verkja
Would you like some tea with that whump?
A whump/writing sideblog, on a semi-hiatusContent warnings are tagged like this - cw:warning
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Happy New Year, all! I hope 2024 is only painful in the fun way for all of us.
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[ID: Screenshot of an Ao3 tag that reads, “Obviously the solution is that they all hug one another” /End ID]
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I hope your hiatus is restorative & helpful for you! Just wanted to send this to say I really love your stories with Mures, Radomil, & Catha :) sending positive vibes your way!
Thank you, anon! I appreciate the hopes and vibes, and am glad you're enjoying the stories. I'm hoping this hiatus will, among other things, give me more time to actually write (and draw). I'll still post updates as I finish them, whenever that may be. Sending some positive vibes right back at you. :)
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I'm going on hiatus for an indeterminate amount of time. I'll answer any remaining asks and may finish doing the art challenge I started (albeit late), and I'll post story updates when I have them. I might stop in on occasion for other things too, but I won't be posting or reblogging or interacting consistently. This site hasn't been fun for me for a while, so I'm stepping away from it.
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I love you emotionally closed off/distant/reserved characters who are SO full of feelings and love but have trouble expressing it or just dont want to, I love you you are everything to me
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im an absolute fan of when characters have their own twisted perceptions of love. like holy shit that guy thinks inflicting pain is affection! woah this silly man believes love is a form of ownership! give me more.
#i really like it when the sentiments themselves are pretty straightforwardly about love#but the expressions thereof are... uh#not great#because the character has little to no experience with feelings of this sort#at least in a context where they are *able* to express them#(goes for any kind of love of course - personally a fan of when this is about friendship but romantic love is good too#and other types also have potential)#writing#whump prompt#sort of#emotional whump
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Happy Storyteller Saturday, Verkja!
A question about your writing process this week: when you start a new project, do you do it with a word goal in mind? How strict is the word goal and how close to you get to it? Are you an over- or under-writer?
In just before Saturday! Thanks for the ask, and happy STS to you. :)
It depends on the project. I’ve written for fanfic exchanges which have minimum word counts, so in those cases, I do keep word count at least faintly in mind. I’m not strict about it unless the exchange is drabble-based, in which case I strictly stick to multiples of 100 words. Making the word count isn’t usually too difficult.
In terms of writing for myself - nah. I like chapters for my active WIP to come in around 2.5K words, but anywhere between 1.5K and 5K or so is fine. For the full story, I have no word count goal. I’m guessing it’ll end up around 150K, but I won’t be surprised (or bothered) if I’m completely wrong about that. I’m just writing it until it’s over.
I lean towards being an overwriter, I think, but not massively so. When editing, I typically cut out more than I add, but again, not by much. That could mean I’m an undereditor as well as an overwriter, but I don’t think so. I hope not!
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taking that guy out of situations and putting him in a loving polyamorous relationship
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[ID: They deserve all the nice things, and they gET THEM]
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Happy STS Verkja!
Do you enjoy thinking about "What if?" scenarios? Turning points, where the story could have gone differently (but didn't) and what would have happened, if it had? If yes, do you also enjoy writing them, or do you prefer daydreaming about them? Are there any specific points in your stories, where you think about alternate outcomes a lot?
And what about other people's stories? Do you enjoy reading about AUs that look at alternate turns of events?
Happy STS, Aria! Thanks for the ask. :)
I love thinking about ‘what if’ scenarios! In a way, my whole WIP is formed from them. I’ve daydreamed about my characters for years in different settings and storylines, many of which are very similar to one another. Writing the story was a matter of choosing which of many possible paths to follow.
In terms of actually writing ‘what if’ scenarios - ones which diverge from the canon line of my story - I haven’t done much. I’ve noted down some AUs which are entirely different from my story save for the characters (albeit different versions of them), but the only ‘canon divergence’ scenario I’ve written is this one. It’s essentially an AU for the third part of the story’s prologue.
There aren’t any specific points in my story which have spawned more thoughts of ‘what if’ than others, other than the aforementioned alternative prologue piece. Certain key points would have yielded starkly different outcomes for the characters, but mostly in a negative way, and I rarely like downer endings even in my daydreams. :’)
I do enjoy reading other people’s AUs! A friend of mine has written some different-setting AUs which have provided interesting angles on their characters, posing the question of what makes a character essentially themself; I’ve been inspired to contemplate a modern AU for my own characters partly as a result of this. Most of the canon-divergence AU pieces I’ve read on here have been tragedies, but unlike my daydreams, they just make me appreciate the canon versions of stories more. :)
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Happy STS, Kate!
Writing about a world other than our own involves choosing some elements of our world to include and others to leave out. In your writing, do any such elements stand out, like a real topic you put in your fictional setting, or a significant everyday detail of our world which doesn’t exist there?
Did anything work its way in without your intent, e.g. sayings or traditions or units of measurement you didn’t consciously include, but noticed later on? If so, did you remove them or leave them in place?
- @verkja
Thanks so much, @verkja, for the ask! Happy STS!
Hmm. My main stories (TPOT, TQOL) on here take place in our world (just heavily fictionalized) and my Tumblr fantasy, TCC, doesn't have much of a developed world at all, so I guess I'll draw on my non-Tumblr novels to answer. :)
In that... well, I "accidentally" included a pandemic in the past. I say "accidentally" because at this point I've written this damn book so many times I don't remember when I added/decided on/changed things. All I know is that at one point, the character had a birthmark and then later it became a scar, and it was from an illness, not an injury, and the illness was widespread, and hell if I know whether I made that decision before or after COVID.
In terms of mundane things? Workplaces and educational institutions are pretty organized in my world, and very based on real ones. My main character has a job (in a workplace with very clear rules, expectations, hierarchy, and structure), which she got by attending what we might call a vocational school and which differs from the more "formal" or "academic" universities that are also present. So I borrowed those concepts from real life.
Sayings? I'm still battling with whether to include "okay" to this day. And I had to consciously monitor which curses I was using - were they too reminiscent of our world? I meant to invent some original curses and. uh. forgot. [just checked the manuscript and apparently I used 'damn' seven times but nothing else.]
I included "miles," which is funny because I'm Canadian and don't understand miles at all, but I also don't think the metric system really works in a fantasy setting. 😂 I only used "inch" as a verb.
If I included anything unconsciously, I haven't become conscious of it yet. 😁
#yeah the units of measurement are so hard to settle on#if you make them up then readers won't know what you're talking about half the time#but the ones in our world are so... our-world specific#interesting that your pandemic may or may not have predated covid#thanks for answering!#sts#answered asks
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Happy STS, Anna!
Writing about a world other than our own involves choosing some elements of our world to include and others to leave out. In your writing, do any such elements stand out, like a real topic you put in your fictional setting, or a significant everyday detail of our world which doesn’t exist there?
Did anything work its way in without your intent, e.g. sayings or traditions or units of measurement you didn’t consciously include, but noticed later on? If so, did you remove them or leave them in place?
-verkja
Happy STS on Monday, @verkja!
Interesting question. I uh. I didn't intentionally choose any real world topics to include in my writing. I'm sure there are some, but eh. Whatever is there was necessary for the kind of story I wanted to tell, not because I wanted to address real world ethics/morals/issues.
Details, however, are a different story.
I wanted indoor plumbing and toilets and showers. I got them with magic :)
I wanted food and animals that I didn't have to make up, so those are there.
Birthdays are there. Kinda. I guess holidays, but really those are limited to solstice celebrations.
Certain elements of cursing are there. Getting rid of hell, which I started off using before I realized I don't exactly have one of those, was tough. Damn(ed) gets to stay though, fuck that noise. And word derivatives of christ. I mean, I'm sure a lot of curses have derivatives that don't make sense in a fantasy world. With me, you just get to deal :')
Clothing... god I hate clothing so much. My clothing is a mix of medieval and modern and I cba to stick to one or the other. Sorry guys, deal with the leggings. and the occasional dress with no shift underneath. and sleeveless stuff. and... 😅
Details that snuck their way in:
breakfast, lunch, dinner. originally meant to call them smth generic, like midday meal and such, but I defaulted to the others so much that I gave up
same for weeks/months. I meant to measure time passing by season and year, and while I still do the last two, weeks and months kept creeping back in and I gave up
I try to avoid units of measurement, but I'm fairly sure the occasional distance measured in miles has popped up XD
I actually wanted a world with no religion. Turns out that's kind of hard to accomplish, and I'm not there yet in terms of skill. So I made a bunch of gods and tied them to the elements. Reluctantly, I made temples and have them function as a school and a library instead of a place of "worship". There are no religious holidays, sacred days of the week, celebrations, or fanatical worshippers though, that I address. I kind of. Ignore that stuff. Maybe its there, maybe not XD
Aside from removing hell, if something keeps creeping back in, I generally just find a way to include it instead of forcing myself to make some alternative for it. I already fight with my oc's to get them to do what I want, so let's make the language and worldbuilding a little easier for me, hmm? lol
#oho i hadn't even thought about breakfast lunch and dinner as our-world specific#it's very cool to see what flies by under the radar like that#hey i like your mixture of modern and mediaeval attire :D#gives things a fantasy flavour rather than a strictly historical one#...not that the magic didn't do that already :)#ah and ambiguous religion is kind of fun - haven't seen that kind of hands-off approach before i think#finding a way to include things which keep popping up seems like a wise measure#sts#answered asks
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Happy STS, Elli!
Writing about a world other than our own involves choosing some elements of our world to include and others to leave out. In your writing, do any such elements stand out, like a real topic you put in your fictional setting, or a significant everyday detail of our world which doesn’t exist there?
Did anything work its way in without your intent, e.g. sayings or traditions or units of measurement you didn’t consciously include, but noticed later on? If so, did you remove them or leave them in place?
-verkja
Happy STS!
I put in whatever I want to be part of the story. If I write about a mixed european forest in fall, picking berries and mushrooms, then because that's where I live (Okok, sadly not IN the forest 😂) and I like it. If I write about some kind of oppression, it's not because I cannot imagine a world without it, but because I want to deal with it, even if it's just by punching someone in the face.
I prefer to put it on a personal level. The temple doesn't care who you marry, but that one person can be homophobic. I have no idea how general medical care looks like (not like my chars get any), but I have that one herbalist being a prick about periods.
As for everyday details of our world - my world is a magic heavy fantasy setting, so pretty much no everyday detail of our modern world will exist there! :D
I try to keep away from common real world traditions - I haven't even decided yet if birthdays exist. I also try to stay away from measurements and the likes, but that's mostly because to me it sounds weird to use meters and stuff in English writing, and you won't find me using miles 😂
I guess in some ways, the worldbuilding falls a bit flat - if food isn't an issue, because magic can help with growing/watering/pests, there should be less poverty, but if I put in government-run soup kitchens, I have no way to let Merry starve 🙄 I don't want to think about taxes and infrastructure, I just wanna cut a blorbo up.
About things that are less obvious, I don't care. I spent years trying to worldbuild a fantasy world, and it prevented me from ever actually writing, and I am over it. I do not care about where words come from. Ok, I won't use "hell" as a curse, but damn(ed) can stay. The name Christine does exist. You can have a tomato. Gold is rare, because everyone knows if I say "gold bracelet" that it's expensive. I don't care I don't care I don't care.
#ah living in the forest would be nice#with a goat or two :) surely nothing could go wrong#keeping things personal makes sense to me for stories as intensely character-focussed as yours#and hey i'm glad they can have a tomato#sts ask#answered asks
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Happy STS, Sam!
Writing about a world other than our own involves choosing some elements of our world to include and others to leave out. In your writing, do any such elements stand out, like a real topic you put in your fictional setting, or a significant everyday detail of our world which doesn’t exist there?
Did anything work its way in without your intent, e.g. sayings or traditions or units of measurement you didn’t consciously include, but noticed later on? If so, did you remove them or leave them in place?
- @verkja
Happy STS, Verkja💜
I very much bring to attention what real-life elements I add to my main setting. It's been created to celebrate the aesthetic of 18th century Central and Eastern Europe and explore Slavic mythology. I want to double-down on it, since I find it VERY underrepresented in fantasy, while it's a goldmine for cool details. So I'm going to quickly link fashion and architecture info dumps.
The significant details I left out deliberately are plants and animals brought to Europe from the Americas (so no pumpkins, potatoes, tomatoes, etc.). In part, it's a thought experiment, what would our cuisine look like without them, and in part it's motivated by in-setting geography and non-expansive policies.
With the amount of research I've done, I could probably pull off historical fiction at this point, and I'm toying with this idea, however, it doesn't sound appealing to me personally. I want my setting to be my playground, and specifically 1. I want it to be queernormative and 2. I don't want to include real-world countries and their baggage of historical tensions. And at this point I might just as well go into fantasy, and add magic swords to the mix.
As for unintentional inclusions...
(I'm going to preface it with: my method of worldbuilding involves writing what 'feels' right, but then looking up if the detail is feasible in the setting. E.g. does it require technology that wasn't yet discovered or is it an invasive species from another continent. Then it's cut/replaced with something. It's noticed pretty quickly, by the 2nd draft.)
For The Fulcrum, the backburner sci fi with bronze/iron age birdfolk: I'm using it as an excuse to brush up on biology and archaeology, and also run a fun simulation 'what if our evolution ran a different path'. That's a deliberate choice though. One thing that appeared there unintentionally is a fast growing, light woody plant - it was needed for constructing cheap buildings which can be destroyed during monsoon season. It's bamboo. It wasn't meant to be bamboo, but bamboo by any other name will work just as well.
I've got a slightly longer story for Days of Dusk. The setting is based on Slavic mythology, which permeates the stories I was told as a kid, by my family. I'm brushing up on them and reading the less kid-friendly versions now, and I deliberately choose which demons to include. However. The demon possessing the protag feeds off his energy/lifeforce. As I was trying to explain this metaphysics and I've had a nagging feeling that I've read about it, but it's meant to be added to the setting, not based on myths, so whatever, don't need to look it up.
Prompted by all the Dracula-related stuff on my dash, I was talking to someone about vampires, explaining that Slavic vampires are a little bit different. And then it clicked. I re-discovered mares. There are upyrs/vampyrs, which feed on blood, and related to them are lifeforce-devouring mares. So that stayed and got highlighted during editting.
And whenever I need to give a character a hobby or a task to do, I write what I know - and I know some odd things independently of writing. E.g. I bake rye sourdough bread since I got some starter as a birthday present a few years ago, and so I can describe the smell and feel of the dough when a character is mixing it during a conversation.
#semi-historical fantasy fiction sounds like a fantastic genre choice#researching (pre)history is a lot of fun!#and yes - very few fantasy settings incorporating slavic mythology come to mind#i appreciate the bamboo-by-any-other name too#...and also want some sourdough bread now :)#sts#answered asks
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Happy STS, Ari!
Writing about a world other than our own involves choosing some elements of our world to include and others to leave out. In your writing, do any such elements stand out, like a real topic you put in your fictional setting, or a significant everyday detail of our world which doesn’t exist there?
Did anything work its way in without your intent, e.g. sayings or traditions or units of measurement you didn’t consciously include, but noticed later on? If so, did you remove them or leave them in place?
-verkja
Hi and thanks for the ask!
So, my world is pretty heavily based on our real one, but not fully because I didn't want to have to wrangle actual real life locations and politics.
This means in practice that for things I didn't felt like thinking about, I just defaulted to "it works how it does in real life" but there were things I did not want to write about and so they're not there.
Mostly this includes various forms of discrimination.
Unfortunately, I am fairly certain that some forms at least of stereotyping will have found their way in there, because it is really difficult for that not to sneak in x'D
#that's a very efficient approach#seeing as your readers also exist in real life they don't need explanations of things which exist here#so you can just concentrate on what you want to#sts#answered asks
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