shay writes (sometimes)

XXV | word manipulator All images used are my own :)

[aseriesofsmallthings]

Hello!

And welcome to my writeblr! It's lovely to meet you, I hope you enjoy your time here! 🤍

About my writing

I started out writing fanfic and short stories over a decade ago (ouch, now I feel old) and am hoping someday to become a published novelist. I mostly write horror, fantasy, and dystopian fiction, though I am incapable of resisting dabbling in other genres too from time to time. A lot of my writing tends to deal with themes of loss, mental illness, suffering, and the inevitability of the human condition.

A selection of my short fiction can be found on my substack and all of my writing posted on here can be found under #asost writing!

About me!

First things first, my name is Shannon (she/her), though online I mostly go by Shay; feel to free use either :) I'm a twenty-something year old from, and currently living in, the UK.

Now, a few fun little facts to break up those hefty chunks of writing.

My reading tastes tend to be quite similar to my writing, in that I'll read just about anything I deem interesting in most genres but my preferences lie in dystopia and fantasy.

I briefly studied creative writing at university before switching to my current degree in the social sciences.

I ride a motorbike (and I love her).

I love to travel (especially solo) and often take a lot of inspiration for my writing from my little adventures, from setting and plot ideas to character development and world-building. Also, train journeys have proven quite fruitful in producing some pretty solid sentences... that have yet to be of further use.

I also occasionally play video games, listen to an unhealthy amount of rock/indie/metal music, obsess over fictional characters (other than my own), and partake in multiple other creative pastimes, most of which get abandoned rather unceremoniously (thank you, ADHD).

Masterlist

[Currently under construction]

You can also find me on Instagram: a.series.of.small.things (although this is mostly inactive), @asost-rb is where I reblog stuff, and you can support me on KoFi here :)

Feel free to send asks, tag me in games and say hi :)

[aseriesofsmallthings]

May start total: 5, 071

Words added in May: 1, 602

New WIP total: 6, 673

Making slow but steady progress towards 10k! May was a busy month for me (again) so I'm very pleased with the amount I managed to write this month. I did start to feel a little stuck with it, and very much like I might be repeating some plot points a little too much (considering it's only 6k words so far), but I know why now, and that has helped me solve how to fix it.

I definitely need to include more worldbuilding and think more on that as a whole; it all seems a little flat at the moment, and it kinda reads like an afterthought, even though in my mind I can see it all so clearly. Adding on this, I feel like I need a little more movement in the story, as I'm now on the fourth chapter and haven't really been anywhere yet. Still, this is only my first draft so there's still lots of time and plenty of room for improvement.

Anyhow, I hope all you lovely writers are also making progress (however small!) with your wips and having an equally lovely day/night 🫶🏻

[bennizone]

the people who enjoy the type of art you create, will like it even if it's imperfect. and the people who hate the type of art you create, will dislike it even if it IS perfect.

don't skip ahead of bullies and bully yourself first. don't badmouth your own work, it doesn't alter other people's opinion on art, but it does make you feel worse about yourself.

[antlered-vixen]

I am so tired of short-attention-span, trim-the-fat culture. All writing advice these days is for how to write like Chuck Palahniuk. "Cut 'think', cut 'feel', cut 'wonder' - only action, only pushing forward, show and move and move and move." What if I could emulate this style, and still don't want to? What if I want to write like Henry James, with three paragraphs of introspective musings between each dialogue line? The music advice is, "make it shortform, make it Tik-Tok compatible, make it punchy, hit the refrain as soon as possible." What if I want that 10-minute prog rock piece? What if I want that symphony? What if I want it slow and luxurious and lazy? Movies. Series. Poetry. Bodies. Everything is "trimmed trimmed trimmed trimmed, stripped bare, you have three seconds to win me over, make it airport chic." I don't want to win you over, then, I guess. I want the fat left it. I want the pleasure and the indolence and the indulgence. Fuck this art-advice that's always "your art needs Ozempic."

[aseriesofsmallthings]

The See'rs Sins Playlist

I created a little playlist for my wip based on the themes and general vibes of the story. These are my favourites to listen to whilst writing as they really help me get into the zone with it (plus, they're all just really great songs individually).

Specter - Bad Omens

The Apparition - Sleep Token

Ashes in My Mouth - Bleeding Verse **

Dark - Catch Your Breath

Throne - Bring Me the Horizon

Static - Sleep Theory

**I recently found out that this song is actually the product of AI, which I do not approve of in the slightest. I have still included it because of how perfectly it originally fit (I should've known it wasn't human tbh). I will also mention that the "artist" did say the lyrics were human-composed, although I don't know how true that is, and I don't recommend listening to it.

I might do another in the future as this, honestly, was only a few of them, but the ones I thought fit best. If anyone else wants to steal this idea (i've probably stolen it tbf and not even realised), you're more than welcome to and tag me in them so I can see them too! 🤍

[aseriesofsmallthings]

Happy Storyteller Saturday! This is your invitation to share a link to something you do that isn't on Tumblr. For example, your author website, a social media profile, your Patreon or Kofi, a Linktree or Carrd or some other landing page, your newsletter, your itch.io or Gumroad or Smashwords or Wattpad or Royal Road or wherever else your stories can be read or downloaded or bought etc. If you really don't have anything off-Tumblr to share, you're welcome to share a link to your writeblr intro or a post you want to bring awareness to instead. 💜

Thanks for the ask! 🤍 I know i'm a little late to answer but here it is at long last!

I don't have much outside of tumblr; the only thing I do have that is relevant to my writing is my substack.

Substack is where I post my completed short stories and other pieces of completed works. I currently only have two pieces on there at the moment, but will hopefully be uploading more soon.

I do have a KoFi but don't really use it as of yet, and a website that never quite made it out of production!

[acertainmoshke]

I keep forgetting that sharing snippets is just a thing that I can do. I'll try to share a Cold Iron one later this week, but for now I'm really enjoying writing Za'Niyah, so have something from TDATS:

Za’Niyah hesitated at the top, looking down the steep and dizzying steps, real stone imported from Earth and trimmed in real gold. No railing to break up the sweeping lines. As a child, she had been so afraid of falling down here that her father had carried her down every morning before school until she was 10. As a teenager she had managed by clinging to one of her parents for family outings, or looking carefully around and then scooting on her ass when she was alone. One side of the stairs looked out over the open air between walkways and the fluffy clouds below, nothing at all separating her world and and the hundreds of feet to the upper levels of the surface. That was an illusion, of course; the invisible force-nets would catch her if she fell over the side, pulling her tight against the stone edge of the walkway, perfectly safe. But she would hang there until the authorities came for her, because the only people who fell over the edge needed to be evaluated to see if they required prison, detox, or the institute. She had slipped once at 19, and though she was clearly both terrified and sober, she suspected they really only let her go because she looked even younger, like a wayward and foolish child. She was beyond that mistake now, so she carefully hugged the smooth wall on the other side, shot through with glittering veins of pink and gold. There was no texture even to keep a hold of, but it was something to lean on so that she couldn’t overbalance each time she raised her foot to move it down a step. The path beyond that grew easier again; within several feet, railings appeared, required here since the nets weren’t strong enough to catch some of the vehicles used at night to move imports and other merchandise into the shops. It was an unofficial rule of the spires that you couldn’t walk in any direction for five minutes without encountering a cafe, a holospace, and at least one glossy church flier preaching at you about refreshing your soul on this planet of sinners. Luckily, Za’Niyah’s friends were at the first cafe she came to.

[aseriesofsmallthings]

i would love to read the whole thing based on this one lil excerpt! the world is already so intriguing and i really wanna know more

[aseriesofsmallthings]

Printed out the first 17 (a4) pages/ 3 chapters of my wip, mainly so that I have a hard copy, but also because it's kinda cool to see it on paper as opposed to a screen. Even though atm it looks nothing like a book, it makes it feel that tinier bit real

[aseriesofsmallthings]

actually sat down two days in a row to write! new writing habit finally developing?!

[aseriesofsmallthings]

10 people you'd like to know better {tag game}

thank you @starboard-writes for the tag! 🤍

last song - Never Know by Bad Omens

favourite colour - difficult to answer honestly but most likely purple or yellow (very different colours there I know)

currently watching - superstore (pretty much just background noise now though)

currently reading - 'The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh' and 'The Raven and Other Tales of Horror' by Edgar Allen Poe

current obsession - my wip, my puppy and rollercoasters (i've always loved them tbf but i recently became a ride operator at a theme park and the interest has grown significantly)

last google search - my genuine last search was for a blinds company 🤷🏼‍♀️ boring, I know

currently working on - my debut novel! The See'rs Sins

Tagging | @winterandwords @cosmic-writes-novels @write-with-will and anyone else who wants to take part!

[aseriesofsmallthings]

April start total: 4, 428

Words added in April: 643

New WIP total: 5, 071

Not a massive amount of progress again this month, but it's better than nothing, and I'm happy to have added even a small amount of words. I now also have just over 5K, which is a nice little milestone to have reached. It may not seem like much to most, but it is the most I've ever written towards a singular version of TSS without wanting to scrap it entirely. In all the years I've been working on it, this is the furthest I've gotten and I'm still so excited about the direction it's going.

I hope you all are also making progress with your wips, whatever that may look like 🤍

[luna-azzurra]

The worst part of being a writer is that you can't turn it off. you're at a funeral eulogizing someone and part of your brain is quietly noting the light coming through the window

[aseriesofsmallthings]

Book 4 of 2026 - The 5th Wave (Rick Yancey)

Finished this one a few weeks ago but have been too busy and kept forgetting to post it!

I quite enjoyed this one, although it's not a genre I tend to read a lot in. It felt original and kept me entertained all the way through. Although i feel like a certain character relationship progressed improbably quickly, it didnt take away from the plot as a whole, just maybe the author rushed it too much for the sake of advancing through the story.

[aseriesofsmallthings]

work has been kicking my ar** and I recently got a puppy so i've had no time for writing or tumblr recently 😭

my hours are less demanding next week though, so i'll catch up again with everything soon enough :)

also,,, puppy pictures?? yes?? maybe???

[aseriesofsmallthings]

March start total: 3,141

Goal for March: 5,000

Words added in March: 1,287

New WIP Total: 4,428

Goal for April: -

I think I'm going to remove the goal for the month bit of these posts, as life often gets in the way and I never reach them, plus, the most important part is the progress I've actually made and not where I'm falling short. I'm proud of myself for what I have added whether or not it was how much I had intended to add. I've still written plenty outside of this wip and i'm still 1,287 words closer to finishing The See'rs Sins 🩶

Have a great day and happy writing! 🤍

[winterandwords]

✍🏼 Last line tag

Thanks to @oh-no-another-idea for the tag!

📝 Share the last line you added to a WIP (or a last chapter line, or the last line you edited, or the last whatever works for you)

This is the last line I added to Darwin's Cliff today...

There was a wild storm in my dream and I was chasing a girl with bright red hair who ran too fast for me to catch up to, who laughed into the wind, who never turned around.

Tagging @aseriesofsmallthings, @i-can-even-burn-salad, @indecentpause and @k--havok if you'd like to do it, with an open tag for anyone else who wants to join in 🧡

Reblogs, replies etc on my tag posts are always welcome, but if you're doing this tag yourself, please make your own post instead of using mine to start a reblog chain.

Want more of my writing than I post on Tumblr, with all my stories, blog posts, updates, and audio readings? Head on over to my Patreon! There's a free membership option and I'd love to welcome you to my cosy little queer fiction community 💞

[aseriesofsmallthings]

Last Line tag

Thank you @winterandwords for the tag! 🤍

📝Share the last line you added to a WIP (or last line edited, etc.)

This is the last line I wrote for The See'rs Sins (last week 😬😭):

Mara revelled in the warmth of the spring sun, taking her time as she navigated the quiet streets on the outskirts of Raheis.

Tagging @starboard-writes, @write-with-will and, @cosmic-writes-novels (plus anyone else who wants to join in!)