mellifluous

the honey flow of words — nmc writeblr / three current projects

[welcometowriteblr]

WELCOME TO WRITEBLR PRESENTS: IKILLEDMYOCS’ HIT LIST

As WTW has been taking suggestions for how to improve the network, one of the suggestions was interacting more with people’s work and taking an interest in them outside of the server. This is a difficult task to do, as there are only so many things we can do to make sure everyone feels appreciated while also keeping an emphasis on our network members. Our solution: weekly shout-outs curated by @ikilledmyocs! Here’s how the hit list works.

HOW TO GET FEATURED

As we figure out how to properly do interviews, tweak what works and what doesn’t, the hit list is currently going to be for members only. But that will not be the case forever! Once all members have been featured, it will then be open as a level perk in the WTW server. At the moment, the majority with this perk are already members, so the line will not be long. Once our priority features are through, the process is simple!

You must be an active writeblr member, along with a wip that you feel comfortable sharing

Preferably have a discord account, or be willing to make one for an interview

Join the WTW server and add yourself to the waitlist that can be found in the announcements channel

Wait until you are contacted by Dani

(OPTIONAL) Follow the tag wtw;hit list to see every interview

WHY JOIN THE HIT LIST

Share your wip to 1000+ blogs

Receive a personalized wip graphic from @ikilledmyocs

Grow your audience and interest in your work

✨ NETWORKING ✨

Permanent place on the hit list

[apocalypse-polakiewicz]

davanshatry

[garcavisconde]

I just realised something.

It is (kind of) easy to write despair. It is easy to write something soul-crushing. It is easy to kill off characters and terrorise the readers with prompts and bits of terrifying scenes, horrific pasts and sheer, pure destruction. It is easy to almost glamourize all of that, and it is also easy to actually glamourize that.

But to write genuine, pure hope, is something hard. I’m not talking about light-hearted scenes, no, I’m talking about the core of the story. It is so incredibly hard to make hope the core theme of everything. It’s hard to make your characters stand after almost dying for the milionth time, it’s hard to not kill them off and instead give them an equally important role in the story that isn’t shock value. To make your story about hope is to accept that hope is not stupid, or silly, or anything like that. It is to know that it exists, and also that it hurts to have it.

And even harder than that, to make the reader feel pure, genuine happiness is a thing I find impossible to do and I am NOT joking. It’s not just humour or funny silly moments, I mean genuine happiness, a kind that is so powerful and deep that you know it is there even in the darkest of moments. I never could write a character that has such a deep, powerful happiness, because it is so easy to lose it to everything bad that can happen in a story.

I am not saying that you should not write about despair! Actually, to write something destuctive is to almost destroy yourself. Almost! It’s very hard to do that! But sometimes, it is even harder to simply… Not do that.

[writerscastle]

[s/o to @swordeaters for the awesome image]

— introducing writer’s castle!

WHAT IS IT?:

writer’s castle is a place for writers to come together and chat about their wips, support each other, and make new friends!

we are aimed toward original fiction of all genres

the server is 18+ only

FEATURES:

channels for critiques, sharing writing, world building, and plot discussion

other channels for writing sprints and progress sharing

separate dedicated channels for nanowrimo and other events

HOW DO I JOIN?:

join here! and, if you want, reblog this post to boost it!

[conteur]

A BLOOMING DECEIT — a novel by c.g.p.

Amsterdam, 1636. The city that thrives on floraturgy—the magical potential of plants—is abuzz with a rumour that the coveted Semper Augustus tulip bulbs have the power to change the course of war. Saskia de Haas, slighted by the richest man in Holland—the man who is in possession of the bulbs—is determined to get her revenge and assembles a team of young ladies to help her:

A botanical magician masquerading as a boy.

An artist’s favoured muse with a sordid past.

A gambler with an artificial streak of good luck.

And a penniless heiress engaged to the mark.

Together, they will help Saskia pull off the unthinkable: a theft from the most secure place in all of Amsterdam. But as she begins to fall for one of her co-conspirators—and confront the ghosts from her past—Saskia’s heist takes a turn she did not expect—a turn that might just end up deadly.

a young adult historical (light) fantasy featuring queer girls in need of therapy, a unique magic system, an alternative history of the dutch golden age, and a lot of references to the language of flowers

find me on twitter / pinterest / spotify !

[aridante]

“After learning my flight was detained 4 hours, I heard the announcement: if anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately. Well—one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there. An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly. Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her problem? We told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she did this. I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly. Shu dow-a, shu-biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick, sho bit se-wee? The minute she heard any words she knew—however poorly used—she stopped crying. She thought our flight had been canceled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the following day. I said no, no, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just late. Who is picking you up? Let’s call him and tell him. We called her son and I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother until we got on the plane and would ride next to her—Southwest. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out, of course, they had ten shared friends. Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours. She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies—little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts—out of her bag—and was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California, the lovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies. And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers—non-alcoholic—and the two little girls from our flight, one African American, one Mexican American—ran around serving us all apple juice and lemonade, and they were covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend—by now we were holding hands—had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing with green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere. And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, this is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in this gate—once the crying of confusion stopped—has seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too. This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.”

— Naomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952), “Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal.”

[ikilledmyocs]

TAROT CARD TEMPLATE #3

WHAT YOU’RE GETTING: 1 PSD (268x380) with minimal customization needed, but a basic knowledge of how layer styles and clipping masks work. Looks exactly like it does in the image above only without the background.

IF YOU DOWNLOAD/USE: tag me for credit, do not claim as your own, if you have any trouble or questions send me an ask but make sure it hasn’t already been answered

IMAGES/THINGS USED: ELECTRO SHACKLE, Heejin Debut Teaser, PSD coloring is not included

DOWNLOAD HERE (PATREON IS FREE, JUST TO HOST DOWNLOADS)

[avi-why]

Why Can’t I Write This?

part I: prologues

one common fallacy of writing advice, when decrying something as “bad” or “overused”, is that it fails to go into detail about why. this can lead to authors avoiding perfectly useful writing tools because they’re “bad”.  it also leads to the counter-argument “but [famous author] did it, and they’re famous!”, to which the answer is (besides the fact that they’re established in the industry, and therefore have more leeway) that it was effective for the story they were telling. they did it right. is there necessarily a right and a wrong way to tell a story? no. but there are things that make the story you are telling more effective, or less effective– and it varies by author, audience, and project. this post is going to be the first in a series of me explaining 1) why certain writing devices are denounced as “bad”, and 2) how they can be used effectively in stories. they will not be effective in every story– this is not a cure-all. basically, in the end, it all boils down to this: every story is different, and you should to what will be the best for the story you’re currently writing :) now, onto the advice. (under a cut bc this got stupid long. i promise future installments will be shorter!)

Keep reading

[nmcwriting]

gave up on editing goldbone at three and decided to completely rewrite it instead. fun!

[miseryunplugged]

hi all, palestine’s going through a mass genocide right now and really needs help, here are a few ways you can do that

palestine children’s relief fund: provide urgent humanitarian care for children in gaza

anera: provide on-the-ground emergency relief

united nations relief and works agency: food assistance and emergency physical+mental help

medical aid for palestinians: emergency relief for women and children, psychosocial support, disability help, other medical needs

doctors without borders: medical teams on the ground treating injured palestinians as needed

feel free to add on in the notes, notify me if any of the fundraisers listed arent necessary/actually helpful to donate to, and let me know if anything needs added on/modified

as always, if you cant donate then please share and spread awareness

[emmaharwoods]

decolonizepalestine.com is an easy to navigate website run by two palestinians which breaks down common myths about palestine and provides a reading list organized by a wide variety of categories ranging from history and culture to media and censorship. it’s a good starting point to use if you want to learn more about the modern day situation in palestine and understand the truth behind myths that have been perpetuated about israel’s occupation of palestine.

[nibeul]

[nmcwriting]

i want to use tumblr again and be active here but the interface is so ugly

[nmcwriting]

Hey! I saw you're working on other projects at the moment but Goldbone at Three looks super cool! I'd love to be put on the tag list if/when you post more about it

hi friend!! i’m not sure when you sent this but whenever i update goldbone at three again, i’ll be sure to add you to my tag list!! thank you so so much for the interest!!!

[shirkers2018dirsanditan]

i can’t believe people on this website hated when english teachers told them to explain why the curtains are blue. that is genuinely where i SHINED. i absolutely fucking love picking apart the minute details of art and film and television and literature to attribute them meaning. hell yeah works are a living body that take on a meaning beyond an author’s intent and explicitly written/painted/etc material. hell yeah works have many dimensions which are made richer by our own perspectives and many great elements of a work developed between the lines of intent and interpretation

[nmcwriting]

goldbone at three is still in my wip arsenal, but i have 2 other secret wips i am very passionate about and have been working on for months (since my writer’s block left). i’m so excited to be back to writing!!

[serotoninsuggestion]

an author i love just tweeted about how “big joy and small joy are the same” and how she was just as content the other night eating chocolate and cuddling her dog as she was on her Big Trip to new york and honestly. i think that’s it. this morning i was listening to an audiobook while baking shortbread in my joggers and i realised i really didn’t care what Big Things happened in my future as long as i could keep baking and reading at the weekend and maybe that is the kind of bar we have to set to guard ourselves against disappointment. just appreciate and cherish the mundane stuff and see everything else as a bonus.

[serotoninsuggestion]

found it - she was replying to this thread that starts “unpopular opinion: i don’t think your life has to have a purpose, or you a grand ambition; i think it’s okay to just wander through life finding interesting things until you die” and i for one think that’s fucking brilliant