My Writing

[erato-was-here]

    Humans show a certain kind of courage by sleeping with their leg outside of the covers. 

     When I was younger, too young for my blueprint of the world to be complete, I filled the spaces with magic. I wanted to create answers, hoping that thinking I knew the way the world worked would make it less frightening. It is the not knowing that makes a thing fearsome; it gives my imaginations the space to run wild. It is why our monsters exist in the dark places just beyond the corner of our eyes, where we cannot know what we saw, or if we saw it at all. 

     At night, they are soft and vulnerable with sleep. They build fortresses out of blankets and pillows, guarded by teddies they think will keep them safe from the grabbing hands of monsters. 

       This fear of the unknown followed me as I aged; it makes the back of my neck prickle and heart pound at even the suggestion of footsteps behind me, makes me run from the room when I turn out the lights. Somewhere along the way I started telling myself that the monsters were nothing but figments, but deep down, I always knew I was wrong. 

Except for Eleanor. Eleanor has been inviting us in for years. 

[generalized-incompetence]

spent an hour making these instead of writing

[soporificsedatives-deactivated2]

Georges Bataille

[writers-hq]

[skriveting]

[erato-was-here]

Cat Eyes and Weeping Beauty - companion poems

Have you ever seen her happy, Curled like a cat In the deepest corner-crease She can find? Her hair is messy, wild Around her ears; Flyaway strands that reach for the daydreams That play behind her cloud-eyes. She can be reading, watching, Just sat quietly listening, Or thinking up a world all her own. And if startled, she’ll look up at you, With her sky-eyes, And for just a moment She’ll be blank. And then. A smile will curl the corners of her lips And her nose will scrunch up just so And her heaven-eyes will Open and close oh-so-slow. And that is cat-like too.

Have you ever seen her sad? Her face is as disappointing As a beautiful thing can be; Your heart sinks with shame To have been a part of the cause Of that face, flushed pink With bee-stung lips reddened From the worry of teeth And hair curled From the motions of restless fingers.

I’ve never seen a wild thing so sad, With dark spiked lashes that frame Pleading eyes of shattered glass, Eyes that remember promises whispered In the night’s safe silence And broken in the harsh morning light. Behind her the room is overturned, Comforting blankets and beloved trinkets Scattered Like memories on the floor. Her paints are spilling from the desk; My pen lies in a forgotten corner Across the room. The flowers bought after our last argument Had just begun to wilt: A single creased petal Poised to fall.

[erato-was-here]

And so I bleed my love Until your innocence is stained Red

me

[mysharona1987]

[2soulscollide]

WEBSITES FOR WRITERS {masterpost}

E.A. Deverell - FREE worksheets (characters, world building, narrator, etc.) and paid courses;

Hiveword - Helps to research any topic to write about (has other resources, too);

BetaBooks - Share your draft with your beta reader (can be more than one), and see where they stopped reading, their comments, etc.;

Charlotte Dillon - Research links;

Writing realistic injuries - The title is pretty self-explanatory: while writing about an injury, take a look at this useful website;

One Stop for Writers - You guys... this website has literally everything we need: a) Description thesaurus collection, b) Character builder, c) Story maps, d) Scene maps & timelines, e) World building surveys, f) Worksheets, f) Tutorials, and much more! Although it has a paid plan ($90/year | $50/6 months | $9/month), you can still get a 2-week FREE trial;

One Stop for Writers Roadmap - It has many tips for you, divided into three different topics: a) How to plan a story, b) How to write a story, c) How to revise a story. The best thing about this? It's FREE!

Story Structure Database - The Story Structure Database is an archive of books and movies, recording all their major plot points;

National Centre for Writing - FREE worksheets and writing courses. Has also paid courses;

Penguin Random House - Has some writing contests and great opportunities;

Crime Reads - Get inspired before writing a crime scene;

The Creative Academy for Writers - "Writers helping writers along every step of the path to publication." It's FREE and has ZOOM writing rooms;

Reedsy - "A trusted place to learn how to successfully publish your book" It has many tips, and tools (generators), contests, prompts lists, etc. FREE;

QueryTracker - Find agents for your books (personally, I've never used this before, but I thought I should feature it here);

Pacemaker - Track your goals (example: Write 50K words - then, everytime you write, you track the number of the words, and it will make a graphic for you with your progress). It's FREE but has a paid plan;

Save the Cat! - The blog of the most known storytelling method. You can find posts, sheets, a software (student discount - 70%), and other things;

I hope this is helpful for you!

(Also, check my blog if you want to!)

[largishcat]

fictional character discourse would be more fun if we all internalized the fact that characters are narrative tools, not people. once we have that basic fact down, we can start talking about what story the author is trying to tell using these characters, whether they’re successful, whether the story itself is successful and by what means we are measuring success—which are all really fun and interesting things to discuss! but we simply cannot get to that point unless we first accept that fictional characters simply do not have thoughts, feelings, opinions, or any agency on their own. a fictional character has more in common with the fictional chair theyre sitting on than with a real person

[snake-and-mouse]

To any fic writers who worry they are wasting their time... I read a fic for a relatively small and inactive fandom about three years ago. And there was one specific scene where a character watched another dancing like an idiot to a beyonce song and it was so sweet and loving that even now years later I have that song on one of my spotify playlist so every once in a while it will play and remind me of that fic, and every time it does I smile and feel a little happier.

The stats on a fic will never really tell you if your writing touched someone. There's no numerical way to show you what impact you made. Maybe you are wasting time, or maybe you are writing something that someone will remember for a long time, something that will never fail to make them smile.

[funnytwittertweets]

[erato-was-here]

Snowflakes

Your room is covered

In brightly coloured snowflakes

That stretch up the walls

And dance along the ceiling.

There are more with every storm,

Every brush-caused flurry

That you strike up

When the stars in your mind align

Just right.

They drip from the cloud of your paintbrush,

Leap and pirouette through the air,

And if I’m lucky I’ll shiver at their kiss

On my skin,

And in my dreams I feel the echoes;

The feather-soft ghost

of a paintbrush upon my face.

Is it wrong to think of kissing?

Of the smudges that you’d make,

Pressed against me covered in flakes of paint,

The new colours that we’d create?

[erato-was-here]

I sat on the wall at the edge of my garden, Nintendo DS in one hand and cigarette in the other. It was my third of the evening, the ritual of going outside, flicking the lighter, and breathing deep was almost as comforting as the haze of bitter nicotine. I took a drag, pressing a button to make the Pokémon on my screen move. I glanced up; there was a girl screaming and beating on my bedroom window with her fists. I exhaled the smoke, watching it curl lazily towards the night sky, and pressed another button on the console. When I looked up again, the girl was gone.

 I finished my cigarette, flicked the butt into the overflowing ashtray waiting at my feet. The Nintendo disappeared into my pocket. My slippers, stolen from one of my housemates, flapped against the soles of my feet as I picked my way through the dark, across the damp grass and back into the relative warmth of the house. 

     The conservatory was empty. So was the kitchen when I paused to grab a cheap bottle of wine from the cupboard next to the fridge. I cursed quietly; last one. All I could hear was the washing machine, churning its captives in soapy water. The living room held signs of life; bags and shoes discarded on the floor, blankets and old clothes stretched across the ratty sofas we got for free. I flopped onto one of them, flicked the lid off the wine and took a gulp. The sharp smell, more than the taste, lingered on the back of my tongue.

[transmechanicus]

I love the idea of dead gods. Not in the sense of “hey i killed something supernaturally strong” but in the sense of “i killed it and it’s still a god.” It is still worshipped. prayers are still answered. miracles are performed in its name, even as it lies pierced by a thousand swords and burning with chemical fire. even as it drifts through vacuum, decapitated and bleeding molten rock. in cosmic spite of being shot through each eye and hurled into a plasma reactor, it still radiates the power of the divine in a way that primitive death cannot smother. the nature of godhood is not so simple as to be tied to the mortality, or immortality, of any living being.

[wordfather]

writing tip:

if you push buttons on a keyboard, letters will appear on the screen. and with that power you can do anything

[moonstrider9904]

If you're a writer and you feel like you should be writing but you feel tired and instead want to sleep

Sleep, baby. You deserve to rest. Take a break. It's a necessity.

You're doing great, and when you have the energy you'll write the most beautiful thing.

But give yourself appropriate rest first, okay? 💖