Upward Writes

[mxrderscenes]

writing is so funny because i could write nonstop for 9hrs and then hit a block where im like "how do i transition between this moment and the next?" and then i just dont touch it for 6 months

[remnantglow]

dude we've GOT to start buying shit from niche specialist sites that look like they were made in 2004 again. i just got some tape for repairing books from this ugly ass website geared at libraries. tell me why they also sent me a free (really nice!) pen, a business card with an overexposed picture of a guinea pig standing on a book with the text "smile :-)", and a LOTTERY TICKET???

[montereybayaquarium]

‘Tis the season of deep-sea art! 🎨✨

Join Monterey Bay Aquarium, @mbari-blog and FathomVerse as we cozy up to the ocean’s hidden wonders all month long with daily deep-sea art prompts.

Let the unique beauty of this extraordinary ocean ecosystem spark inspiration as the days turn dark and chilly. Dive into these prompts and create daily art in any medium–digital, ink, sculpture, tattoos, macaroni art, or whatever calls to you from the depths.

We’ll be reblogging art all month long, so make sure to follow @MontereyBayAquarium and @mbari-blog and tag your posts #deep sea december. Here’s some other ways to keep the sea-lebration going all month long: 🩵 Come chat with fellow artists and share your creations in the Monterey Bay Aquarium Discord server.

🩵 Submit your art to our online gallery.

🩵 Download the FathomVerse mobile game to find inspiration while contributing to MBARI deep-sea research. By protecting the ocean, we can all work together to preserve the unique and fragile beauty of the deep sea that inspires us to create. There’s wonder in ocean life, and caring for it helps us all. 🖤

The list of plain text prompts is available under the cut:

Deep Sea December daily art prompt list:

Snow

Red

Glitter

Chilly

Brunch

Crystal

Fish

Glow

Fathom

Home

Precious

Inky

Camera

Twilight

Gossamer

Hidden

Star

Drift

Sweet

Gadget

Dark

Jelly

Soft

Chimney

Feast

Rest

Community

Descend

Dazzle

Wonder

Renew

[deepwaterfiction]

Deep Water Prompt #3480

The stained glass window tells us how the house is feeling. I break a plate on the glossy wooden floor one day, and try to stay calm as the light bleeds red. 

[deepwaterfiction]

Deep Water Prompt #3500

The sign pinned next to the door advertises discounted ‘counterfeit spellboons’. I hope it’s a typo. Unlicensed spellbook reproductions are common. Fake blessings? Risky, risky business.

[upwardwrites]

MURDER BOX

[fallingtowers]

i live in the most haunted house in the northern hemisphere because i keep buying cursed dolls and cracking them open like pistachios to release the ghosts inside em. see i've got this business idea and it's to unethically harvest their ectoplasm and sell it in little jars like honey. unfortunately i've hit a snag, namely that ectoplasm tastes like shit and also if you ingest it you permanently lose the capacity to feel joy. so now i've got a bunch of unsatisfied customers who are literally impossible to please banging on my door at all hours. it doesn't really matter though because the ghosts are already constantly slamming all my doors and cabinets so it's just a wall of sound in here at all times anyway. i'm pretty sure i've got tinnitus now but on the upside i've got this new business idea where i repair old dolls with kintsugi and sell them at a ridiculous markup to etsy women in cuffed corduroy pants.

[robininthelabyrinth]

There is no joy like the joy of a writer who has just figured out that a throwaway line they put into the first few paragraphs of a story is actually the key to a major plot point and possibly even the theme underlying the entire thing.

Just…yesssssss.

[mothmanismyuncle]

like to charge rb to cast

[heedra]

i love shrikes because they’re horrible little carnivores whose feeding habits are grim enough to earn then the nickname ‘butcherbird’ but they look like this

[upwardwrites]

HI SADIE

[servaltherium]

i think its so awesome that ocs exist. u can just make up some girl and put so many problems in her head

[bone-and-butterflies]

How to make characters that start a story off dead feel real.

Name them- this is the bare minimum

Happy memories- what did this person mean to those they had relationships with? These little details contextualize your living characters and who they are as people.

Identity- who was this person outside of these relationships?

Agency- give them a last action related, but more personal simply dying. For example, taking a bullet, giving one last piece of advise, leaving a scar on their killer's face, telling a joke, or even just figuring out a plot to kill them and doing something about.

In conclusion, characters who start a story off dead should mean something besides making a reader's feel sympathy for another character. Death is a big deal, and neglecting this reality can mess with a reader's suspension of disbelief, even for characters the reader will never truly meet. Having bits and pieces of a dead character feels more real because it mimics that experience of getting to know a person through their family and friends or reading a diary of a person long dead.

[sandersstudies]

Every 21st century piece of writing advice: Make us CARE about the character from page 1! Make us empathize with them! Make them interesting and different but still relatable and likable!

Every piece of classic literature: Hi. It's me. The bland everyman whose only purpose is to tell you this story. I have no actual personality. Here's the story of the time I encountered the worst people I ever met in my life. But first, ten pages of description about the place in which I met them.

[sandersstudies]

Modern writing advice: Yes your protagonist should have flaws but ultimately we should root for them and like them from the beginning :)

Charles Dickens: Here is the worst ugliest rudest meanest nastiest bitch you’ve ever met in your life.

[sandersstudies]

Modern writing advice: Make sure your POV character goes through a significant arc! Make sure they are changed by the narrative! Make sure they learn a lesson!

Narrators of every book of the 19th century: the lesson I learned is these people fucking suck, sayonara you freaks

[sandersstudies]

Modern writing advice: It’s all about the character overcoming obstacles and learning! They learn their lesson so they can fix their mistakes and make good choices in the future! It’s a character arc! It’s called growth! Readers love it!

Everyone from ancient times through the 19th century: would you like to watch a Guy fuck up twenty times in a row

[coldgoldlazarus]

[dduane]

Somewhere or other, C. S. Lewis points out (and I'm paraphrasing here) that every era of writing has its own tropes and its own blind spots; its own failings and its own successes. This is why it's important to read in lots of different eras: so you can see what does and doesn't work, in the long run, and be able to make your own informed choices about how to write.

[upwardwrites]

Thanks for tagging me, @stormbrightwriter!!

Rules: Make a 24hr* poll listing the titles of every WIP you want to work on. (It’s fine if you only have one, still make a poll for the vote count). Whichever WIP title gets the most votes, write 1 sentence for every vote received.

(lol I added WIPs you punks, and half of them won’t make sense)

*Breaking the rules and making mine a week bc nobody follows me and I made a bunch of people really mad a while ago and I think I’m still in tumblr jail.

Upward should work on …

Butcher Bird 1: Finish draft 2 already, you just got a few scenes to go!

Butcher Bird 2: You got writers block, bb, just put 1 aside

Appalachian Horror: You been thinking bout that codex lately, don’t lie

HOA Webseries Project: It sparks joy and you got so much material

Murder Box: Because the market for decent holy water won’t corrupt itself

Nonfiction 1: Gather that good shit you wrote about things that make sense

Nonfiction 2: Gather that unhinged shit you wrote at 2am

Voting ended onAug 20, 2023

[upwardwrites]

Y’all get me. Especially because so many of you gravitated to the so-far undescribed “Murder Box” and “HOA” projects.

Writing Butcher Bird 1 is enjoyable and has been so much fun from a writing/research point of view. But the output has a gravity to it despite fun moments. It leans into its dystopian/sci fi/speculative fiction roots from a heavier place. It is fun to read, I hope.

But HOA and Murder Box? Both of these projects are amazingly unhinged and goofy. Or will be. I’ll have to do a spotlight on each. HOA is a joint project but in the outlining phase. Murder Box is at idea gathering and concepting.

[upwardwrites]

Thanks for tagging me, @stormbrightwriter!!

Rules: Make a 24hr* poll listing the titles of every WIP you want to work on. (It’s fine if you only have one, still make a poll for the vote count). Whichever WIP title gets the most votes, write 1 sentence for every vote received.

(lol I added WIPs you punks, and half of them won’t make sense)

*Breaking the rules and making mine a week bc nobody follows me and I made a bunch of people really mad a while ago and I think I’m still in tumblr jail.

Upward should work on …

Butcher Bird 1: Finish draft 2 already, you just got a few scenes to go!

Butcher Bird 2: You got writers block, bb, just put 1 aside

Appalachian Horror: You been thinking bout that codex lately, don’t lie

HOA Webseries Project: It sparks joy and you got so much material

Murder Box: Because the market for decent holy water won’t corrupt itself

Nonfiction 1: Gather that good shit you wrote about things that make sense

Nonfiction 2: Gather that unhinged shit you wrote at 2am

Voting ended onAug 20, 2023

[deepwaterfiction]

Deep Water Prompt #3064

When libraries are not maintained they expand, swallowing cities block by block. If you run into a building too big to comprehend, that city has starved its library, and you should not go in. 

[upwardwrites]

Ohhhhhhh @cinnamonzen

[upwardwrites]

A lot could change but this might be one of the most important books I’ve ever read.

[upwardwrites]

Reading a book on writing and the author suggests something I’ve been unconsciously doing for years - but something I need to do with more intent. Observing and collecting moments and people and mannerisms. I warn people that if you tell me anything remotely interesting, I will use it.

The author describes writing exercises she gives her students, and two of them include

1. writing about their childhood - but not linearly. Just all those little things that stick in our heads.

2. Describing their school lunches.

And I started thinking about those tiny moments that live in my memory (like my grandma’s funeral dress, head-to-toe sequins, peacock colored - she left the thrift store price tag on it. $14.95)

And the ability to plumb those things mundane and otherwise for things you find in the deep dark. Writing feels like playing god and as I think about the unfolding paper lunch bag, it’s like reaching my god-hand into a dark fenced off quarry and bringing up a handful of silt to see what skeletons sit there.

[deepwaterfiction]

Deep Water Prompt #3026

I have no choice but to ask the vampire trees. They know everything, ancient beyond ancient, the bone white thorns that line their branches gleaming like so many teeth.