Hello everyone, my name's Alina (Twenties, female), and if I'm not studying I'm likely on here (or writing, lol). I've had this account for a while now, I use it for posting my stuff as well as the lovely writings of others.
I now have an Ao3 page too! As of writing, I'm fairly new, and I'll be gradually uploading my works onto there as well :D
And here's what can be found on my blog:
- My writing (see below)
- Other people's writing
- Writeblr things I think are neat
- Eurovision posts (lol)
Just a side note for visitors (this should be common sense, but eh), please don't send me asks/messages relating to the following things.
1. Discourse of any kind (such as political and/or humanitarian issues)
2. Asking for money
3. Anything such as hate comments, advertising, scams and other foolish things.
Should one send me an ask or message in relation to any of the aforementioned above, your message will be deleted on sight. A block and/or report may also be in order, message depending.
Hey, everyone, greetings after another year that has flown by all too quickly! Featuring new friends, a few awards and 400% more holidays (rip my wallet lol), this has been a wild year for me. And that's only half of it.
For some strange reason, my desire to write increases with the hecticness of my life. Much of Obsidian Sapphires' revival/troubleshooting phase occured during the latter part of the year, from October onwards (though I had been tinkering with its plot for some time now). All because I woke up one morning with the solution to a plot hole appearing in my head.
Anyway, preambles aside, here's a few major highlights from my year (in writing terms):
First up, thanks to @druidx for the Year in Review Tag! The premise of the tag is to post one's favourite five or so pieces that they've written throughout the year.
To be truthful, some of Obsidian Sapphires' scenes would make this list only the respective chapters for them aren't completed yet 😅
A Pawn for a Greater Cause — I had a ball writing the starting dialogue, and the prompt gave me a few revelations regarding Petrius' character.
Regrets — This made me cry at 1am, the catharsis was unreal.
To Perpetuate Life — Amazing how almost falling asleep gives me ideas. This piece helped me answer a few questions about Orlaith's backstory, and also gave me extra questions surrounding the lore.
Blue Moon — This feels like a nice deviation from my usual style, it's more dreamy and whimsical. Also, this reminds me to go and work on its second part, lol (because the scope was too big for one piece)
That angsty pining scene — This is not posted as one scene, but rather in splinters because parts of it are dripping in spoilers for Obsidian Sapphires. However, I enjoyed writing this scene too much not to post some snippets.
WIP Roundup
First things first, an ode to the WIPs that I've put on ice to focus on Obsidian Sapphires.
The Lady's Lament, a brief idea born out of a plot bunny inspired by a plot on Wattpad. The idea sprouted in April 2023, but it lives on in the form of worldbuilding ideas for South Arobyre.
And then also, Flamebearer, one of my oldest wips but also arguably my most complex one. It's a story of grief, religious dilemmas and romantic/familial drama, all under the backdrop of sociopolitical turmoil. It's going to take a lot of research and planning, that much I know. Hence why I want it to be as perfect as I can make it, when I have the knowledge and writing practice to do it justice.
In April this year, one of my Flash Friday pieces (Duel to the Debt) sowed the seeds for another piece (An Endless Round) in May, and later on Soulswapped derived from it. I intended it to be a short enough story, a novella of sorts that would be woven into a larger compilation, but it's become its own thing. Already, I think it may get a sequel. But I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
Obsidian Sapphires
So its progress this year has been skewed. Like, 'a lot of its progress spawned in October or thereafter' sort of skewed. I woke up one morning and the cogs for the rigmarole surrounding what is currently Chapter 2 all clicked, to the point I yanked out my laptop and starting writing notes until I had to run for class.
Since then, I've had a bunch of ideas, but currently I'm deliberating on the story I wish to tell. It seems more cohesive and easier to plan for when I cut Eshani's perspective out, but at the same time, cutting her perspective would cut or at least hide much of her character development. That and I love her to bits, and she may/may not be a readers' favourite also.
In terms of actual tangible content, bits of the angsty pining scene got posted, as did sections of the first and second chapters. It even came with a few memes, lolololol. (And there's more memes sitting in my gallery/Scrivener notes, this story's quite memeable honestly).
The antagonists got their time of day, however brief so far. And not just the lead meshai, but also the septet of folks angry at the meshai and his fellows.
And this gets onto something that has existed as tags and headings and brief little mentions. A collection of pieces, leading up to answers surrounding some major events in the history of the country Obsidian Sapphires is set in.
That would be This Blood-Stained Charcuterie. It is going to be the anthology of short stories and one-off pieces surrounding Morilast's High Councillors (and indeed, the Court's other denizens and its namesake himself!). A lot of juicy details surrounding certain characters' backstories are going to feature here, I can't wait to get into it. (It's also my excuse to figure out all the bits of lore and convoluted ancestries [who murdered who], lol).
When I finish with Obsidian Sapphires, that is about when I'll start releasing this one. The title could change upon me getting to the end, but we'll see.
Flash Fiction Friday
I started doing these pieces in late 2023, so it's been about a year since my first one (Contemplations). In all, I've completed a total of 28 pieces so far :D
The masterlist came about in early January, because I was inspired by other people who had masterlists for their pieces. It's very satisfying to see it develop from a few pieces to what it is today, a decent few pieces.
Whatsmore, it reflects the trends in my writing, such as the wips that the prompts inspired me for, and what periods I was consistently doing it week-by-week and when the major gaps were.
For whatever reason, I have a tendency of getting inspiration for these at about midnight or so. Even if I get a handful of basic notes written down, it may not still be until late in the night that I can get a piece together, lol.
To commemorate the end of the year, I've started a series known as Flash Friday Flashbacks to celebrate what I've made and show off behind-the-scenes when it comes to notes, context, deleted scenes, etc.
There are a few pieces left in this year's version, which will be reblogged close to the end of the month (to celebrate the New Year).
Next year's edition is going to feature the December 2024 pieces in addition to all the 2025 stuff (which hopefully is a lot). There will also be a 2025-specific masterlist too.
Writeblr Community Events
What is writeblr without its community? It's beyond a pleasure to be part of a group so lovely and talented, everyone has something amazing going for them.
As part of this, there are some people here who create events, discords and/or other initiatives that bring people together. Shoutout to everyone who has done/is doing something along these lines ❤️
Special mentions in my case go to:
@flashfictionfridayofficial for taking the prompt submissions, making the posts, and reblogging everyone's stories (with fantastic comments) every week
@writeblrsummerfest for making a lovely event spanning the entirety of August, encompassed by a well-organised theme and all
@bardic-tales for establishing the @creators-club and doing all the various types of ask/tag games to foster interaction and support
@agirlandherquill for her first ever Writemas! These prompts are impeccable and it was really fun looking forward to the next day's prompts! I wish I could've participated more, but alas, that's how the cookie crumbles. (Also, high five, we're in the same timezone, woo!)
Plans for 2025
Continue with Obsidian Sapphires — I'd love to get the draft finished
Doing as many of the Flash Friday prompts as well
Reblogging people's posts more and hopefully improving at reaching out to people
Learning to draw is something that I've always wanted to do, but I want to get focused with it this year. It would be cool to put my characters in visual form
Getting a handle on the lore and background information needed to compile This Blood-Stained Charcuterie
The Tags
That brings this post to its natural course, the end. Merry Christmas everyone ❤️🎄
Giving a Year in Review Tag to everyone who is on at least one of my taglists (ask, comment, etc to be added/subtracted): @mr-orion @the-ellia-west @guessillcallitart @thereadingfoz @glassstardust22124 @original-writing @honeybewrites @ashirisu @drowsy-quill @oliolioxenfreewrites @theglitchywriterboi @seastarblue @gioiaalbanoart @rae-butter @corinneglass @midnight-and-his-melodiverse @outpost51 @mundanemoongirl @scarletteflamerald @ceph-the-ghost-writer @flock-from-the-void @mattresses-and-macaroni @limitlesswritingvoid
...As well as all these people I'm tagging here: @winterandwords @finickyfelix @wintherlywords @anyablackwood @cherrybombfangirlwrites @kaylinalexanderbooks @angelfevr @thatndginger @thepeculiarbird @ominous-feychild @oh-no-another-idea @space-writes @veneritia @the-golden-comet @jev-urisk @cljordan-imperium @an-indecisive-nerd @mauannacreates @laureleavess @theeccentricraven @paintedbutton (@/bardic-tales, @/agirlandherquill, both of you are tagged for this too)
...And most importantly, here's a tag for everyone in the audience!
The premise is to post all the headings under the folder/section for your WIP, and people can send asks for the titles that interest them!
For this, I'm going to go a little left field. In the past, I've presented my Scrivener files for this game.
But for today's edition, you're getting the headings from my notebooks! Two of them, in fact 👀
One of them is for any time that I know I won't have my laptop with me/otherwise in easy reach, such as the train or on holidays.
The other is my notebook. Story ideas go into this one, including ones that are dripping in spoilers for a book that doesn't truly exist yet!
—
The Fancy Paperblanks Notebook (The Prose and Pieces notebook)
General
A Deal With the Ancients
Limbo
A few scribbled lines
Writemas — Day 22
Another errant quote
No Good Choices
The Crow's Gift
This Blood-Stained Charcuterie
The Forest's Disgrace
The Swans' Departure
The Markings of the Raven
Obsidian Sapphires
The Temple of Verelise*
Alycja's ceremony*
The walk home*
A Deal and A Proposal*
Dinner that night*
A Conversation on the windowsill*
Ard na Preaghaun*
If You Must*
*These relate to the first redraft of Obsidian Sapphires; A Healing for the Birds is redraft #2
Flamebearer
A Brush with Fate
Stir into life
Before the Blue Embers
Upon the Precipice
The Royal Council meeting
The Highest Bidder
A Promise to Keep
Soulswapped
The New Status Quo
A Question for a Question
A Healing for the Birds
Star-Crossed (including a deleted starting paragraph!)
A Broken Seal
The Next Stage of Pilgrimage
The Chase for the Chalice
A Wish in Exchange
(Cerigo's perspective of the above scene)
A note
An unfeatured paragraph
A Conversation in the Aftermath
The first of the interrogations
Interrogation #2
A Prelude to the Questioning
The Third Interrogation
An Important Visitor
The Lady's Lament
The Fool's Deal
A tidbit about Ruadhán's house
The Notebook I bought in Lidl (The Notes and Ideas notebook)
Little to no major spoilers :D
The meshaika
Background events of the Temple Chaos
The aftermath
The moment the friends vanished
A note on the High Councillors' strategy
The purpose of Morilast's Mark
What's the story's core?
Aileste
Eshani's manor
Claudia's manor
The central ballroom
Naimorste
Seldaikan mages and how they define magic
Alycja's career desires
Cerigo's stance on the aftermath of Chapter Two
Spoilers!
For A Healing for the Birds unless otherwise stated
A comparison of the two balcony scenes
Throwaway ideas
The plot (Chapters One to Three)
Shifting of the Guard (happens towards the end/after Soulswapped)
Some major questions to be answered
Eshani and Claudia's response to the events of Chapters Two/Three and a bit beyond
Alycja's dilemma over the Chalice
—
There's a few more entries after this, but they relate to Chapter Four/onwards-ish of A Healing for the Birds, some notes on a potential sequel (they're on the aftermath of the end of the first one!) and what Cerigo told Cheyoria after she came home the night of the ruined ceremony. Extremely spoilery stuff (ask if you want, but maybe do it off-anon or in a private message 👀😅)
—
Anyway, I'm going to put an open tag to see everyone's wip folders, and also send tags to @nightmaricwriter @seastarblue @willtheweaver @bardic-tales @finickyfelix @yaboiii-azzy @thatndginger @winterandwords @wintherlywords @jev-urisk @writingamongther0ses @avrablake @ark-inkweaving @oros-ash3s @bloodlessheirbyjacques @space-writes @thebookishkiwi @vesanal
heya! for the WIP folder tag, can i ask about The Royal Council meeting (under Flamebearer) ?
Hey there! Thanks as always for the ask! The piece below is the precursor and inspiration for Promises to Keep, The Highest Bidder and Prayers for A Spark .
If I recall correctly, I remember writing this on the train :D
—
"Order, order, we must proceed.” The chairman gestured to two of the councillors, putting their lively discussions on hold.
Andreas had one thing to do, uphold his father’s interests. With this being the first time his father had been absent from a Royal Council meeting, he worried the others believed it to be intentional.
With the next person to stand being none other than the Royal Treasurer, Andreas held his breath.
“As treasurer for the royal family, I have this to state.” He took a brief glance at his sheets. “For the past three months, we have been continuously short of vital goods, such as crystal fruit and willow bark. A number of incidents have occurred, all originating at the same place, Nemurske. Conveniently, its merchant is not among us.”
Andreas stood up and gestured to him. “Those incidents are no fault of our own, Treasurer, we’re doing what we can to mitigate them.”
“Are you doing enough, though? Why isn’t your father here?”
“He had an emergency to attend to, he couldn’t help it— “
“See? That’s exactly what we mean.” A man in purple robes stood up, pointing a purple-tipped finger at him. “How many ships has that octopus claimed by now? Five? Six? More? I believe we should trade through Delitsyia.”
“Hey, Nemurske has a direct route to Waydeirie, it still has importance. Octopus or not, we’re taking measures to address it. That’s why my father is absent today.”
“Fact of the matter is, that octopus has still not been caught.” The treasurer glared at him. “Your father will need to do something drastic or we will have to look at other options.”
“May I make the suggestion that the octopus attacks could, in fact, be a trap by Helinda?”
“Such a suggestion would only instigate war against our neighbours.” A tall, female figure burst the doors open, her stride long and dignified.
Andreas had his gaze transfixed on her, to the point the fellow beside him tapped his shoulder to stand with the rest.
Of all places for her to stop, she stopped beside him, giving him a tiny glance before looking to the chairman.
“Your Royal Highness, we are blessed with your presence.”
“Such blessings I reciprocate.” Everyone sat down. Andreas succumbed to a paralysis of nerves. If he looked up any longer, his lungs would seize, and his neck muscles ache.
“Now, some would allege the matter to be deliberate sabotage on Helinda’s part.” She looked the very fellow in the eyes, causing him to scamper and wilt. Her words flowed as her dark green silks did, smooth and eloquent. “Unless such a situation can be verified as true, our focus must remain on banishing the octopus. Considering its targets have been shipments of crystal fruit, I trust a trap will be set.”
A concurrence of agreement ensued. A weight lifted off his chest, only for it to land again upon the treasurer standing up.
“On behalf of the room, we appreciate the input, Your Highness. But I must inquire what the future trade arrangements will be, with regards to trade travelling through Nemurske?”
Silence. Andreas bit his lip, the ropes adjusting in the queen’s mind. The moments dragged on for eternity, the embers crackling. By the goddess, what would his father say?
“For the meantime, send it through Delitsyia. But the octopus must be trapped as soon as possible. Upon its capture, trade will assume its usual course.”
He couldn’t melt further into his seat.
After the conclusion of the trade dispute, discussion turned to other matters...
—
This meeting is how Andreas first met Aurandra, changing the whole course of their trajectories forever...
Thanks again for the ask <3
—
Flamebearer plus General taglists (ask/comment/etc me to be added or subtracted): @mr-orion @the-ellia-west @guessillcallitart-deactivated20 @thelaughingstag @thereadingfoz @glassstardust22124 @wip-nook @original-writing @honeybewrites @ashirisu @drowsy-quill @theglitchywriterboi @seastarblue @gioiaalbanoart @corinneglass @rae-butter @mundanemoongirl @scarletteflamerald @midnight-and-his-melodiverse @ceph-the-ghost-writer @flock-from-the-void @outpost51 @mattresses-and-macaroni @limitlesswritingvoid @oliolioxenfreewrites @jacqueswriteblrlibrary @oros-ash3s @rainbowsnowflake @fourwingedwriter @oddcryptidwrites @abitscripturient
This one is from a short story I made in July last year, it relates to Flamebearer :D
They say it is good luck to leave a gift on a birthday.
The windowsill is a prime position for it, a vessel of exchange between a resident and gift giver. From here, romances wilt and blossom, alliances forged over handmade trinkets.
On the night of a royal birthday, local legend says that the royal in question will exchange a gift on one of the windowsills, and potentially change that person’s life forever.
I got tagged for the words chest, book, glass, window, and interest. The snippets are a pick-and-mix of different pieces, most notably from or in relation to Soulswapped, Flamebearer and Obsidian Sapphires. Enjoy!
Glass + Window
He strode out from the light-blessed corridor, entering a leafy landing where vines and branches lined the stone walls and eaves, the thick glass window inviting a view to outside.
The world around Anira started to blur again. “Sure I didn’t say that, some other courtier did.”
Vomit tingled in her throat, burning at the precipice. She contemplated making it his problem.
Chest
“Now, some would allege the matter to be deliberate sabotage on Helinda’s part.” She looked the very fellow in the eyes, causing him to scamper and wilt. Her words flowed as her dark green silks did, smooth and eloquent. “Unless such a situation can be verified as true, our focus must remain on banishing the octopus. Considering its targets have been shipments of crystal fruit, I trust a trap will be set.”
A concurrence of agreement ensued. A weight lifted off his chest, only for it to land again upon the treasurer standing up.
Book
It sent thoughts buzzing in her mind, undecipherable static, fuzzing, chatting and setting her nerves alight. The fingers of her right hand singed with phantom bursts of Eshani’s magic.
At the end of the corridor, stood the principal’s door, an elaborate set with various swirling designs engraved into it.
Thick, purple curtains draped either side of the left window, the ends spilling on the floor. Bookshelves dominated much of the wall behind the principal’s desk, the latter from which she moved some of the books and sheets into a neat stack.
Interest
"Order, order, we must proceed.” The chairman gestured to two of the councillors, putting their lively discussions on hold.
Andreas had one thing to do, uphold his father’s interests. With this being the first time his father had been absent from a Royal Council meeting, he worried the others believed it to be intentional.
With the next person to stand being none other than the Royal Treasurer, Andreas held his breath.
—
Tagging @bardic-tales @space-writes @thepeculiarbird @seastarblue @littleladymab @written-among-stars and an Open Tag for the following words: scintillating, pernicious, uncouth and languish
A combination of the three taglists plus the general one (ask, comment, etc to be added/subtracted): @mundanemoongirl @scarletteflamerald @midnight-and-his-melodiverse @ceph-the-ghost-writer @flock-from-the-void @outpost51 @mattresses-and-macaroni @limitlesswritingvoid @mr-orion @the-ellia-west @guessillcallitart @thelaughingstag @thereadingfoz @glassstardust22124 @original-writing @honeybewrites
