sheepfilms
trying on a metaphor
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PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
macklin celebrini has autism
pixel skylines
NASA
KIROKAZE
Stranger Things
Not today Justin
One Nice Bug Per Day
occasionally subtle
hello vonnie
Product Placement
Kiana Khansmith
Jules of Nature
noise dept.
titsay
izzy's playlists!
Kaledo Art
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Latvia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Indonesia
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from France
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Bangladesh
seen from Colombia
seen from United States
seen from United States
@yourbenevolentdictator
more butches written like male protags in the good way. we won't have gender equality till we have fucked up women with a heart full of love and an interminable sadness around their eyes who wander the world with a sword, perhaps a gun, breaking hearts, taking names, and changing lives wherever they go
i’m okay with fictional men becoming unhinged over the loves of their lives actually
ATTENTION WRITERS
Google BetaBooks. Do it now. It’s the best damn thing EVER.
You just upload your manuscript, write out some questions for your beta readers to answer in each chapter, and invite readers to check out your book!
It’s SO easy!
You can even track your readers! It tells you when they last read, and what chapter they read!
Your beta readers can even highlight and react to the text!!!
There’s also this thing where you can search the website for available readers best suited for YOUR book!
Seriously guys, BetaBooks is the most useful website in the whole world when it comes to beta reading, and… IT’S FREE.
HEY! BECAUSE OF OP, THEY CREATED A SPECIAL WELCOME IF YOUR FOUND THEM THRU A TUMBLR WELCOME, ITS A YOUTUBE VIDEO.
They also sent me this; which was super cool
*slams reblog button*
@findingtallahassee holy shit! This is cool!
“Authors retain all rights to works posted on BetaBooks, and can add or remove content at their discretion. BetaBooks makes no claim to any of the work posted on the site.”
Incase anyone was wondering
Thank you for sharing! Especially about the copyright protection
This is fantastic! I’ve shared it with all my writer friends and hope that they have a ton of success!
this is so cool
@charlesoberonn
!!!!
THAT’S A WRAP FOLKS
On this, the second to last day of NaNo, please accept these niche, out-of-context memes for my story
Two days left to wrap this baby up!
Getting closer to the end, and unfortunately, my girls are in a rough spot. I’m debating whether I should end the story here and do a sequel with everything else I have planned, or if I should charge through and make this one long book. Who knows. Regardless, here’s a snippet!
“I don’t know how much longer we can keep getting by this way. Ransoming you was supposed to be the end of it all, but I won’t give you to Illokria, and I don’t trust your brother,” Sabina continued. She hiccupped, and Artemisia realized two things. First, that Sabina was crying. Second, that Sabina was drunk. This should be good news for her escape plan—she’d be much easier to subdue. But the thought of taking Sabina down in anything less than a fair fight felt so vile and scummy after everything that had already transpired between them.
“You shouldn’t,” Artemisia said, resisting the urge to reach out toward her. “Six isn’t half the fool he pretends to be.”
Sabina’s laugh was watery.
“I don’t know how you live with people like that,” she said. It wouldn’t make sense to her. She had been raised in a community of people who respected her father and loved her. She had been raised in a family that was small but caring, who were honest with each other, depended on each other. And then she had followed Artemisia blindly into the viper pit of her own family, and she’d been bitten. And now, seven years later, it seemed she still couldn’t make sense of how it had happened.
No one asked, but I do think that it’s super funny that a key point of my plot is that the main character gets kidnapped and held for ransom, but no one is willing to pay the ransom even though she’s literally the equivalent of a princess. Like, these pirates send out their lil ransom notes thinking they’re about to make bank, and they keep getting replies that are like, ‘Can we think about it? Can you keep her on hold for a bit?”
And they’re all sitting there like shocked Pikachu face, while Artemisia (said kidnapped main character) is just like “Well I could’ve told you this would happen!!!”
10k left to go ladies and germs!
Presenting your daily semi-regular dose of this bullshit:
“You’ve offered me to Illokria,” Artemisia said. Her guard had not lowered; her hand was still raised.
Sabina sighed, pressing a hand over her face and wiping it downward.
“Max told you,” she exhaled.
“You don’t deny it,” Artemisia said.
Sabina raised an eyebrow.
“I have no reason to lie to you,” Sabina said, shrugging. “I’d be interested what they’re willing to offer for the Conqueror of Illokria herself.”
“It will start a war, Sabina,” Artemisia said, lowering her voice as if afraid someone might overhear, despite being alone in this room together. “My siblings have no loyalty to me, but—”
Sabina snorted.
“Disloyalty is a family trait then?” she asked.
“Enough!” Artemisia exclaimed, slamming a hand down on the bed. “Enough Sabina! If Illokria takes me, my family will have no choice but to declare war! Don’t you understand that?”
Sabina shrugged again.
“It’s none of my business if they do,” she said.
She was so strange, so unlike the woman Artemisia thought she knew, so hatefully indifferent, that in that moment Artemisia couldn’t help but hate her.
“You’ve made it your business,” Artemisia said, shaking her head. “You made this choice.”
Sabina’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Someone told me once that sometimes, there’s only bad choices,” Sabina replied.
Hearing her own words, spoken in a moment of vulnerability, spat back in her face now felt like a slap in the face. She couldn’t hold back any longer; Artemisia launched herself forward and tackled Sabina to the ground. Sabina kicked and struggled respectably, but Artemisia had the advantage in size and strength. She soon had Sabina’s wrists pinned in one hand, while the other gripped her throat. She didn’t press down, though. She panted, her fingers twitching, but she did not squeeze.
“Will you kill me again, then?” Sabina asked through her own uneven breaths.
I’ve fallen a bit behind on writing the last few days, but I’ve finally gotten to a scene I was really excited to write! Here’s a snippet:
Describe your NaNo project in 5 words or less
Reached 10k today!
Hope Nano is going well for the rest of you who are participating! Here’s a snippet of what I wrote today:
Today’s NaNo writing session brought us sibling bonding in the form of swinging sharp objects at each other!
Six picked up his sword and stepped into what Artemisia could recognize as a basic fighting stance. She nudged his feet further apart, then took hold of his shoulders to adjust his posture. Better. Six held the stance well. He’d always been correctable; he would have made a decent fighter if he’d cared enough to try in his lessons. Artemisia told him so.
“Right,” he scoffed. “You owe me a dance lesson for this. A public one. We’ll see how much the Rythuines fear you when they find out you can’t even—”
Artemisia swung, and Six let a string of curses fly as he parried. Artemisia knew he likely meant it when he threatened her with the dance lesson, so she kept most of her critiques to herself. Decent strength, poor coordination. He’d clearly forgotten everything he’d been taught about strategy and technique, but his reflexes were good. At the very least, he could probably evade an attacker long enough for help to come.
“Not too bad, huh?” Six said, grinning. Artemisia caught his arm the next time he stabbed at her and twisted it behind his back. “Bad, bad, definitely bad, Artemisia let go!”
Happy first day of NaNo!
An excerpt from today’s writing session:
In all the years that Artemisia had been having this dream, the essentials had never changed. Sometimes the weather was different. Sometimes the voices changed, or the people she passed as she ran. Sometimes she could speak, sometimes she screamed and screamed and could produce nothing but silence. But the essential storyline never changed.
She was twenty-one years old. Distantly, she could hear the waves tossing, crashing aginst the shore. Her hair was long, and clung to her wet skin. She was sprinting down the rain-slick cobblestones, her feet slipping out from under her as she skidded around corners. In these dreams, she knew what she hadn’t known that night—they’d been betrayed. Artemisia needed to find Sabina, to warn her, to—
Artemisia rounded the final corner and saw Sabina across the square, waiting. She was dressed like she had been when they’d first met—the long white dress and no shoes, her long red hair woven into loose, disheveled braids. It was always what Artemisia imagined her in, when she hated herself enough to imagine what Sabina might have looked like at her execution. She didn’t know why—couldn’t help it, even when she knew what prisoners wore to the docks.
The Heirs and their names
All right, now for the next thing I assume people may have been wondering about. Why does Artemisia get a name, but the rest of the Heirs are all referred to by number? Are you just too lazy to name them?
Well, yes and no.
Their number is part of their title. For example, Artemisia is known to the kingdom at large as The Seventh Heir or Lady Seven. This is her title regardless of what happens to her older siblings (so, for example, she didn’t become Lady Six when her older sister died, or Lady Five when her older brother decided to give up his claim to the throne).
Okay, but why do you keep referring to them by their titles instead of their names?
Because it’s what Artemisia would do!
Names among royalty in this world are very personal, intimate things. Citizens of the kingdom don’t know the names of the Heirs, except for in special circumstances (for example, if an Heir died). When an Heir becomes a Monarch, however, their name and appearance are spread throughout the kingdom. It’s generally a safety precaution - it’s hard to kidnap or assassinate a random child whose name you don’t know, especially if you have no clue what they look like. The Heirs don’t dress or outwardly distinguish themselves from nobility in any way to the public, so they could pass easily as just a random rich kid.
Once an Heir reaches the age of eligibility, they do start acting in a public capacity and so their identity isn’t such a closely kept secret anymore. However, they still tend to be tightlipped with their names.
By the time of this story, only one of Artemisia’s siblings is allowed to call her by name - Lord Six. Artemisia never refers to any of her siblings by anything but their title. Even with Six, she only calls him his given name if things are very, very serious. So, to be quite honest, most of the Heirs’ names will rarely come up, if they’re mentioned at all.
Previous posts:
Intro
Government
Meet Artemisia
Royal Childhoods
Let me know if there’s anything specific you’re interested in hearing about! I’m thinking I might talk a bit about Lord Six or Lord Four next (the two brothers who are the most plot-relevant), but I’m happy to answer any questions!
On the topic of royal childhoods
(I’m still on the NaNo project, for anyone curious).
Artemisia and the other six “Varsity Heirs” (as I’ve been calling them) lived very isolated lives. Following the death of their sister, Lady Five, the Monarch sent away her seven remaining children to be raised apart from each other. They would only be allowed to come into contact again after they had reached the age of majority and declared their intent (to vie for the throne, or not).
Artemisia was seven-years-old at the time, and was sent off to one of their more mountainous territories. Picture somewhere like this beautiful stock photo:
It was beautiful, and she learned to sail on the lakes, buuuut... perhaps not an ideal childhood. For all that she would later become ambitious and even ruthless if she needed to be, Artemisia was a timid and obedient little girl who didn’t quite understand what was happening. She thought maybe if she behaved herself, she’d get to go home and be with her siblings again. So she stayed in the manor like she was supposed to, did her lessons like she was supposed to, trained like she was supposed to. She also wrote letters to her brothers and sisters, like she wasn’t supposed to. But that’s a different story.
When her older brother Six gave up his claim to the throne, he regained the right to see his siblings again. He invited Artemisia to stay with him that very summer, and she decided his territories suited her better. When it came time for war, it was from his seaside territories that she selected the soldiers for her personal ship.
Don’t worry Artemisia, I think I’d like it there, too.
So for anyone who has been keeping up with these, I do have a question. Is there any aspect of the story you’d be interested in hearing more about?
Previous NaNo project posts:
Intro
Government
Meet Artemisia
Hello! For our next section of pregaming NaNoWriMo, I thought maybe I should share some more details about our protagonist Artemisia (or at least, what she looks like). But I can’t draw, so here’s a Picrew approximation:
This makes her look a bit more dainty and soft than she is, but it was the best I could find lol.
Artemisia is 27 years old and, like most of her siblings, a war veteran (specifically, she led ships in their kingdom’s navy). She’s known for being beautiful, but far better known for her skills in battle. That makes her choice in hairdo rather baffling for most who meet her - in their kingdom, especially among high-ranking citizens and nobility, short hair is a mark of disgrace. Heirs who lose important battles are always made to cut their hair, but to the kingdom’s best knowledge, Artemisia never lost any major battles - especially none important enough that she hasn’t allowed her hair to grow out in the five years since the war ended.
Other important traits: The third thing Artemisia is best known for is being... chilly. The poor thing is painfully awkward, but she’s very good at passing it off as just being cold to people. Artemisia is very rigid, structured, and set in her ways/ideals. Needless to say, she’s not very popular.
Bonus
Pictures taken moments before someone got written up for not wearing her uniform properly
An outdated depiction of Artemisia’s love interest - from a better time, about five years before the start of the story.
