Hi! My name is Charlie and this is my writing blog
I've written and rewritten this introduction a thousand times and I hate it. About me: I am a long-time fantasy writer, an obsessive worldbuilder, and an avid enjoyer of all things storytelling. I love picking apart characters and structures and analyzing media in any form.
I currently have two literary magazine publications, The Incident in God's Eye and Vampire Jazz Band, and one more on the way. Alongside that, I also have a handful of long form projects I intend to post about when I get the courage to.
Projects:
Dead Dragon - This ambitious epic is my main priority and it essentially boils down to Pirates vs. Settlers vs. Dragons vs. Gods.
Deviltown - A modern comedic fantasy that turned into a sit-com the more I wrote it.
Corpse Town - A double-sided Us vs. Them that involves dark caves and body horror. Out of all of my projects (even the ones not listed), this is the one that is the least fantastical.
How did May go for you and your writing? If you'd like to share something you wrote this month, please do.
💜
Thanks for asking! So far May has been the most productive month I've had this year for writing my pirate fantasy with 16 writing sessions. April and March I only had 6 sessions each. Here's the final session count:
Have I actually gotten anywhere? I don't know... But I'm VERY close to the climax, I just need to stop fucking around.
This is from Miles From Morning. The person saying the thing is Rafe's new friend Penny. They have a lot in common...
“Not really. Just one thing. Killing people really fast with, and I quote, a disturbing lack of remorse for my actions. That’s what the judge said. So maybe there are actually two things I’m good at. Killing people and not feeling bad about it.”
Tagging @the-beanfolio, @the-inkwell-variable, @theheartofsanlobato and @thegreatobsesso if you'd like to do it, with an open tag for anyone else who wants to join in 💜
Reblogs, replies etc on my tag posts are always welcome, but if you're doing this tag yourself, please make your own post instead of using mine to start a reblog chain.
Want more of my writing than I post on Tumblr, with all my stories, blog posts, updates, and audio readings? Head on over to my Patreon! There's a free membership option and I'd love to welcome you to my cosy little queer fiction community 💞
Tagged by @zmwrites (thank you kindly!), I'm tagging @talesofsorrowandofruin @stingraydrien and of course @andrevalias because i know you started a new project and im holding your feet to the fire
The words I was given were: Season, still, door, and light
Your words are: Cruel, narrow, lost, and bend
Season
It was that night on the shores of Ursus that a rumor began to blossom. Born from the heart of a bonfire and seasoned with the flavor of Ursine hospitality, whispers slowly spread across the Ophidian Sea of the quiet and unexpected return of a brother once thought to be dead. A miracle. A survivor. A bad omen.
Still
Still limp from the paralytic injection, the boy’s eyes had seemed to follow them wherever they went as if they were prey he was studying to hunt, and he never, ever blinked. At first, the soldiers had found it funny, but no sooner had the dragon shifter regained use of his tongue than he began to lash every soldier around him with a myriad of insults, threats, and nasty promises. They locked him away in a kennel usually reserved for the legion’s bloodhounds, which—obliged by one brave soldier—was covered by a filthy sheet so the squadron wouldn’t be distracted by his unnerving, reptilian stare. Now that the paralysis had completely worn off, the covered cage would periodically rattle and growl and shake with conviction, but Giles did not intend to indulge the little beast until after their return to Balcona’s Might.
Door
Rohan blinked at the invisible map. “I need to see the whole thing,” he decided, getting to his feet. “Slade has one in his quarters!”
Still on his belly, Jespar caught him uselessly by the ankle. “No! At this time of night? Are you mad? He’ll kill you!”
“Like he killed me all the other times I got on his nerves?”
Jespar thunked his forehead on the floor and let out a strained laugh. “There’s this thing called ‘boundaries’ that we usually try to respect as colleagues—Rohan!”
Rohan had already taken up the lantern and was halfway out the door. Hastily but careful not to put pressure on his bad foot, Jespar pulled himself to his feet, snatched up his crutch, and hobbled after him. Rohan at least stopped in the hallway to wait for him, but it seemed his mind was made up: they were going to break into the Captain’s cabin for the sake of poorly-timed education.
Light
“I wish they’d actually take King’s word into consideration,” Lucia confided in Slade late on the second day of travel. It was evident in the way she held herself that the Aldegar rumor was weighing down on her.
“Ye think that after all these years, these folks would suddenly take the word of their House Lords as gospel again?” Slade replied, quiet so as not to be overheard. “They still blame us fer the Empire shovin’ their ugly foot in the door, and most of the lords who let that happen have been dead fer over a decade. Our word means squat.”
Aldegar might as well have been struck by seven bolts of lightning. There was no coming back from the rapture of the Spirits.
all are from to paint the winter sky aka seal book
cruel
Valdemar’s love is warm. It is perhaps what many sealfolk spend their lives searching for, and yet never find. But his warmth is not that of the sun, or a quaint fire in the hearth. His is the kind that melts ice. That brings monsters out to play. To let yourself be consumed by him is to lose yourself forever.
Monsters. What a cruel word. Could any creation of the Blessed be deemed such? Is that not an insult to the gods themselves? Do they not breathe, sing, watch the moon, just like any ordinary sealfolk?
narrow
The man sitting beside the bucket, knees pulled up to his chest, looked up at Val with narrowed eyes as he approached. The seaside breeze ruffled his long silver-spotted hair. He gave a brief nod. A silent good catch. Such compliments often went unspoken between the two of them.
“Think that’ll be good for today?” Val said softly. He settled down beside his companion, who shifted enough to place his cheek on Val’s shoulder.
“It’ll have to be,” he murmured. His gaze was fixed on the falling sun as it was swallowed by the ocean like a fish down an orca’s gullet. The end of their world as they knew it grew ever closer.
lost
The Crescent raised his hand, and silence fell like a thick blanket of snow over the gathering. Even the Stagehand could not resist the moon’s pull.
“If you are so insistent on meddling in the northern ice caps,” the Gibbous said, “then it is there you shall remain. Encased in the ice, among the monsters the sealfolk fear. They will not know of you. Your responsibilities will be redistributed. Your name lost to time. Domain over the theater will fall to someone else.”
bend
He’d wait. Sooty had the brush, for the Blessed’s sake; it would almost be easier to free Val than to leave him here. After all, he was the Brushkeeper. He could bend the rules if he wanted to. He could forfeit a day late. If this was the god whose rules they’d be breaking, he suspected they didn’t have much to fear at all.
He realized Luka was looking at him curiously and he wondered if gods could read minds. “What?”
“You have a choice to make,” declared Luka. “Stay here, await your execution, and look into your lover’s eyes as you die—or forge your own path, with no seal-pelt to keep you warm.” He frowned. “I’m sorry. That’s terribly ominous.”
Tagged by @zmwrites (thank you kindly!), I'm tagging @talesofsorrowandofruin @stingraydrien and of course @andrevalias because i know you started a new project and im holding your feet to the fire
The words I was given were: Season, still, door, and light
Your words are: Cruel, narrow, lost, and bend
Season
It was that night on the shores of Ursus that a rumor began to blossom. Born from the heart of a bonfire and seasoned with the flavor of Ursine hospitality, whispers slowly spread across the Ophidian Sea of the quiet and unexpected return of a brother once thought to be dead. A miracle. A survivor. A bad omen.
Still
Still limp from the paralytic injection, the boy’s eyes had seemed to follow them wherever they went as if they were prey he was studying to hunt, and he never, ever blinked. At first, the soldiers had found it funny, but no sooner had the dragon shifter regained use of his tongue than he began to lash every soldier around him with a myriad of insults, threats, and nasty promises. They locked him away in a kennel usually reserved for the legion’s bloodhounds, which—obliged by one brave soldier—was covered by a filthy sheet so the squadron wouldn’t be distracted by his unnerving, reptilian stare. Now that the paralysis had completely worn off, the covered cage would periodically rattle and growl and shake with conviction, but Giles did not intend to indulge the little beast until after their return to Balcona’s Might.
Door
Rohan blinked at the invisible map. “I need to see the whole thing,” he decided, getting to his feet. “Slade has one in his quarters!”
Still on his belly, Jespar caught him uselessly by the ankle. “No! At this time of night? Are you mad? He’ll kill you!”
“Like he killed me all the other times I got on his nerves?”
Jespar thunked his forehead on the floor and let out a strained laugh. “There’s this thing called ‘boundaries’ that we usually try to respect as colleagues—Rohan!”
Rohan had already taken up the lantern and was halfway out the door. Hastily but careful not to put pressure on his bad foot, Jespar pulled himself to his feet, snatched up his crutch, and hobbled after him. Rohan at least stopped in the hallway to wait for him, but it seemed his mind was made up: they were going to break into the Captain’s cabin for the sake of poorly-timed education.
Light
“I wish they’d actually take King’s word into consideration,” Lucia confided in Slade late on the second day of travel. It was evident in the way she held herself that the Aldegar rumor was weighing down on her.
“Ye think that after all these years, these folks would suddenly take the word of their House Lords as gospel again?” Slade replied, quiet so as not to be overheard. “They still blame us fer the Empire shovin’ their ugly foot in the door, and most of the lords who let that happen have been dead fer over a decade. Our word means squat.”
Aldegar might as well have been struck by seven bolts of lightning. There was no coming back from the rapture of the Spirits.
“Did we piss anyone else off?” Dorian looked at Idalah for an answer.
“Not recently.” She frowned. “Except—”
The door burst open, and Petra almost tripped over the threshold in her haste. “It’s The Glory. It’s Barros.”
“—the slavers,” Idalah finished.
“Fuck,” Simmons said.
A fun little ensemble moment as they try to figure out who is making a beeline for them in the open ocean.
I tag @thegreatobsesso, @the-beanfolio, @aurumni-writes, and anyone else who wants to play! As always, no pressure.
How do you come up with your fictional country names… I need inspiration but I don’t wanna pester >-<
YOU'RE NOT PESTERING, MY GOOD BUDDY. I'm gonna be so honest -- I struggle SO HARD with country names. Country names (and planet names, names for new plant or animal species, etc.) are just so... broad. So VAGUE.
When it's something specific (tough guy character names, coastal city names, tiny dog names, hotel names), it's a piece of cake.
But countries??? HOW DO I EVEN COME UP WITH SOMETHING LIKE THAT?? So I am opening the floor to my fellow creatives! If anyone has any advice for this lovely pal, please drop it in the comments or in a reblog!!
There’s plenty of name generators out there for all these kinds of things. Fantasy name generators is my preferred go to for things that are beyond just the names of characters. What I tend to do is go through the list of names the generator gives me, pick out the ones that I like or can bend into a name I like, and I put it down in a list to be consulted later.
I have a master list of names for characters, towns/countries, organizations, New Fantasy Things, etc that I am constantly adding to when I see or think of something that I might want to use. It’s gone through four different word processing programs and I have been carrying this list around in my digital pocket for over 10 years at this point. that thang is LONG.
Never stop running out of ideas. Take inspiration from everything, especially if you misread something and it sounds cool.
My favorite author's advice for writing a book is "try and finish" and by golly I'm going to fucking try
The version of this project started in 2024
Note: the whole book is not actually 240k words, I just have a tendency to go back and rewrite when I'm unsatisfied and can't continue until it's fixed. I'm getting close, though.
The core philosophy that I go back to for basically every part of writing is "know what you're doing, and do it on purpose."
This goes from everything from word choice and sentence structure (understand the meaning and connotation of words you're using, be intentional with your word choice, understand grammmar rules and how you may be bending or breaking them) to plot, worldbuilding, and story meaning (know what genre tropes you are invoking or subverting, think through how one part of your worldbuilding relates to another and shape it accordingly, consider the implicit or explicit messages your story may be sending and make sure those messages are the ones you want to be sending).
I've talked about this before with writing advice as a whole, but I'll say it again here: use writing advice that applies to your story, and be intentional with it. Don't follow advice about building reader connections with a character when you are intentionally trying to building distance; don't follow advice about creating epic secondary worlds when that isn't your goal with the story.
# my favourite part about this post # is that nowhere does it say to reblog this # but we’re all reblogging it # because if we have to suffer # so do other writers
📝 Search for the given words in your story. If your story doesn't have a word, you can use a variation on it or a word with a similar meaning.
These are from Miles From Morning...
FUN
She nudges me with her shoulder again. “I knew you were going to be fun. Anyway, you want to try a camomile tea?”
ANGLE (I'm cheating here 🤫)
He shaking and he goes white, then a weird shade of green, staring at his mangled hand like he doesn’t believe it’s real.
TROUBLE
I thought a second desertion attempt would be enough to… enough to reduce my value. Enough to make having me here more trouble than it’s worth.
TWIST
The frequency kicks in and the blacklights twist and swirl into vines and veins and fingers reaching out to wrap around my heart, my throat, my temples.
Tagging @did-i-do-this-write, @the-beanfolio, @thegreatobsesso and @touloser-lautrec if you'd like to do it, with an open tag for anyone else who wants to join in.
The words to search your story for are empty, drain, water, and lost 💜
Reblogs, replies etc on my tag posts are always welcome, but if you're doing this tag yourself, please make your own post instead of using mine to start a reblog chain.
Want more of my writing than I post on Tumblr, with all my stories, blog posts, updates, and audio readings? Head on over to my Patreon! There's a free membership option and I'd love to welcome you to my cosy little queer fiction community 💞
