the writeblr garden 🌱 the place to grow as a writer!
the writeblr garden is a community space focused solely on the progress of your novel(s). whether you're in the outlining stage, 10 drafts in, or already completed a book and are aiming towards your next, the garden is here for you! we host monthly events made to encourage you to write and share your progress. 🌻
everyone on writeblr is welcome to join our events and use our public tag #writeblrgarden. you can also join our discord server! participating in our events, using our tag, and being in our server makes you a writeblr gardener 🌲 if you're interest in getting more involved with the garden, you can apply to become a goblin of the garden 🧙♂️ goblin's help create events and promote the network and applications open occasionally when new spots are open.
we're excited to see what creations come from the garden, be sure to join us so we can all bloom! 🌷
• [ACT ONE - THE IMPERESSA EUCLEIA] is finally finished!!! You guys have no idea how much of a personal achievement this is, considering I usually end up giving up and restarting right before act 1 ends. I've previously written some chapters for act 2, but with the current direction of act 1 and some of the stuff I've outlined, those chapters will probably go through a lot of rework as well
• I've rearranged Nike's introductory chapter again, and also switched some of his chapters around as well. So he makes a brief appearance in Fenice's POV in chapter 5, then afterwards transitions to his first POV chapter in Chapter 6
• Act 1 starts with Fenice's POV and ends with Nike's POV which I think is really sexy
• A lot of what I did this month was pretty much just filling in gaps and doing some light revision on certain scenes to make everything flow very well
• Really want to give a shoutout to @kaatiba for being my alpha reader!!! Sharing my work with her has done wonders for my motivation <3333 Reading her wip in return was also such a pleasure
EXCERPT
The sharp snap of a closing fan echoed throughout the room as Fenice's eerie little eyes opened. "You're going to make a fool of yourself if you keep drinking anymore." Those were the first words she'd spoken to him today.
He bared his teeth at her. Not even married and she's already nagging him. "It's only water."
"You wouldn't be so happy to see that servant if it was just water."
By happenstance that Nike suspected was completely engineered, the guard Philo was given the task of delivering pitchers of water for them to drink during their fast. Philo—at this point the only half-decent Aetierian Nike's met—in a small act of kindness, decided to sneak in pitchers of wine along with water for Nike to make this whole ordeal even slightly less miserable.
Nike rolled his eyes. "With how watered down this wine is, it might as well be just water."
It clearly didn't work. Or maybe he just needed more wine.
Not too much writing done this month lol. Work has been keeping me busy, especially since I've been having to cluster my shifts much closer together so I can go on a family vacation lol
THE STATISTICS
the draft → 56,432 words
words written this month → 1,912 words
average word count per session → 478 words
words written this year → 15,430 words
STORY NOTES
Most of what's been done this month has just been planning out what I want act 2 to look like. I already have somewhat of a foundation from the chapters I've written months back, but with the details I've changed in Act 1 giving me a clearer picture for the direction of the story, It's probably gonna take me some time to restructure some of those chapters as well
I'm planning on cutting some of the fantastical concepts in act 2 (i.e. the god stuff) in favor of expanding the other fantastical concept (i.e. the ghost stuff). As much as I love Fenice's maybe delusions/maybe divine visions of the gods, it doesn't really fit all that well into the story. Maybe I'll revisit it at some point though
More interactions between the vi Aetier siblings! Like how act 1 started with Fenice receiving her mother's (last) letter, act 2 starts with a letter exchange between Fenice and Charles. (This is definitely not just me finding a short cut to establish the setting in Act 2)
Speaking of, Act 2 takes place in the newly conquered Hesperian Territories. Originally, Fenice was supposed to go there as the Tempus Praetori, but I decided to demote her and so now she's going there as the Kaisarim of Lurs-e-Luran. Will she actually get to go to Lurs-e-Luran? Well...that's another story
EXCERPT
"If your father intended on punishing you, granting you a title would be a strange way to go about it."
"He had no love for this match in the first place. The only reason why he agreed was because he could not refute the logic in my argument," she reasoned aloud. "This…this is a sign of blatant disapproval. To give me a kaisarship but deny me an Ascension? It's like— like showing me a loaf of bread and then only offering me the crumbs from it."
"I thought you were content with just the crumbs." Andras' words silenced Fenice, her wan face flushed with anger. He looked at her as one would a screaming, petulant child. "He gave you a kaisarship which grants you the authority to govern. An Ascension is given to those who mean to rule. Do you mean to rule, Fenice?"
Spring is in full swing and the flowers are in bloom! Join TWG for our May event — flower prompt flash fiction!
This event will run for the entire month, and each day will have an assigned flower. The writing theme itself will be flash fiction, which is 1k-1.5k words or less. The list of flowers and corresponding day can be found below, as well as links to flower meanings/symbolism. Enjoy the spring blooms, tag #writeblrgarden so we can see your posts, and feel free to join us in our discord server!
It is with great care that Fenice takes a slim silver dagger and runs it beneath the red wax seal of her mother’s, Titania’s, latest letter from the war front.
The Vasilier Returns
On the Fourth Day
Nothing Except Herself
The Wolf and the Fawn
Pitiful Creatures
The Prince in the Dungeon
On the Matters of Lurs-e-Luran
The Boon
The Most Gracious High Lady
Blessed by Red-Handed Areia
If Areia must come, then let her come dressed in war.
Nikephoros Deominos, Prince of Hesperia, would have it no other way.
So...You Want to be a Writeblr? | A Crash Course and Resource Guide
— about.
This post was primarily made for people wanting to make a writeblr and those new to the community in mind, but can be used for anyone. So, who am I? Hi, Maddie here. I've been on writeblr for a few years so I'm pretty sure I know how this whole writeblr thing works, and I wanted to give some advice that worked for me to new writeblrs who might not know where to start!
This crash course will generally cover these topics:
how to get started
intros and formatting them
interacting with the community
graphics, edits, and where to make them
helpful blogs
but if you'd like me to go over something that I missed or glossed over, feel free to send me an ask!
— how to get started.
The first decision you'll have to make is whether your writeblr will be a primary or secondary blog. Primary blogs allows you to reply and follow other writeblrs as your writeblr, but it will require making another tumblr account if you want a clean slate. Secondary blogs will make it easier to keep everything under one account and move/change primary blogs as needed, but you can only interact with others as your primary blog outside of reblogs.
Once you've made your blog, I recommend taking some time to choose a good blog theme for people who visit your blog. You want something visually pleasing and easy to read/navigate.
@serpentarii made a list of theme recommendations for writeblrs here.
@writerthemes is an entire blog centered on finding themes and pages for writeblrs.
— intros and formatting them.
Once you have your blog set up, go and make a writeblr intro! These serve to get your name out into the community and is a quick way show people who you are and what you're working on. You can format your intros however you want, but I recommend including these key points.
Writeblr intros tend to follow this general format:
General Personal Info: Name you'd like to go by, pronouns, age*, a little bit about yourself and your hobbies (optional)
Your WIPs: If you have multiple, give a brief summary of the plot and its genres. If you plan to only have one, feel free to combine your writeblr and wip intro
*Age: a lot of people on writeblr are young and/or cautious of people they interact with. It's absolutely ok to not specify your age, but at least indicate whether you are an adult or a minor and do not lie about your age range.
WIP Intros are a great way to summarize what your wip is about to anyone wanting to learn more. Most WIP intros tend to include the:
Title
Genre
Themes/Tropes
Summary
Excerpt (optional)
Brief summary of main characters (optional)
Draft Status (optional)
Character Intros are optional but they're popular posts to make. You can be as detailed or as vague as you want. Basic character intros include:
Their general Info: name, age, pronouns
Personality
Backstory
Excerpt (optional)
— interacting with the community.
Writeblr is a community for writers to make friends and find support; what you get out of writeblr depends on what you give back to it, and that means taking the first step and interacting with others. There's no foolproof way to get the kind of interactions you might want, but here's a couple of ways that worked for me:
Interact with other people's wips: find writeblrs and wips you like and start commenting on them! Even if it's just in the tags, or a reaction image, or a key smash.
Participate in ask events like Storyteller Saturday (StS), Meet and Greet Monday (MGM or MaGM), and Worldbuilding Wednesday (WbW): Send people asks relating to their wip on these days. It's a good way to start interacting with other people and most writeblrs tend to send an ask back. There are also a lot of open questions posted on writeblr that you can reblog and answer.
Use common writeblr tags to get your posts out: #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writing #writers some writeblr networks also have open tags for anyone to used
Join a writing discord: there are a lot of writing discord groups floating around, and the informality of discord makes it a lot easier to get to know other writers. It's also a good place to get writing advice, wip help, share your work with others, and just have fun. (Shameless promo for wtw - come join us guys <3)
BONUS: here's a post i made on my old account about some general writeblr etiquette.
— graphics, edits, and where to make them.
Writeblr is a place specifically for writing, but I can't deny that people are more likely to pay attention to a work if there's pretty graphics to go along with it. For people who might be new to making graphics or edits, here are a few resources to get you started
Canva.com is a great resource for beginners. It's a free browser-based graphic design platform with a lot of free photos and graphics you can mess around with. You need to make an account to use it and some resources are behind a pay wall, but you can do a lot of things with what is free.
Unsplash, Pixabay, and Pexels are some of the best places to get unlicensed, royalty-free photos to use in your graphics as opposed to pinterest.
Tumblr also has a lot of free PSDs you can use to make edits. You'll need some basic photoshop skills and a photoshopping software. Make sure to credit the maker if you use their PSD.
Photopea is a free, broswer-based Photoshop alternative. It has a tendency of crashing or lagging sometimes, but it gets the job done.
GIMP is another Photoshop alternative that you can download to your computer.
— helpful writing blogs.
This is far from an extensive list of writing-resource blogs out there. These are just a few blogs that have helped me in my own writing and what I hope might help you guys too.
The ScriptX Blog Family is an ever growing and changing network of blogs of content experts ranging from a wide variety of topics ranging from psychology, medicine, equestrians, military, autism, ballet, foodies, etc.
@writingwithcolor a wonderful writing/resource blog centered around racial, ethnic, and religious diversity. For those writing characters outside their own race/ethnicity/religion, here is a good place to ask questions and concerns you might not easily be able to answer.
@rainbowwriting a writing/resource blog centered around helping writers include better LGBTQIA+ diversity. [Note: I'm not certain if they're still active, but their archive is still a good place to read up on and get information.]
@wordsnstuff had a ton of writing-related resources from developing plot, characters, researach, drafting, prompts, and even genre-specific resources.
@inky-duchess is not only a fantastic writer but she's also very knowledgable on European history, how monarchies and the aristocracy work, and different writing theories.
@pens-swords-stuff is both a wonderful writer and a good source of writing-related advice!
@howtofightwrite a blog for writers looking to write realistic fight scenes
@mimzy-writing-online is another great writer and a writing advice blog! They have a useful advice series on writing visually-impaired and blind characters as well as more general writing-related advice.
Welcome to the writeblr community. I hope this post helped you and happy writing!
hi, i’m SNOW.
she/her. infp. twenties.
welcome to my little library corner.
Welcome to my new Intro post! Yes I just recycled this one. Uhh once again I do not know what exactly goes into the making of a decent writeblr post, so here I'll just say that I want to be writing more and thus wishing to integrate myself more into the writeblr field. I have about 83 wips under my belt but I don't think I've ever reached that finish line.
I'd really love to make writerly friends to share ideas and experiences, and keep us motivated through the process that is often solitary before an audience can be reached. My dms are always open for chats and requests. I've got a few fandoms that I'm really passionate about, but LOTR and AKOTSK are undoubtedly my comfort shows.
Will come back to this intro post when I can think of adding some more of my wips because, ach I am terrible at this spreading any information or promotion about wips and writing. I am trying my best as I've recently joined the ranks of the goblins at @writeblrgarden ! If anybody is seeking a great environment to nurture your writer souls into becoming a writer as you've dreamed of, the garden is the welcoming place for it!
WORKS IN PROGRESS
War of Crowns - my original series
“This is a family’s war indeed. We all have those we love on the other sides.” Set in a medievalistic world some 5000 years from now, a powerful family sees the rise and fall of their dynasty, and the culmination of a devastating war that sprung forth from conflicts began generations ago and cadet branches that had spread over the several kingdoms like tributaries of rivers. However, the planet beneath their feet still lives, though its heartbeat may be faint. This series is a big worldbuilding project of several plots, ranging from tragic romance to slice-of-life documentary seeking to deal with the many aspects of what it means to be a Human.
[plotting; hopefully will be published; working on getting extended because this will have like 25 books under the title 👻]
Daughter of the Trees
an Éomer Éadig love story. Nimbrethil had been living in Fangorn Forest for as long as she could remember. But the greater machinations turning sent her on her way to the land of the Horse-lords, and the Road is far and dangerous but it may lead to home. Sweet fluff, character interactions, cathartic, whimsical thought bubbles on niche things concerning Tolkien and nature.
Read Here
On Our Own
A compilation of one-shots of Éomer and Lothíriel's political marriage. Éomer is anxious to meet his foreign bride for the first time — he dons the stern mask of a King to feel safe. Lothíriel is afraid to let her fears show that she will fail to do her duty — she feigns confidence and calmness to feel secure behind the walls. Will they be able to carve their lives on their own, without the interference and expectations of families, responsibilities and traditions? (Work in progress is really progressing complex)
“Why did you spare me? Of all those boys, why me?”
Spared by the enemy, then branded a traitor by his own, Emris Wesilvi is stuck in a limbo of uncertainty. As the years go by, one becomes two, certain feelings for the enemy who spared him further complicate his life. When do you stop being a hostage with privileges and become complicit in your situation?
mavros vyn elindine.
he fell harder.
“Because you looked at me and saw beneath the mask.”
At what point does sparing an enemy become a choice for oneself rather than one's king? At what point does amusement become friendship, become more? And when do you need to stop and think? Mavros knows not, but at some point, he’ll have to stop and figure it out before it’s too late.
[[ sharing these because i am having fun refining this worldbuilding and part of that world is this fuck-ass horse named champignon -- cw for light body horror feat. a horse that is a mushroom that absorbs food through its skin ]]
“Should we buy you dinner?” Maris asked.
Emrydd answered for him: “Don’t bother. He’ll hunt if he gets hungry.”
Cadeyrn hissed in a breath through gritted sharp teeth. “Actually,” he seethed, “I think I’d like a bowl of lentil soup, if they have any. Thank you.”
Emrydd scoffed at that—he made some other remark, pointed, too low for Cadeyrn to overhear—but there was no honor to be had in picking a fight with him.
No point to it when Cadeyrn could twist his arm behind his back and force him to surrender. He’d done it to a hundred better men; they cracked every time. Maybe not at first. Maybe it took a while. Maybe it took a dislocated shoulder or a broken humerus before they were willing to see the error of their ways. But it was the most surefire method he’d found to walk away from a fight before it ever started.
Emrydd would break in seconds. He was a scholar; that dry lilt in his voice hid no strength. No power. With all his medicines and tonics, he’d cry like a child if he ever felt actual pain.
Cadeyrn slumped with his back against the oak tree. Champignon opened a bright eye at the very top of its head and looked at him. In its gaze he felt an accusation: he couldn’t even eat lentil soup.
“I’ll save it for you,” he mumbled, brushing a hand down the horse’s neck. Its skin was thin enough to split at the lightest touch, but it healed again near-instantly.
It closed that single eye and nestled its head a little farther into its flank. It was tired. He was tired, too.
[. . .]
A large, warm shadow pressed his legs into the earth. Champignon craned its head over his knees and nudged the bowl of soup on its side, chunks of tomato and early-summer peppers spilling onto the earth. It stood and circled around the base of the oak, like a cat looking for a place to nap in the sun, before finally curling up on top of the soup, bowl and all.
The horse’s shoulder leaned against his side, and it lay its long head in his lap, staring up at him with a reptilian red eye in a different place than the last.
Cadeyrn laughed and ran his hand along the underside of its jaw. “You’re lucky,” he told it, “you don’t miss her.”
It huffed—a strange sound from somewhere in its chest, not the false mouth on the bottom of its face. It nuzzled its snout into his leg, and dark blood-lymph seeped from its skin to stain his linen pants.
“No,” he said, “you don’t. Not as bad as I do.” He crept out from underneath it and wiped the dirt from his clothes. Magic was distant from him in this place, but he could at least feel it like a whisper over the back of his neck. He pulled silence and shadow around him like a cloak; a spear of glass, once shattered and now whole, condensed from light into its proper shape in his hand. “I’ve got to find something to eat. Keep an eye on those two, will you?”
Champignon curled its face into the earth, and the roadhouse lamps glimmered off of shiny, dark interruptions in its white skin. Hundreds of eyes blinked at him in a rippling wave.
“Thanks.” A flat smile crossed his face as he stalked off into the underbrush.
“Do you have the Sight? You don’t have to admit it to anyone else,” he pleaded, “but if I’m going to help you, I need to know.”
Maris ran her tongue over her teeth. She pulled her hand away gently and examined a scar across all five of her fingers that no one could see but her. She’d grabbed a broken bottle in a bar fight—one of her first, and the last time she made that mistake. The creaking wooden floor of the Charger Rampant under her feet, but that was before the Charger was hers, back when Elen af Andris worked the counter of her own bar. The magic surged over her, and she shut her eyes in a vain attempt to stop it, but she had none of her tricks left.
And when she opened them, she saw him. Not sitting in front of her. Not on this ridge. But she tasted sea salt on the back of her tongue, and she felt the sway of a ship under her where she crouched on the hillside. Breath so hard to draw her head spun from the effort. A rope between her hands, clutching tight to the closest thing there was to a lifeline, and Treffion behind—Mother, and Father, and Soffi—
“I don’t like to say it out loud,” she mumbled. She pulled her knees up to her chest and stared down the hill at the creek before she could think anything else of the past. “Can I ask you a question instead?”
“Anything.”
“Who’s Soffi?”
That was the fear, painted bright on his face. That was the realization: He should have been afraid of her all along. He cleared his throat and masked it well behind a frown, but his eyes were still too wide when he explained, “My younger sister. She was five.”
“Was that the last time you saw her?”
“That’s the kindest way to say it.” He drew a shaky breath, still shallow, as deep as he could manage. His voice was tight, his face unreadable. “They say that the Green Death decimated Bethaye. Quaint word, isn’t it? It means ‘killed one in ten.’ It’s not true. We lost everyone to that fucking plague.”
1st draft | adult low fantasy | it's vampires | of course it's vampires
may contain blood, death, injury, drugs, sexual content, emotional abuse and manipulation, and so much more (will be updated as is pertinent)
Day Szarka has been dead for three days.
She's been out of it for the last eight months—a hookup with Leywood's hottest alt-rocker Harper Belfontaine back in February turned into more the second she felt his teeth in her. That turned into moving in together back in April, when feeding time went from a tantalizing treat to a routine; staying up all night since June; her birthday in October and she can't find the months in the haze of blood and smoke behind her.
Harper doesn’t really like her friends. He never has. Maybe that was the first red flag, and maybe she’s projecting again, because his friends are assholes who dig their teeth into her throat and tear her open like she’s a fucking Capri-Sun.
So maybe she's not surprised when she wakes up in the bathtub without a pulse, wearing the same clothes she woke up in Friday night. And maybe she's not surprised when she finds out why Harper turned her in the first place—people like him don't love. They use.
In the dream, they call him by a name he cannot remember.
The last thing the dead man remembers is Shiloh—the bloody mess of a battle that put him in the ground more than a century ago.
The last thing he remembers is the bluest sky and the brightest sun and the grimace on his brother's face when he stepped out into it. Before that: birdsong in an older land; the fall of empires crumbling around his ears; the thought that this world is so large and he so small that he could somehow disappear into it and never have to confront the past again.
He wouldn't be so lucky. He drags himself out of the ground and he knows: it isn't over. It'll never be over, so long as he draws breath, no matter how reluctant.
Not until he ends it.
→ DAY SZARKA is twenty-eight years and six days old, and she will be for the rest of her unnatural life. Under the control of her boyfriend—and sanguor—Harper, she strains against the confines of the blood tie that forces her to obey his will. She's determined to find a way to break it, to live her own life once more, without anyone else pulling her strings. But all freedom has a price.
→ SHILOH LUKAS is the younger son of an ancient vampire matriarch, born naturally to the blood, and he walks in sunlight like it is a friend to him. He wakes in a mass grave after a century and a half to visions of turmoil: his brother bloodied; his mother entombed; his wife, his dear Victoria, threatened. He can't tell the truth from the lie, and so he goes careening into danger to save Victoria—only to find a different, younger vampire in desperate need of salvation.
. ✦ ݁ ˖ status: drafting (10k words), outlining, currently wanted to yap about my wip but college
. ✦ ݁ ˖ themes: hero's journey, found family, injustice, academic exams, education inequality, haunting of the past, discrimination, war, violence
. ✦ ݁ ˖ aesthetic: Muddy tunics, wrinkled shawls, torn slippers, jasmine flowers, green leaves on black curly hair, coconut trees, meadows beside the blue sea, farmlands by the golden sunset with a red kite by the sky, seaside cities with fish markets, fishing villages with floating huts on the river, meadow cities with spice markets and towering wooden churches, tree filled forests with a smell of moss and damp earth.
about, somehow : Wayang is a hermit in the mountains, exiled for a crime unknown. Unfortunately, a child appeared. A runaway. Someone who is stupid enough to go on a journey themselves in order to take an exam for the Imperial Academy, or so as they said. With nothing else left to do, Wayang and the child began a long journey to the capital, from the mountains to the rivers, from the hills to the sea; with nothing but blood on their hands, an empty stomach, and an empire falling into pieces.
. ✦ ݁ ˖ sharing this randomly because I might be caught by uni activities soon rip.
welcome to the garden of love! this event is all about writeblr appreciation and showing it to your favorite writeblr(s)! gather your candy baskets and cute cards, it's time to share the love 💝
this event is simple: create something dedicated to your favorite writeblr! it can be a moodboard, a playlist, fanart, a collection of your favorite excerpts, etc. whatever shows your love and appreciation for what they create. ✨
if you don't have the time to make something, you are instead encouraged to leave loving messages in their inbox! ask them about their wips or other things you'd like to know, let them know how much they're appreciated on writeblr, or just gush about your favorite things they've done!
you can share as many creations or send as many asks as you'd like to however many writeblrs you appreciate, the more the merrier 🎉 this event will last all of february, but we'd like to encourage you to wait until february 14th to share your creations. when making your post you can tag us using #writeblrgarden and #writeblroflove and we'll share it!
join our discord server to meet other writers and share the love! we look forward to growing with you 🌱
Favorite Movies: The Last Unicorn and pretty much any other 80′s dark fantasy film.
(Current) Favorite Song: Too Sweet by Hozier.
Favorite Books: Anything by Tamora Pierce.
My (Current) WIPs
Vein Chronicles 1 - Outbreak: An undead plague begins to spread across the archipelago of Farosek. Its cursed royal family struggle with accusations and infected subjects while Prince Aijavaer sets out with a possessed amulet to prevent the return of an ancient enemy.
Ferelann: Princess Elsabeth Authrein attempts to take her rightful place on the throne of Ferelann amidst the rise of old magics and the potential resurrection of a dark god.
Courtship: Tsaana joins her cousin, the princess of Zauvila, on her journey to the kingdom of Edrasal to meet her betrothed. She encounters new family, old friends, and much hated enemies while under the orders of a goddess.
Taglist below the cut. Let me know if you want to be added or removed!
welcome to the garden of love! this event is all about writeblr appreciation and showing it to your favorite writeblr(s)! gather your candy baskets and cute cards, it's time to share the love 💝
this event is simple: create something dedicated to your favorite writeblr! it can be a moodboard, a playlist, fanart, a collection of your favorite excerpts, etc. whatever shows your love and appreciation for what they create. ✨
if you don't have the time to make something, you are instead encouraged to leave loving messages in their inbox! ask them about their wips or other things you'd like to know, let them know how much they're appreciated on writeblr, or just gush about your favorite things they've done!
you can share as many creations or send as many asks as you'd like to however many writeblrs you appreciate, the more the merrier 🎉 this event will last all of february, but we'd like to encourage you to wait until february 14th to share your creations. when making your post you can tag us using #writeblrgarden and #writeblroflove and we'll share it!
join our discord server to meet other writers and share the love! we look forward to growing with you 🌱
