âž Name // Undine
âž Age // 25
âž Pronouns // She/her (They/them is also acceptable!)
âž Writeblr // @pens-swords-stuff
âž Background // Japanese-American, queer, hobby writer
âž Enjoys // Video games, playing music, binging anime and TV shows, compiling data for fanfiction/WIPs, bullet journaling, spending too much time on Tumblr
Hey everyone! I'm not a new writeblr; I've been around for nearly 3 years now. I haven't been very active in the past year, so I'm reintroducing myself to the community as I dip my toes back in the water!
I'm looking for new writeblrs to follow, so please reblog and I'll come check you out. I'd love it if you could introduce yourself to me in the reblogs because I'm always looking for new friends/mutuals to support. Friends and mutuals, I would love and appreciate a boost, as well as an update on how you're doing!
I follow from my main blog @undinology. Contact me through my writeblr @pens-swords-stuff and not my main blog, please and thank you!
MY BLOG
I'm primarily known for my writeblr advice. I write guides designed to help people navigate the community as well as tips and tricks for those who want some extra guidance. Sometimes I post writeblr opinion pieces about current events/trends sometimes if I have something to say. If you've been around, chances are you've seen some of them floating around! I also give standard writing advice on occasion as well. Feel free to ask me anything, just check out my ask guidelines first!
âž My advice masterlist
âž Ask guidelines
I also run a lot of community events! Keep your eyes peeled for any future events; I run them all on this blog! Here are the events that I've created/hosted so far:
âž Writeblr Secret Admirer (Annual)
âž Writeblr Positivity Week (Annual)
âž WIP Blind Date (Intermittent)
Besides all of that, I create writing memes, do a lot of writing positivity posts, and occasionally post my own writing! Supporting other writers is incredibly important to me, so I do my best to leave comments and reblogs as much as I can.
I love talking with and supporting people, so please feel free to reach out!
Writing info and WIPs under the cut!
MY WRITING
âž Writing masterlist*
âž Primary genres // Romance, period, urban fantasy, mysteries, fanfiction
*There are several WIPs on my writing masterlist that are on hiatus, and will likely not be discussed on my blog anymore!
98% of my writing is co-written with my best friend and writing partner @decantae. We've been writing together for nearly 6 years, and we primarily focus on writing bisexual romances in a variety of genres that spiral into massive plots. Our most recent focus has been writing period romances. Our current passion project and the WIP that I write for the most is a fanfiction period romance that features a huge polyamorous relationship, and it's nearly at 600k words written over a year and a half thus far. (No, it's not a novel, and it's written just for our own enjoyment, not necessarily meant to be read by others, so that massive word count is okay!)
The other 2% of my writing are my solo projects. I'm a much better co-writer than I am a solo writer, and they are worked on much more sporadically, but I love them all the same. I have many ideas and I've dropped them just as quickly as I've discussed them! I'm a rather flighty solo-writer who is constantly juggling several ideas both novels and fanfictions. There are two WIPs in particular that have stuck around however, and that I talk about the most on my blog.
ALWAYS THE BRIDESMAID
âž Genre // Murder mystery, romance
âž Tropes // Fake relationship/wedding/marriage, bisexual rivalmance/minor enemies-to-lovers, detectives
âž WIP Introduction
âž Character Introductions
âž WIP Tag // #atb
âł All posts about ATB, including musings, memes, jokes
âž WIP Tag // #always the bridesmaid
âł Only official posts such as snippets, intros, lore, etc.
âž Synopsis
Thereâs been a string of murders. While tragic, murders are commonplace enough in [Fictional City] that no one blinks an eye when they are reported on the six oâclock news. The victims had nothing in common, so it was largely believed to be the work of separate killers, unrelated and commonplace.
Except for one tiny detail: Every single victim had been a part of a wedding party the month prior to their death.
Two private detectives were hired to investigate separate incidents, two different murders. When it becomes apparent that this trail of wedding murders has one culprit, it was only natural for them to team up and work together, because two heads are better than one.
The only problem: They are rival detectives with differing styles that clash and find each other insufferable.
When clue after clue lead them to dead-ends and false information, they are forced to confront the reality that they need to do something drastic to pin down the culprit.
Pretending to be engaged and planning a fake wedding to lure out the killer seems extremely out there, but if they can survive a fake relationship, perhaps they can bring down the killer once and for all.
Itâs a crazy plan, but it just might work. Because if there is one thing for certainâŠ
The victim is always the bridesmaid, and never the bride.
PROJECT VESTIGE
âž Genre // Coming-of-age, magical realism, mystery
âž Themes // Connections between the past and the present, nature is alive, nothing is truly gone, remembrance and memory, found family, history repeats itself, it's never too late, magical phenomenon being 'normal'
âž WIP Introduction
âž Character Introductions
âž WIP Tag // #project vestige
âž Synopsis
When Brooke started hearing voices, she thought that she was going insane. There was laughter when she was all alone, she overheard arguments in empty spaces⊠Sheâs not losing her grip on reality however. The earth remembers. It remembers the conversations, the laughter, sobs, and the shouts. Itâs called place memory, and the places whisper and repeat them out loud so that nothing is ever truly forgotten. Anyone can hear it â all you have to do is listen and pay attention. Most people canât hear place memory or ignore it because theyâre too distracted with their own lives, but Brooke is listening now, and sheâs paying attention to every murmur.
People are disappearing in Antium. At first it seems like no big deal â just a college student skipping town â but one by one, more people go missing. Itâs the Bay Witch, the locals say, the Bay Witch is snatching people away just like she did in the past; itâs happened before. Could it really be a local legend thatâs responsible for these disappearances, or is there something far more sinister happening in Antium? Using her newfound discovery of place memory, Brooke and her friends start unraveling the truth behind the Bay Witch and missing people from over a hundred years ago. Little do they know, learning what truly happened back then may pave the way to them finding the missing people in the present.
If you made it to the very end of this long intro, thank you so much! Please feel free to ask about my WIPs or come hang out with me in my asks. I'm really looking forward to reconnecting with old friends, finding new writers to follow, and re-immersing myself into this lovely community!
people who use the queue function fill a necessary role in the tumblr ecosystem. they keep posts alive. if u miss a post bc ur entire mutualcule was reblogging it from each other in a 30min span and u were offline, the queue mutual provides u an opportunity to see that post again in 1-8 business days. they put posts in stasis in little cryogenic freezers for u to discover and enjoy later. everyone thank their queue mutuals right now
I am trying to write high fantasy but I am worried I am forgetting importance bits on how (it has been so long since I wrote high fantasy), any tips?
When I was in college, one of my methods for writing papers was to only do enough research to be able to start my paper.Â
I would do enough research to have a basic understanding of the subject, know what Iâm arguing, know some broad topics for my outline that Iâll be addressing, and have a couple of supporting evidence for my argument. And then I would just start writing my paper at this point.
As Iâm writing the paper, Iâll start noticing gaps in my research and knowledge. Like as Iâm writing, Iâll realize that I need a certain statistic to strengthen my argument, or if I knew more about some subject Iâll be able to back up my argument more efficiently, or I need a citation to support my claim â one that I think is right, but need evidence for. Thatâs when Iâll do the research on that gap that I found so I can properly write my paper.
This worked for me because it helped me cut down on the amount of unnecessary research I would do â there are a lot of articles and studies out there, easily hundreds and thousands on the topic I was writing my paper on. It can be difficult sometimes to identify what will be useful and what wonât be. I could just keep researching, but where do I stop? At what point can I say Iâm an expert? There really isnât an endpoint for something like this
So, I chose to just start writing. And once I did, I could pinpoint exactly what information I needed to find, and it was a lot easier to find since I was looking for something specific, as opposed to broader research you do at the beginning, before you start writing the paper.
(This advice for writing papers is recommended for papers you write in class normally. For something like a senior thesis youâll definitely want to do a lot more beginning research. Also this worked for me, as a former psych major. I canât vouch how itâll work for other majors.)
And I would give you the same advice. Youâre never going to 100% know how to write high fantasy. Itâs okay to not know how to do something, and chances are, even if youâve written a lot of high fantasy recently, youâre still going to not know everything.
Trying to be an expert on writing high fantasy is a really lofty goal, and youâre probably going to overwhelm yourself before you even start. You might be caught up on what people say is right and wrong, you might be scared of not meeting certain expectations, or it might just be really intimidating.Â
Itâs okay to have forgotten something, and itâs okay to not know it before you start.
Writing advice is subjective at best, and I think you should just start writing. Start writing, and if you notice any gaps in your knowledge, or if you notice that you need a little help on a certain thing, look it up or ask for help then. Itâs much easier and much more efficient to fill in the gaps as you find them, rather than try to learn everything at once.
I now have an updated FAQ and Ask Guidelines for Writing Advice, please check those out first if you have a question about writing or Writeblr!
like tbh i feel like my problem with the âdark and gritty!!â trend in modern stories is this
thereâs this idea in our culture that cynicism is realistic? that only children believe in happy endings, that people are ultimately selfish and greedy and seeing with clear eyes means seeing the world as an awful place
that idealism isâ easy, i guess. butterflies and sunshine and love are easy things to have in your head.
but iâve known since i was fifteen that idealismâ faith in humanityâ optimismâ is the most difficult thing in the entire world.
i constantly struggle to have faith in humanity, because itâs really, really easy to lose it. itâs easy to look at the news and go âwhat were you expecting? of course humans behave this way.â itâs easy to see the world and go âugh, thereâs no hope there.â and the years when i believed that were easy. miserableâ but easy.
it is hard work to see the good in people. it is hard work to hope. it is hard work to keep faith and love and joy and appreciation for beauty in my daily life.
and when moviemakers and tv producers and writers go âomg!!! all characters are selfish and act poorly and donât love each other, nothing ever happens that is happy or good, thatâs so much more realistic, thatâs so much more adultâ
One of the more frustrating aspects of writeblr is how much it encourages showy writingâ quotes that look great out of context, that look nice on edits with little sparkly stars. And itâs always wonderful to find quotes like that in your own work, because they do exist naturally everywhere⊠but your work shouldnât be written for tumblr, and it definitely shouldnât be written to be quotable. Remember that itâs always okay to write simple, clean prose, and thereâs nothing wrong with your work looking best in its natural state.
I spent a happy chunk of today writing a letter to a friend, and I'm now wondering whether writing real letters would translate well to writing epistolary fiction. Do you have any tips?
Hi Bluebell, itâs nice to meet you!
Fortunately you are talking to a person who has written a ton of epistolary fiction.Â
I think that having experience writing real letters is definitely useful for writing epistolary fiction in the sense that you have some real life examples of a letter. It can be useful to have as a reference just in case you need a reminder of what that looks like.
That being said, I wouldnât say that it would translate well.Â
I think that writing epistolary fiction uses a lot of different skills that arenât used in traditional prose fiction or actual letter writing. Skills and techniques that youâve cultivated through doing both will absolutely serve you well, but itâs important to note that it is still very different.
The most important advice I would have for writing epistolary fiction is get comfortable with showing through telling.
It sounds antithetical to the ever famous âshow donât tellâ rule of writing, doesnât it? Often times with epistolary fiction, you donât have the luxury of prose and description. All you really have is the voices of the letter writers as they âtellâ each other things. Showing a story unfolding through telling is a skill that youâre going to want to develop.
For example, letâs say that there is a character who is experiencing a really hard time. Itâs possible that they would just straight up write âIâm having a really hard time right now.â Itâs also possible that they wouldnât say that for whatever reason. So in epistolary writing, there are several possible ways you could go about that.
Maybe the character starts writing shorter sentences and stop responding as in-depth as they used to because theyâre distracted and exhausted. Maybe they stop talking about themselves entirely and dedicate the entire letter to what is going on in the other personâs life. Maybe there is a certain word or phrase that they use a lot when theyâre stressed. Maybe they start rambling and go on strange tangents. Maybe they hint at their issues in a roundabout way and say things like âwow I slept until 4PM today, isnât that crazy?â to hint at something larger going on.
Itâs really difficult to give examples because it truly does depend on each character and situation, but those are just a handful of possible ways to show through telling! Get creative, epistolary formats are full of potential.
Honing the voices of your characters are always important, but itâs especially important in epistolary writing because itâs told entirely through their voices!Â
You canât get away with weak character voices in epistolary writing. Practice writing your character voices so that you have it nailed down. Letters from different characters should read differently and the person writing the letter should be identifiable based on its contents because everyone has a different writing voice. Fortunately, this is something that can be figured out with practice and drafting! The more you write, the more youâll figure out how they speak/write.
I absolutely adore writing epistolary stories. It is a lot more limited than a traditional novel, but there is a lot you can do with them that are simply not possible in other formats. It is really fun to experiment with, and has been one of the most enjoyable stories Iâve ever written.
Good luck, hope this helped!
If youâd like to ask me for advice on writing or running a writeblr, please check out my Ask Guidelines and FAQ first.
Either I never get to the scene that Iâm desperate to write, or I actually get to that scene and canât write it because Iâve hyped it up and perfected it so hard in my mind that Iâll never be able to capture it in words.
I think the lesson that Iâve learned through this series of posts is that it will always be better written down.
As perfect as it is in your head, it doesnât even compare to actually being able to read over it.
Itâs also better to write it down crappily than to keep it locked up in your head, because you can redraft it. If you think itâs terrible, thatâs just a roadmap of changes you can make to bring it closer and closer to your vision.
Nothing compares to reading that scene over and patting yourself on the back.
I donât know who needs to hear this but itâs okay for writing to be a HOBBY that you do because you enjoy, and that you donât want to do when youâre not enjoying it. No oneâs up in the business of knitters telling them they have to be willing to SUFFER and SWEAT or theyâll NEVER FINISH THAT SWEATER and they canât expect good things to come to them. I donât know why our current culture around writing is so intense, but Iâm here to support your casual, relaxing writing habit. If people can glue pompoms together or knit a scarf or watch hours of streaming shows with their spare time thereâs absolutely no reason writers canât waste time writing just for pleasure, without any expectation that theyâre going to Achieve something Amazing and Important or make a bunch of money or whatever.
