Hi, I’m Andromeda (she/they). I am returning to Writeblr and decided to start a new blog for my WIPs and writing updates! I want to use this blog to shout out other Writeblrs, make posts about my current WIPs, and experiences in publishing. I mostly write original fiction but write fanfic when the inspiration strikes. I love Writeblr games and asks!
This blog is a safe space for all identities, gender & sexuality, neurodivergence, race, and religion. I do my best with content and trigger warnings.
My Writing: Genre and Representation
I love horror, sci-fi, and fairy tales
I don’t enjoy romance (if it’s only the pursuit and drama), but I love writing nuanced love stories where people communicate well and put effort into building relationships
Lots of queerness and queer relationships
BIPOC main characters
Neurodivergence- shout out to the undiagnosed ADHD queens, the anxiety, and masking/coping behaviors
Trauma, out of context, is seen as personality
Smut- sex is a part of life and it’s fun to write. Get down, make mistakes, get messy. My sex scenes aren’t just conventionally attractive people putting on a show. I emphasize body diversity, complexities of gender identity, and emotional state
Tropes:
Found Family
Villains
Redemption- working to be a better person, even when it’s hard
Poly-Amory- we often have more than one close friendship, and have variety and nuance in those different relationships, so the same thing goes for romance
Morally gray/Feral girls- women have so much responsibility put on them for the emotional wellbeing of others, but what if they aren’t capable of that? (think Broad City/ Bottoms)
Finished works:
The Devil You Know- short story- Out now! Find your copy here
Genre: horror, vampires, fairytale
Vibe: The Green Knight x The Witch
Anya has built a quiet life for herself, trusted as the village healer as long as she keeps her magic hidden. All of that changes when a strange traveler arrives at her doorstep. The man looks human, but Anya senses an old and powerful magic within him. Intrigued, she allows Owen inside. He claims to have been an apprentice to a witch, and Anya, despite her suspicions, finds him to be a kindred spirit. They begin a romance, both finding comfort in one another.
Their peace is broken when a family comes to Anya in crisis. Their child has been cursed, and is transforming into a monster. Desperate to save the boy, Anya asks Owen for help. He can grant her the power to break the spell, but it requires blood and forbidden rites. Knowing that she can’t break the curse alone, Anya faces a choice with deadly consequences.
WIPs:
Bubblegum Capital
Genre: Queer Cyberpunk
Vibe: 1984 x Legally Blonde
Novaczek is on the brink of fame. They’re an amateur gamer about to break into the pro leagues. But their dreams are crushed when work denies them time off for the championship.
Novaczek decides to play on shift and is caught. Everything comes crashing down. They find themselves at rock bottom having lost their job, company housing, and girlfriend all at once.
In a world where your value is measured by your social ranking, Novaczek has to claw themselves back up, hustling for money and favors from friends. As they work their way back up the ranks they discover an underbelly where nothing and no-one are what they appear to be.
Love, Asunder
Genre: Gay Vampires, Family Saga
Vibe: 1917 x Hellboy
James Townsend was supposed to be starting his new life, an American abroad, with a Fellowship at Oxford University. All of that changes when Germany marches on Paris. James can’t remain in the classroom while teachers and students leave their desks for the battlefield. So James enlists as a volunteer ambulance driver on the Front. The days stretch long with violence and misery, but he finds purpose and friendships in the trenches.
Then he meets a man, a smuggler providing supplies and information to the Allies. Etienne is so different from the soldiers, bright and charming. They begin a secret romance, disappearing together when they can, and writing letters in between.
An opportunity comes to meet in Paris, and James is overwhelmed at the opportunity to spend time with Etienne in the City of Love. Free to spend their days together, James quickly discovers just how much Etienne has been hiding from him, and enters a world of magic, beauty, and death.
Tropes and fun stuff:
Butch witches
Femme werewolves
Playing the vampire tropes straight
Magical Underground
Found Family
Bio-Family responsibilities
Many, Many different kinds of love
I'll be sharing moodboards and snippets along the way! Looking forward to learning more about the other talented Writeblrs out here!
i've been fairly absent on writeblr, so i figured it's time for a re-introduction as i start to rebrand myself!
my name is michelle, though i go by the pen name elle marie for my adult writing. under the elle marie name, i write adult sapphic fantasy that leans heavily into the romance (with spice!). under my real name, i write YA contemporary! i'm mostly going to be sharing my wips under my pen name on this account, though, as well as on instagram (@/ellemarieauthor)!
i post about more than just my writing on here- this has become my everything blog, so other interests you might find me posting about are star wars, taylor swift, and the locked tomb series.
if you like sapphic romance and fantasy involving feral girls, enemies-to-lovers vibes, and spice, give me a follow! thanks for reading!
My grandmother talks about how growing up in Belfast, Ireland, British soldiers would raid the local Irish people's houses, steal from them, smash up their homes or burn them out, beat up or kill or imprison the men, rape the women, and then justify their actions by saying the local people were harbouring IRA terrorists and illegal weapons stores even though they weren't. Any time the British committed an act of violence against the Irish it was the same excuse.
And every time Israel blows up a school, hospital, refugee camp killing hundreds of civilians in the process and justifies it by saying they were harbouring Hamas it makes me think of that. Colonialism never changes.
Does that mean it was successful? *laughter* Good god, no.
Can someone please remind me why I thought this was a good idea?
Today I wrote 7 1/2 pages, which sounds pretty good but I honestly have no idea because I’m an idiot who decided to do this by hand and I am not going to sit here and count the damn words. I think I’ve discovered the problem with it being boring was because I hate writing first chapters (if you haven’t seen my first post I only started writing on day 6, because I’m clever like that), so moving on from that has definitely helped. I’m suddenly remembering why I didn’t write the first book in chronological order, but ah well.
I also wrote a chapter of my Kanej fic for you guys today do I get extra points for that?
Some of my favourite quotes so far are:
“Why kill Medusa but save Andromeda?” “Andromeda was prettier”
‘Piracy was growing on me. Considering my arrest warrant so far that probably wasn’t a good sign’
‘my new bestie the disembodied demonic voice’
“Anyone else want to hit their head on a table twenty thousand times?” “No. But I’ll gladly help whack yours” “Well, aren’t you a bundle of sunshine”
‘Horrors spilt across a page in lead and ink’
‘Why do I keep praying when I know the gods are dead? I am living proof of their collapse.’
hello! welcome. make yourself at home. i'm nettle, writer of hands in the deep, dark earth (alternative title: the gravedigger and the beast). i'll be attempting nanowrimo this year (with a very gentle goal) and i'd be grateful if you walked it with me. journeys are so much better with company, don't you think?
about me: i'm an asexual and non-binary molecular biologist with a love of mushrooms, properly-brewed tea, gothic horror, steampunk, kpop (for my sins) and queer podcasts. i've been writing since i was six and as far as i'm aware, i'd probably just die if i tried to stop now.
about hands in the deep dark earth: a queer gothic romance about a lonely gravedigger and the thing who visits their graveyard at night. focusing on themes of shared otherness and self-acceptance played out through a story of mystery, monsters, and dark magic, i'm hoping it'll turn into the kind of story i needed when i was young and trying to understand myself as someone queer.
thank you for reading! i work full-time so finding time to write and post on here isn't the easiest thing in the world, but i'm hoping nanowrimo will encourage me a little. i will almost certainly lose focus and post mushroom pictures.
Let's talk about writing soft male characters today because breaking stereotypes is essential in creating diverse and authentic narratives. We're here to shatter the clichés and show that sensitivity and vulnerability are not exclusive to any gender.
Break the Mold: The first step is to break free from traditional stereotypes. Soft male characters can be just as complex and dynamic as any other character. Remember, there's no one-size-fits-all definition of "soft."
Embrace Emotions: Soft male characters are in touch with their emotions. Don't be afraid to let them feel deeply and express their feelings. Explore their emotional journey and the impact it has on the story.
Strength in Vulnerability: Softness doesn't equal weakness. Show the strength that comes from being vulnerable and empathetic. This can be a powerful trait in any character.
Well-Developed Background: Give your soft male character a well-rounded backstory that explains why they are the way they are. It could be a personal experience, upbringing, or life events that shaped them.
Complex Relationships: Create intricate relationships for your character. Their interactions with others can reveal different facets of their personality. Explore how they connect with friends, family, and love interests.
Avoid Clichés: Steer clear of falling into clichés or making their softness their only defining trait. Let them have other interests, hobbies, and aspirations that make them unique.
Character Growth: Like any character, soft male characters should grow and evolve throughout the story. Allow them to learn, adapt, and change, but without losing their core identity.
Representation Matters: Do your research and be mindful of the cultural, social, and personal aspects that influence your character's softness. Ensure your portrayal is respectful and accurate.
Listen to Real Stories: Engage with real-life experiences and stories of soft male individuals. This can provide valuable insights and help you create a more authentic character.
Be Inclusive: Soft male characters can come from diverse backgrounds, sexual orientations, and identities. Be inclusive and represent a wide spectrum of experiences.
Remember, the key to writing a compelling soft male character is to make them relatable, well-rounded, and true to themselves. Let's celebrate the diversity of human emotions and experiences in our storytelling.
"Listen. I'm sure it was a good thing, in whatever backwoods village you crawled your way out of, to be kind, and helpful, and friendly. But you matter now, you're Sainted--- we're Sainted. We're the strongest players of the Court. And in the Court, being kind is a weakness. Being kind will get you eaten alive."
His retreat was cut short with a firm grip around his arm and a pair of eyes, brightened almost as gold as they had that terrible day in the great hall. Alaryk wondered if this was the first time Perryn had ever stopped smiling. He wondered, staring at the boy burning with an intensity as fierce as the High Summer sun, if a single smile had been real to begin with.
"Teach me." Perryn said, and he sounded like the roar of a wildfire, like the intimate crackling of a hearth. "You said it yourself, we're Sainted. The same. So teach me how to be like you."
Alaryk wrenched his arm free, and the thing inside him howled and writhed and whispered terrible promises. "You are nothing like me."
ABOUT
Title: Ravenous
Genre: NA Fantasy
Themes: Monstrosity, Queerness, Identity, Trauma, Legacy & Family, The Nature of Good and Evil (Constructed Morality), Nature vs Nurture
Tropes: The Chosen One, The Main Trio, Coming Of Age, Anti-Hero, Moral Greyness, The Boarding School Setting, Medieval Fantasy Setting, Knights vs Monsters, Rivals to Friends to Enemies to Lovers, The Orphaned Hero, Sun and Moon Coded Characters, Child Soldiers (kind of), More TBA
BLURB
Idrismark is a kingdom fractured, the land sequestered between impenetrable mountains and the gnawing, ever creeping monstrosity of the Ravening Wood, the burial place of the Betrayer. What is left of the inhabitable is ruled by the whims of the Noble Houses, originally claiming lineage of the Six Saints, individuals with untold powers who defeated the Betrayer and held back the corrupt magic of the Wood. Now the Houses are the Upper Class of Indrismark's population, all trained in the arts of Knighthood but focused in the games of Court politics.
It is only the Sainted that truly provide safety from the Ravening Wood, those with the strongest blood ties to The Six and a fraction of their power, most often sacrificed in the war against the Wood. Therefore, when two Sainted appear in one generation, a peasant plucked from the masses and a Noble's son, all of Idrismark is watching. The common people in joyous relief, having been subject to the increasing ferocity of the Ravening Wood. And the Noble Houses in rapt, hungry calculation, ready to do anything they can in the mad scramble for power a Sainted is want to inact upon the Court.
Alaryk has known his place since the moment of his birth. Son of the House Lupei. Disappointment to his father. Neither a first son and heir, nor the daughter his father had hoped for in a third child, to be wed in alliance and used as a pawn in the games of the Court. Alaryk used to pray to be Sainted, to become proof of his Father's power, his House's power, to be useful. But the Sainted were rare, and House Lupei had not produced a Sainted in hundreds of years. He should have known that the truth had never been an obstacle for his Father.
The Academy, where all Noble children are sent to learn how to fight the Ravening Wood, was going to be hard enough. Now with the mantle of Sainted balanced precariously on his shoulders, Alaryk must navigate the politics of Nobility, the grueling regimen of squirehood, the baffling intricacies of making friends, all alongside desperately trying to control the power he has been given. Because Alaryk is not Sainted. His magic is not the magic of The Six, it is not pure and good and heroic. Alaryk is a liar and his magic is ravenous.
I fucking love Lestat so much guys character of all time society peaked in 1985 when the vampire Lestat was published im sorry it will literally never get better from here. Guy who desperately wanted to be good ever since he was a child but no one ever gave him the guidance or the love to learn how so he’s eternally searching for that guidance even when he’s a 200 + year old vampire who regularly does unforgivable crimes he still just wants someone to sit him on their lap like a child and explain to him why we don’t hit people because it hurts their feelings and shit so that he can feel like there’s anyone who cares about him. He’s like a child who acts out all the time because they don’t get any parental love or attention and crave being noticed but like if he was 200/21 and killed people
Share a snippet of your writing :) Tagging @authoralexharvey, @vacantgodling, @saintedseraph. Here's an excerpt from The Protolith, Chapter 33:
Would her victim have slept for days? Risen ill and disoriented? Would they have woken at all?
A small part of her felt it worth the sacrifice – one thousand times over.
I was tagged by @andromeda-grace and you can read their post here! Thanks for tagging me!
Rules: use this link to generate character quotes
I didn't decide which WIP to do this for until I generated my first quote, then decided to do it for Homebirds, because I liked the thought of the multiple character quotes. I just did a couple of them until my 8 protags were accounted for:
***
Eli: If you took a shot for every time you made a bad decision, how drunk would you be?
Hari: Maybe a bit tipsy?
Isaac: Drunk.
Dean: Wasted.
Logan: Dead.
***
Catherine: If I make you breakfast in bed, a simple "thank you" is all I need.
Catherine: Not all this "how did you get into my house" business.
***
Eli, writing in their diary with a glitter gel pen: I'm losing my sense of humanity. Nothing matters. God is dead. There's blood on my hands.
***
Margot: Ugh, there’s always that weak bitch in the group who isn’t down with murder.
Margot: *glares at Denise*
Denise: Well, sorry I have morals!
(These were so funny and quite accurate)
Tagging @cherrybombfangirlwrites, @the-grim-and-sanguine, @zestymimblo and anyone else who wants to do it!
Honestly as a blind person I’m so tired of seeing fictional blind characters who don’t use white canes or other guides. “They have special powers so they know what’s around them” or “they’re confident enough to not need a guide” are common tropes, and I’m tired.
Are people scared that using a white cane will make their blind character seem weak? They can’t use a cane because they’re so special that they already know what’s around them, and other blind people who use guides are inferior because they’re not special?
I’m tired. Give your blind characters white canes and other guides. Let them hold onto their friends, let them have guide dogs. Don’t make white cane users feel ostracized for not being “strong enough” to go without.
Another thing that pisses me off is when a sighted character comes up with the fantasy equivalent of braille and teaches it to the blind character. Braille was invented by Louis Braille, a blind man, in 1824. The blind character should be the one coming up with it.
Hey everyone! I’ve had this blog for a little while now and I realized I haven’t done a proper writeblr introduction. With this post I hope I’ll be able to interact more with the writeblr community and get to know some of you better, and in turn, you can get to know me as we suffer through this wonderful writing journey together. <3
Name & General Information
My name is Faye and I’m a twenty-something bisexual woman-child who’s usually got her head in the clouds or her nose buried in a good fantasy book. I’m a daydreamer, worldbuilder, fantasy lore enthusiast, and of course, a creative writer. I’ve been writing off and on since I graduated high school, and while I’ve been ‘on’ again since my mid-twenties, I still consider myself a novice, albeit a very passionate one.
Things I Like
Writing, editing, drawing, singing, animals, video games, storytelling, history & mythology, languages, learning about different cultures, personal growth & self-improvement, constructive criticism, making new writing buddies, writers supporting other writers, people who let me talk about my OCs until I run out of breath from talking so much. :)
Things I Dislike
Writing, editing, drawing, procrastination, stagnancy in all things (but especially in writing), nonconstructive criticism, writer’s block and blinding white documents judging me for not filling them with words, people devoid of empathy and basic human decency, when I get so frustrated with myself and my writing that I rage quit and yeet my work into the trash and delete it forever… PLEASE LOVE YOURSELVES AND DO NOT E V E R DO THIS! :(
Content I Enjoy Writing and Reading
Mostly fantasy and its many subgenres (high, modern, scifi, dark). I also enjoy horror, paranormal, and dark-themed stories that explore real life human struggles in exciting, imaginative worlds. I consider myself a fantasy/romance writer overall but I’m honestly not too picky and will read anything that’s well-written and has solid worldbuilding + likeable characters. I love stories that focus on character growth and personal journeys, especially ones that have strong themes of romance, friendship, or that demonstrate the strength of love and bonds between people, regardless if it’s romantic, platonic, or familial. I’m a bisexual creator and every story I write has LGBT+ characters and relationships. As far as romance goes, I write gay, lesbian, bisexual, and straight romances with various genders and dynamics. I enjoy delving into many different themes in my stories, such as discovering identity, exploring sexuality, examining what it means to be human, and finding one’s place in the wide world.
My Absolute Favorite Tropes, Themes, and Content
hurt/comfort stories that rip your heart out of your chest and tape it back together
soulmates, whether they be romantic or platonic (but especially romantic)
enemies to lovers/friends and lovers/friends to enemies
Rules: share a recipe your OC would make, either one passed down to them or one they found all by themselves. Bonus if you have an actual recipe to link! Some OCs can't cook to save their lives, but let's talk about the ones who can! :D
I do not have my own recipe for this, but I recently wrote a scene in which Moss, the protagonist of my WIP Enby Witch Kid, eats rabbit stew that reminds them of forgotten memories. At this point, Moss only knows how to prepare very basic food, but they'll make a good cook some day, and they'll definitely learn the recipe for this stew.
Seeing that down the table, the others had already started eating, I took up my spoon and took a bite. For a moment, nothing occupied my thoughts except the rich warm taste of the stew. Though I definitely hadn’t eaten any rabbit in the past months, the taste of the meat was familiar. Had I eaten something like this before? Perhaps even regularly? Something inside me recalled a feeling of safety and comfort.
I will tag @surroundedbypearls, @skyderman, @andromeda-grace and anyone else who wants to do it!
