#cryptid-s-wips

[memento-morri-writes]

🦇Trick or Treat! 🦇

// @cryptid-s-wips

Hi Quentin!! You get a treat!! 🍬

Take some random pieces from a poem (or series of poems) that I've never quite been able to finish.

Ten or twenty years from now, when someone says my name Will you think of me the same? Or have I changed? *** I want to be remembered, but I don't know what for. I don't want to be famous, but I'd hate to be forgotten. *** Can someone speak of me fondly, when I'm gone?

[the-world-is-a-poem]

9, 14, and 36 for ask game!

// @cryptid-s-wips

Thanks for the ask Quentin!!!

9. What is one of your character’s theme songs?

Sonia's theme song is Pretty Girl by Maggie Lindemann.

14. Which OC/s do you relate to the most?

Zoya and Sonia from The Secret Guild for Heroes, and Eva from A Human Heart. All three of them have major aspects of my personality.

36. Which OC would probably be your friend if they met you IRL?

Zoya! As I've mentioned before, Zoya is literally based on me so we have a lot in common.

Send me asks about my ocs

[memento-morri-writes]

Hi Morri! Happy Blorbo Blursday :)

My question to you is: how do you name your characters? Do you choose based on name meanings, sound, or just vibes?

// @cryptid-s-wips

Hello and thanks for the ask!!!

I usually just pick them based on vibes!!! Sometime the meanings match up (like Fallon, though hers was an accident), but often times I just like the way the name looks and sounds.

For example, Alora's name just kind of popped into my head. Like, I've heard and seen it before in fantasy context, and it just seemed fitting for her. Lila's name also just felt right, though I will say I likely had it on my brain in the first place thanks to the Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab, though her Lila and mine are about as different as you can get.

Part of the reason <Prince> is still unnamed, is that no names stuck out to me right away. I have a list of some possibilities but none of them strike me as fitting. So <Prince> he will stay, at least for now.

Part of the "vibes" is if it fits the character, and part of it is if it fits the setting. For example I'm not going to name a character in my fantasy books John, Sam, or Julie, because those sound jarringly out of place next to all the other names in the world, both of people and places.

[memento-morri-writes]

Happy WBW, Morri!

What is your favorite aspect of worldbuilding (e.g. government, religion, culture, etc) and why? What's your favorite example that you've created?

// @cryptid-s-wips

Hello, and thanks for the ask!!!

I have two, but one of my favorite aspects of worldbuilding is actually government and economy. Which is hysterically ironic, given how much I hate both subjects in real life. But there's something about knowing all the details that make the world tick, the little things that actually keep the kingdom functioning, that I love.

Of course, I know not everyone wants to know all about that, or even cares, so I definitely have to be careful about working it into the story. The best example of that is the international relations in the world of ATQH. I talk about it here (Aniva/Oryn history) and here (economics).

My other favorite aspect, and the more practical one, is magic systems. Particularly the costs of magic. Far to often magic just sort of happens, with little to no cost on the user. But I love to explore the idea that magic is actually fairly (or even extremely) taxing to use, as well as all the different ways it can affect the user.

My favorite and only current example of it is the magic system in CoS, which I talk about here. However, my new WIP idea for a political fantasy involves some magic with an extraordinarily heavy cost, and I'm very excited to explore that further.

[memento-morri-writes]

8, 26, and 51 for the ask game!

// @cryptid-s-wips

Thank you for the ask!! :D

8. Favorite trope to write.

Probably any kind of hidden injury / whump-adjacent scene. I have a thing for characters almost dying. It just make me happy energetic. (Speaking of, I keep getting great ideas for this kind of stuff and having nowhere to use it... sigh)

26. Standalone or series, and why?

Both? I'm not sure I have the foresight to write anything more than a duology, but I really admire people who can pull off a longer series and keep it good. (cause that's the hard part.) But at the same time, a book that can stand on it's own, remain self-enclosed, I really like that. A good number of my favorite books of all time have been stand-alones, but that I think about it.

51. Describe the aesthetic of your story _ in 5 sentences or words.

ATQH: A single rose on cold stone, surrounded by fallen petals. The sense of feeling not alone for the first time in... a while. A gentle squeeze of your lover's hand. A ballroom filled with dancers, bathed in gentle light. A big, empty castle that feels very, very lonely.

[ink-and-spite]

🤥, 🖍, and 🌪 for the character of your choice for the emoji ask game!

// @cryptid-s-wips

A roll of the die gives us…Tara!

LYING - are they good liars? do they have tells to show they're lying?

Tara is a master of manipulation. She lies for a living. But her tell — while she’s learned to catch it over many years — is that she always starts skipping her contractions when she lies, especially when it’s someone she knows well.

CRAYON - what advice would you give to them?

To be quite honest, I’d love to stay far away from her 🤣 but if I had to help her…I’d tell her to be a little more prepared before she does her thing. She’s not super good at foresight.

TORNADO - what is the biggest change you've ever made to them? how have they changed from their original version?

Her biggest change is actually existing at all! In the original plan for G&M, Ellery’s sister (since cut for plot reasons 🥲) was going to be the villain. Tara wasn’t added until a bunch of developments later, and even then she was going to be working on Ellery’s side against Hartley.

Thanks for asking!!