Happy Monday! (If such a thing exists.)
I decided to do one blog post for this week’s #WIPJoy prompts! Let’s dive right in.
4. Things to see in your WIP (aesthetics welcome!)
Swords. Lots and lots of swords and daggers and knives… I have an addiction, no lie.
Also dresses—I try to keep the descriptions few and not too detailed, but enough to satisfy the people like me who like to know what pretty dresses the female protag is lucky enough to wear. And the guys get a couple chances to shine as well.
Castles. I love castles! That’s part of why I love writing medieval fantasy: I get castles. Also swords… *cough*
Trees…so many trees. Fact: Monparth’s aesthetics are loosely inspired by Maine thanks to the four and a half months I lived there last year. When I try to think of what sorts of plants or trees might be in a scene, I think about what trees I saw in Maine. When there’s a few scenes near the coast of a sea, I picture roughly Maine’s coast.
5. A song for your WIP
I’ve admittedly been on a hip-hop kick since watching Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, so that’s mostly what’s been on my mind lately. So, my three top picks for songs for book two of this fantasy duology:
“Think I met my soul mate, Yeah, I know it. When it gets dark outside, In you I confide, You help me face my demons, I won’t hide.”
“All the hurt, all the lies, All the tears that they cry. When the moment is just right, You see fire in their eyes. ‘Cause he’s stronger than you know, A heart of steel starts to grow.”
Home by Machine Gun Kelly et all
“How did all my dreams turn to nightmares, how did I lose it when I was right there? Now I’m so far that it feels like it’s all gone to pieces, Tell me why the world never fights fair. I’m trying to find Home: A place where I can go, To take this off my shoulders. Someone take me home.”
6. What would your MC’s loved ones say they smell like?
Regulus…let’s be honest, he tends to smell like a guy and probably like his horse. But on his better days, he probably smells of leather and linen and pine.
Adelaide likes lavender, so Regulus tends to associate her with lavender.
7. Foods your characters eat.
This is a medieval world, so they eat a lot of roasted, boiled, and salted food. Monparth has a coast, and the characters are wealthy, so they eat a variety of meat and fish. For their traveling, I decided to have them mostly eat dried venison jerky because it was the easiest way to get them food. But they also eat fruits, rabbit, and fish while traveling.
Adelaide’s favorite food is nalotavi, a flaky chocolate pastry from Khastalland that is inspired by babka and baklava.
8. If your WIP was a hug, what would that hug feel like?
Hmmmm. I think one of those really tight long hugs where you’re trying to hold each other together and communicate all the comfort and understanding you can’t put into words. The kind where you won’t let go because you can feel the other person trying to keep it together and you want to give them time to decide if they’re ready to fall apart or to square their shoulders and move on, and you’re waiting to see if you’re going to need to sit with them while they cry or stand next to them while they face the world head on.
9/10. A line with deep emotion.
Hmmm. I’m going to pick a couple, since “deep emotion” is vague. Good emotion? Negative emotion? How about one of each?
“That’s why I’m not leaving you again. We need each other. Just like you and your sister and your father and mother all need each other. Just like Drez and I need each other.”
And…from the most emotional scene I’ve ever written:
She howled her pain out of her and into the air until her throat was so raw she couldn’t make a sound, and then she pounded her fists against the floor.
That’s all for this week’s installment of #WIPJoy!
Until next time,
Selina
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