Prose & Protests

feelings spilled in ink and rage aroace (she/her)

[mumbledmanuscripts]

🌷 Introduction 🌷

Hi, I’m Sephy (short for Persephone), an aroace writer and engineering student. Currently balancing writing my fantasy novel whilst studying for a robotics degree. I love baking, reading and crochet. I am often mistaken for an old lady in a young woman’s body — or a librarian. I can’t really refute either allegation. About my blog: 🌷 Excerpts, moodboards and ramblings from my epic fantasy WIP - “when the ripple becomes a tidal wave” 🌷 Entries from my prose/poetry anthology, “The Diary of a Melancholic” 🌷 Writing procrastination (i am a master of the craft) and tips which, full disclaimer, I do not follow myself 🌷 Political vents from a girl entirely disillusioned with the state of the world 🌷 Crash outs over technology and the meaning of life

⬇️ Read more for WIP details ⬇️

🌷 WIP info 🌷

Title: 🌷 When the Ripple Becomes a Tidal Wave Genre: 🌷 High, dark fantasy Synopsis: Tell me, what does it take to overthrow a king? Artist healer, soldier, leader, scholar. Five lives scattered across continents. Choices rippling beyond kingdoms. This is the story of a fight for freedom. This is the story of a revolution. Essentially, it’s a novel that takes the powerful, emotion-centred descriptions and character developments (everything I absolutely love about YA fantasy and romantasy) and combines it with the rich worldbuilding and huge plots from my favourite classic epic fantasies. They say to write the book you want to read. This is the only piece of advice I have ever stuck to. Tropes: I’m not of a fan of the way books are increasingly being marketed and described solely on tropes. It strips away all the layers and nuance that really makes a story sing. I also find them really useful for finding books I know I will like to read. Did i mention I’m a hypocrite? 🌷 found family - if you’re not sobbing with happy tears i have failed as a writer 🌷 morally grey characters — and I mean truly grey; even I don’t know whether they are good or bad 🌷 deep platonic relationships (i cannot emphasise this enough; I’m aroace I live for super close platonic relationships) 🌷 wholesome male love interests (no glorification of abusive relationships here thank you very much) 🌷 strong female characters, but not in an unrealistic-sword-fighting-better-than-men-who’ve-trained-for-10000s-of-years sort of way - more in the way of a talented trained assassin who’s pretty damn good with a sword (and female characters with strengths besides aggression) 🌷 pure devastation. Arcane level emotional wreckage. My pen name doesn’t translate to ‘bringer of destruction’ for nothing 🌷 G a y. Just gay. Need I say more? posts related to my fantasy novel are tagged #when the ripple becomes a tidal wave

🪷 🪷 🪷

Title: 🌷 The Diary of a Melancholic Genre: 🌷 Prose/poetry anthology Description: 🌷 The tangled mess of a mind unspooled into lines of lyrical letters. The most chaotic form of catharsis. entries and excerpts from the diary of a melancholic are tagged #diary entry

[mumbledmanuscripts]

I followed your account so long back and now after not hearing anything from you I'm wondering what might've happened (sorry yo pry and well im just curious)...hope you're doing great!

can confirm I am still alive and kicking. i wouldn’t go so far as to say i’m doing *great*, but i’m trying my best.

i seem to have taken a hiatus from writing utterly by accident. i’ve been so focused on uni that i haven’t had a moment to write.

well, i suppose i have had many a spare moment, but those have so far been taken up by curling up under a weighted blanket and watching netflix until my eyes go square. my excuse is that im tired and burnt out and i need to disengage my brain for a while.

a few weeks ago on one of the rare sunny days of this year i went so far as to go to the botanical gardens and wrote until my hands froze up from the cold. but those were not words that will leave the pages of my notebook for some time, I think. although they may be some of the best from my novel so far. i don’t know.

I haven’t written since, which is frustrating. I have so many ideas bottled up in my head which i daydream at every spare moment. But right now I just don’t have the energy.

Soon, i hope I’ll be back on writing. and maybe a while later i’ll be back to shout whatever my chaotic brain comes up with into the void.

in the meantime i’ll be in bed with my emotional support blanket pretending im not an adult with responsibilities.

[elegiesuponyourgravestone]

i will write this poem like a lit cigarette. i will not stop until my lungs are filled with smoke and i am choked on every word. i will write this poem until the words in my head are smoked down to their filter, until their paper skin curls and their meaning turns to tar. or until they burn too fast, filling the room with a haze so thick it rings in my ears like a high-pitched sighs.

i will light another one...another...and another.

god forbid, i will light every cigarette hidden in every corner of my room and exhale them like my lungs were built for nothing else. until i am all nicotine, until i am an ashtray reeking of everything i burned.

— jv orongan postscript: i also post my pieces on Facebook.

[mumbledmanuscripts]

I am so tired of watching everything crumble around me.

Was the world always falling apart?

Was I just too young to notice before?

[idratherhavefreedom]

[superbdragoncollection-stuff]

Apparently the world wasn't always falling apart and that we are in unusual circumstances. If that's any comfort.

[mumbledmanuscripts]

somehow that makes it worse - at least if the world was always falling apart then this wouldn’t be unusual

i have never been more uncomforted in my life, thanks

[mumbledmanuscripts]

finally cracked writers block.

who knew i could just write all the random cool scenes i feel like doing rather than slogging it in chronological order?!

[mumbledmanuscripts]

I am so tired of watching everything crumble around me.

Was the world always falling apart?

Was I just too young to notice before?

[bungerc0re]

see guns did make blades redundant in warfare but most combat is not warfare and the human body has evolved no resistance to being opened like a plastic bag in the past 8000 years. plus since people think they're ineffective they're not on the lookout for blades in public like they are for guns

[bungerc0re]

that's right: kill everyone you meet with a katana

[mumbledmanuscripts]

they’re not on the lookout for blades in public like they are for guns

Oh you sweet summer child.

Let me know how you get on with the metal detector and hoards of police at croydon station on a thursday commute x

[mumbledmanuscripts]

In a world where magic and mythical creatures exist, what would their fairy tales be? What would they read as fantasy? Tell to children to scare them into being good?

Figure out what creatures are mythical to them. What stories and magic they would think impossible.

Explore the limits of the world, of your societies’ beliefs, and you will create a far richer world.

It is easy to forget how much influence our environment and experiences have over the silly little stories we pass down over generations.

But it is those little stories that take the setting beyond an aesthetic backdrop. They are a window into the rich history of the world.

They are what make a place feel real.

[mumbledmanuscripts]

I learned today.

I learned today my driving instructor is racist.

Saw a hijab and labelled her thief. As though that is a normal reaction to have, to someone asking for directions.

I learned today my brother in law is racist, complaining about a hotel for asylum seekers. He did not even try to conceal his bigotry behind trumped up claims of crime prevention.

Or whatever is the latest tired excuse.

I learned today that it is not just a minority driving the hate. Not simply extremism amplified far out of proportion. 

It is my neighbours. My family. That lady I shared a smile with at the supermarket. 

When did discrimination become acceptable?

Propaganda is not what we were taught, you know. Those posters utterly unsubtle in their bold, black lettering. 

We thought we were better than that. 

Smarter than that.

But that isn’t the real propaganda.

It is the politicians making scapegoats out of the vulnerable. It is the blame branded onto the colour of someone’s skin.

I learned today that people are falling for it in the hundreds. 

No-one is truly immune. 

Our country is learning to drive down hate on all the people who need us most.

When did morality become political?

I learned today there is a St George’s cross on my roundabout, blood red painted bold in the daylight. 

Intimidation under the guise of patriotism.

I wonder who they will come for next.

[mumbledmanuscripts]

Write.

Write until the paper tears and the ink runs dry.

Until the keys wear out and the battery dies.

Write like your life depends on it.

Don’t stop for anything.

For anyone.

Write.

Just write.

[nondelphic]

my cat just deleted my document of story notes. she said “kill your darlings” and meant it literally.

[mumbledmanuscripts]

i would actually cry for days

[unravelingwhy]

my fave writing reminder

honestly, this phrase has been on my mind more times than i can count. i've kidnapped it, taken it as a hostage with no ransom money because i need it to live permanently in my head.

[mumbledmanuscripts]

i’m trying i swear

[ambrosemorgan333]

Turn it into art

That broken heart that you have 

Just let it all out 

[thewritingrealm]

If you're reading this...

go write three sentences on your current writing project.

[ezzydean]

# my favourite part about this post # is that nowhere does it say to reblog this # but we’re all reblogging it # because if we have to suffer # so do other writers

[thefoundationproject]

Boop

[caffeinewitchcraft]

This post is committing crimes (see y'all later lmao)

[ivory-afterglow]

Go write!!

[mumbledmanuscripts]

They don’t even have to be good sentences. Don’t think; just write something down. The words will start flowing, or they won’t - no pressure.

Just write.

[sweetvinegar]

[mumbledmanuscripts]

Hate sells.

Division is trending.

There is no longer nuance; unbiased is a lie.

In this age of algorithms and engagement, it is so easy to radicalise. To be radicalised.

The tide is of racism and transphobia and Left vs Right and hatred and bigotry and violence is rising and we have been swept up, spitting and choking on its filthy seawater until we learn to breathe in the unrelenting hate. As fresh as bright winter air.

I would rather drown. But just as nothing is truly watertight, no one is fully immune to the polarisation that seeps into every facet and opinion, so slowly you don’t notice the shift.

It is unavoidable, and I hate it. I hate it I hate it I hateitIhate —

And there it is again.

[asterrwritess]

as a writer, i cant wait to have my books get banned.

if someone doesn't at least attempt to ban them then i will consider myself a failure.

[mumbledmanuscripts]

my success shall be measured by the number of states my book is banned in.