arias_hollow | Aria's Hollow: A Formal Introduction

What is this blog about?

This blog is where I post a mix of media reviews (primarily television, books/comics, films, and video games), personal updates, and my own writings. In essence, it is a fandom blog with a splash of personal blog tossed in as well. Common topics are my opinions on stories/storytelling, aromanticism, asexuality, and updates on various hobbies and projects of mine. Friendly/civil discussion and comments are always welcome, and I am open to being sent questions both on specific posts and through private messaging. This is a SFW, spoiler-centric blog. Tags are mostly self-explanatory, though some tags like 'writing woes' and 'language woes' are actually just my general tag for posts about my writing or language learning experiences. For other policies, see my profile.

Who runs this blog?

I'm Autumn (Who's Aria? Aria is also me, I just don't go by that name as often in conversation), an aroace storytelling enthusiast. I'm in my 20s and have loved reading and writing for pretty much my whole life. I'm an avid fan of speculative fiction in particular, and grew up loving television/film and video games alongside books. I love story analysis, both of the mechanical elements and the more emotive elements (I'm very big on character arcs and interpretations in particular), though my own reviews tend to be some mix between proper analysis and just rambling out my thoughts. How often I post varies greatly, but usually you can expect something at least once a month; though during events or if I am watching/reading more than usual there may be a notable increase in content production for a time.

Some of my other prominent interests include learning languages, music, drawing my OCs, sociology, and cooking/baking. Most of these I haven't pursued quite to the extent I would like to, but they are nonetheless things I enjoy or find interesting. Most of my art posting happens on Pillowfort, but I may eventually share some here if I start drawing a lot more. Otherwise, the nature of the blog probably won't change much, so feel free to drop in any time and chat. I might take a little while to respond, but as a rule I do try to get back to anyone who comments on my stuff.

Where else can this blogger be found?

Tumblr
Pillowfort
Archive of Our Own
Fanfiction.net
Twitter

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

::waves:: nice to meet you! =) I posted on Fanfiction a LONG time ago (1998?). I've moved on to working on my own stuff, but occasionally I think about writing fanfiction again. =) Hope your weekend is going well!

Nice to meet you too! I generally write a lot more original fiction than fanfiction as well, though the intent is to always get back to my current fics eventually. But any writing is good writing. :) And thanks, I hope you had a good weekend as well and have a good week!

Good point. Writing is writing. What are your works in progress right now? How long have you been working on them?

Well, I've probably started more WiPs than would be reasonable to list in detail in a comment lol, but I'm happy to give a mini intro to a few of the ones I've worked on most consistently!

Sol Witch - A superhero story that I originally created in elementary school, but have continued to periodically revamp and write for over the years. It follows a 14-year old girl who finds a magical sword with a soul trapped inside it, and gaining super-strength and the ability to create and control fire, has to fend off magical dangers to her city.

Forgotten Shadow (series, working title) - This story is - currently - a dystopian urban fantasy following four teenagers who get wrapped up in various ways in the schemes of an evil magic cult and the conflict between its enemies. I created two of the main leads while daydreaming in middle-school, and they were originally comedy characters with little context, but I liked them so much that I kept developing them more until it slowly morphed into a full fledged story.

Rogue & Wizard (working title) - A high fantasy buddy film-type scenario where our heroes live in the Kingdom of the Dead, and our leads are a hyperactive wizard and a suave but standoffish rogue who was raised by the undead. (Both are ladies because I wanted a buddy-pair that was all female for a change) This one I started working on a few years ago roughly? More recently than the above two for sure, but it's still been a little while.

Silver Gale - My most recent project by far but one I've certainly fixated on, this story is intended to be more or less a musical, gothic magical girl series. It follows five aro-spec adults who are semi-randomly selected to inherit five magical crystals that contain spirits inside them that look like tiny octopus. Using their new magic powers they have to investigate the opening rift between the world of the living and the world of the dead, including various paranormal cases and trying to figure out who's orchestrating this re-opening of the rift and why.

And those are the main ones! Silver Gale and Forgotten Shadow in particular have had my attention lately, since FS is the only story that I've completed an entire first draft for, and SG is just incredibly fun for me to work on lol.

What kind of projects have you been working on?

It's clear you love fantasy and character-driven stories! What got you into this theme? How much progress have you made on each one?

My main project is a massive science-fiction epic taking place on worlds far from here, where a group of political and religious overseers called 'The Masters' try to avert wars between worlds. They are a mix of the Catholic Church, the League of Nations, and the United Nations. While it takes place in the 'near future' for our world (and eventually Earth will become involved in these wars), it loosely follows World War I, the Interwar Period, and World War II. The current book follows one young woman who is fitted with a prototype implant that takes over hew body, which causes her to assassinate an Envoy, much like Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Some of the major themes focus on our addiction to technology, individualism, and how far removed we in America are from cultures and traditions. It's my belief the more technology we have in our lives the more removed we become from the basics of life, including skills that once were critical but are now forgotten.

I hope you're enjoying your weekend!!!!!

Your project sounds cool! Sci-fi is always fun.

And I'm not really sure what got me started on liking fantasy and character-driven stories, it's pretty much always been a preference of mine. The mix of intrigue from the fantastical and emotive core of the character drive is very appealing. Plus, it kind of mixes what turned out to be both my love of dramatic, high stakes stuff and my interest in sociology/psychology and how people think.

As for my progress on my WiPs, so far it's not very impressive. xD On Forgotten Shadow I have completed draft 1 and and begun the restructuring process for draft 2/3. For Sol Witch I got part way through draft 1 before decided it also needed to be entirely restructured. And then the other two are still in the 'I mainly write short scenes and the like to figure out the characters and world' stages.

I get the whole restructuring thing. I got up to about 200k in this work before realizing so many things needed to be reworked that I decided to go back over it. I'm making a promise to myself I won't just edit the first three chapters into oblivion, but make actual progress.

Like you, I love character driven stories. I tend to focus on psychology, sociology, and the impact of technology on our lives, for better or worse. I suppose the more technology we integrate into our lives, the more we desire, and the further removed we are from nature and relating, empathizing with others. Who are some of your characters? What is your writing process? Do you use an outline?

Aria's Hollow: A Formal Introduction

Hai!

Re: Hai!

Re: Hai!

Re: Hai!

Re: Hai!

Re: Hai!

Re: Hai!