I just read your novel prep post... Omfg your story sounds so amazing! (Don't mind me, I just can never work out how to add a note to something when I'm not looking at it on my dash).
Hi, Thank you!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I am totally in love with my own story too (I’m I being narcissistic?), and I’m high on the fact that it’s very likely to be published at the end of this year!
I can’t stop write scenes for it, drawing maps, making silly au (working in a load of hillarious prompts) with the characters and it’s been this way for two years now!
Every time I revise the first book, it gets better! But that’s my biggest flaw. I donno when to stop moving commas about, changing words out and fiddle with the scenes.
AAAaaand I catching up on ma tags! I was tapped on the shoulder by @fukusigma , @riverthewriter and some other folks (I cannot find you guys in my activity because I’m so embarrassingly far behind - WAH CRY).
I saw this tag a while ago, like in november, and I liked it so much that I started answering without a tag. I even posted it, but something ‘floped’ in the upload and Tumblr ate the post - it made me so depressed that I just didn’t fight back.
However, now I’ve had time to mend my wounds and I am ready for the NOVEL ‘PREP’ TAG 2.0!
General Guidelines: Answer the questions and then tag as many writers as you can or want to (I feel comfortable editing this part because most of writeblr has already answered this wonderful tag. Thanks to whoever made it (Also can we start tagging/adding the crater and host of the game in the future? I thinks it would be the right thing to do)).
FIRST LOOK
1. Describe your novel in 1-2 sentences (elevator pitch)
Lies, love, swords and death magic. And BLOOD. It’s story about how two very horrible people fall in love against their will!
2. How long do you plan for your novel to be? (Is it a novella, single book, book series, etc.)
Okidoki, I’ve done the math on this one. It’s a trilogy and it always were. I really dig trilogies because its long enough to tell an in depth story, but short enough to keep the main idea/plot intact by the end (Like it doesn’t get draggy).
First book is about 98k words in it current final draft, but I will be adding a scene in there and some more ‘Serpent Talk’ where Shiroin’s curse/magic actually gets lines (Thank you betas for making me realize that I can push it further!!).
So let round up to 100k on Book I, then book II has shifts in POV and generally more PLOT more THREADS and more PAAAIN, so that will be 120K I’m guessing. Then the final book will have to tie everything together and there will have to be some travel and back and forth, oh, and a world war, soooo… 150/170K?
All in all. A lot the words. And angst. And bloody kisses. Mm.
3. What is your novel’s aesthetic?
Choking kisses, snake scales, sharp teeth, shadowed leaves and dead blue hands reading out from a dark corridor. (No? Betas, did I hit it?)
4. What other stories inspire your novel?
I am greatly inspired by every horror movie I’ve ever seen! Also LoTR (especially the ghost scene in the mountain, how good is that). Buffy and Spike’s love story (Ah! My heart). AtlA (Azula, can you tell?). Witcher III (Ugh I gag for the sword flourish in that game. And, yes I love Geralt). But I have no words for how much I dig Mark Lawance’s Jorth in Prince of Thorns!!!
That lying, genius, icy, maddened, arrogant little boy kills and doesn’t glance back. I fucking love him as a storyteller, and IT SHOWS in my book. When I started writing ‘The Serpent Kiss’ I basically wanted to create THAT vibe, THAT kind of a dick protagonist - but with a female lead and like romance and vamps, duh.
I wanted the reader to question why they liked Shiroin and Kiel, and then be entirely conflicted about the answer. These guys are not heroes and their relationship is not nice.
5. Share 3+ images that give a feel for your novel
MAIN CHARACTER(S)
6. Who is your protagonist?
19 year old Shiroin, Empress and heir to The Three Worlds.
7. Who is their closest ally?
At the palace it’s Council member Lord Thao. Hands down.
I suppose I should say Kiel here too, but in not sure that’s true. At least not in Book I.
The serpent magic that lives inside Shiroin’s chest is also a strange ally, because it clearly works against her. It helps her survive, but it thrashes her plans and it’s So Destructive!
Later, in Book II and III, she gathers allies among the Kings and the Elsalvian people too, but this list is fairly short as a rule.
Shiroin is not great at making friends.
8. Who is their enemy?
Ugh. Everyone, anyone, including herself.
But Shiroin’s nemesis is Farrah The Dream (B/)Witch. A nasty necromantic woman who dives people insane and puppeteer the world forces to her gain.
9. What do they want more than anything?
Superficially Shiroin wants to rule her Empire. She wants power and respect and the opportunities to do what she wants without judgement from lesser folk.
But, on a deeper plane, Shriroin just want to be free, really.
10. Why can’t they have it?
Well, for one thing the imperial throne is occupied by her tyrant father. And though there is an effective way to remove him, for good, Shiroin stands to be the first woman to rule the Empire in a 1000 years, as she is an only child. However not everyone likes that idea, and they think THEY should have the throne once Korudo The Cold, is put in the ground.
As for her want to be free, Shiroin will first have to realize that is her true goal before she can work towards obtaining it. Kiel will help with that.
11. What do they wrongly believe about themselves?
That she is a mastermind that has ultimate control over the world around her.
12. Draw your protagonist! (Or share a description)
Here’s a doodle for ya:
PLOT POINTS
13. What is the internal conflict?
She is just, so so so destructive. Every step forward is two back. And she is at war with her own basic principals of life.
It’s tearing her apart.
14. What is the external conflict?
There are multiple (her father trying to kill her, the council trying to steal her throne, Farrah trying to drive her insane and ‘the war in the north’), but basically it’s just that everyone is working against her. Including herself and fate.
15. What is the worst thing that could happen to your protagonist?
That she would loose her mind. Shiroin is very proud of her smarts.
16. What secret will be revealed that changes the course of the story?
Aaaarh you are asking me to spoil my story? Hm. I guess I can reveal that the horrible Emperor dies.
Shiroin rips out his throat.
Everyone is quite surprised, including Shiroin.
17. Do you know how it ends?
Yeeeeeeeeees. I have it all thought out. I have even written the ending for the trilogy. It’s.. It’s good.
18. What is the theme?
Self acceptance. Feminism. Moral, and lack thereof.
“Do you have to be a good guy to do the right thing? I say nah.”
19. What is a recurring symbol?
Mirrors, water and the serpent itself is a veeeery strong symbol. I mean. Sins and sex!
I actually haven’t focused on symbolism, which is strange, but I’m sure I’ve written tons of it subconsciously! Studying literature at uni has damaged me for life.
20. Where is the story set? (Share a description!)
The Empire is a huuuuge chunk of land. It takes up like 1/3 of the whole world!! It’s inspired by Japan, Europe and Russia. The northern isles look like Scandinavia and the rest of the world has African and Asian aspects.
21. Do you have any images or scenes in your mind already?
Hmm.. Of the ones I haven’t written (Thats ½ of Book II and most of Book III) yes, yes! So many scenes! If only I had time to write them all.
22. What excited you about this story?
The romance.
It’s twisted, cruel, hard and sometimes a little sweet. I haven’t read anything like it before and I just want every woman to read it and think “ YES! This is equality in a paranormal relationship!! This is what I’ve been looking for!!”.
23. Tell us about your usual writing method!
In the morning after breakfast (if I write before I eat, I’ll forget!! Which is DUMB!) and with a grand cup of hot milky coffee.
I put on my playlist and I put my phone far away. Sometimes I’ll turn off the wifi.
But at the moment I’m only doing edits and I have two tiny humans that demand my time and attention, so my usual method of writing is standing at a tall desk and I’m luckily if I can get 20min of uninterrupted work done.
.
.
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And that’s that! Hope you like it, I thought it was grand fun!!!
Hey guys, I’m feeling very romantically charged at the moment! Srsly all I wanna do, is write smut. However I’m running out of ideas, and it was so fun the last time you sent me suggestions (feels a little more like ‘I have to write it’ when someone’s actually asking, and that awesome because then I finish)!
So I just opened up for a ‘Open Suggestion Session’ over at twitter (calisawolters), and if you have a romance/18+ suggestion, I’ll give it a go.
Because you all helped me reach 900 followers, I wanted to give something back! I wasn’t going to do a celebration since I’m still working through my 700 follower celebration, but I realized that there are so many wonderful writeblrs that I haven’t followed yet!
Please reblog this post on your writeblr and I’ll come check you out!
I’ll follow anyone’s blog if they’re mostly about writing (you count if you just reblog writing things too), but please especially reblog if you are a small writeblr! I want to love and support you!
bonus points if you elaborate about your blog and/or WIPs/OCs in the reblog :)
Mutuals, I would love and appreciate a signal boost <3
Hi! I’m a writeblr who writes fantasy and sci fi. I talk about my DnD character quite a bit too, since our DnD games are very plot driven, and I put a lot of work into my character’s backstories. <3
Hi, signal boosting —I need writeblrs to follow too (Congrats @pens-swords-stuff 💕)!!!!
I’m Cecilie Alisa Wolters and I write dark fantasy with horror and romance. I’m 28 and Danish. I am getting my first book translated from English to danish and The Serpent Kiss is coming out this year!
Title sound like a wildly unpopular indie band that only plays on kitchen appliances in their mom’s basement, but it has a meaning.
Today I’m gonna talk about tropes and which tropes I’ve used in my books, and how I’ve altered them to ‘still be interesting’.
Because that’s the thing.
Everything has been written or explored or discussed at some point in human history, and the only originality left, is literally your personal take on reality through storytelling. The way in which you tailor your story to fit YOU. That’s the secret people are talking about when they say vague stuff like ‘write for you’ and ‘you have to love your work, or no one else will’!
So, takes notes when watching your favorite movie. Why is it your favorite? What kind of books are on your shelves? What do they all have in common? Theme, protagonist traits, style?
Once you’ve figured out the red thread in your interests, you’ll have a mental map to navigate and a bunch of reoccurring tropes/archtypes that you can be inspired by.
My shelves bulge with romance, horror and magic! I also pick up any book with the words : blood, sword and/or thief and liar on the cover because I love dark romance-fantasy-anti-hero stuff. And lastly it’s 1000 extra points if the MCs are female and if the setting is ANYTHING but England ala 14-1500.
My Fave Tropes — a peek at the endless collection:
If you’ve skimmed my work, you’ll know them instantly. It’s quite embarrassing how see-through I am.
My Rise of the Blood Dawn trilogy started out as a smut scene between two horrible people I had had in my head for maybe ten years or so. Then, i got annoyed that I couldn’t find anything that had ‘that vibe’ I had written in like a sitting, and I wrote a whole book around this little twisted scene.
The scene itself got ‘cut’ as the characters developed, but the essence stayed behind.
The chosen one : Shiroin is the chosen one. There’s no way around it. She is both the weapon to destroy the world or the woman to lead it. The way I renewed this (sometimes annoying) trope was to makeher fight against both, and by the very end, chose none of the paths that she is destined to take. She is allowed to be selfish, like a human, and not some empty trope.
The ‘I’m mean because I had a bad childhood : yes. My dear MCs has never had it easy. Especially Shiroin is quite damaged. With a dead mom, a tyrant father and a governess who locked her under the floorboards, it’s no wonder S is a little screwed up. But she refuses to be victimized and never uses it as an excuse for her horrid actions. Instead, the torture has made a raving masochist of her, and that is a whole new kind of fucked up. Very neat.
The we cannot be together! : oh forbidden love!! My heart goes ‘ugh’ in the best way. In my books I’ve made love a horrible twisted thing, full of secrets and lies and death magic, but I’ve included this trope because, IT MATTERS. If Kiel and Shiroin were not from difirent worlds, the story, the whole story, could never have happened!
The Tall Mysterious Stanger : ah sigh. Kiel is checking all the boxes for being the distanced and angsty love interest that is just plan abusive! Except, he isn’t. Kiel keeps his distance, but he had a very valid reason for doing so, and he is never turning her away when Shiroin DOES approach him seriously.
The Overpowered Vampish Boyfriend : Kiel is strong, smart, old AND skilled! And that means he should have been the dominant party in the relationship. But again, thought he checks the boxes, Kiel is a far cry from Angel and Edward, even Bill/Eric! He is laidback where Shiroin is aggressive, he’s passive where Shiroin is active and he’s her employee as well as the racial minority. The power balance shifts back and forth, but basically Kiel is the one being moved around in the story, not Shiroin. Also, Kiel does not try to reshape/moralize/protect her from herself, in any way, and I feel like that’s an essential thing to note when it also comes to validate their physical relationship.
These are really just five out of a million (stuff like: the looks can be deceiving, the stone cold killer, the I’ll teach you that, the time on the road, the pending doom and inevitable twist, ah ah I die for all these lovely tropes!)! !
And every time I watch a new movie or read a new book that hits my soft spots, I get so inspired that I wanna write more with these tropes in different genres!!
I dunno what time it is in your part of the world but it’s well into evening here, and I can say that it’s smut-o’clock on my laptop.
A dear friend of mine tagged me in the rules regarding tumblrs wonderful new moralising guidelines to keep this holy hell-site squeaky clean, AND written erotica is still allowed! Weee, so let’s zest it up folks.
I have a Shiroin x Kiel scene here from Book II The Liar Alliance (it might get cut, it might take the centerstage, who knows).
Please only proceed if you are 18+ and is not triggered by ‘rough’ intimacy. Hmm. Or blood I suppose.
Birthday Q. If all your characters are gay then what is your sexual orientation?
Hi, thanks for the question. I’m going to answer this as my last b day Q 💕
Before I get going, I just want to clearify that you shouldn’t automatically chain fictive character traits to the author.
A gay person can write a straight relationship and the other way around, and a good author makes their world believable by research and tapping into their own life experiences. But it’s usually a melting pot of fact and fiction, and it can be very harmful to make assumptions about the author based on their work.
Now about me, I’m bi or pan (I’ve never thought too hard about it) so I do draw on this when I channel Tha Guys. I personally get attracted to people who can make me laugh and makes me feel ‘the thing’ (again can’t pinpoint it, never made a list). And I get stupid blush-y when flattered. All red. It’s fucking annoying.
I’ve been together with mr T for 11 years and we’ve been married for 1 — in case you were wondering.
I had to call it somethin’ so I choose ‘the wish book tag’ hope it’s alright! And I was tagged by the cute @sassypandacandy ! Thank you, I love this lil tiny tag! And your url💕
If you were able to release one book of your writings at this very moment…
… What would it be called?
Im gonna go with ‘The Serpent Kiss’!!! My novel my baby my fucking life for the past two years!!?
… What would be in it?
Love, Blood, murder and black magic. Oh and vamp smut, duh!
…Genre?
Dark adventure-romance fantasy with horror elements !! 18+!
… who would be the first to read it?
My dude, ma bruh, my sweetheart, mr T (he still hasn’t, he’s not a big book guy, and I’m salty!)
Happy birthday. I have always wondered what the sensual orientation of your characters are?
Thank you! And good Q!⭐️
I don’t think I’ve considered anyone in my universe to be a ‘hard straight’ or ‘hard gay’ yet. They all still float about, even though the trilogy is dominated by heterosexual relationships at this stage, but I might make some different calls later on.
That said, my three MCs are not going to change:
Shiroin is a very fluid bisexsual (and that’s fairly explicit in the books). She likes all things pretty and all things hard to break.
I actually had a steamy scene with a handmaiden back in first draft but I had to cut it for plot! I’m bringing it back in Book II !!
Kiel is fluid too. He has been around and I would say he just prefers to not hold back. With anyone.
And then there’s Deria who’s a very active, explicit and polygamous bi, also.
Heh so… to answer your Q in short, they’re all, all over the place!
