Hi! Call me Vince, Lupine, or Blackbird. Pronouns are he/him/his.
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@livingdeadsilence <- roleplay sideblog
This is my creative writing and personal blog. I'll mainly be posting/reblogging:
My own writing (main genres and themes: modern/urban fantasy, horror, sci-fi, character studies, angst, fluff, hurt/comfort)
Personal posts (block the "journal" tag if you don't want to see them)
My friends' writing and art
Other writing and art that resonates with me
Writing/editing/publishing advice
Prompts, inspiration, and references
…But I'll also occasionally post and reblog fandom content, mutual aid posts, and other non-writing content. If there is something specific you would like me to tag, please send me an ask!
Below the cut is a quick rundown of my main OCs who I put through The Horrors and some of my main/current interests.
My OCs:
Lou (he/him): Human writer/author/editor. He's one of my oldest OCs (been writing variations of him for like thirteen years) and I love putting him through the wringer in all kinds of AUs; thankfully his boundless determination and capacity for fierce loyalty help him get through it. [Desktop bio] [Mobile bio] [Tag]
Francis (he/him): Lou's big brother and Dan's twin. Human singer/songwriter/musician/video game streamer. Just as old as Lou for me, and their stories are often tightly intertwined. *Smacks his shoulder* This little guy can fit so much anxiety in him. [Desktop bio] [Mobile bio] [Tag]
Dan (he/him): Lou's other big brother and Francis's twin. Human hitman/artist. Was created to be an evil foil for Francis but then he got too much depth and now I like him too much to make him irredeemable so he gets to be Complicated and Repressed. [Desktop bio] [Mobile bio] [Tag]
Samael/Sam (he/sol): Started out as an evil shadow fiend possessing warlock!Lou in a homebrew D&D 5e game, eventually morphed into the son of Lathander and also is the Literal Fucking Sun. He got an unplanned villain redemption arc so he doesn't want to end the world anymore but he does still love chaos and being a massive pain in the ass. Sometimes sol and Lou kiss. [Full ref page: TK] [Tag: TK]
Lily (she/her): Werewolf OC who's even older than Lou and has gone through even more changes than him. Kind of a Robin Hood-esque figure with a strong sense of justice and is a total badass…but even badasses need to cry and be held sometimes, much to her chagrin. She's boisterous, loves fiercely, and hates to give up. [Full ref page: TK] [Tag: TK]
Pepper (they/them): Dhampir/born vampire OC who's also gone through a lot of changes in recent years. Lily's best friend and eventually her partner (in romance and in crime). Not-so-secretly a huge nerd and sweetheart, but equally as strong in their convictions and willing to fight for them as Lily. [Full ref page: TK] [Tag: TK]
Aster (he/they): Started as a D&D 5e character, a "dhampir" hexblade warlock who was resurrected from death as a child. He ambiently drains the life force out of others, often uncontrollably, unless he does his mysterious patron's (the Benefactor) bidding. They seek to do good and prevent their "condition" from causing mass harm or death. In the process, he grapples with having "come back wrong." [Full ref page: TK] [Tag: TK]
Zephyr (he/him): My very first D&D 5e character who blossomed into a full-blown OC; a harpy glamour bard who travels the world seeking his missing lover, Armand. He also loves and seeks out new experiences and strives to live life to the fullest after escaping a sheltered and abusive upbringing. In some AUs he's also put alongside Aster, where his bubbly and warm personality contrast their colder outlook. [Full ref page: TK] [Tag: TK]
Guy (he/him): Started as a semi-recurring ally NPC in the same homebrew game I ran with Sam (during Sam's antagonist era). Then he became my tiefling arcane archer fighter/paladin PC in my friend's D&D 5e campaign and *then* I started growing brain worms about him as the emergent story of the campaign changed him. A bounty hunter who appears aloof, carefree, and untethered, who comes to realize that he loves his friends and strives to make up for the damage his lack of commitment has wrought. [Full ref page: TK] [Tag: TK]
Westlin/Wes (he/him): Started as a D&D 5e PC I never got to use, who I then repurposed into my seldarine dark elf lore bard in BG3. His main motto is "kindness pays" and he has a passion for studying arcane magic. His BG3 story is still ongoing because I play video games at a snail's pace. In some AUs he is a drider instead, which is very funny given that he's an arachnophobe. [Full ref page: TK] [Tag: TK]
What I'm into lately (i.e.: what I might post about when I'm not writing original stuff, list subject to change):
Limbus Company
Path to Nowhere
Octopath Traveler
Ace Attorney
Dexter
The Blood of Youth
The works of Stephen King
Classic horror films
Classic literature
Greek mythology
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
TTRPGs of all kinds, especially indie and solo RPGs lately
becoming too OC pilled will ruin your fandom experience forever. i have invented The Character who is perfectly tailored to my own tastes and not beholden to any writers or showrunners. and i can even make more of them if i want. but watch out.
Don't you sometimes get an absolutely extrodinary, mind blowing, such an awesome idea for a story, but you just don't have enough skill level to pull it off?
Write it anyway, write it anyway, write it anyway.
There are so, so, so many reasons:
You gain that skill level only through practice. So practice.
No matter what you’re writing, no matter how badly you think you’ve written it, there is ALWAYS some audience that will love it and cherish it.
You can use what you write the first time around as a first draft and just rewrite it again later when you feel like tackling the story again!
Rewriting the same story over and over is a valid writing process. It’s literally just creating new drafts. Each iteration will be better than the last, because each is building on your growing skill and experience.
If you love the story, it will always be worth telling simply for your own enjoyment. If no one else ever sees it, that’s okay! Your art should be for you first, anyway.
Abused angel without the language to articulate their trauma bc "angels never get hurt" 🤝 abused demon without the language to articulate their trauma bc "demons always deserve it"
Yesterday my little brother told me something very sweet and touching, that when he was a kid and had nightmares about monsters chasing him or whatever he would be able to end the nightmare by finding me in the dream and I would protect him by fighting off the zombies, or carrying him away. This is adorable, and makes me feel like the greatest older sibling in the world, but the hilarious thing is that when I was a kid I had nightmares of needing to save him from zombies and such. so many dreams where he was in trouble and I needed to save him. Like my nightmares began where his ended. Low key I think he mastered the ability to psychically transfer his nightmare to me as a child and I'm kind of annoyed with him.
For being based in a medium that only uses words, writers sure are bad at captioning their images. Even alt text would be infinitely better for accessibility. Out of all the corners of Tumblr that I spend time in, writeblrs are the worst at this. People with low or no vision also want to enjoy our writing memes! They also want to know they aren’t missing anything when their screenreader says there’s an unknown image but it’s just an aesthetic green ribbon.
I think part of getting better is complete ego death. Like you’re not above setting a timer for 5 minutes and focusing on a task. You’re not above doing a very simple 3 minute workout to start. You’re not above reading for 10 minutes a day when you first get out of your reading slump, even if you used to read for hours. You’re not above starting slow and then building up to where you want to be/where you once were. What you are above is total inertia. Doing something really is better than doing nothing. Radically accept where you are, radically accept your limits, and go from there. Don’t let your ego get in the way.