Fantasy Writer J.A. Kolgriv

• Those emotioal scenes you’ve planned will never be as good on page as they are in your head. To YOU. Your audience, however, is eating it up. Just because you can’t articulate the emotion of a scene to your satisfaction doesn’t mean it’s not impacting the reader. 

• Sometimes a sentence, a paragraph, or even a whole scene will not be salvagable. Either it wasn’t necessary to the story to begin with, or you can put it to the side and re-write it later, but for now it’s gotta go. It doesn’t make you a bad writer to have to trim, it makes you a good writer to know to trim.

• There are several stories just like yours. And that’s okay, there’s no story in existence of completely original concepts. What makes your story “original” is that it’s yours. No one else can write your story the way you can.

Figured I might as well do this because I would absolutely love to make writing friends.

Hi! I'm Bee! I'm 25 and live in Michigan. Currently, I'm in school working towards getting my English degree (focus in Creative Writing and Editing), and writing my very first novel. I've been working on this particular piece for 3 years now, and I'm on my third rewrite- where I changed a large chunk of the story, so it's almost like base one all over again.

Feel free to say hi and talk writing with me! My current wip is a fantasy piece, but I normally write realistic fiction or poetry. Honestly, I'd love to talk about any kind of writing with someone.

Original piece written for the prompt challenge hosted by @flashfictionfridayofficial​​​.  

A Beginner’s Guide to Fae Summonings - Basic Checklist*

Gather and purify your supplies. DO NOT skip this step. You won’t like the consequences.

Use only white chalk for drawing your summoning circle. Colours excite them.

Spread honey in the centre of the circle, it will help stabilise the fae in the mortal realm. Linden or acacia works best, thistle if you have no alternatives.

Ensure you’re wearing all of your clothes inside out, that there are no knots or belts on you and that your hair is loose.

Keep an iron dagger on your person at all times. If possible, wear shoes with iron soles to minimise the chances of a fae abduction.

Fae are best placated with a well thought through gift, as receiving a highly desired gift makes them owe you a favour. Research the type of fae you’re summoning and their preferred gifts, as the fae are easily offended.

Under no circumstances let the fae you’ve summoned crystallise.

*Prof. M.B.A. Oren, Year of the Eleventh Floating Gerbil. This brochure is produced and printed by the University of Cairnlomond. No parts of this brochure are to be reproduced without explicit written permission. Anyone violating the copyright will be turned into a toad.

I reread the last point on the checklist one more time, then look back at the summoning circle. Inside, the fae’s feet are securely glued to the floor, its long bony fingers wrapped around the hand-carved statuette that I brought it as an offering. Things were going well when I first gave it to the fae, so it can’t be the gift that caused all of this, I muse, studying the whole setup. I even bought a jar of fancy honey rather than one of these cheap squeezy bottles.

The fae notices me staring and screeches. Under normal circumstances, the high-pitched sound would be blood curdling, but I’m too distracted as I watch the crystals forming on the fae’s blue skin. They had begun forming somewhere on its neck, quickly spreading downwards onto the creature’s bare chest, each crystal larger than the last, and now covering half of the fae’s body. The way the crystals glisten in the candlelight is mesmerising, and I almost reach out to touch them before catching myself and taking a step back.

What am I supposed to do now? Professor Oren never explained what happens once the fae begins crystallising—or, as a matter of fact, neither did he explain what happens once it finishes. All I know is how to release the summon fae back into its realm, and that didn’t work when I tried. I can’t even call for help, because if I leave, the fae will be free of the binding, and likely gone faster than I can snap my fingers.

Original piece written for the prompt challenge hosted by @flashfictionfridayofficial​​​.  

A Beginner’s Guide to Fae Summonings - Basic Checklist*

Gather and purify your supplies. DO NOT skip this step. You won’t like the consequences.

Use only white chalk for drawing your summoning circle. Colours excite them.

Spread honey in the centre of the circle, it will help stabilise the fae in the mortal realm. Linden or acacia works best, thistle if you have no alternatives.

Ensure you’re wearing all of your clothes inside out, that there are no knots or belts on you and that your hair is loose.

Keep an iron dagger on your person at all times. If possible, wear shoes with iron soles to minimise the chances of a fae abduction.

Fae are best placated with a well thought through gift, as receiving a highly desired gift makes them owe you a favour. Research the type of fae you’re summoning and their preferred gifts, as the fae are easily offended.

Under no circumstances let the fae you’ve summoned crystallise.

*Prof. M.B.A. Oren, Year of the Eleventh Floating Gerbil. This brochure is produced and printed by the University of Cairnlomond. No parts of this brochure are to be reproduced without explicit written permission. Anyone violating the copyright will be turned into a toad.

I reread the last point on the checklist one more time, then look back at the summoning circle. Inside, the fae’s feet are securely glued to the floor, its long bony fingers wrapped around the hand-carved statuette that I brought it as an offering. Things were going well when I first gave it to the fae, so it can’t be the gift that caused all of this, I muse, studying the whole setup. I even bought a jar of fancy honey rather than one of these cheap squeezy bottles.

The fae notices me staring and screeches. Under normal circumstances, the high-pitched sound would be blood curdling, but I’m too distracted as I watch the crystals forming on the fae’s blue skin. They had begun forming somewhere on its neck, quickly spreading downwards onto the creature’s bare chest, each crystal larger than the last, and now covering half of the fae’s body. The way the crystals glisten in the candlelight is mesmerising, and I almost reach out to touch them before catching myself and taking a step back.

What am I supposed to do now? Professor Oren never explained what happens once the fae begins crystallising—or, as a matter of fact, neither did he explain what happens once it finishes. All I know is how to release the summon fae back into its realm, and that didn’t work when I tried. I can’t even call for help, because if I leave, the fae will be free of the binding, and likely gone faster than I can snap my fingers.

Because it's Flash Fiction Friday and we can keep you warm as long as you write!

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Flash Fiction Friday is a fun writer event that’s meant to inspire, share and connect writings of all genres and writers of all ages. It’s designed to make people want to write, especially if they’re feeling blocked. Everyone and everything is welcome!

We always do our very best to keep the prompt’s genre open, entertaining, positive and encouraging.

Write between 100-1000 words. It can be any genre, in any text format and 18+ is fine by us, just please tag accordingly.

Use this Friday’s theme in your text. Any way you see fit.

Post on your tumblr blog and remember to tag us at @flashfictionfridayofficial​!! So we’ll see it, read it and reblog it!!

Deadline is 24 hours after the prompt has been issued (12 pm CET).

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Go check them out and consider supporting your fellow FFF writers with some likes and reblogs!

✨ And now, the new prompt!

[#FFF181 Crystallized]

This prompt is brought to you by someone who wishes to remain anonymous, thank you very much! Whether you're thinking of a cold winter landscape or jewels, whether your character touched the wrong treasure or looks at crytsal-like statues, the choice is yours! What has been crystallized? By whom? Is this a natural phenomenon or a magical kind? You won't know until you write, so go, go, go, go, go!

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my name is jules and i am quite new to writeblr but here goes!! this is a little directory to tidy everything up. if books, stories, and narrative horrors are also your jam (or any other kind of spread), please befriend me! or be-mutual, as per tumblr etiquette.

books:

getting into the habit of dusting off all the voice essays in friends’ chats and into proper review forms:

my storygraph | book reviews | books read in 2022: 51/50

writing:

recent nanowrimo (still cannot believe i actually did it for real this time!!) broke the spell so here is the main wip list:

the stowaways (writing stage ~ 22k) 

Clear prose is everything. It’s step one. If you’re not writing sentences people can understand, that then becomes paragraphs people understand etc, you’re not getting anywhere. In fact, you’re failing in one of the few ways a writer can actually fail. But that’s okay, because conveying ideas clearly is a challenge we take for granted. We like to hop right to the complicated stuff and want to skim past the fundamentals as fast as we can. Guitarists have a similar problem–proper strumming technique and chord changes are sped through to get to the shredding part asap.

It’s not sexy, but if I was gonna tell absolute beginner writers anything it would be: forget that big, complicated world you’ve been daydreaming about, forget that huge cast of deeply developed characters you’ve been building, forget all the long, glorious, complicated, poetical sentences you’ve aspired to write. Forget all of that for now. 

Write something that makes sense on the sentence level. Work on communicating images and actions clearly. Work on basic cause and effect. Character A moves, Character B reacts to the movement. (Tons of new writers reverse the causal order more often than you think.) Clear motions, clear reactions, clear motivations, clear emotions, clear development.

Heads up seven up from @asher-orion-writes​! Thank you, pal, I hope you’re well. I wrote 3k yesterday, which was super thrilling and exciting–hasn’t happened in months! 

“Excuse me?”

“Terribly sorry, just wasn’t looking where I was going,” came a sultry voice, and a beautiful woman dressed in an ornate orange trench coat slinked out of the door, leaving behind her gloved hand on Paris’ shoulder as she passed. “See you tonight.”

Paris watched her go. “See you tonight,” he echoed.

Velia brushed past and knocked him against the door again. She didn’t say anything.