Hi! Hope you’re having a good Friday. Have a line from my newest wip which I have been withholding sharing snippets from until I get character intros posted (in an attempt to be a little professional ugh). Maybe sharing this will motivate me to finish them? Idk. But this line is a banger, so I humbly offer it to the pool.
Her freedom, she knows, will never be more than delicate. It’s one breath from falling apart and it always will be.
oh HELL YES!!!
I LOVE it!!!
(who cares about being professional??? we're all chaotic little gremlins around here!!! post your goodies!!!! 👀)
Okay, I know I was talking about playful Calypso teasing Thanatos but I scrolled past this bit and had to share it instead. Forgive me.
He presses his handprint to the sea floor, shivering at the cold and latent power hidden there. Few can dive deep enough for this and there is a sort of power in the untouched. To make him smile, she presses her hand beside his, their others still linked.
It takes just a drop of divinity to preserve the imprints.
Is that not the sweetest? It totally snuck up on me. When she isn’t teasing him, Thanatos is making her a soft pile of mush and it’s amazing.
It snuck up on me right now too, and you dropping this gorgeous, soft snippet on me is already making this morning much, much better 🥰
Did she... did she sneak him down deep into her domain?? And Calypso thinking "to make him smile", that's making me a soft pile of mush too! I was smiling so wide throughout all of this, and there at the end 'to preserve the imprints', you came into this this morning with this excerpt and took my heart omg
Nikky, you wonderful writer, I was already deeply invested before, now that you've shown me this side of my favorite goddess it's not going to leave my head anytime soon. That whole image!! I'm going to be staring at this for a while now, won't I?
Hello! Sleepover time! I’ve always wanted to hop in on one of these. I posted my first wip intro last week which I think oddly got me more excited about it?? Is that a thing? (Also just proud that I figured out the intro because I am still baby writeblr). It’s a myth retelling featuring Calypso and Davy Jones, kind of merging the two myths. It’s a simple idea, but I’m really excited about it. Calypso and Davy Jones have both been fun to write and their dynamic has been as well. I could go on, but don’t want to ramble. I’m glad to see you back from your self-exile. Welcome back! Happy to see you actually on my dash again :D
Welcome to the sleepover, thanks for stopping by! You’re always welcome to send me asks even when I’m not doing this — but this does give a lot of people an opportunity and an invitation :)
I definitely get the feeling of getting more excited after posting a WIP intro! The creation of Always the Bridesmaid was definitely fostered by the feedback and energy I received from the community; I wouldn’t have been able to throw together a WIP Pre-intro within the same day of conception in a fevered frenzy otherwise. Actually putting something together for sharing can bring with it a huge sense of accomplishment and pride, and of course any comments you might get also helps ;)
Myth retellings are something I’ve never done personally, but that sounds really cool! Are we talking like... Calypso and Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, or something else, because that’s the only thing coming to mind for me. Your WIP sounds really cool though, I’m excited to see your posts about it!
It’s good to be back, thanks so much! If you ever need any writeblr help, feel free to come ask me anytime.
Sleepover Sunday: It’s not Sunday, but come chat with me anyways!
Last Day! Is there something about your WIP you want to ramble about or a snippet you want to share? Go for it!
(Also, this past month of asking questions have been lovely and I wish you the best of luck working on your WIPs in the future).
Hey Nikky, thanks so much for your ask and I hope you don't mind me waiting to answer this question until I found exactly what I wanted to share.
Something I really enjoy doing is hiding information from the readers. I don't know why it's so entertaining, but I'm having so much fun with it.
Often, I just blatantly put something on paper that if you read the story a second time, you're gonna notice the hints immediately, but I'm hoping that on a first read, people might read over it because I'm not making a big fuss about these 'supposedly minor details'.
I have around 7-8 secrets/backstory information that are being kept secret at first, but will eventually come out, so keep your eyes open 👀
A longer prompt to start off on our catch-up. While we do this, I’ll post the first one earlier in the day (11-1ish?) and the other at the normal time (3-5ish).
This is my first time writing a child and I don’t think I did horribly, which is nice. Warnings for mention of family death, funeral, demon, possession.
*****
Laura doesn’t cry at her family’s funeral.
Other people — strangers, her mother’s hairdresser, her little brother's friend’s parents, the neighbors from the blue house down the street on the opposite side — shed tears, but Laura stands stoic.
They are buried in the same coffin (there were no bodies) and the ease of it feels haggling. She knows what remains of her family. She was there to see them die.
She saw.
She should have died with them. She can feel the wet accusations of others pounding at her back. They think the same. Why did she come out unharmed? How did she?
Their home was rubble now. Except for the circle of space where she had been. A circle of hardwood that still glimmers. She had been protected. A man dripping shadows had pulled her into his arms as her family screamed. He’s here now. His hand is cold on her shoulder.
He’s told Laura that he doesn’t have a name. She calls him Hadow. Short for shadow.
“Hadow,” she says, syllables dropping cutely from her pouted lips, “why did you save me?”
Hadow grins with three layers of sharp teeth. “Because I like you. You’re special.”
Laura lowers her head. Stares at her shoes. Black dress shoes that are pinching her toes. She can’t wait to get out of them. She clicks her heels together. Momma had always told her that she was special. “The best of us all,” she’d say, with her hands around her face. She was always smiling.
She didn’t smile when Hadow hugged her.
She didn’t, now that Laura thinks back, ever get out of the hug. Maybe she was sad, but she was smiling before. She frowns.
Laura hums uncertainly. “Okay.” She looks at all the people crowded around the stone, the hole in the ground, the coffin within. “When am I gonna get to see Momma again?”
Hadow huddles close, pressing against her in the thick of the crowd. “Soon,” he warbles, twirling her hair around his claws. He’d dug them into Momma when they hugged, and she’d turned to smoke. It was a good party trick. “You’ll see her soon.”
“Good.” Laura grins toothily. People eye her with horror. “I can’t wait to tell her about you.”
She hears a rumble, like Uncle Jack’s laugh or a thunderstorm.
Miss Lia, a friend of Momma’s, places her hand on Laura’s shoulder as she crouches. “Hi, Laura,” she says, her tone hyper-sweet.
“Hi Miss Lia.” She waves.
“How are you feeling?”
Laura smiles. “Great!”
Miss Lia’s smile falls into a frown. “Oh? What about— don’t you miss your mum?”
“No.” She points to Hadow. “Hadow says that I’ll see her reallllly soon.”
Lia looks. “Hadow? Who’s that, sweetie?”
“My friend! He says that he’s the one who took Momma! She’s at his house in— in…” she frowns. What was the word he used?
Hell, Hadow whispers, I took your mother to hell.
“Hell!” Laura crows. “Hadow took Momma to Hell.” She grins with self-accomplishment, rocking on her feet and waiting for praise.
But Miss Lia doesn’t say ‘good job’. Instead, her eyes widen, and she falls back on her heels. “Hell? Are you sure about that?”
“Yep!” Laura nods, still smiling.
“And how did—” her eyes flick around, “—how did Hadow take your Momma?”
Laura hums, thinking back. “Momma was turning on the TV when he showed up. He was massive, like,” she flings her arms apart, “huge and he hugged Momma real tight.” Her arms collapse on herself and she squeezes. “And when he let go, Momma wasn’t there anymore!”
Lia’s frown deepens.
“And,” Laura whispers, stepping closer. “He said it was demon magic. That’s how he moved her.” Her eyes sparkle with the secret she’s sharing. She likes to be the one to tell others secrets. It makes her feel important, like a grown up.
“Is Hadow… does he look like a shadow, Laura?”
She nods. “Yeah. A real big one.”
Miss Lia’s face goes pale. “And what happened to the house?”
“Hadow took it too. He said he tried to play with it, but it fell apart. He played with Daddy, too. I heard him yell at Hadow.” She thinks for a moment. Her eyes widen a little, pieces slotting together. “I think he was mad because he doesn’t like to play when he’s working.”
Lia nods, slow. Her eyes are very white. She looks like she just woke up from a scary nightmare.
“Are you okay Miss Lia?” Laura tilts her head and goes in for a hug. “If you want to come to Hell with me, you can.” She squeezes tight. “I can ask Hadow to bring you with too.”
“That’s alright, dear,” Lia wraps the child in her arms warily. Her eyes scan the surroundings like she’d be able to spot the demon who’s gotten attached to this— this child. She sees a sharp-toothed smile out of the corner of her eye. She hugs Laura tighter. If it’s followed her out of the house, then it’s too late. And Laura’s gotten attached. There’s no separating them, not if Laura believes the demon’s words.
Not if she thinks that that demon — Hadow — is a friend.
She doesn’t know that it killed her parents, her brother. She doesn’t know that she’s never going to see them again.
Hello! Hope your day is going well. Day 11 Underwing question: how much do you outline? How detailed/vague is it? Have you ever started something without an outline?
hi nikky!! my day was pretty good, I was at work for most of it lol
I pretty much outline the whole story from start to finish! I like having some idea of where I’m going with the story as opposed to going in blind. I would say it’s somewhere in between detailed and vague? I tend to do a sort of bare bones bullet list where I talk about what’s going to happen, where the chapter breaks are, who is talking, etc. Let me show you an example from AKB:
THIS SHOULD PROBABLY BE A CHAPTER BREAK OK LETS GO
It’s dusk now babyyyy
Helen has gathered all her supplies and is in the stables saddling up her horse Whiskey
She hears a sound at the entrance of the stable and whirls around, half expecting an ambush
The door creaks open and Cory slips in!
She looks around and spots Helen
Cory comes over, and Helen realizes that she’s holding a bag that seems really well packed
Helen asks Cory what’s going on
Cory plops down her bag and cheerfully explains that she’s coming with Helen
Helen sort of stands there like :O
I usually always have an outline, even if most of the time it’s just a simple sentence that states the beginning, middle and end :)
Happy Fab Friday!! I actually made it! I always remember this either the Saturday after or the wrong Friday <.<
I’ve been productive this week! I’m working on a wip guide (so my blog can be all organized and people can see the wips I’ve not worked on in what feels like eight years XD) but I have a couple intros and some character introductions I need to make. I got one wip intro up and a character intro that I’ve been putting off for I-don’t-want-to-admit how long! Now for the others…. sigh. But this is a good start.
And aside from that, I got back into working on one my first-ever wips! I just went to browse for the character intro but I ended up adding a few hundred words and I realized how much I missed it.
WOOOOO!!!!!! That's awesome!!! You sound so excited for your writing again! Love love love that you're blowing through so much progress with enthusiasm!!!! 😍😍😍
Hello! You reblogged the “say nice things about the person you reblogged from” (that I sorta forgot about haha) and I am Soft now 🥺 I’d like to get to know you better too so I’ll try to drop in every once and a while to chat. If you don’t mind, that is.
In response to this post.
Yeah of course I don’t mind! Feel free to stop by anytime you’d like, I’m always down to chat and get to know you better~ 🥰
I’ve been a silent lurker on your blog for quite some time!
