Stuck In An Unanticipated Editing Spiral At The Beginning Of Draft 2 Of Project Istanbul, Oh And Mourning

Some of y’all really need to learn the difference between “This character is badly written” and “This character is a bad person” and “This character isn’t my personal cup of tea.”

Hi! I know Yellow Houses is on the back burner project wise, but damn if I'm not curious about it! Could you tell me a bit more about the university that Ellen attends? Anything really from how it looks to the types of classes they offer to they types of unhinged students you'd see milling about?

Happily! Thank you for your interest.

Yellow Houses takes place in a “college town”, where you only have a handful of locals. The university is an old rickety building shaped like a cylinder. It’s not aesthetic to say the least, blocky with lil AC units jutting from the windows, etc. The vast majority of the students are in the environmental resource management program.

Excerpt:

Half the town was made up of rich college kids who enjoyed nature photography, skiing, shot-gunning beers before noon. During the winters they jumped in the lake in negative forty weather. There would be an ambulance parked up the street if Henry Baker were to have a stroke again; ready to drag him out of the lake by his blued, freckly legs.

WIP Intro:

LAST RITES

tw: disease/pandemic, gore, violence, psychological abuse, detailed medical imagery,

About

MEXICAN GOTHIC X DRACULA X THE STORY OF BURKE & HARE

A queer Gothic Historical Horror set in Victorian Edinburgh ft. mushrooms, cults, the cutting edge of medical science, spooky manors and bodysnatchers.

Synopsis

Dr Ernest Mayweather is the only patient he can't treat. He's dying, and he's looking desperately to find a way to stop it. When a colleague of his at the prestigious University of Edinburgh Medical College discusses the avant-garde idea of using a disease to cure another, he begins a pursuit of the thing that will save his life. It leads him to a strange illness wherein strange flowers and funghi grow within the body. Curious, and keen to study it, he visits Auchindrain House, a sanctuary for the illness run by two mysterious aristocrats and their Italian acquaintance. When the horrifying nature of the house and its occupants come to light, Ernest must soon choose between accepting a quick and quiet death or chasing something potentially endless, with all the blood and horror that might come with it. What will Ernest's conscience allow him to do to survive?

Snippet

Status

It currently stands at around 69k, though by the end of this draft I think we'll be looking closer to 120k.

As of October 2023 I'm currently working on the second draft! I did a detailed re-outline after the first draft which I completed in April 2021 for Camp, and now I'm filling in all the extra scenes I need before I rewrite the novel again following the comprehensive developmental editing plan I've made, focussing on adding extra detail and coherence, especially in terms of the plot. I was initially hoping to finish this by the end of October, but at this rate, it's looking like that's not going to happen, so I'll probably pick this up again in February. (One thing you have to know, is that each month I shift projects to another one of those in rotation. I aim to always have one new project, one dev edit project and one later-stage project in rotation at all times to reduce fatigue!)

Last Line Tag #1🍨

Thank you @alicewestwater for the tag! :))) Lil excerpt from my new novel where Amber gets annoyed at Raisa’s ghost while waiting for the bus. you know, just some relatable content ;p

     Raisa laid in a rectangle of grey sunlight under the window, tranquilized by rum and spiraling dust bunnies. Hands folded over her belly, bulging with chocolate covered almonds, eyes shifting like marbles under the orange juice pulp of her lids. Dreaming of cities without people or cars, the houses, puffs of cotton candy with gumdrop path lights and woolly archways.

     I wanted to plug her mouth with the heel of my hand, but to passersby I’d only be cupping air, squinting at concrete. I didn’t want to start off another Tuesday, an unhinged street performer.

tagging: @noteaboy @oceancold @emdrabbles @aelenko @fluoresensitive @writeremma @purgatorydotexe and ofc, anyone else who’d like to do this challenge! 

Old books kind of ruined me for that. Cue me staring at my own three paragraph run on sentence while editing and not even understanding it

i love reading old books because they invent such ways to create a long ass sentence

the painter’s mistress

The oak cottage has grown mushy in the rain, susceptible to mold.

The boggy air - a warm, wet rag, plugs my mouth 

as I sit and snap split peas into a Blue Black bowl, nostrils blaring 

at the stink of rotting leaves.

My hunched figure is molded from swirls of oil, greasy smears 

of Yellow Ocher, Permanent Mauve;

colors you’d so thoughtfully selected, seen in me.

Now, under coats of glaze, spotty like a bride’s moth-eaten veil,

I’m just a mute, colorless oval to you.

It’s needless to hide my bloated, decaying face;

you turned away before I could.

I’ve come to realize that I’m an underwriter. Hbu?

Ask awayyy 💌

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This sounds amazinggg, I would 100% watch :)

Church Mud - The Netflix Series

thank you @radwrites​ for the template!

Having both finally escaped the cult they were born in - and reunited after four years - twins Dorothy and Felix embrace their newfound freedom, navigate their trauma, and figure out who they are.

Y’all I cannot express how much this fake Netflix series lives! in my head! rent free! I think this story would be so cool as a series and if I weren’t a little terrified of screenwriting, I would 100% play with that as a form alongside the novel. 

The vibes of this came out a lot grittier than I imagine the story? That element is 100% there, but there’s also a very hazy, dreamy element to the story and I think it’d be very interesting to see how those intersect visually. My biggest fantasy for CM as a series is that it’d look like it was actually shot in the 80s and have an all 80s soundtrack (although there are some contemporary gems I’d be sad to cut out the OST). The only comparison I can really draw is Twin Peaks (which I’ve only seen like five episodes of oop) - but not in terms of content at all, rather the hazy vibe of floating between different stories with this growing unease and intensity - and perhaps some of the surreal elements too. Also this one shot is Major CM Vibes:

This isn’t structured exactly like the book - episode 2, Cadmium Yellow, is a combination of chapters 2-3 and also chapter 8, which is the first chapter in Dorothy’s POV. Because of the nature of writing split POV the split between Felix and Dorothy is obviously much “sharper”, but a TV series format would allow me to jump between them in one episode and still have clarity.

I also love the idea of a series for this story because it’d allow the POVs of the non-POV main characters (Beau, Jolie, Isaias) to also be included - hence the episode Pistachio Beach, which would be Beau centric and we’d actually get to directly see his backstory. As much as I love the twins as POVs and the story very much revolves around them, I’m definitely interested in the extra depth the story could get in this form. There are a lot of times when I wish I could add a chapter in Beau or Isaias’ POV but the idea of more than two POV characters is too much to handle lmao

I had so much fun with this, and I would 100% do another for episodes 6-10 when I write more content (ah discovery writer things)! I see my stories as movies playing out in my head and if anyone else does that you’ll know that not everything can be translated into words. So it’s really cool for me to imagine my stories in this format, because in a sense it’s the “truest” to what I see in my head.

Episodes 1-5

Everything Holy

Four years after his twin sister escaped the Christian cult they grew up in, nothing about Felix’s existence has changed. This is why he has to escape too.

Cadmium Yellow

Dorothy’s roommate, Jolie, returns to the city and brings all their repressed baggage with her. Felix struggles to adapt - but a new friend is eager to show him all of San Francisco’s colors.

Pistachio Beach 

Beau doesn’t sleep well. Troubled over a future he doesn’t know and a past he doesn’t understand, he has two coping mechanisms: call Felix; drive to the beach.

Cult Characteristics

The growing number of cults scattered across California is a growing cause for concern. When they hide in plain sight, it is crucial to know the red flags.

Revelations, Revelations

Felix hasn’t spoken to God in a month. Although he doesn’t find Him at the local Church, he does find someone with the same problem. Jolie has a proposal for Dorothy.

The next novel update should be coming soon! My goal is January 11th, because that’s Felix’s and Dorothy’s birthday so we have to celebrate ofc

church mud taglist - @kitblogsthings​​ / @bijouxs​​ / @ezrathings​​ / @isherwoodj​​ / @bookpacking​​ / @alicewestwater​​ / @svpphicwrites​​ / @avi-burton-writing​​ / @aetherwrites​​ / @radiomacbeth​​ / @sunwornpages​​ / @coffeeandcalligraphy​​ / @ladywithalamp​​ / @wolf-oak​​ / @keira-is-writing​​ / @jennawritesstories​​ / @cream-and-tea​​ / @bauliya​​ / @themillionthdraft​​ / @you-are-my-neverland​​ / @lasbrumas​​ / @occiidens​​ / @shaelinwrites​​ / @wri-tten​​ / @catgirlnya​​ / @nbnoyas​ / @oceancold​ / @august-iswriting​ / @write-like-babs​ / @hekat-ie​

What's your short story writing process?? I love your works <3!

hello anon + thank you so much!! it mainly happens in three stages. i’ll try and break this up so that it’s easy to read, i’d also recommend checking out this post where i talked about my titling process as that’s something that also plays into the way i write my short story.

NOTE: i’m a pantser and i pants all my work. this process is super intuitive and tends to differ slightly for each story. for me i learn more about the story as i go and i’m just as in the dark as the characters.

1. THE IDEA. this comes from literally anywhere, and can be of any form: the main concept, theme, or aesthetic, maybe an integral image or aesthetic, maybe a specific title or lexicon. i’ll be exampling here to make it make more sense:

for saltwater, the story came first. i’d had this initial idea of a couple drowning in the ocean after one of them drives them both into it.

for it’s gene magic and/or turpentine, it was a vague concept that formed the idea although it has zero impact on the plot since i veered away from said concept.

for geometry of the holy moon (1 am), it was the aesthetic, the setting and the lexicon [specifically the word ”yearning”]. i was inspired by a conversation i had about desi mythology and singing to the moon.

for cranium, i wanted to write something in second-person and wrote the first line, ten followed though with my instinct.

for helium throat [although this doesn't really count considering that this is a revamp of an older story] it was the exploration of a character relationship + dynamic.

getting the idea for me is very intuitive, and it happens at a pace i can't fully keep up with so for most of the time when i get an idea i put it into my ideas’ doc and save it for later. i’ve talked about this before but having an ideas’ doc is a lifesaver because you will have inspiration ready at hand and it can be super organised too! [mine is divided into plot, pov, form, theme, character, titles, verbs, concepts, etc.]

2. THE FIRST LINE / PARAGRAPH. once i get the idea, and i choose to draft the story immediately, i write out the first excerpt / line. this can be a hit or miss. sometimes [like with helium throat and gene magic], the first paragraph lets me understand the voice + tone, and i’m able to draft the rest of the story in it. sometimes, like with gothm, the first line doesn't fully explain it [this may be because it isn't where the story’s meant to start, sometimes because it just feels wrong] and in this case i either scrap the paragraph and start over, or i keep it to add to the story at a later point. this first excerpt is important to me as it helps determine how the rest of the story’s going to go, helps me get a slightly better understanding of the aesthetic and the voice, and at how rich / sparse the prose style will be. [so for gothm, i knew it would be a very thick and dreamy prose style while with gene magic it would end up being short and punchy]

3. THE DRAFTING. this one’s going to get so vague, but basically i then just,,, draft the story! i always keep a notebox kind of thing for each one where i put in anything related to the story [so scene ideas, the wordbank, particular aesthetics, etc]. i refer to this as i go on drafting. when i’m at the beginning, i still don’t fully know what the story will be about but the more i draft the clearer this becomes. most of the time, the ending clicks for me first, and then the rest of the writing process involves me building the gaps between the current scene and the final one. sometimes, i’ll get a scene idea that will completely shift the story from the point it was going. a lot of times, i’d start adding in a specific detail which i’d end up making much more plot relevant later on. i always refer to my general ideas’ list while drafting as sometimes a random, seemingly unrelated concept or word can help me in uncovering the short story. my drafting process is hard to pin down as it’s rather different for each short story but it usually involves me stumbling around a bit and trying to make out more of the story until something clicks or becomes clear and i finish the rest with an exact understanding in mind.

and this is the gist of how i write the first drafts of my short stories! i’ve only just started editing them, and in that department i have no insight [and i’m suffering there too yikes]. but i hope this was able to help!!