caointeoireacht

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

#PennedPossibilities 229 - How comfortable is your MC in their body?

Ta'regi/Parthia: Physically she feels very at home in her body post ritual. This though causes her a fair bit of mental discord trying to reconcile /why/ she feels so utterly euphoric as a "monster" in contrast to when she was human. Which in turn resonates with the grief she's going through causing hard emotional swings punctuated with short lulls of clarity where she has to force herself back to tasks at hand... But that's probably over answering the question.

Tallia: post transition, she grew to be comfy with her body, & utterly enjoy feeling everything from the slightest bit of Sun light, on through to when a bug lands on her arm. She has no qualms about wearing what's essentially a bathing suit to the market during the Summer heat.

Aeslla: Werewolves like other shifters are very comfortable in their bodies (can't shift back/forth else wise). Aeslla delights in being what we would call a 'thirst trap' and being the reason someone walked into side of a vender's stall, or etc.

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

#WordWeavers 18. Does your antagonist eat healthy?

Rau? Pretty healthy. His house/compound was purposely far away from any significant town/city to avoid scrutiny. Anything decedent he might have ordered through Mr.Thrace, wouldn't have survive the journey.
There's a scene where Ta'regi/Parthia is raiding His kitchen for food/supplies, after killing him, and makes note that the cured meats were likely ones her + Pintac had supplied back in Autumn.

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 24-02-18: Do you suffer for your art? Backaches, headaches, writers' cramp?

My art is what alleviates the pains.

All my aches and deteriorating are from living in a sociopathic society with screwed-up priorities.

"The richest societies are always dependent on exploitation of the poorest. The most powerful societies are always dependent on domination of the weakest. We call it civilization."

— Dee Hock

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

#PennedPossibilities 228 — What is the most mundane action described in your WIP?

The Cantata of the Wild Soul
?: Talking out loud to an ordinary mouse in the kitchen as if it were a person.

Wytch-Fork: Lament & Lauderant
Collecting firewood.

eo, 3 months ago to actuallyautistic

@actuallyautistic what's your favorite drink, either alcohol or non. And your fav pick-me up, whether coffee, tea or smoothie. #ActuallyAutistic

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to DnD

---The Cantata of the Wild Soul ( excerpt ) ---
I grabbed my head with both hands trying to make my mind stop spinning like a feather at the mercy of a storm’s winds.

The scream that erupted from me was a savage primal hymn of every emotion I was feeling.

My arm slammed repeatedly into the wall trying in vain to cast off the phantasmal grappler that came from within.

My Spring tears became a torrential Autumn downpour as I smashed anything my hands could grab.

I staggered backwards into a corner and slid down the wall hugging myself, while sobbing.

So much had happened, most of it in just the last few days, and I felt like a rope fraying at both ends.

When word came to us that Pintac’s parents had died in a wildfire, I was there to keep him buoyant and moored to the dock.
When mum passed in her sleep a few years back, Pin’ pulled me into dry dock and took care of me while I buried her and mourned…

But here I was now, alone adrift, mourning unmoored, rowing with the vaguest view of a point on the horizon.

I needed to pull myself together.
But everything was too fresh, too raw, and try as I might, the boat kept breaching through the top of the waves instead of cresting over them.
Each time taking a swig of water from the wave.

#DnD #TTRPGS #Backstory #TaRegi #FantasyWriting #WiP #AmWriting
#TaRegi #AmWriting #WritingFantasy #CotWS #WiP #Writing

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

#WordWeavers 24-02-17 What’s the most embarrassing thing your MC has done?

Parthia slid off the front roof once because she fell asleep while sun bathing.(she didn't have any obligations that day, & the sun was warm and too inviting to pass up) It was a solid year before her friend Kairii stop replying "Don't fall off the roof" when Parthia would yawn or mention being tired.

Tallia once fell asleep while working on copying a text as part of her 'homework' Myddra had tasked her.
The end result was smudged lines of text on her face for a few days, which led to people constantly asking why she had "knead thoroughly, and let rest.." on her check.
Tallia nearly died of embarrassment when a baker started flirting with with her. "Do you like bread dough? I can knead thoroughly.. and let you rest." (spoiler they did end up casually dating for a while)

Aeslla. When she was a kid she spent a week in wolf from because her crush Narynn kissed her on the lips. She was embarrassed that a kiss from the neighbor's son had made her heart go "utterly twirly whirly" to the point she couldn't focus enough to change back after taking wolf from. And it was an absolute "Don't think of an elephant" situation where she kept thinking about the kiss when trying to change back.(her parents never pressed for details since they could Intuit by scent that Aeslla was embarrassed about it)

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

#PennedPossibilities 227 — Is your SC receptive to warnings and advice given by others?

Pintac, enhhhh mostly. If he got stuck on an idea, Parthia knew to just let him go to it.

Aeslla. Absolutely. At least if the advice came from within the pack, or another werewolf. Outside of that/those groups she'd have to known you long enough to have mentally mapped your scent changes and tone functions to accept your advice without a decent amount of questioning.

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

writerscoffeeclub 24-02-17 How much of yourself is in your MC, or do you never write this way?

That is a blurry question.
None are self inserts. But I do tap the pallet of my own experiences to paint the pictures they show me. There is at least my empathy and understanding in each word I transcribe of the stories they tell me.

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to writing

#WroughtWorlds #Writing 2024 02-16 : World Building : Cultures and People
How do you create/handle cultures & people?

5 words, but a complex question.

I typically start with these questions.
Where do these people live?
What does their language look like / what does it convey?
What is the fulcrum their society pivots on?
Are they spiritual or religious?
What are their primary sources of food?
What do their houses and living arrangements look like?

Generally I only need 2 of these to start with, and the rest will grow quickly from that soil.
I write mostly fantasy, but these questions also apply to my SciFi writings.
Each question has various sub questions / information to work out.

Where do these people live?
– Weather. Typical weather? Seasonal shifts?
What does their language look like / what does it convey?
– Information exchange. Axioms? Unique grammar structures?
What is the fulcrum their society pivots on?
– Exchanging goods with other cultures? Mostly self contained?
Are they spiritual or religious?
– Practices? Deities / Pantheons? Structured?
What are their primary sources of food?
– Dietary practices? Taboo foods? Staple foods?
What do their houses and living arrangements look like?
– Communal housing? Temporary structures? Permanent structures?
If I can answer 2 questions, and pencil in a few sub details, my brain will fertilize and water the rest.

In Wytch-Fork, there are the Orlem.
I started with:
Where do they live?
= Group 1: Edge of a vast grasslands,
= Group 2: in/among a portion of a mountain range
What are the primary sources of food?
= Group 1: cultivated strains of local wild grains , legumes, minor live stock
= Group 2: domesticated species of mountain goat, terrace farms of tubers + root vegetables
From there my brain takes that information and goes
Group 1:
– Housing will likely be something like; sod house, dug outs, thatched roofs, Multi generations under one roof
– Religion and language bend around agriculture & agri centric deities. Idioms such as “Don’t thresh burnt grass.” (avoid doing pointless acts), etc
– Clothing, light breathable, accented with grain motifs and stylized depictions of their work animals

Group 2:
– Housing; mostly stone, wood roofs, dug into the mountain, utilizes and natural caves
– Religion and language bend around the weather and the seasons as the mountain makes the weather a bit chaotic and prone to swings in intensity
– Clothing, heavier, better at blocking wind, warmer, fur trimmed, leather bits have goat motifs accented with stacked lines / terraced line patterns

Then on into mapping relationships between Group 1 + Group 2, and both in relation to other cultures.
Until I have 70% of the cultures fleshed out, at which point I now have an /umbrella/ culture with 2 cultural splits living and growing through generations in some corner of my mind generating cultural lore.
Community dynamics, squabbles between families, what happened the year that the weather was absolute shit, how their future planning changed from that point.
There’s a point they hit about 90% stable, and that last 10% is the nebulous /tomorrow/ and how they change and adapt going forward

If someone from Group 1 moves from the farms on the edge of the Green Sea grass lands, to Koruu-on-the-Bay, what do they bring with them? What bits of their culture do they carry on? How do they adjust? Do they stick to what they know, getting a job inspecting grain shipments coming in? Or do they branch into something adjacent, take an interest in baking, apply the knowledge they have of the grains their community grew, end up creating a new type of bread by experimenting with grains they don’t know? Or do they take their reverence of an agricultural centric deity/deities
and become a kind of /champlin/ for others that venerate the same deity/deities? What happens if they get homesick and decide to move back and rejoin their extended family?

All those questions in that last paragraph are informed and shaped by their culture, and how strongly they adhered to or deviated from their cultural norms.

And to know those norms the culture has to make sense within the universe, and to get it to make sense I have to think through the pallet of colours my brain will use to paint that picture.

itsfoss, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to linux

Relatable? 😆

#linux

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

#PennedPossibilities 226
How seriously does your MC take themselves? Do they prefer a solemn and intellectual atmosphere or do they delight in jokes and banter?

When she was human, her sense of humour was pretty Puckish, with a dry-ribald streak.
Now she's a bit more somber and sardonic. She still has a sense of humour, it's just that events took some of the wind from the sails

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 24-02-16
If you've read a book series, was there a weak book in the series? What made it weak?

Yes, it was the third in the series. The author hadn't quite found the dance tempo between the MC and a SC-MC, so the antagonism from SC-MC felt too strong/forced for that point in their relationship given the events of the 2 prior books + a history prior to the series start that was hinted/mentioned. SC-MC should have been rapidly decreasing in hostility towards MC, instead of cuffing & slamming them into a squad car w/out much thought. This detracted and felt like a forced hurdle for the MC to deal with.

But that's my world-building brain talking, as having written the above I now wonder if SC-MC was originally envisioned as a low-depth human-world antagonist to squeeze the MC against the stakes from the Fae & supernatural...

I really need to replace my copies and catch up with anything after book 12.
Shout-out to anyone that can guess the series!

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to writing

#Writing #DnD

So the DM of my Sunday game said "go ahead" on world building the Orcs.
And in the span of three days I've about 2 dozen words, the language is about 4-5 times the nuance and depth as Common(English).
Culturally they emphasize saying what you actually mean to say, and be mature-civil about it. (Bullshiting doesn't serve the good/survival of the community)
Semi nomadic, moving between two fix dwelling locations based upon the season.
Their spiritual practices overlap about 50/50 with my own, (prominent distinction they worship deities, and have a tighter structure to rituals, start their new year on Summer solstice)
They emphasize community cohesion by embracing the strength/passion of the individual and how each others strengths help where another isn't as strong/skilled.
The focal point of the community is the community kitchen where food is made/served early-ish mid morning, and late afternoon

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

🎶Capture the wild things and bring them in line
And own what was never your right to confine🎶
~ The Longest Johns, "Ashes'

I am a creature not of this society...

and it confines me with shackles wrought of other's avarice

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

#PennedPossibilities 224 — Recently there have been a lot of conversations about music for writers. Do you have a specific playlist or mix for your current WIP?

Yes, anything over 1k words ends up with a score/soundtrack of some degree to accent what I've written.

The Cantata of the Wild Soul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zqAFuCaX1w&list=PLK5g0Jv72_m9ClNAlj2GX8KPbN7zr5rNH

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub Feb 14
Does your work feature on Goodreads?

Nope. I'm unpublished, and Gr was parasitized by Amazon at some point.

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

#PennedPossibilities 223
— What brings your MC joy in life?

Ta'regi doesn't really know anymore.
With Pintac dead, there isn't an /active/ source of joy.
She's hunting down and killing Rau's remaining apprentices, but she finds no joy nor honour in that.
It was cathartic to smash everything in Rau's house before burning it down. But there wasn't really joy in that.

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 24-02-13: Do you ever write very short pieces (fifty words, flash fiction etc)?

Occasionally when the mood hits.

But not as a regular habit

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 24-02-12: Share your personal grammar/typography style if you have one.

I.
I'm a plebeian,
I don't know how to explain my grammar + typography.
I'm sure someone will read my writing and be utterly compelled to murder me for the mix match of archaic and "slang" grammar + word usage. Or burn me at the stake for some punctuation heresy I commit regularly with out thought.

I meant what I said in a discussion else where, that I had an easier time reading the texts of Cleopatra the Alchemist than understanding the "en dash" vs "em dash" concepts and uses.

Some days I feel like the trees were a bad move altogether...

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

#KnowYourAuthors 8 Do you write your entire piece and then edit, or go back and edit while you’re still writing?

Minor editing as I go, or a paragraph rewrite while writing a scene. I haven't hit a situation where I've felt the need for any extensive re-writes after I've written a scene/stanza

Usually if I backtrack to edit, it's sharpen the existing tone/mood I put down.
Eg
[He didn’t even get the luxury of a scream.]
To
[We didn’t even give him the luxury of a scream.]

I felt it better set the tone for how Parthia goes from getting yanked around by external forces, to immediately push back and cede no more ground now that she has the means to do so.

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to disability

#KnowYourAuthors 7 — Do you most enjoy writing in past settings, modern day settings, or futuristic settings? When is your current WIP set?

Time-y wime-y, wibbly wobbly, time is a soup.

Fantasy, with varying levels of "hightech" analogs.

Wytch-Fork for example, there's an array of prosthetics & mobility aids. What a person uses is up to /their/ comfort level and /their/ personal needs. #Disability is a normal aspect of life, and not something people are forced to compensate against to be a speciously idealistic "productive member of society"

Aye, I know I'm a bit off on a tangent.

And I will 100% own that in Wytch-Fork I frequently make commentary on IRL society's screwed-up priorities and perforative compassion by contrasting with a world where genuine compassion and respect is the dominant shared cultural trait.

It's not a utopia.
It just isn't an inhumane place slowly choking itself to death.

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

#WordWeavers 24-02-12. Where does your antagonist feel safe?

His home/compound right up until the split second Parthia/Ta'regi broke the restraints...

Hubris...the salt + seasoning for what kill you.

caointeoireacht, 3 months ago to random

"I don't wanna be somebody's dream girl..."

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nDx8s2064Jk