heyyo

A spell the wizard uses to light the group's campfire has an error somewhere in its depths, and sometimes it doesn't work at all. The wizard spends a lot of his time trying to track down the exact conditions that cause the failure.

The wizard is attempting to create a new spell that marries two older spells together, but while they were both written within the context of Zephyrus the Starweaver's foundational work, they each used a slightly different version, and untangling the collisions make a short project take months of work.

The wizard has grown too comfortable reusing old spells, and in particular, his teleportation spell keeps finding its components rearranged and remixed, its parts copied into a dozen different places in the spellbook. This is overall not actually a problem per se, but the party's rogue grows a bit concerned when the wizard's "drying spell" seems to just be a special case of teleportation where you teleport five feet to the left and leave the wetness behind.

A wizard is constantly fiddling with his spells, making minor tweaks and changes, getting them easier to cast, with better effects, adding bells and whistles. The "shelter for the night" spell includes a tea kettle that brings itself to a boil at dawn, which the wizard is inordinately pleased with. He reports on efficiency improvements to the indifference of anyone listening.

A different wizard immediately forgets all details of his spells after he's written them. He could not begin to tell you how any of it works, at least not without sitting down for a few hours or days to figure out how he set things up. The point is that it works, and once it does, the wizard can safely stop thinking about it.

Wizards enjoy each other's company, but you must be circumspect about spellwork. Having another wizard look through your spellbook makes you aware of every minor flaw, and you might not be able to answer questions about why a spell was written in a certain way, if you remember at all.

Wizards all have their own preferences as far as which scripts they write in, the formatting of their spellbook, its dimensions and material quality, and of course which famous wizards they've taken the most foundational knowledge from. The enlightened view is that all approaches have their strengths and weaknesses, but this has never stopped anyone from getting into a protracted argument.

"This spell causes the hair to fall off cats." "That's fixed in Xaranthius' latest publication, you just have to rewrite your entire spellbook for compatibility."

Sure, "High Tower is a powerful language, but it's such a pain to write. I just use Unity* as it's simple to write and can do nearly everything I need" "cranky because you can't memorize all the conjugations and declensions, aren't you?" "LOOK MAN, I CAN MEMORIZE ANYTHING, INCLUDING THE FACE OF YOUR MOTHER IN ECSTASY. IN FACT, BEHOLD!" *a little time window appears between them, demonstrating exactly that. The first wizard (seen through the window) turns around and winks at the "camera".

"you kids today with your lizardman. How can you get anything done in a language without gendered pronouns? It's like fingerpainting. Sure you can learn on it but once you've got the basics you should switch over to a REAL language"

"the Kalic have been here already. We better get out before the rest of their army marches in." "how can you be sure?" "you see that teleport?" "no" "well, if you COULD see it, you'd see it's written in Adevic Yevi. That's the Kalic magic language." "couldn't it be someone else? We saw those Monon traders, maybe one of them..." "no. No one writes Adevic Yevi unless they're being paid to. It's a language written by committee."

Wizards going on a quest to get the spellbooks for a lost spell, only to find out that it was written in skydove cant. No one can read that shit! The creator must have been one of those weird "functional wizards". (They're obsessed with making sure their spells have no side effects)

There's a small library on the outskirts of Freeport which tries to collect versions of basic spells in every language. The Adevic Yevi version of "fireball" takes up 7 pages, mostly boilerplate setting up the interfaces with fire and explosions and ExplodingMagicalBallFactorySingletons. The Lizardman version is basically "AHAHAHA, YOU GO BOOM!"

There's a bunch of wizard apprentices working on porting an old "Summon Bread and Fishes" spell from the absolutely archaic language it was written in. Once it's in Unity, it'll be easy to modify and teach to more wizards, which'll obviously be good for disaster areas. It's just too expensive to keep paying the ancient guys who can still do magic in TRAN-FOR.

Eccentric wizards keep inventing new languages for spells. You look at them and they're neat, but it'll never catch on. And either you're right, or the next time you're applying to be a court wizard, the advisors want to know if you have at least 5 years experience in Tilted Runic and you're like "it only came out 2 years ago!" "aren't you a chronomancer?" "oh good point. Yeah I've been using it for 20-30 years."

There's wizards who will spend incredible amounts of time doing silly things with spells in strange ways. There's this guy (Vorth) who made his own language where there's only one basic spell: fireball. Everything else is basic magic glue tying multiple fireballs together. So like, he's got a breakfast spell. Stand back (good advice for all his spells), and you'll see a fish get knocked out of the local pond, flung through the air by successive explosions, and eventually it lands on his plate, nicely cooked and deboned, if slightly charred (the glass of milk is harder to explain). His magical door locks involve a quicksilver sphere and molten lead changing shape when heated... It's tricky but it seems to work. He's working on a teleport spell, but so far it's mainly just killed test subjects (primarily sheep from a nearby farm).

Characters who’ve been told that’s why your important. Your worth something because this other person/ thing is important, and you are here solely to keep them safe.

gosh, it feels like it's been a Hot Second since i've been an active part of a writeblr community like we had in its heyday but off the top of my head in no particular order: @ghostcasket (naturally) @reininginthefirewriting, @writeblrfantasy, @magic-is-something-we-create, @magnus-sm-writes,

@ashen-crest, @abalonetea, @howdywrites, @yvesdot, @albatris,

@carnivalls, @zmwrites, @mjjune, @moonshinemagpie, @badscientist,

and others i am 100% forgetting at the moment (please use this post to rec others and if i remember any more i'll add them in reblogs!).

a misunderstanding about where they would be meeting, so both are waiting at a different location

a last minute emergency means they have to bring someone else with them on the date (e.g. child, little sibling, pet)

they were absolutely not dressed for the weather and end up getting completely wet in the rain

one of their phones is dead and they can't reach each other

even though they had reservations, the restaurant is closed

one of them gets hurt on the date, which makes them end up in the ER

they met online without a proper picture of each other and they keep missing each other at the bar, not able to find out who their actual date is

the waiter was supposed to bring a dessert with an engagement ring to the table next to them but brings it to them and now the awkwardness has reached new heights

they are doing speed dating, but unfortunately they already know each person of the other sex that is there

a date on a boat is nice until a swan attacks and someone falls into the water

they are both not local and they keep getting lost

their boss/parents/friends are also on a date in the same restaurant

one of them gets called back into work for an emergency and their date insists to walk them there

they thought they would have a date with someone else and are confused by who actually shows up

More: Date Gone Wrong

taking a rain walk

going to a library and showing each other their favourite books

visiting a waterpark together

taking a walk through a park or a forest and admiring the colors

going to the zoo and pointing out the coolest animals

playing disk golf together

doing a scavenger hunt for cute little trinkets

visiting a museum about something you know nothing about

going to a bookshop and selecting books for each other

having a picknick with lots of seasonal food

visiting a brewery and doing a tasting

going to a café with an amazing tea selection

watching movies together while it storms outside

visiting a park and playing basketball or football together

going on a bicycle tour and finding new places

making pottery together and carving in their initials as a memento for the cute date

playing board games in a small café

going thrift shopping together or checking out a flea market

getting trash bags and cleaning up a public place together

going on a night hike and enjoying the dark and silent world with just each other as company

singing karaoke together

going inline skating and trying not to fall too often

swimming in a lake together

visiting some old castles/churches/etc. they’ve always wanted to check out

going to a fair and playing games and going on the Ferris wheel

picking apples together

taking a painting class and gifting each other the painting they made

going to a concert of their favourite band

playing paintball as a team or against each other

going to the movies and buying their favourite treats

watching the sunrise or sunset together

cooking for each other and judging each other’s food like they’re on Top Chef

going on hayrides

visiting an escape room and trying to solve the puzzles

going camping nearby and enjoying the time without distractions

visiting an amusement park and going on all the fun rides

going to a restaurant they’ve never been to and trying new food together

trying to learn a new skill together

doing a movie marathon with childhood favourites

checking out all the wonderful plants in the botanical garden

visiting an old cemetery and making up stories for the different graves

going to a trampoline park together

watching a drag show together

renting a paddleboat and seeing how far they can go

checking out lost places together

doing a photo shoot at a cool location

taking dance lessons together

going on a guided city tour even if both grew up there

doing a pub crawl and trying different drinks

volunteering together for something that’s important to both of them

Running—to go faster than a walk

Barreling - to move at a high speed or without hesitation

Blazing - of outstanding power, speed, heat, or intensity

Bounding - to move by leaping

Cantering - to move at or as if at a canter (i.e., a 3-beat gait resembling but smoother and slower than the gallop); loping

Careening - to proceed or move quickly

Coursing - to proceed or move quickly

Dashing - to go at a pace faster than a walk

Galloping - progressing, developing, or increasing rapidly

Hastening - to move or act quickly

Hieing - to go quickly; hasten

Hurtling - to move rapidly or forcefully

Hurrying - to carry or cause to go with haste

Hustling - hasten, hurry

Jogging - to run or ride at a slow trot

Loping - an easy usually bounding gait capable of being sustained for a long time

Racing - to proceed or move quickly

Ripping - to proceed or move quickly

Rushing - to cause to move or proceed fast or faster

Scampering - to run nimbly and usually playfully about

Scooting - to move swiftly

Scurrying - to move in or as if in a brisk pace; scampering

Scuttling - scurry; a short swift run

Skipping - to move or proceed with leaps and bounds or with a skip

Speeding - to make haste

Springing - to make a leap or series of leaps

Sprinting - to run or go at top speed especially for a short distance

Tearing - to proceed or move quickly

Tripping - to go at a pace faster than a walk

Trotting - to proceed briskly; hurrying

Zipping - to move, act, or function with speed and vigor

Hope this helps with your writing. Do tag me, or send me a link. I'd love to read your work!

Hello writerly friends!

I'm keeping this short because, of course, my day has suddenly turned busy and I have to squeeze in the bulk of my writing time later today. 

But!

We are GO!

We're opening up that crispy white page or dragging out that crusty WIP, and we're writing! 

I'm taking twenty minutes for writing right now and then I'm gone for most of the day, and when I'm back — I want to see some progress, my friends!

40k in 42 days.

here are some ideas to consider

—Who’s the mayor? How popular/unpopular are they? Is politics an important factor of town life in general?

—Population size? Is it bigger, smaller, or completely dead compared to the average town?

—Where is it located? Near a big city? In the middle of nowhere? In a tree? If you’re doing fantasy, you’ve got more room to make some interesting settings, because even if it is just a town, putting it somewhere unusual to our capabilities makes it 10x cooler

—What species mainly lives in the town? If there’s multiple, what’s the main demographic and how does it affect things?

—Are there any laws that make the city seem unusual or weird? What’s the reasoning behind these laws?

—Events that happen every year that are unique to the town?