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I’m awake again. So, earlier in the Asda, I was just innocently shopping, and this really tall blonde woman walked by me. Then kind of stopped, and looked down at little hobbit me, and smiled. My heart didn’t jump, it did some kind of strange figure eight move. She even had the short hair and everything. Not that I’m saying this was a Brienne lookalike. No. This was definitely a Gwendoline Christie lookalike. Though about ten or fifteen years younger. I don’t object to this at all. I believe in my narrative wholeheartedly. Gwendoline Christie has to be one of the most beautiful women in the world. And Brienne is beautiful too, no matter what Martin might say. To those two right now she is. That’s okay. What I do object to, is getting to the checkout, and finding myself looking around for ‘the big woman’ just in case she was there so that I could look at her again. It’s not as if I’ve even written that much of Tormund’s pov, ffs. :/ I swear, this story… *sighs*

A user asked for some prompts in another thread here so I’m just going to link to the prompts there in case anyone wants to use them. I’ll throw out some more ideas I’ve had that I’ll not get on to writing due to not being able to write: A truck stop where the lot lizards are actually lizards. ** A pro-wrestling promotion where the ring rats are actually rats ** A parliament where the members are actually weasels. Wait, sorry, that one isn’t fiction. ** In 1312 Wat meets an elf along the road from Yoxford and instantly falls in love with him. The elf is capricious and cruel but inadvertantly ends up loving him back while supposedly messing with him. ** A delusional vampire thinks she’s a werewolf. ** A dog is given the ability to talk by a fairy. The owner regrets all the bestiality. ** The (fictional!) President of the United States of America is revealed to be an Oompa Loompa. ** A factory owner starts illegally polluting the river. The river spirit takes revenge by polluting him. ** An internet troll who spent all his life attacking furries dies and gets yiffed in hell. ** A DNA test reveals that a long married loving couple are not brother and sister in “Jerry Springer’s Alabama Special.” ** Enraged residents of Alabama lynch a former fanfic writer for all the inbreeding jokes ** A man can only come in Iambic pentameter ** An internet troll meets a real troll beneath a bridge. ** A gamer loses on COD and goes upstairs to find the guy who killed him fucking his Mom.

Haha… seems to me there’d be a whole lot of scope for genuine body horror in this one. Similar theme, completely different approach to the other one I wrote. If I ever get done with GoT, and no one else has taken it, I might keep this in mind.

I do write software for a living….

Upload to the forum and use that image URL for the archive?

I tend to forget some of those senses as I write. Taste, smell, and touch are less written about, than vision (primary) or sound (secondary). So, yeah, write in sounds, that does help stories, IMO. And, don’t forget to smell, taste, and touch … depends on what you’re writing, I suppose. If you’ve got a pile of crap, skip the description, we all know what it’s like.

I think I probably tend to overuse these kinds of descriptors a lot. I also use a lot of ‘he said’ ‘she said’ and I go into describing exactly how things are said sometimes. I can’t help it. I hear things more easily than I see them. For me a scene might have a collection of vivid imagery, but an extremely consistent soundtrack. I don’t know if it’s something to do with being musical besides being a writer. Character voices are usually crystal clear to me, which is why I’m probably still dawdling around writing fanfic after all this time. I don’t know… it’s really hard to judge yourself, no matter how many times you read over it. But, as to the original question, it should feel natural. If the character is making a sound in your mind at that point in the story, write it out, and my advice for what it’s worth is don’t skimp. This isn’t just noise. Sound is one of the textures that makes up our lives. It’s just as important as any of the other senses, especially when it’s an intimate situation. If you can, don’t just leave it there. If character A whispers, how does that affect character B? Are they close enough to feel it, as well as hear it? Use sound. Use it to bring your readers in, so that they’re with the characters, with everything that’s happening. I don’t know how else to put it. I kind of wish I knew how to deconstruct it properly like an English teacher or something, but I don’t. If it’s happening in your mind, write it.

You know, I’ve always looked to Sheffield’s industrial past and thought there must be a good supernatural horror story or two lurking there. Sheffield’s heart is a dark, dead space filled with crumbling red brick buildings blackened with grime, and smashed factory windows. And it’ll remain like that forever, no matter how much “regeneration” they engage in. It’s our history. All those souls lost to industry. And through the middle of it all, making it possible, the river Don. Without the river, there’d have been no industrialisation of Sheffield. If that river was conscious, and it could speak, it would hate all of us. Without a doubt. I mean, I won’t write that, but that’s the angle I’ll probably take. I love your idea! It’s the resentment of the natural world, personified in a single instance between a river and a man. If effluent, toxic chemicals and waste from manufacturing processes can hurt and kill a river, I’m sure there’s an equivalent for a man. The body horror I’m evisaging is kind of taking you literally. I mean, sticks, stones and riverbed mud in odd places would be incredibly painful, perhaps even fatal. And especially if they just kept appearing. How long would this man endure something like that before he went along to the doctor? Would he? How would he hide it? When exactly would he get past the point of entitlement (once he realised what was happening to him) and decide that it was time to appease whatever it was he’d angered? Would it have a chance in hell of working? And that’s just first thoughts. Lots of evil potential! *rubs hands together*

Oh I like sound words like cooed. Of course if every bit of dialogue is tagged with them and every action is responded with them, it’ll get distracting. Personally, I probably overuse them a touch and don’t use the he said/she said nearly enough to make the tags functional yet disappeary, but that’s my jam. In my humble opinion, cooed and any other sound word should be used when they have the most impact. When no other word would suffice to paint the scene the way you see it in your head. A baby falls off a table or something, the mother rushes to it and coos to try to comfort it. And well yelps, screams, moans, groans, sighs, squeaks, shrieks, are usually best reserved for pain, puns, and naughtiness, and those are really the only sound words I can think of off the top of my head, because that’s just the kinda person I am.

I know it might seem like I have some kind of obsession with water spirits, but family legend has it that Grandmother’s Grandfather was a stream. And It’d be awesome if you did, The Price came out brilliant so thanks in advance if you do.

It's Friday again! And not a moment too soon...

For anyone checking out this thread – feel free to say hello by the way – I’ve now posted the next three chapter instalment – Part 4. Love to hear anyone’s thoughts on my madness.