Wandering Words

Writing and thoughts about writing. Writing tag: Wandering Words. Sideblogs: @nine-blessed-hero; @dru-reblogs-stuff; @dru-plays starbound; @dru-reads-writeblr

[druidx]

Masterposts and Writeblr interactions!

– THE BASICS –

Writeblr Intro Post

Name: Dru Age: >40 Gender: Female-ish Origin: UK Timezone: UTC/ BST (UTC+1)

➼ I post: Original writing & fanfiction; Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Literary; Tag games; Advice ➼ I reblog: Writing positivity & motivation advice

Find me outside of Tumblr ➼ Discord: druidx ➼ AO3: DruidX ➼ Others: https://linktr.ee/DruidX

– MY WRITING –

Tags

➼ My main writing tag is #Wandering Words ➼ My tag for tag-games, wip updates, and other things tangentially related to my writing is #Meta Wandering Worlds  ➼ On Sep 12 I decided to start posting my old catalog of work, using the tag #for posterity. You can read about why here. ➼ See the Masterposts for the tags of specific characters & WIPs.

Masterposts

A masterpost of masterposts for each of my different types of writing.

TESIV: Oblivion Fanfiction - Genderless HoK

TESIV: Oblivion Fanfiction - Haven’s Ember

TESIV: Oblivion Fanfiction - Talis the Baker (Slice of life)

TESIV: Oblivion Fanfiction - Teas of Tamriel

TESIV: Oblivion Fanfiction - The Many Faces of Kellandra Rhiannon Lorinda Rue

TES: Oblivion Fanfic - The Chronicles of Arkved of Cheydinhal

TESIV: Oblivion Fanfiction - Other --

Titan - the Fighting Fantasy World- Elowyn of Toreguarde

Titan - the Fighting Fantasy World - Alexis Dalliance --

Starbound Fanfiction - Other

Starbound Fanfiction - Mio

Starbound Fanfiction - Caseswing (Beta gameplay) --

The Cryptid Series (Original)

The MOW Files (Original)

Misc others (mix of fanfics and other drabbles)

– INTERACTIONS – 

Writeblr Interactions

➼ I’m up for most tag games except Bingos (more personal ones will be answered on dru-reblogs-stuff). ➼ Or send me asks (anon is on if you’re shy!) for any of the following writeblr events:

Storyteller Saturday

General Writing related asks!

Not sure what to ask? Try some of these questions: X X X X X X X

I’m also up for general chatting (just remember I’m on BST/GMT. If I don’t answer for a few hours I’m probably asleep!).

“Subscriptions”

Want to be tagged when I post X,Y or Z? Check out the list of available Tag Lists.

Submissions

I opened up submissions, in case any kind soul wanted to send me fan art, music/ songs or what-have-you based on my writing. I only ask you remember this is (mostly) a family-friendly blog - please tag accordingly.

(Last updated: 03 May 2025)

[chimso-writes]

Calling all writers!

Introduce your character with just one quote.

"The last time you saw me---well, heard me--- was when I was 13...I'm now 16. So...yeah, it's been a while."

[jjottsalot]

“Fine. But you—hair up. And you—go to the staff room and get a shirt that actually fits. I don’t care if it’s your *lucky* shirt. We employ adults, not daycare children. Don’t make me say it again.”

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

“Cos I'm evil, didn't you hear? I'm a big, bad mind-mage here to consume all in my path. Om nom nom. I like drowning puppies, having unsafe sex in rental cars, and tax fraud.”

[writingamongther0ses]

"Bite me, asshole."

[aquadestinyswriting]

*climbing up the ribs of a thrashing dracolich* "I'm tired and I'm going to bed!"

"What is with everyone tryin' to set fire to my fuckin' beard?!!!"

[druidx]

"You get one chance. Everyone gets one chance. Surrender. Lay down your weapons and let me take you in. I swear on my power and my badge you'll get a fair trial."

[druidx]

Don't you just hate when you had a thought about your writing, but the thought slid away and has only left a residue behind, like a splash of diesel since evaporated; you know the thought was there, but not what it was...

[ackee]

sigh. i miss everyone's ocs. can everyone update me on what their ocs are doing rn. or if you've made new ocs in my absence. thank you

[ackee]

"oh this must be for OP's close mutuals/followers" wronggggg. i'm nosy about everyone's ocs. so lets hear it !

[rockshitty]

Does this fanfiction make sense? Hold water? Not an ounce! Does that mean I’m going to stop writing it? Not an ounce! I’m a moron with a keyboard and half an idea and that’s your problem now. God couldn’t stop me and neither could my dad, and now I’m on your screen with another thousand words of whatever the fuck this is. Bon appetite bitch!

[ashen-crest]

I can do it. I can write a chapter. I am capable of putting sentences together. I know what a comma is. I am Aware of the Character.

[ashen-crest]

This seems to have vibed with a lot of folks, so as encouragement: after posting this, I did in fact write a whole chapter. So you can do it too! You ARE capable of putting sentences together!

[have-an-oc-who]

Has your OC met God?

Do you have an OC who has met God?

I do

I do not

Voting ended onMay 1

[ellipsus-writes]

Right y’all 😮‍💨—we worked our way though over 5,000 responses for our survey on writing in the age of AI. We crunched the numbers, made some lovely infographics, gathered a ton of phenomenal quotes, data’d the data—and shared the results over on our blog.

Who’s ready for some pie charts?!🧵🧵

First thing’s first… AI generated content is remarkably unpopular.

Almost all of you believe that human provenance is a must. (And we couldn’t agree more.)

This one came as a bit of a shock: nearly half of all respondents felt their work could be mistaken for AI.

And almost all of you (99.5%) think AI content should be clearly labeled.

Thank you to the thousands of writers who took the time to complete the survey. Together, you wrote over 500,000 words—that’s a heck of a mighty tome! You can read the full report over on our blog.

We’ll be breaking down more of our findings throughout this week, as well as sharing more of the fantastic text responses we received! - the Ellipsus Team xo

[ladyignatius4]

Mentally making a cup of tea and giving a gentle forehead kiss to every struggling writer on my dash right now.

Your story matters, your ideas are good, and someone out there is going to fall in love with your world.

[druidx]

Item: The Welcome Mat Rarity: ⏶ Common

What game feels like "home" to you no matter when you come back to it?

Feed your dashboard by answering my question, blogger.

Hi Mystery Kitty

Hm, I think I've got two answers for this:

The first is Starbound (2D Minecraft in Space).

I've had the game since Beta, ~2017, and I've spent ~2k hours on it. I like that it has a bit of everything - farming, building, cooking - as well as the main storyline. I go through phases where it's the only thing I'll play for ages and then I won't touch it again for a while.

But it does feel like home to me, because it's always so easy to pick up from where I left off and my crew are always there when I want to pop in and say hi.

The second is TES III: Morrowind (Open world RPG).

This was one of the first games I purchased myself. There's just something about it - the janky graphics, the warm colour pallet, the music and the call of silt striders - that just pulls me back in, and makes me feel like I'm where I belong. To me it's the epitome of the phrase: "wherever you go, there you are".

Thanks for the questions! 🫖️🌿️

[druidx]

#4 and #9 on who's who! :3c

Heya Elo 😊️

From this ask game

4 - Which character never wants to move?

Probably Farren Breakwood (from Fighting Fantasy World of Titian).

He grew up not far from the then-town of Toreguard, and moved there with his wife and child for better prospects. Even though he survived the fall of the town, his family didn't, and he felt he owed it to their memories to stay and help rebuild.

As the town turned into a city, he found he liked what had been rebuilt and any faint thoughts of moving away were truly quashed. Even though his lodgings aren't the most glamorous, he really likes the vibe of the city and can't imagine being anywhere else.

9 - Which character is content to live anywhere?

This is definitely Aderyn Griffiths (from TESIV: Oblivion Modern AU).

She lives in a Land Rover, because it's the most convenient for her work - which takes her all over the UK and sometimes onto the Continent. She really enjoys the freedom of laying her head wherever she likes, be that in the car or couchsurfing at friend's houses, and hates being tied down to one place for longer than a few weeks. She loves being able to visit new places and meet new people, which this method of living lets her do.

Thanks for the questions, and I hope you enjoyed the answers 😊️

🫖️🌿️

[alexs-prompt-folder]

Anonymously - or not - tell me what passage, fic, line of narration, or anything you remember me by as a writer.

[powered-by-imagination]

Wednesday Who’s Who

​Answer these questions on your own, or reblog this and invite your followers to ask you about your original characters!

Which character likes to travel and see new places?

Which character is a homebody?

Which character moves to new addresses frequently?

Which character never wants to move?

Which character owns their own home?

Which character dreams of owning their own home?

Which character is happy to rent?

Which character is used to living in luxury?

Which character is content to live anywhere?

Which character is (or has been) homeless/unhoused?

[ahyperactivehero]

Fanfic Author Asks!

(I love these things so much, I thought I would do my own lol)

How many WIPS do you currently have?

Do you prefer oneshots or longfics?

What was the last thing you looked up for a fic?

Do you save your 'cut scenes' from your fics? (Want to share one?)

Where do you get your title inspiration from?

Do you listen to anything while you write? Or do you prefer silence?

What fic are you the proudest of?

Has anyone ever drawn fanart for one of your fics before?

What time do you prefer to write? (Day, night, etc.?)

How much do you write before you post?

Do you outline your fics before writing them?

Have you ever made a moodboard for a fic? (Do you want to share it?)

Have you ever made a playlist for a fic? (Share?)

What is something you really like about your work(s)?

Do you look at comments right away? Or save them for later?

How do you write your fics? (Handwritten, google docs, word, etc)

Do you regularly discuss your fics, or do you keep most of the info to yourself before you start posting?

How do you decide what POV to write in?

Do you work on multiple fics at once or only one at a time?

What made you start writing?

What is something that no one has caught about one of your fics?

What is one of your favorite tropes to write?

Do you post your fics on a schedule?

Do you have any writing goals? (Word counts, chapters, finishing fics, trying something new?)

Is there a scene you are dreading writing? (Want to share what it is?)

What is your favorite part about writing?

What is a question that you never get asked about your fics that you really want to answer?

Do you prefer canon compliant fics or AUs?

What fic are you the least proud of?

Is there something you would go back and change about a fic if you could?

How do you stay motivated?

Out of all your fics, what is your favorite title?

What is your favorite line from *insert fic name here*?

Have you ever done a collaboration? Would you?

Favorite review you've gotten?

Are/were you surprised by your top fic? (hits, kudos, comments, anything)

Favorite genre?

Fic idea you're most excited to get to?

Do you have a preferred writing snack/drink?

Happy Endings or Sad Endings?

Bonus: Readers, tell your fave authors something you liked about their fics/works!

[druidx]

RE: the Eshen conlang for which I am writing a creation story to inscribe in a clay book

In making the conlang, I assigned the female prefix as 'el', because I want them to be a matriarchal society, and this links through to the start of the word for nation/peoples - 'eshen' ('shen' being a tree).

The suffix of 3rd person singular object pronouns are 'o', making 'her' be 'elo'.

This causes some... issues regarding Elowyn's name, and it's shortening of 'Elo' 🤦️

I will probably change the feminine prefix to something else....

[druidx]

I changed it over to 'ez' (IPA: ɛz). It doesn't roll as well as I'd like, but it's better than before 😅️

Have the first line, so far (and spot my next issue 🤦️)

Eng:

In times before Time, that which we know as Godtime, Goddess Erillia walked soils of Titan, delighting in Her plants and creatures when She came across Her child, Argowen, Oversinger of Trees, performing (a) curious act.

Eshen, Romanized:

uf y'deblo buk deblo, ta zik sho mub i bikdeblo, ezbik Erillia shu'moktulo y'bishto fi Titan, tenimbi uf ezo y'sato oz y'maekub tesh ezof shu'noel dof ezo isladesh, Argowen, dofnunimbu fi y'shen, kesdoz mitu y'ikto.

Eshen, glyphs:

A cookie for those who spotted that I have no glyph for the letter 'r' 😅️ (I put the proper nouns in red to allow me to track what shouldn't be translated).

It is unfortunate that the Elvish name for Galana is Erillia. Changing it back to her common name might fix this issue, but it does then break the idea that Woodlings/Eshen were instructed by or learned of the gods via the Elves. The 'Children' of Erillia, of which Argowen is one, are only known by their common names (which, one assumes, just happen to be Elvish). I can't even pick another one of these gods; the others are Aëgraven and Istarel.

[druidx]

I've been thinking about the issue with the R, and I'm in two minds:

I can just omit it. Erillia & Argowen become Eillia & Agowen

I can steal the Elvish script from WotC D&D 4th Ed players handbook¹ and change the script from Eshen to Elvish just for the deity names.

Point 1 feels lazy. That said, these are the only two deities I'll mention, because the whole creation tales needs to be under 250 words, and it's likely that only me and @aquadestinyswriting are the only ones who'll notice/care.

Point 2 feels sketchy. But I am not doing this whole malarky again just for 2 words.

Oh, there is an option 3 - the laziest of them all. I leave the deities' names romanized...

--

¹ because, despite offering an dwarvish script², Messrs Jackson & Livingstone did not provide any³ for Titan's Elves. ² TBH this is just a riff on futhark runes ³ According to World of Titan, there are 2 Elvish languages: high & common/ low. High is reserved for religion and official uses, while common is used in daily life, and is used by other woodland species, so Eshen would be an offshoot of Common Elvish.

[druidx]

RE: the Eshen conlang for which I am writing a creation story to inscribe in a clay book

In making the conlang, I assigned the female prefix as 'el', because I want them to be a matriarchal society, and this links through to the start of the word for nation/peoples - 'eshen' ('shen' being a tree).

The suffix of 3rd person singular object pronouns are 'o', making 'her' be 'elo'.

This causes some... issues regarding Elowyn's name, and it's shortening of 'Elo' 🤦️

I will probably change the feminine prefix to something else....

[not-labio-velars]

Rebloging cause I have something to add:

In most languages with masculine and feminine gender, it's either random or determined by semantics.

In Khasi (An Austroasiatic language of north east India), there are two grammatical genders (male and female). These follow some semantics.

Rabel (1961) writes: "the structure of a noun gives no indication of its gender, nor does its meaning, but Khasi natives are of the impression that nice, small creatures and things are feminine while big, ugly creatures and things are masculine....This impression is not borne out by the facts. There are countless examples of desirable and lovely creatures with masculine gender as well as of unpleasant or ugly creatures with feminine gender"

Though there are several counterexamples, Rabel says that there is some semantic regularity in the assignment of gender

[see: the wikipedia article on the Khasi language]

[druidx]

Thank you for pointing that language out, especially as it's also matrilineal. The wikipedia article was a very interesting read, and I may go further down that rabbit hole :)

re your question in the comments:

I have questions. How complex is your noun class (grammatical gender)? Does it interact with anything else?

no, it doesn't really interact with anything else besides personal nouns, ie mother/ father/ parent (ezdesh/ dldesh/ fldesh).

I will admit that, being english, I think of things in an english manner and not say, french or spanish, where things are gendered as well as people.

I've tried to add in roots to groups of nouns (plant/ sato, seed/ sesto), but I'll be honest - I've not gotten very far with those; I've been focused on conjoining and verb words.

... Actually, in having thought about what you've asked, I realised I may have messed up? I have some instances where the neutral term is the root of the word (eg god/ bik, god (male)/ dlbik, goddess/ ezbik), and some where the neutral term has its own gender marker (eg she/ ezof, he/ dlof, they/ flof).

That's probably fine, right...

[not-labio-velars]

No, actually keep them.

I don't know if your doing this synchronically, but languages tend to be messy. Lets have some irregular word forms.

I'll suggest some ideas:

i. Use the neuter forms as like the plural (or form the plural from the neuter form). So that you get a odd little system where gender changes depending on number.

ii. Treat neuters are grammatically masculine or feminine while being semantically neither.

iii. Use your your neuter suffix or lack their of to convey information. Like maybe honoured nouns don't need a prefix to form a neuter?

Don't try to do all three, it will make things needlessly complex. Also, try reading up on other natural lamguages. They're much odd-er than you think they are.

[druidx]

[are you] doing this synchronically[?]

Not really 😅️ I'm mostly fucking around and finding out. I have some vague ideas, plucked from The Atlas of Unusual Languages by Zoran Nikolić which I read last year, but that's about it.

I do like the idea of using them as the honoured forms, that's a really good idea.

You've been amazingly patient 🍰️ Thank you so much for all your help!

[druidx]

RE: the Eshen conlang for which I am writing a creation story to inscribe in a clay book

In making the conlang, I assigned the female prefix as 'el', because I want them to be a matriarchal society, and this links through to the start of the word for nation/peoples - 'eshen' ('shen' being a tree).

The suffix of 3rd person singular object pronouns are 'o', making 'her' be 'elo'.

This causes some... issues regarding Elowyn's name, and it's shortening of 'Elo' 🤦️

I will probably change the feminine prefix to something else....

[not-labio-velars]

Rebloging cause I have something to add:

In most languages with masculine and feminine gender, it's either random or determined by semantics.

In Khasi (An Austroasiatic language of north east India), there are two grammatical genders (male and female). These follow some semantics.

Rabel (1961) writes: "the structure of a noun gives no indication of its gender, nor does its meaning, but Khasi natives are of the impression that nice, small creatures and things are feminine while big, ugly creatures and things are masculine....This impression is not borne out by the facts. There are countless examples of desirable and lovely creatures with masculine gender as well as of unpleasant or ugly creatures with feminine gender"

Though there are several counterexamples, Rabel says that there is some semantic regularity in the assignment of gender

[see: the wikipedia article on the Khasi language]

[druidx]

Thank you for pointing that language out, especially as it's also matrilineal. The wikipedia article was a very interesting read, and I may go further down that rabbit hole :)

re your question in the comments:

I have questions. How complex is your noun class (grammatical gender)? Does it interact with anything else?

no, it doesn't really interact with anything else besides personal nouns, ie mother/ father/ parent (ezdesh/ dldesh/ fldesh).

I will admit that, being english, I think of things in an english manner and not say, french or spanish, where things are gendered as well as people.

I've tried to add in roots to groups of nouns (plant/ sato, seed/ sesto), but I'll be honest - I've not gotten very far with those; I've been focused on conjoining and verb words.

... Actually, in having thought about what you've asked, I realised I may have messed up? I have some instances where the neutral term is the root of the word (eg god/ bik, god (male)/ dlbik, goddess/ ezbik), and some where the neutral term has its own gender marker (eg she/ ezof, he/ dlof, they/ flof).

That's probably fine, right...