♡

Writer | She/her | Vampire Queen

[macabremoons]

writeblr (re)intro

𝖆𝖇𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖒𝖊:

Moon ♡ She/her ♡ Blk ♡ Vampire Queen ♡ pfp by @chandeloor

My favorite book is the wicked king by Holly Black. I love Holly Black's writing in general

I love making playlists

I'm a fanfic writer turned og writer (though sometimes I dip my toes back in)

I love video essays

𝖆𝖇𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖒𝖞 𝖜𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌:

Pantser! I don't even write outlines these days really I just dive into a zero draft with a dream and a prayer.

I write mostly fantasy! I enjoy writing about the fae, vampires, and royalty, so these themes are usually in my writing lol

Love me a good morally grey female protagonist. I love writing black girl protagonists as well!

I write both romance and found family pretty evenly. They both mean a lot to me!! Not all of my wips have romance, but the ones that don't always have some sort of family theme

Love doing in-depth worldbuilding. I don't love writing it down, which just means I spam my friends with info LOL

𝖒𝖞 𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖏𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖘:

My wip masterlist is here! My current main project is Project Warm Hands, but I have the most content on Project Daycycle which you can get the details of here: intro.

𝖜𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖒𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙:

Here!

𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗:

Very ask and tag friendly! Hit me up if you wanna talk about my wips or just chat <3.

Open to reading other's wips as an alpha or beta reader (within reason ofc.) Just send me a message!

𝖘𝖔𝖈𝖎𝖆𝖑𝖘:

Wattpad: ♡

Ao3: ♡

[sebastianfowler]

Are your characters fucking in spite of The Horrors, or are they fucking because of The Horrors?

[dyrewrites]

There is a third thing to consider.

[daynakathrynscully]

Their fucking has caused The Horrors.

[knitmeapony]

Okay, a *fourth* thing to consider.

[starpains]

on “the blond,” “the older man,” and other crimes against third-person limited

You know that thing where a story is written in tight third person limited — we’re meant to be inside someone’s head, seeing the world through their thoughts — and then suddenly the narration says “the blond frowned” or “the shorter woman sighed” about a person the POV character knows really well?

That’s called antonomasia — using a descriptive label instead of a name. And it’s fine when we’re talking about strangers: “the cashier handed her the receipt,” “the tall guy blocked the door.” The POV character doesn’t know their names, and we just need a quick way to tell people apart.

But the moment it’s used for someone the POV character already knows, it breaks immersion. Because that’s not how our minds work. We don’t think “the older man smiled at me.” We think “Mark smiled.” Or maybe “my boss” if that relationship matters in the moment.

Third person limited means the narration sits inside someone’s perception. Their inner monologue is the story’s voice. So when you switch from “Mark smiled” to “the blond smiled,” you’ve pulled the camera away from their mind and turned it into an outside shot.

If you want to create distance or irritation, you can do it on purpose —

“The idiot from accounting emailed again.”

That’s character voice. That’s judgment. That works.

But otherwise?

As soon as your POV character knows someone’s name, use it. While we do tend to worry about repetitions, names rarely register as such to the readers.

If you need variety for rhythm, use relational or emotional identifiers that make sense in their head: her friend, his partner, their teacher, the person they loved.

Because inside someone’s thoughts, there are no “blonds” or “brunettes.”

There are only people they know.

[wisteria-lodge]

Really good explanation of the fundamental problem with this type of writing.

(and why it's one of my huge pet peeves)

[taylor-titmouse]

taylor titmouse's guide for improving your itchio store page

(The Night Guest)

a few years ago i wrote a big angry post about how bad people are at marketing their own work and what they can do to be better at it. since then, the advice about twitter has largely become unnecessary and irrelevant, but the advice about what information you should be putting on your product page is still important and [through gritted teeth] nobody's fucking doing it.

so this post is going to be a step by step break down of what you can do to improve your itchio store pages to make them more informative and customer friendly. you're reading this because you 🫵 want to learn and improve. or you're just curious and/or like it when i yell. but either way taking my advice is your choice and if you don't feel like doing any of it you don't have to, much like nobody has to buy your books. if you've ever lamented why nobody buys your work but you're not making it easy for them to do so, it's 🫵 your fault and you annoy me immensely. take responsibility for your bad business practices.

anyway, let's make you better okay?

(and also note that all the store pages i'm using as examples are for adult works, but there's no explicit images in this post. you'll only see anything if you click through the links)

BANNERS

you probably already clicked and read through that image up there, because it was big and eye-catching and at the top of the post. i fucking Got you. that is, ideally, what the banner will do. while the banner is not strictly necessary, it's a "well, why not have one?" situation. it makes the page look more deliberately designed, and it's a great additional sample of what the customer can expect from your work.

if your product doesn't feature art, simply making an image with the title will also work well, as i've done here for A Hundred Hungry Mouths. that book didn't have enough interior illustrations to justify burning one for the banner, so i left the cover out of the "screenshots" field and edited it to be the banner instead. simple!

(if you don't want to figure out a good banner size yourself, mine are 1120 x 325 pixels with transparent, rounded corners)

BOOK COVER

i think this one is a no brainer. i hope to god it is a no brainer. if your book has a cover, make sure it's set as the first screenshot (if you're not doing the banner tech i mentioned above). i won't advise you on what a good book cover is, because that's a whole other post and wildly subjective. but you should have one. even if it's a sketch collection. even if it's just an illustration from the sketchbook with a title edited on. it will look so much better than nothing.

hopefully you also already know that though, so here's some itchio specific advice. what itchio considers the cover is actually the thumbnail that displays elsewhere on the site. you are much better off making a discrete edit for this rather than uploading the actual cover. compare the thumbnails i made by hand for r/l monroe's books vs the thumbnails for the early books i didn't bother with.

one of these looks professional. one of these looks lazy, and there's a reason that section is relegated to the very bottom of my page. if you don't want to go the length of a bespoke thumbnail, take your book cover (or whatever illustration you want to use) and set your square selection tool to a fixed aspect ratio of 6.3 W to 5 H. find a good crop, then resize it to 630x500. perfect thumbnail.

SAMPLES

this is the thing that makes me the angriest. it makes me SO angry. so many of you are out there making your store pages, trying to sell me prose writing or your comics or your artbooks, and then not showing me any of your work. i'm grabbing you. i'm shaking you. what is your fucking problem. what are you THINKING. have you ever bought a book at the store without reading a little first? would you buy a graphic novel without flipping through the first few pages to see if you like the style? no?

SO WHY DO YOU EXPECT ME TO? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

this is so basic. i should not have to keep telling people this but it keeps happening. PUT A FUCKING SAMPLE UP. TAKE SCREENSHOTS OF THE FIRST PAGES OF YOUR WRITING. GIVE ME THE FIRST FEW PAGES OF YOUR COMIC. SHOW ME AN ILLUSTRATION OR TWO FROM THE ARTBOOK.

they don't even have to be the full thing! with my artbook collections, i'll pick a few crops and make one condensed promotional image. or i'll take one good one and slap a banner over it. i put something. you can check out different examples/styles of this on The Womanulet, Poker Night with the Arizona Dogs, and Return to Shadow.

for all of my prose writing, i include at least the first 1-3 pages of the book. you are actually delusional if you are a prose writer and you're trying to sell your book on the cover and pitch alone. you have to show me that you can write, and give me a chance to tell if i'd like it. i cannot think of a good reason not to. if you're embarrassed to have any of the writing public, you should not be selling it. if you don't want to give any of it away for free, get your head out of your ass. who do you think you are. there is no good reason not to include a sample and i don't know why so many of you don't.

OKAY THINGS GOT A BIT HEATED THERE SO LET'S TALK ABOUT TEXT

we're going to cover sales copy now. it's hard to write. it is absolutely miserable to write. but you have to. if you're trying to sell me a story, you have to tell me what it is and who it's about. who is our protagonist? what challenge are they facing, or what are they setting out to do? who will they encounter, and what might happen to them? you don't have to tell me the whole story, but you should set my expectations. let's break down the example pictured above, from The Night Guest.

Ever since the death of her husband, Mrs. Arakawa has run her inn alone. There's never been a guest the seasoned innkeeper couldn't handle… but she's never had to host a hungry oni. It'll take all her wits and wiles to survive the night in his service--or else she may find herself in his mouth.

in three sentences, i've established who the book is about, the conflict, and the sexual hook. there's a sexy widow, there's a scary oni, and they're probably going to fuck nasty style by the end of the book. that's enough to get the idea of what this is and whether you'd like it. it can be difficult to know how to pitch a story without spoiling it, so this is something that takes observation from other books, and practice. it is hard! i hate doing it! but it's vitally important to getting the reader onboard with your work.

but mr. titmouse! you cry. i'm not selling a story! i'm selling an artbook!

okay. you can still tickle my balls about what's in there. here's another example from my hades 2 artbook Return to Shadow.

Sometimes there are games that, had we been born into a better timeline, would prominently feature awesome sex. Bad endings, romance scenes, flagrant eroticism. Hades 2 is one of those games--beautiful, fun, and with monster designs that deserve to be appreciated for the fantastic fuckmobs they are. Together, we can imagine this better timeline.

it's a bit more slick, a bit more sales pitchy, but that's fine. there is no narrative here beyond 'boy i sure wish hades 2 had porn in it'. i'm enticing you into a space. it's a book of hades 2 porn. don't you also want to look at hades 2 porn? wouldn't that be awesome? i think it's awesome. i want you to also think it's awesome. you (as author) should be convincing your potential customer that what you want to share with them is awesome.

THE INFORMATIONAL PARAGRAPH

whether you find this one necessary depends on the work. i think it's always a good idea to have somewhere to give contextual information about your thing, and if you're working in erotica you've got to have somewhere to put your features and warnings. this is also a good place to put your comps and inspirations--a good way to set your reader's expectations. basically, anything that doesn't fit into the narrative pitch, you'd put here.

here's an example from Chique: The Sunken City:

Chique: The Sunken City is inspired by RPGs and hentai games, and contains three short stories, each an encounter with a denizen of Sodden, exploring different associated kinks and fetishes. Books in this series have no reading order.

tells you what vibe the book has, that there are three different stories within the book, and that it can be read without reading any other books in the series. straightforward, easy to understand. no problem.

for adult books you don't have to be 100% thorough when listing out the featured kinks, it's okay to just hit the highlights. i've become somewhat agnostic about this in the era of "if you even mention a naughty word we'll Get you" internet. but i would suggest you put as much as you feel comfortable revealing, and what would be most attractive to a reader. you don't have to list every individual sex act, just remember that this is part of your advertising. you want the person who's really into what you're cooking to know that it's on the menu.

THE OTHER LITTLE INFORMATIONAL PARAGRAPH

this is self explanatory. please tell me how many pages there are of your comic or art book. tell me the wordcount for your prose. MOST of you are already good about this and don't need me to tell you to do this. but if you weren't already doing this, a) i don't understand you b) start doing it.

I THINK THAT'S MOSTLY IT

you've been so brave and tough for letting me yell at you this far down your dashboard. i hope you've learned something and will change your behavior for the better. i want you to make money. okay? i yell at you like this because i want you to make money. i want to GIVE you money. but you have to make it easier for me.

to wrap up, here are my other general pieces of advice to make your itchio page look and function better

if there are multiple books in the series, put a link to the rest of them somewhere on the page. i put them at the bottom, as you can see on this Roger book from the middle of the series.

i personally prefer itchio pages that are styled for dark mode. black always looks good in the background, and #232323 gives you a nice neutral gray for the text area. however, making the page match the palette of your book cover is also a good choice, so long as you keep it legible. no white text on light backgrounds and vice versa.

bare minimum, make the links the same color as your cover. it will immediately tie the page together and make everything look more deliberate. the less 'i made this in two minutes and left everything default' you can make your page look, the better. have some pride, you know?

not an itchio specific piece of advice but ohhhh my god put your links in your bio. put your links in your BIO. PUT THEM IN YOUR PINNED POST. PUT THEM SOMEWHERE!!!! you cannot expect me to scroll your account to find links you posted a week ago! or even an hour ago! put it in your bio or pinned post!! do not make me work to give you money! you are wasting valuable self-promotion space on DNIs that nobody cares about.

okay that's it. that's everything. you made it all the way to the bottom. i'm so proud of you. slaps your ass. now get back out there and fix your shit.

(if you found this helpful, how about buying one of my freakin' books?)

[jhoomwrites]

You're about to pick out a new romance to read - what's MOST LIKELY to be a dealbreaker for you?

tense (present vs past)

POV (1st vs 3rd person)

POV (dual vs single POV)

tropes / kinks

spice level (open vs closed door)

pairing (mm vs mf vs ff, etc)

subgenre (contemporary romance vs fantasy romance, etc)

author

reviews

other (replies, tags, etc)

Voting ended onMay 24

[fullmetalfisting]

Tbh germ theory DOES sound crazy. Like if you told a regency-era nobleman that tiny creatures lived on the surface of everything and THAT’S what causes consumption, they’d be like “ah, I see you are a lunatic. Would you reside in my hermitage? Rantings and ravings do so amuse my guests”

[mysteryteacup]

But if you told a Medieval person this they would probably go "Ah, so when the miasma settles on surfaces it gains evil life. I understand."

[alarajrogers]

Yeah, actually, it would probably be pretty easy to explain germ theory to a Medieval person as tiny evil spirits that live on everything, but they can be purified by soap and water, or by alcohol, because that is why God has granted us those things. And because they can float in the air, if you cough or sneeze after they have infested you, that can cause them to infest others. And when you are sick, the angels God has deputized to defend the bodies of His beloved children are at war with the evil spirits, and, sadly, sometimes they lose, but the best way to help your angels win their battle is to rest, drink plenty (this would probably be small beer in this time period, not water, because the water was also infested), stay clean, and for the sake of God do not allow anyone to let your blood, for the angels need that blood in their war against the evil spirits. Bloodletting is good for some types of illnesses but not the kinds caused by the tiny evil spirits.

[chekhovs-raygun]

boiling as a sterilization measure is also easy to explain. water returns to the air when heated and it rises as steam back up to the floodgates of heaven; we know God created the world in seven days, He's not up there making more water every time it rains. it circulates. the returning of water to heaven also purifies the water of unclean and malign influences. you know wormy water from a muddy puddle will kill your kid. you know you wouldn't wade into a bog and have a slurp. water that remains in the low places of earth absorbs all that is unclean from our waste and it may also sponge up new diseases from hell, we're not totally sure about that one, but it seems likely. God set up the heavenly water cycle so that the earth's waters wouldn't totally fill up with gunk.

what does this have to do with boiling your surgical tools? well look, the boiling water releases bubbles of steam which carries the malign influences up to heaven. you boil a knife, you send all the miasmic particles off with the steam to heaven. if you rinse the knife off in a bucket the water isn't hot enough, the particles go into the water and then right back on to the knife. you gotta boil it to get the particles all the way away. how can a tool or rag or a bed have miasmic particles on it when you can't smell them? humans have a lousy sense of smell. look at your dog on the hunt. are there no rabbits in the woods just because you can't smell them? we know that miasma is carried on the air, and is what makes stench so dangerous, and we know that humans can't smell worth a damn compared to dogs cats horses etc. a dog can smell if a rat died in a corner of the room last week. you can't. do you think licking the spot where the rat died is going to go well for you? luckily, what humans lack in snout we make up for in brains. we have extra brains where our sniffers should have been. God set that up for a reason.

and why does a rinse with wine spirits work? man, look how fast alcohol evaporates. my guess is that because wine contains a lot more vice than water, it evaporates a whole lot faster, in sort of an equal and opposite way that a rock falls faster than a feather. if you want the miasmic particles to get off there FAST, you dunk it in something that's going back to heaven at a gallop.

what's up with honey? it just preserves things against corruption. doesn't clean them off. honey doesn't evaporate at all. probably because bees don't sin. it's not good for ridding a tool of particles-- it's sticky-- but fine for preserving anything you don't want to go to heaven OR hell. this is why you wash the wound with wine spirits or purified water FIRST, to sluice the miasma out, then slap the honey on AFTER. and boil the damn bandage, too. you wouldn't put a rotten door in a sound doorframe and expect it to keep out bandits, would you? cmon.

[sepdet]

Every time I hit a video or science book pooh-poohing the miasma theory, I want to scream. Okay, so it wasn't the smell that was transmitting disease, but they had figured out that disease could spread by air as well as physical contact, and that social distancing and masking might help.

[ijustwannawritepls]

How to Write When You Don't Feel Like Yourself

There are going to be days (or weeks, or months) where you sit down to write and feel... disconnected. From your voice, from your characters, from your ideas. Like the person who used to write your stories just packed up and left.

They didn't. They're just tired. Here's how to keep writing anyway:

Lower the bar (Until it's on the floor) You are not here to write something brilliant. You are here to write something. A paragraph. A sentence. A single line of dialogue. Movement matters way more than quality.

Write around the story Don't force it. If you can't write the scene, try: ⋆ A character ramble / journal entry ⋆ A conversation that won't be included in the final draft ⋆ A list of things the character would never admit out loud ⋆ A messy summary of what should happen Engage with the story from a different angle.

Borrow a voice until yours comes back No, not with AI. Read something that feels close to what you want to write, or watch a scene that captures the tone, then write immediately after. Not to copy, to reignite your instincts.

Write the emotion, not the plot. What is your character feeling in this moment? What are they afraid of? What do they want but won't say? What's being kept from them? The emotion leads, the plot catches up later.

Stop trying to "feel like a writer" first. You don't write when you feel like a writer. You feel like a writer because you write.

You are still a writer, even on the days it feels distant. Especially then.

[naamahdarling]

If the problem is that you want to write and CAN write, but feel like what you are producing just suddenly sucks and is below your standards, keep writing anyway.

It isn't a problem with your writing. You're either:

1) tired or going through it somehow, or have recently been through something, and that can easily make you dissatisfied with what you are producing,

--OR!--

2) you are on the threshold of leveling up, or have done so, and the asshole editor side of your brain is interpreting the raised ceiling as "I suck, actually." You don't, and in six months you won't be able to find the parts you thought were bad writing.

All of this applies to all art.

[marisatomay]

saw this thread and really loved it but what i liked most is that it taught this kid that if a book isn’t for you, even if you really want to like it, it’s okay to stop reading it and come back to it another time when you are ready. there were so many books i slogged through as a kid because i felt like i had to prove that i could read them since i *loved* reading so i simply had to finish this book or i didn’t actually love to read. silly, really. the more kids who don’t ascribe to that thinking the better. really great of both the dad and the librarian for allowing the kid access to the stephen king book and allowing him make the decision on whether or not it was for him by himself.

[runasulienadanika]

come on😀mention my favourite character😀i am well adjusted😀and will act very normal😀i assure you😀

[apocalypsebabycomic]

Hello everyone! I'm so excited to finally announce that my debut graphic novel Apocalypse Baby is being published by Scholastic! It's coming out on the 8th of October 2026 and it's avaliable for preorder right now from all good bookstores ❤️

*** Cover reveal! ***

Apocalypse Baby follows two teenage boys as they try to look after a baby during a zombie apocalypse.

One of the main characters, Max, is autistic, and I was diagnosed autistic myself while writing the book. I'm so happy to have the opportunity to contribute some autistic representation to fiction, and I can't wait for you to meet him, as well as Kiran and baby Abby!

If you'd like to preorder, I reccommend getting it from Bookshop.org as each purchase supports an indie bookstore 😊

Apocalypse Baby

Check out Apocalypse Baby -   Boy meets boy. Meets ... zombie. When teenagers Max and Kiran find a baby crying alone during a

Thank you so much! ❤️

[itsaspectrumcomic]

The reason why I've been so quiet here recently! I've been spending every minute I can spare working on this book and I can't wait for you to read it ❤️

[ooppo]

The beginning of the end for every digital artist

[helmet-noob]

i was doomscrolling ship dynamics on Pinterest and suddenly thought of one i've loved for ages but I don't know if it has a name

PLEASE tell me you guys see the vision

[sinewywarp]

I really love it when a character's past self and their present self are considered entirely different characters

[macabremoons]

love pantsing a novel with a magic system. Mhm? What's that? What's the magic system? Oh, that's for second draft me to figure out. When is second draft me going to do that? ...the day gets sooner with each passing second

[macabremoons]

YOU WHORE YOU WHORE YOU WHORE NOW I HAVE TO SOLVE THIS SHIT YOU BITCH

[macabremoons]

more important question now: do my dual pov superhero experiencing disillusionment/hot reporter being an absolute fucking mess OR do i write femboy ship AI discovering both joy and gender. BOTH R SO GOOD. BOTH SO FUN! but i can only put my heart into one, i know for certain ughhh..

[macabremoons]

oh wow i did neither of these sorry chat im writing thriller lesbians </3

[fawnpalmer]

quarterly reminder that if i reblog something ai-generated it is 110% and always an accident and for the love of god please tell me so i can delete it from my blog

[divorcedwife]

i'm still thinking about that post i reblogged earlier about art and wanting attention/connection and i really do think, personally, that having three friends who genuinely love your art and will tell you details they like is more meaningful and desirable than 100,000 followers who interact silently. if im confident in my art now, it's because i was lucky enough to have small groups of friends who encouraged me and helped me get there when i was mega-demoralized in my art

[nacricissa]

The real thing Tumblr did for me was allow me to meet @squarebracket-trickster and @magic-is-something-we-create. I have them both on other platforms now and it is so nice to be able to turn to them (and some irl friends) and go LOOKIT THIS THING I MADE and they go LESGOOO YOU MADE THAT THING SO GOOD.

[squarebracket-trickster]

Right back at you @nacricissa <3

Also, my love forever to @macabremoons, @bluberimufim, @rbbess110, and @beloveddawn-blog.

I made my Writeblr specifically because I realized I was leaning on my irl friends too hard for encouragement. They were so supportive, obviously, but they didn't really know the etiquette. So it led to a few moments where I got my feelings accidentally hurt because I had written a rough draft of something I was really excited to share, and a friend thought they were being helpful by giving me feedback.

They weren't big readers of the genre/age category I was writing for, so their feedback really missed the mark; and I was already very aware of the valid issues they pointed out—it was a rough draft! And most importantly, I wasn't looking for feedback. I was looking for someone to go "AHHHH THIS IS GONNA BE SO GOOD WHEN ITS DONE HEWOIHEHEE I AM FERAL", just because that's how I was feeling about it.

But, my friends didn't quite understand just what it meant for something to be a first draft (especially for me as a "don't edit as you go" type drafter), nor did they understand why I might be sharing something with them if I wasn't interested in their honest opinion on it. They didn't know there was a time and place, a right way to go about it, and good and bad kinds of feedback. And, they didn't understand that someone not wanting feedback right this very second, from you specifically, doesn't mean they are allergic to criticism or blindly unaware of the actual quality of the writing—and because of course I was neither, surely I'd want them to say something, right? That's what good friends do.

But to me, their criticism and not matching my level of enthusiasm just felt like, "oh my god, my friend thinks I'm stupid."

Which I knew wasn't true. But I realized there wasn't really a good way to explain this to someone who wasn't a writer themselves, and who wasn't adjacent to a writer community (like fanfic readers). It was just unfair to expect from them, and was just going to keep ending up in misunderstandings.

That and I was spending hours talking my friends' ears off, and regularly paragragh text spamming them, over nitty gritty writing things that did not interest them beyond being happy for me. That's just not fair to them.

So I made a Writeblr, and oh my god I am so glad I did! Most posts of my own writing seldom get more than 10 notes, but the 10 people that regularly leave notes on my posts mean the world to me. I'm finally getting that enthusiasm and comradery I've always wanted, friends who get it.

It was never about getting a ton of followers for me (I had an older writeblr where I did more writing advice, but was less social, and I eventually got bored of it). I just wanted to meet some friends with a shared interest.