Thanks to @unstablewifiaccess @clairelsonao3 @vsnotresponding @cljordan-imperium for the tags! ♥️
No pressure tagging: @sam-glade @inkspellangel @writing-with-melon @talesofsorrowandofruin & my open tag!
Rules: bold and/or color strong themes and italicize and/or color loosely covered themes in one of your works.
Four Kinds of Falling
addiction | beauty | betrayal | change vs. tradition | chaos vs. order | circle of life | coming of age | communication | convention vs. rebellion | corruption | courage | crime and law | dangers of ignorance | darkness and light | death | desire to escape | dreams | displacement | empowerment | facing darkness | facing reality | faith vs. doubt | fall from grace | fame and fortune | (found) family | fate | fear | fear of failure | free will | friendship | fulfilment | good vs. bad | government | greed | guilt and forgiveness | hard work | heroism | hierarchy | honesty | hope | identity crisis | immortality | independence | individual vs. society | inner vs. outer strength | innocence | injustice | isolation | knowledge vs. ignorance | life | loneliness | lost love | love | man vs. nature | manipulation | materialism | motherhood | nature | nature vs. nurture | oppression | optimism | peer pressure | poverty | power | power of words | prejudice | pride | progress | quest | racism | rebirth | relationships | religion | responsibility | revenge | sacrifice | secrets | self-awareness | self-preservation | self-reliance | sexuality | social class structure | survival | technology | temptation and destruction | time | totalitarianism | weakness | vanity | war | wealth | wisdom of experience | youth
Thank you @writeintrees & @arigalefantasynovels for the tag!
No pressure tagging: @gracebriarwoodwrites @harrison-abbott @vsnotresponding @bookmarks-reviews & my open tag!
Your words are: PERFUME, DIRE, BEAT, & FRACTURE.
My words were: noon, neat, nurture, and nose & lovely, frantic, hit, and manage. Excerpt origin listed under each. Hidden under the cut.
(After)noon
I tip my head forward so our lips just touch in what can barely be called a kiss.
Light trickles in from the window, late afternoon sunlight that makes the silver in his veins glow and burn. His lazily blinking eyes are alive with golden light, making him every bit as eternal on the outside as he is to me every single moment of every single day. When I pull away, he follows, leaning into another kiss.
- Animatronic Saga Short Story
Neat
“Do you have a calendar?”
Her head tilts to the side. I’m opening my mouth to tell her to forget it, but then she’s rolling her eyes again and pulling a 15-month flip calender from her bag, images of puppies staring up at me. “You doubt me. I’m offended.”
Flipping through, I find December-- a cocker spaniel in a Santa hat-- already filled in with her neat handwriting. December 16th is circled in red. The showcase. Probably the most important performance of the season and the cleanest time to fold back into the company. She’s right. (Of course.)
- Four Kinds Of Falling
Nurture
What’d she wish for?
“She wished for a garden full of things green and growing and vibrant. A garden bursting with lives she could nurture and take care of.”
- Secondary Series
Nose
"You're staring." I refocus to find his tired fond eyes searching my own face. One of his hands finds the nape of my neck and tugs gently at the hair there until we're nose to nose. "Creeper."
I laugh, the sound loud as always, but he doesn't even flinch, just leans in and presses our swollen lips together. "Your creeper," I mumble when he pulls away.
He tugs my hair again. "Yeah."
- Animatronic Saga Short Story
Lovely
I found a pair of scissors in one of the bathroom drawers. Of course, I look lovely. I’ve remade my own clothes a thousand times over because none of them fell quite right. Maybe the slit up my thigh, cut down the center of the square neck, and layered high collar underneath still aren’t. But they’re at least closer.
- Secondary Series
Frantic
“Can you get onto your knees for me?” The nodding is more frantic now, followed by him trying to flip onto his stomach with me still on top of him. “Woah. Hold on. There’s no rush.”
- Animatronic Saga Short Story
Hit(ting)
Something snapped at my wrist and for one delicate moment, I just stared up into the most beautiful pair of eyes I’d ever seen, suspended, floating, flying.
Rrrip! And then I was falling falling falling
with no chance of ever hitting the bottom.
- Animatronic Saga
Manage
And like the American Dream, I get a basket with sticky handles. The balance required to stop for groceries on crutches is no small feat, nor is the fact that I manage to knock at least one item off of every shelf.
Thank you @sunset-a-story & @primroseprime2019 for the tags!
No pressure tagging: @gracebriarwoodwrites @brianamorganbooks @jadeglas @illyriashade56 @raiphend @enchanted-lightning-aes & my open tag!
From my romance novel, Four Kinds Of Falling. Putting under the cut for length and briefest mention of dubcon:
The lights start to dim, the ads shifting into previews for movies to come or, if they’re like most theaters, movies that are already playing but haven’t been replaced yet. In the dark, his arm against mine feels all the more prevalent.
And then his breath’s running across my ear. “You’re gonna think I’m insane.”
I also think I’m gonna cry.
I do remember the last time I came to the movies.
It was sophomore year of high school and my boyfriend tried to undo my pants in the crowded theatre and I stood up so fast my box of Nerds went everywhere-- too loud too loud-- and the girls in the row in front of us shrieked and then we were escorted from the room and when I climbed into Carlos’ car out in the parking lot, I could hardly make myself even buckle up. It all seemed so surreal. Like a dream.
But now Alex’s voice is in my ear and all I can see is that girl talking to her friend in the front row about nothing good.
I didn’t even know what candy he liked.
“Can I pretty please…” I hold my breath, dreading what his next words are going to be, what my next words are going to be. “Pour of one these boxes of M&Ms into the popcorn?”
Thank you @justnerdy15 & @bright-willow-ravine for the tag!
No pressure tagging: @minutiaewriter @brianamorganbooks @bookmarks-reviews @danervinauthor @eternalwritingstudent @enchanted-lightning-aes & my open tag!
From Four Kinds Of Falling (because that's what my brain decided we needed to write):
“So while the first portion of my plan still stands-- sunlight is good for you, you know--” I roll my eyes. “I am now taking you to the movies when you are all sunshined out.”
Something sparkles in my chest; I pretend not to feel it. “Oh, would you look at that? Wow, my sun-o-meter just filled up. Let’s-”
“Nice try.” [Alex] throws out an arm, it landing over my chest, just gentle pressure keeping me where I am. “Soak up the sun, you filmophile.”
“That is not a real world.”
“Hush. Photosynthesize.”
I take another sip of my drink. Alex doesn’t move his arm for a long, long time.
What about you WIP is on your mind right now?
Are you excited to start a new story or chapter? Dreading an editing pass? Glad that that section is over?
All answers are fair!
Hey, Sam! Thanks for the ask, love!
Well other than my special secret something shhhhhhhh....
My romance novel has been on my mind a lot lately, mostly because it's a story I just really want to work. I mean, I want all my stories to work, duh. But after peeling this story apart to look at its inner workings, I'm determined to bring out what's important about it.
That being said, I'm at a dreaded crossroads.
I can keep trudging forward, knowing that what I'm writing is wrong but seeing what I can get out of it
OR I can essentially all but scrap what I've written so far and implement the corrected timeline and changes.
Ugh, sigh. Today, I was actually considering starting an outline for this book. Which would be the first ever novel that I will have attempted a full outline for. Because the book centers around the healing of an injury, I have to stick to a pretty solid timeline and I do think an outline would help with that.
But I hate outlines and I'm not all that good at them. So I still don't know. I guess I'll just keep procrastinating on it a little while longer. 🙃
