House Of Leaves By Mark Z. Danielewski.

Some of y’all really need to learn the difference between “This character is badly written” and “This character is a bad person” and “This character isn’t my personal cup of tea.”

radiomacbeth | general taglist check.

Since I’ve essentially reset my blog, I decided I should also reset my general taglist! Those who wish to be on my general taglist will be tagged for:

❀ WIP Intros.

❀ Excerpts from WIPs and Short Stories.

❀ Snippets of poetry.

❀ General Blog Updates.

You will not be tagged in posts specific to certain WIPS. Those will feature their own taglists. You will also not be tagged in tag games. If you wish to be added to my general taglist, interact with this post (likes, rbs, and replies all count)!

Current Taglist: @42ndplace​ @catgirlnya​ @talesofsorrowandofruin​ @haldimilks​ @keira-is-writing​ @piyawrites​ @kitblogsthings​ @svpphicwrites​ @alexsidereus​ @rainbowcoloreddays​ @dahladahlabills​ @sunwornpages​ @bookphobe​ @writing-el​ @moonyspoon​ @oceancold​ @feverdreamwritings​ @ravens-and-rivers​

/gently taps the mic

It is my birthday today.

If you like, you can read the pilot chapter of RAVENOT right here for free.

Excerpt #1: The Waiting Room

    Seated in the doctor’s office I peeked over my magazine, causing the collage of perfume bottles to distort until they resembled vague, pastel coloured light-bulbs clustered at the brim of my vision. Across me slouched a woman with a house shaped cage on her lap, a string of drool snailing down her chin as she snored. I made a face at her green-cheeked conure as it inched down its tightrope towards me, bobbing its head. The middle-aged man a few seats down, his cowboy hat flipped over his eyes, fanned himself with a lung disease brochure even though the air conditioning had been set to blast. My eyes followed their thought bubbles as they bounced off the oily walls and popped. The severed letters puffed up to the ceiling in a cloud of confetti, mundane details they’d already forgotten. The parakeet’s thoughts were less entertaining, a string of staccatos that fizzled out before they could even form. 

     When the secretary, a bullnecked woman with streaked green hair grated down to a pixie cut, waved her faux quill pen at me, I placed my magazine back on the rack and followed her down a hallway tiled with domino doors. She kept glancing back to confirm I was still on her heels and hadn’t wandered off like a sneaky child. Once we reached my cubicle she finally left me alone, her black heels clacking against the shiny floor as she trotted off. I crunched down on the paper spread out over the bed, dizzy from the reek of iodoform. Fortunately the doctor arrived quickly, tapping a clipboard against his palm as he asked why I’d come. I lied that my back had been killing me and we both shrugged and nodded at the hardships of old age. 

I'll be like waw I just wrote a paragraph of such striking, such specific, juicy prose—then I'll read a sentence by Nabokov where he described a man running to catch the bus and I'll be crushed forever

Stuck in an unanticipated editing spiral at the beginning of Draft 2 of Project Istanbul, oh and mourning the plot lines that got chucked for the Greater Good. Goodbye side character whose only purpose was to be aesthetically pleasing, I never knew you.

Out of Context Line

Thanks @glasshouses-and-stones for tagging me! I've been busy with my studies, but writing. Planning on making an intro post about Liquor and Locusts when I have time, oddly it's gotten some interest after years in my asks. But for now here's a random excerpt from a chapter I'm revising this afternoon.

Tagging: @orphanheirs @tildeathiwillwrite @defeatistwriter, and anyone else who wants to join. Happy Saturday :)

This sounds amazinggg, I would 100% watch :)

Church Mud - The Netflix Series

thank you @radwrites​ for the template!

Having both finally escaped the cult they were born in - and reunited after four years - twins Dorothy and Felix embrace their newfound freedom, navigate their trauma, and figure out who they are.

Y’all I cannot express how much this fake Netflix series lives! in my head! rent free! I think this story would be so cool as a series and if I weren’t a little terrified of screenwriting, I would 100% play with that as a form alongside the novel. 

The vibes of this came out a lot grittier than I imagine the story? That element is 100% there, but there’s also a very hazy, dreamy element to the story and I think it’d be very interesting to see how those intersect visually. My biggest fantasy for CM as a series is that it’d look like it was actually shot in the 80s and have an all 80s soundtrack (although there are some contemporary gems I’d be sad to cut out the OST). The only comparison I can really draw is Twin Peaks (which I’ve only seen like five episodes of oop) - but not in terms of content at all, rather the hazy vibe of floating between different stories with this growing unease and intensity - and perhaps some of the surreal elements too. Also this one shot is Major CM Vibes:

This isn’t structured exactly like the book - episode 2, Cadmium Yellow, is a combination of chapters 2-3 and also chapter 8, which is the first chapter in Dorothy’s POV. Because of the nature of writing split POV the split between Felix and Dorothy is obviously much “sharper”, but a TV series format would allow me to jump between them in one episode and still have clarity.

I also love the idea of a series for this story because it’d allow the POVs of the non-POV main characters (Beau, Jolie, Isaias) to also be included - hence the episode Pistachio Beach, which would be Beau centric and we’d actually get to directly see his backstory. As much as I love the twins as POVs and the story very much revolves around them, I’m definitely interested in the extra depth the story could get in this form. There are a lot of times when I wish I could add a chapter in Beau or Isaias’ POV but the idea of more than two POV characters is too much to handle lmao

I had so much fun with this, and I would 100% do another for episodes 6-10 when I write more content (ah discovery writer things)! I see my stories as movies playing out in my head and if anyone else does that you’ll know that not everything can be translated into words. So it’s really cool for me to imagine my stories in this format, because in a sense it’s the “truest” to what I see in my head.

Episodes 1-5

Everything Holy

Four years after his twin sister escaped the Christian cult they grew up in, nothing about Felix’s existence has changed. This is why he has to escape too.

Cadmium Yellow

Dorothy’s roommate, Jolie, returns to the city and brings all their repressed baggage with her. Felix struggles to adapt - but a new friend is eager to show him all of San Francisco’s colors.

Pistachio Beach 

Beau doesn’t sleep well. Troubled over a future he doesn’t know and a past he doesn’t understand, he has two coping mechanisms: call Felix; drive to the beach.

Cult Characteristics

The growing number of cults scattered across California is a growing cause for concern. When they hide in plain sight, it is crucial to know the red flags.

Revelations, Revelations

Felix hasn’t spoken to God in a month. Although he doesn’t find Him at the local Church, he does find someone with the same problem. Jolie has a proposal for Dorothy.

The next novel update should be coming soon! My goal is January 11th, because that’s Felix’s and Dorothy’s birthday so we have to celebrate ofc

church mud taglist - @kitblogsthings​​ / @bijouxs​​ / @ezrathings​​ / @isherwoodj​​ / @bookpacking​​ / @alicewestwater​​ / @svpphicwrites​​ / @avi-burton-writing​​ / @aetherwrites​​ / @radiomacbeth​​ / @sunwornpages​​ / @coffeeandcalligraphy​​ / @ladywithalamp​​ / @wolf-oak​​ / @keira-is-writing​​ / @jennawritesstories​​ / @cream-and-tea​​ / @bauliya​​ / @themillionthdraft​​ / @you-are-my-neverland​​ / @lasbrumas​​ / @occiidens​​ / @shaelinwrites​​ / @wri-tten​​ / @catgirlnya​​ / @nbnoyas​ / @oceancold​ / @august-iswriting​ / @write-like-babs​ / @hekat-ie​

beforehand I'll do like a brainstorm/word vomit in my notebook to get ideas flowing. when actually writing I'll light essential oil candles, open pinterest, wordbook and google, and drink like a gallon?? of ginger tea and disapear for like 3 hrs.

do any of you have writing rituals? tell me about them!