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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 4h

Me: *finishes a draft*
Also me: So now, I won't touch anything to do with this story until the end of the month.
Still me: *three days later* Let's write that scene that I want to put into the next draft 🤗
#writing #writingcommunity #writersky

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 1d

My biggest win today: I wrote a scene where Something Bad happens to my MCs and I actually made it Worse for them. I find it so incredibly hard to make my characters (aka my babies) suffer physically, but now... They will. More than I had originally planned.
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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 1d

My newest WIP is one that my brain begged to start writing in October, so I did to shut it up.
It's a literary novella with elements of magical realism and dual timeline and POV.
#WritingLifeMonthly #writing #writingcommunity #writersky

Excerpt from manuscript:
I don't mean to pry on our daughter's progress settling in, but I do take a peek inside. Her bed is the only thing that has the aura of being part of a home, the rest, is all brown cardboard and colourful mess. The desk is covered in a books, the stack ready the topple at the touch of a breeze. I sigh, remembering, vaguely, what it's like to be fourteen. And of course, I didn't get moved halfway across Europe at that age, but change schools and a city, I did.

On the railing outside, a jackdaw is perched, its blue eyes peering into the room. I stare back. It caws, whether in greeting or warning, I don't know, and springs into flight. For a split second, I fear it's going to smack straight into the french door and leave nothing but a bloody imprint of itself. I have just enough time to panic what I would tell Willow happened if she came home and found me cleaning bird guts off her bedroom window, before the jackdaw swiftly soars, gracefully avoiding any parts of the house.

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 2d

I've had a query letter for The Hand You're Dealt drafted for months now (yes, let's ignore that I wrote it two drafts ago) and I think it's solid, the comp titles will still likely change, but what stumps me is the bio part. Like, how do I introduce myself??
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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 2d

I can relate, though in my case it's: the MC is a woman? Must be sapphic 🤷🏻‍♀️

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 2d

Managed some 2.3K words total tonight, between my fantasy project and this little novella I've been working on. Probably won't be able to write as much any time soon, unfortunately.
Also, haven't posted any snippets of the novella yet, so here's one ⬇️
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Excerpt from manuscript:
"We'll be okay."
"I hope so, Wera said, eyes stuck somewhere on the horizon, where the towers of St. Mary's cut into the sky. "We have to be. We have each other, what else do we need?"
Nina smiled. She stubbed the cigarette Out in an overflowing ashtray and lifted her hand to trace the edge of her partner's jaw. It'd been over twenty years and she still marvelled at this face. Even at fifty, Wera's eyes twinkled youthfully, and her cheeks, always freckled, were reddened from the cold.
"I need nothing else." She leant to kiss her, the familiar shape of her lips curving against hers like it had thousands, millions of times before.
"Td like some food and a roof over my head, too, please," Wera laughed, but kissed her back, the kiss all the more delicious for her smile.
"All right, food and shelter, then me. I guess someone has to have their priorities straight in this relationship."

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 3d

My weekly writing update's up my Patreon - reporting my progress on all my WIPs ✒️
www.patreon.com/posts/141022...
#writing #writingcommunity #writersky

Writing Update: Oct 5th - Oct 11th | Evvie Jo is trying to write

www.patreon.com

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 3d

The Hand You're Dealt draft five is now finished at 135K words. Time for three weeks break from the story.
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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 4d

Only the epilogue remains to be revised in draft five. Then, some three weeks of not touching the manuscript before I get down to draft six.
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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 5d

That is not to say that I'll be rude if you ask a question like that, I'll just wonder. Because maybe it is my brain that processes these little technical things in addition to the plot and stuff, and others just filter that out? Maybe I'm weird? Still, it puzzles the hell out of me.

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 5d

Not to be a dick, but sometimes in writerly spaces (discords etc.) I come across questions about things that are so obvious, I can't help but be baffled. Like, as if people who ask them have never read a book or have never paid attention to the technicalities of it. And I mean, HOW?

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 5d

A glimpse into the fantasy world I've been developing and writing in recent months - my short story "Potential" - is up on my Patreon (free tier!). If you have a moment to spare to read some 3K words, here's the link:
www.patreon.com/posts/140569...
#writing #writingcommunity #writersky

Excerpt from short story:
She wondered what her mother imagined had happened to her when she failed to turn up for the night. Disappearing without a word wasn’t something she’d ever make into a habit, since leaving her mother alone made her feel uneasy. Afina had never complained about being on her own, even if a shadow crossed her eyes whenever Iluaneh contemplated going away to earn a better living, perhaps in one of the port cities. She had always been physically strong and undeterred by any kind of menial labour. Leaving her mother like that — after she had lost everyone else — felt impossible.

And now, her short temper might have made that decision for her. Except instead of bettering their plight, she was going to rot in this place of horrors, or go straight to the gallows.

She couldn’t imagine any other outcome.

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 7d

New story is up on my Patreon!

Meet Iluaneh on one of the worst nights of her life - in a jail cell, caught red-handed, in a country that sees her as lesser for multiple reasons, she can hardly imagine a way out.

www.patreon.com/posts/140569...
#writing #writingcommunity #writersky

Short Story: Potential | Evvie Jo is trying to write

www.patreon.com

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 7d

Current wordcount on draft five: 127,840. Two chapters and the epilogue left to revise. Can I make it less than 135K total? I don't know, but fingers crossed.
(Yes, I know it's still too long. That's a problem for draft six me.)
#writing #writingcommunity #writersky

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 8d

Today's writing round-up: some 1.7K in the fantasy project, a measly 400 in the novella, and one chapter revised in the fifth draft.
Mild spoiler for the snippet below: they are high.
#writing #writingcommunity #writersky

Excerpt from manuscript:
“It’s good there aren’t any bears, right?,” Iluaneh asked, shaking her out of her thoughts.

“Yeah, it’s good.” Zora was still smiling, the expression drawing the other woman’s attention.

“Can you see any bears?” Her left hand pointing vaguely at Zora’s mouth, Iluaneh frowned.

Reposted by Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️

Penstricken @penstricken.bsky.social · 8d

#quotes #writing #inspiration

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 9d

Because apparently, I read worthwhile books (according to my library history at least; not sure what she'd say about my full list that includes all the books I own and all the audiobooks I listen to.)

Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 9d

Went to return my worst read of the year so far to the library and the librarian that I talked to asked me about this specific book (since I'm a regular and she recognises me) and I went and kinda trashed it (constructively) 🥲 And now she says she'll be asking me opinions on books I check out.

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 9d

4 chapters and the epilogue left to revise in draft five. The chances of me actually finishing it this week are high. Then, no work on The Hand You're Dealt until November. Except maybe some companion short stories.
#writing #writingcommunity #writersky

Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 9d

Draft five is at 34 chapters and just shy of 120K. My need for cutting words remains unsatisfied.
In other WIPs, I wrote a total of 1.5K today (a roughly even split between the fantasy project and the novella), which also is less than I'd hoped for.
#writing #writingcommunity #writersky

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 10d

This week's writing progress report - about new WIPs and old - is up on my Patreon!
www.patreon.com/posts/140448...
#writing #writingcommunity #writersky

Writing Update: Sep 28th - Oct 4th | Evvie Jo is trying to write

www.patreon.com

Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 10d

On the positive side, finding a title for my new WIP was the easiest thing ever. The title is "Jackdaw" and it's been obvious from the get-go.
But, unfortunately, the short story I'll be putting on my Patreon on Wednesday? Still no permanent title 🤷🏻‍♀️
#writing #writingcommunity #writersky

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 11d

So I have some suspicion I might be actually clairvoyant.
And honestly, I am feeling so hyped to write this. Don't know if it's the October vibes or plain procrastination, but now, this new WIP is already 2.1K words long.

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 11d

Did a little digging, hoping there might be a blueprint somewhere, so I could imagine the interior better. And there is, but my guesses were pretty good.
But also? A former inhabitant shares a name with one of my characters - a lesbian, of course. And the lady that lived there never married 🤔

Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 12d

So the slightly spooky story I've started working on is centred around a house, right? This one, to be precise, the most beautiful, spookiest, most atmospheric house I've ever seen, one that I have never entered and probably never will. So I'll put my OCs in it
#writing #writingcommunity #writersky

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Evvie Jo | she/her 🏳️‍🌈📚✒️ @evviejo.bsky.social · 12d

So the slightly spooky story I've started working on is centred around a house, right? This one, to be precise, the most beautiful, spookiest, most atmospheric house I've ever seen, one that I have never entered and probably never will. So I'll put my OCs in it
#writing #writingcommunity #writersky

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