Merel’s Writing Blog

Slytherpuff - INFJ-t - vet student - big nerd Icon by @hexaes (twitter) via Picrew. Click the stars below to explore this page (desktop)

[your-health-hazard]

[mrdarcys-archive-deactivated202]

TWO-PLY (formerly the kiss of death) // a wip (re)introduction by m.a.m @mrdarcys

“The stall is all yours,” She curtsied and motioned to an empty one, “there’s two-ply in there if you need it to wipe your eyes. The janitor refilled it today.”

“Thanks,”

PAGE | PLAY LIST

GENRES: lgbt romantic comedy

NARRATION: first person

STATUS: in progress

CAMP NANO APRIL 2020 WORD COUNT GOAL: 30k or more

SUMMARY:

agnes kauffman has two secrets that not even her best friend charlotte knows. she is sick and tired of living in her older sister, lillian’s shadow and she’s a raging, closeted lesbian. when charlotte forces agnes to audition for one of the lead roles in their school’s production of romeo and juliet, their catholic high school will stray further away from god and closer to hell.

for starters, veronica hughes, the theatre director’s daughter, absolutely despises agnes due to veronica’s rivalry with lillian. it isn’t agnes’s fault that veronica can’t act and her own mother casts her as tree number three in almost every production. it also doesn’t make matters better that jane peters, the lead in all the school’s productions and lesbian heartthrob, is auditioning.

somehow, poor pgnes finds herself up on that stage during auditions. and somehow, she ends up almost throwing up everywhere. when ms. hughes posts the cast list two days later, the play is suddenly titled “rosemary and juliet” and miraculously both agnes and jane are the leads. ms. hughes explains that since it is a catholic school, they can’t have two girls playing love interests. so, naturally, the only option is to have a play centered around two best friends in verona.

with the homophobia of the play surrounding her, and a cast mate who agnes is ninety-nine percent sure is flirting with her, how long can she stay in the closet and out of lillian’s shadow?

EXCERPT:

The last time that my heart raced like this, my skin was green.

 The drumming rang in my ears like a battle cry fit for a warzone and my mouth tasted like my mom’s old meatloaf recipe. Dry. I inhaled a breath attempting to shake the moisture off of my palms. The volume of the drums went from mezzo piano to fortissimo in an instant. It became harder to exhale, like I was trapped under water and fresh air was an arm reach away. Only my arm was too short. Each breath that entered and barely escaped my battered lips felt like a dagger twisting in an open wound. I couldn’t do this.

But I had to.

There were three rules I had set for myself since that night. Rule number one, never wear green again. It was haunting enough that my eyes were a shade of it. They always reminded me. Rule number two, blend in. From that moment on, I had become a living invisible man. No more sitting in the front row. No more raising my hand in class. I was there, but not really there. That applied to theatre as well. I never performed again. The only way I would allow myself to take  a single step onto a stage was if I was covered by the darkness of the intermission and I was doing a set change. Rule number three, never chug Diet Coke and inhale sour candy right before your number. Because if you did, you’ll be singing the first lines of “I Know It’s Today” from Shrek: The Musical and suddenly erupt your snack onto the front row audience during opening night.

I broke rule number two.

TAG LIST: (ask to be + or -) (since i’m re-introducing this, i’ll only tag my general tag list for now)

@ikilledmyocs @starshots @vandorens 

[bookbrd]

can you please add me to the taglist? <3

[moringmark]

[beautysnake]

being torn between “it needs to be in character” and 

[writingonesdreams]

"Shitty first draft" is bullshit

Okay I realize that the whole "first draft of everything is shit" is super popular. And I can see why - that it's encouraging the self-doubting shy creators to write and get better and not to give up on their stories and artistic desires. That it lets you create and deal even when you aren't satisfied, that it allows you to write when you aren't ready to see your work as good. Or maybe your work just isn't that good yet and you need to hear it's still worth writing.

But I saw this post today that literally said "make peace that your first draft will be the worst thing ever written."

And I was like

....

Please stop.

No, your first draft is not going to necessary be bad. No, you don't have to rewrite your story X times to make it readable.

Like if this is your method, and it works for you, go for it.

But implementing this image in ourselves that what we write is BAD and shitty and that it's okay for it to be. It isn't healthy. Not for your work, not for your audience and not for you.

Lot of us here write since childhood and write a lot. Lots of us are avid readers that have structure and storytelling in our blood. As humans we are tuned to stories and understand them on instinct. Lots of us have dozens of writing books, blogs, advice posts, videos and podcasts under our belts.

For God's sake, we are not that bad off here, guys!

What I see here is quality writing, people! And yes, you shouldn't throw your work out there without getting some basic editing of typos and repetitive words done, but seriously.

Trust yourself a little that your work is good.

Polishing it up will help. Typos and edits can and should be done before it's ready to be presented to the world.

But there is a lot of amazing in there too. And it's there, right in your first draft. It's not just stuff to pick and work your ass off to shape into form and rewrite for hundreds of times.

What you write is great. It's quality work, it's your dreams, it's stories, it's expression of you.

Don't be afraid to be proud of it. And don't, I beg you, tell yourself everything you write is BAD, cause it has to be, since it's your first draft.

It doesn't have to be.

It most likely isn't.

You are needlessly throwing ash on your head and putting your own art down in front of others. Driving off potential readers with words "Sorry for the BAD first draft"! Driving your confidence off to be this pitifil shy writer with a shitty first draft. Brrr.

Stop. Accept you are good. Your writing is worth the read.

[bookmania]

While millions of people are staying home to reduce the spread of COVID-19, Scribd is making our digital library of ebooks and audiobooks free for everyone: scribd.com/readfree 

🤩T A G G I N G E V E R Y O N E🤩  

[cuddleshock]

FREE EBOOKS???

[berryspaceship-deactivated20201]

Reblogging this again because I signed up and am ABSOLUTELY LOVING IT.

[fordarkmornings]

La pace e la giustizia, 1739.

Pompeo batoni (Italian, 1708–1787)

Oil on canvas

[mitskism-deactivated20210120]

DEAD AIR / a work in progress

there are very few schools that can claim, simultaneously, to be both absent of unpleasant history and to possess decades of history. high schools, it seemed, were no exception. but enough renovation and repainting of your walls- renovation thanks to the generous donations of parents and past students- could make it easy to forget that this was the same school that dodged bullets every other year, for the actions of its students. elliot sun, couldn’t care less about any of the above. his parents were entirely too boring to ever attempt to kill their peers,  and his non existent older sibling, had never been inducted into a cult-like clique. 

normally speaking, those facts saved him from most school conflict and drama. but when chairat sae-lim- notable bastard and elliot’s deadly rival -has his hour of academic bullshit okayed by the board, elliot knows that he has to do something drastic. making a podcast, kind of drastic.

“i have no idea how those two things correlate,” isra says more heartlessly than needed, when he explains his actions to her. “can’t you just complain about sae-lim’s stupid voice to yourself, without forcing us to hear your stupid voice. what the fuck is your podcast even going to be about. the evils of almond milk hasn’t been done yet. have fun trying to convince our beloved student body to listen to that.”

it was a horrible terrible no good thing then, that chairat sae-lim himself, chose that moment to- completely purposefully -walk into him. elliot had been ready to change his mind, until they had the nerve to congratulate him on trying something new despite the possibility of failure. with the smile, isra. with the ‘have fun failing, you loser’ smile. it’s distracting enough that he almost misses their last remark of “maybe you can do it about our growing number of absent, and reappearing students. you could interview the girl we found in the forest- once she wakes up, that is.”

universal taglist:

Lees verder

[bookbrd]

Made some new Picrew avatars for my characters in my current WIP: The Price of a Smile!

Top: Will

Middle left: Alex

Middle right: Ben

Bottom left: Rosa

Bottom right: Daphne

The picrew can be found here and was made by Shuppie ( on instagram and twitter)

[bitterempress]

reblog if English is not your first language.

[froaffes-deactivated20190904]

I think everyone around knows this already, but…

[bookbrd]

Guess what? I made a real and actual WIP page! Please check it out –> The Price of a Smile WIP page

The code for this page has been written by @pidgeonbooks and can be found here.

I have also updated my synopsis:  

Will has never felt like he found his passion in life. Not in high school, at least not after he had to drop out of art class - a request of his father - and not in law school. Where most of his fellow law students are eagerly looking forward to the future, Will would rather just.. stay in place. But his brother (and roommate) is moving out to live with his girlfriend and Will has to look for a new place to live, and some new roommates.  But his life is shaken up even further when he receives the worst news: his exam results were not good enough to let him continue to the next year - and Will has to drop out of law school.   Now Will is faced with a choice: does he continue to follow in his fathers footsteps or does he dare to choose his own future? Can Will, with the new support of his new roommates, stay on his own path? And what will he do when he seems to be getting closer and closer to the boy across the hall?

Background image by Cara Gonier

Tag list: ask to be added or removed!

@theforgottencoolkid @jeeanmoreau @milestogobeforeiwrite @writingrailroad @chalky-charlie @at-thezenith @arkarchive @ofvisitorsthefairest

[bookbrd]

Guess what? I made a real and actual WIP page! Please check it out --> The Price of a Smile WIP page

The code for this page has been written by @pidgeonbooks and can be found here.

I have also updated my synopsis:  

Will has never felt like he found his passion in life. Not in high school, at least not after he had to drop out of art class - a request of his father - and not in law school. Where most of his fellow law students are eagerly looking forward to the future, Will would rather just.. stay in place. But his brother (and roommate) is moving out to live with his girlfriend and Will has to look for a new place to live, and some new roommates.  But his life is shaken up even further when he receives the worst news: his exam results were not good enough to let him continue to the next year - and Will has to drop out of law school.   Now Will is faced with a choice: does he continue to follow in his fathers footsteps or does he dare to choose his own future? Can Will, with the new support of his new roommates, stay on his own path? And what will he do when he seems to be getting closer and closer to the boy across the hall?

Background image by Cara Gonier

Tag list: ask to be added or removed!

@theforgottencoolkid @jeeanmoreau @milestogobeforeiwrite @writingrailroad @chalky-charlie @at-thezenith @arkarchive @ofvisitorsthefairest

[kaypier-deactivated20200518]

bittersprings; a novel wip page theme preview | code

as a writeblr myself, i was pretty disheartened by the lack of pages for sharing and organizing WIPs, so I made my own! this was my first ever crack at CSS and it was definitely a ton of fun. i’d appreciate likes/reblogs if you use!

feel free to use, just please don’t remove or alter the credit.

features:

fully customizable; you can remove whatever features you don’t want

5 custom links + support for unlimited links

3 built-in icon hoverlinks

280 x 360 book cover (will resize if too large)

630 x 290 header (will resize if too large)

header is also a customizable link

editable progress bar

2 pre-built fully customizable main character bios with pop-up windows and a 150x150 icon

3 pre-built separated sections for minor characters with a 50x50 icon

unlimited support for the addition of extra main and minor character bios 

610 pixel-wide map; can be of any height

basic information section to show genre, status, etc.

worldbuilding / f.a.q. / general use section for extra info about your wip

all text sections can be as long as you wish

credits:

style-my-tooltips by malihu

[bayoucurse]

camp nano is coming up right… and since we’re all quarantined….what if…. i made a server…. that’s for camp nano but like an actual summer camp with inter-cabin challenges and stuff

[soyeahso]

There are a couple of things about current shipping culture that confuse me.  

1. The focus on whether or not a pairing will become canon as a reason people should ship something or not.  Do you not understand what the “transformative” part of “transformative works” means?”

2. This idea that saying “I ship that” means “I think that, as presented in canon,this is a perfect, healthy relationship that everyone should model their relationship after.” 

Sometimes shipping something does mean that.  Sometimes shipping something means “Person A is a trash bag who doesn’t deserve person B but I would love to explore how Person A might grow to deserve Person B.” Sometimes it means “I want these characters to live together forever in a conflict free domestic AU.”  Sometimes it means “I want Person A to forever pine after Person B.  Nothing is beautiful and everything hurts.”  And sometimes it just means you like their faces and want to see Person A and Person B bone in various configurations and universes. 

[mominmudville]

Listen to your parents, kids.

[handypolymath]

This really should be one of a handful of Public Service Announcements randomly and chronically inserted into one’s dash.

[violent-darts]

Hell man sometimes it means “these two are TERRIBLE and I want to watch them burn like a catastrophic forest fire as a proxy for all the shit I don’t actually want in real life (like to light my own apartment on fire and scream) and then laugh at the destruction at the end.” 

[mikkeneko]

All “I ship it” really means – really – is “I think there’s a story in those two, and I want to hear it.”

[mad-madam-m]

All “I ship it” really means – really – is “I think there’s a story in those two, and I want to hear it.”

[dankmemeuniversity]

[sedraboc]