the main character in their own little story-

I do.

Hey fellow writers! Do you also try to focus on the main characters and their stories, but constantly get distracted by side characters and their hypothetical dynamics that are only explored far, FAR later on?😅

Humanity is falling... Falling...

Fallen.

Invaded, perhaps, but this isn't the cause. Aliens and monsters came years later, decades after the last normal human breathed their last sigh. Yes, normalcy... a concept many created, just like the concept of equality.

You see, I am the last human. I am eternal. Not by choice, of course, but curses are interesting. To never die until you find love... but to never feel until your final moments... two separate curses that clash entirely. This clash brought upon me my immortality.

I have long forgotten my name, my age, my family... and I have long ceased to feel. Emotions... feelings... all concepts pointless to hold on to. Aliens speak a language foreign to me, and monsters can not pierce my immortality. A shame... I don't keep a standard journal, as paper was lost decades ago, along with humanity. My humanity was gone before that.

What is there to do, you may wonder... Nothing. Drawing, perhaps, but there's nothing to draw on now. Trees have overtaken buildings, and they regenerate damage. A sad truth, you may note. The Earth grew stronger when humans fell. Back in 2023... after the pandemic... it was brought up, Global Warming, but not a focus.

Humans would be around if they weren't so greedy.

- Selene Power, Accursed, 3059