Like An Everlasting Scar

Snippets and updates from my adventures in writing

[dcuniversewhitehawk]

Knowing that someone enjoyed my work this much, that I made someone this happy, means everything to me.

[journeytotheblackmountain]

I'm back.

"On the Job" is going to be PUBLISHED.

Step one is de-Star Wars-ifying it which will happen at the same time as Step 2: new chapters. Here's an excerpt:

The Tacer smelled like fish. Tacers always smelled like fish. The rotund male wiped a string of drool from his chin. For a second the ink black skin of his flashed under the dense white fur covering his body. This was how Tacers sweat, but Rhea couldn’t tell if the scrapper was sweating from the warm weather or from the offer she had proposed. Behind him, a cooling unit hummed out frozen air. It was losing its battle with Gremlyn’s arid climate. The Tacer’s shop was open-air, like all the shops in this part of the city.

Rhea set her fists on the table among tech fragments from a dozen worlds. “What do you think? Do we have a deal?” she asked. Her dark eyes didn’t blink as she spoke. Bound back with a head wrap, her irdu tendrils shifted nervously.

The Tacer scratched the back of his neck with short claws, more drool running down his chin. “A couple of inquiries have come in about this,” he mused.

“But I can buy it now,” Rhea cut in. “Give me an hour to get the payment from my ship and I’ll take it off your hands today.”

The Tacer rolled his eyes in her direction. His merchant’s mind was at work. “I’d need a reservation fee,” he said.

Rhea’s lip twitched. She should have expected this. The battery link wasn’t worth its weight in credits for the raw materials inside. But that wasn’t why she was interested in it. She suspected that wasn’t why anyone was interested in it.

“How much?” she asked, irdu squirming.

The Tacer pretended to think, scratching his fur. “Ten percent sounds fair,” he said.

Internally, Rhea’s head dropped, but on the outside she didn’t flinch. This purchase was already costing her far more than she’d anticipated, and there wasn’t even a guarantee it would pay off. Ten percent more would leave her eating rehydrated noodles for at least a month. But she would live.

“Fine,” she agreed. She straightened her back, rising up half a meter above the diminutive Tacer. “Do I have your word you won’t sell it until I get back?”

He grinned with a mouth full of knives. “Grutto’s word is his bond.”

[journeytotheblackmountain]

And now my apartment’s been broken into. :(

Officially on hiatus. So sorry. So so sorry.

[journeytotheblackmountain]

Still sick, friends. :(

[journeytotheblackmountain]

I know I missed this week's update.

I'm pretty sick.

Sorry everyone.

[guilty-as-battery-charged-deact]

Fanfiction is becoming people’s primary form of entertainment right now because most media right now is so cheap, bland, recycled, and sponsored by people who love money more than the source material. Fanfiction is written for free by people who genuinely love what they’re writing about. That’s why it’s better. That’s why it’s more satisfying. Fanfiction is a home-cooked meal made for yourself and for your friends. Media today is junky fast food spoiled by too much grease and the knowledge that the people producing it are being criminally mistreated and underpaid. 

[journeytotheblackmountain]

Whitehawk Writes: CHARACTER ARCS

The plot of “Ten” is all sketched out. Now it’s time for the other

Most Important Thing In Any Story™

Characters.

You may have noticed in my previous post a little note in the top right corner of the first page of my 4 Point Story Structure Worksheet.

Even back here, I was already starting to think about the title character’s personal journey. In case it’s not obvious, Ten is young Sportacus, yo. This was just one of a few ideas I had while working out the plot, and I eventually chose a different arc, but anyway.

Here’s the real TOFU of it:

LIE

GHOST

WANT

NEED

Thanks to this being a fanfic, I already have a good sense of WHO my characters are at the start of the story and who they will become by the end. Now I gotta figure out what makes them CHANGE, and that’s what LIE. GHOST. WANT. NEED. is all about.

Once again, it’s time to...

MAKE STUFF UP.

There are lots of directions that characters can go to get them from the start to the end. Think about The Legend of Zelda. Link always goes from Relatively-unknown-dude-with-a-sock-cap to THE HERO OF TIME, but in each retelling, he does it in a different way and for different reasons. What I have to do now is explore a few different ways to get my character from start to finish. I work on Character Arcs for two or three weeks depending on HOW MANY characters need arcs.

Let’s look at the ANTAGONIST’S CHARACTER ARC.

I believe that the antagonist’s character arc is just as important as the protagonist’s. The only difference it that where the hero will succeed in conquering their Lie.Ghost.Want.Need., the antagonist will FAIL. Here’s the work I did for Mr. Kicker, the primary baddie in Ten:

I poked around with three arcs to see what would happen and how I felt about those changes. I have question marks as I put down ideas I can look at later and go “Hmmmmmm....” In the end, I decided on a hybrid of Arc 1 and Arc 3.

Why???

Lie: Stayed the same.

Ghost: The Ghost in Arc 3 is more tangible. Mr. Kicker will have mental and physical scars from this and that’s better than a vague sense of abuse.

Want: While desiring freedom is a HUGE motivator, now Mr. Kicker’s desire brings him closer to Ten: the crystal.

Need: Unchanged because I think it’s so darn good. If Mr. Kicker would just stop being an ass and befriend the children, Ten might share the crystal freely and they could ALL escape.

 Now, I have character arc sketches for “Ten.”

This is a great time to look back at my 4 Point Story Structure worksheet and try to fill in a few blanks. Where can I advance the conflict between Ten and Mr. Kicker? How will I demonstrate who they are at the start of the story, in the middle (mid transformation), and at the end?

Look forward to next time: WORLD BUILDING!

DM me if you want worksheet or references or anything.

[flightpatterns]

heard some guy in barnes and noble today say “i can’t stand adult fiction they’re all like ‘i’m getting a divorce’” 

[journeytotheblackmountain]

This is why YA is better.

In every. Possible. Way. That. Ma. Tters.

[journeytotheblackmountain]

Whitehawk Writes: PLOT SKETCH

“Ten,” the story of a dozen children kidnapped by elves and forced to mine a dead dragon’s hoard.

NOW WHAT?

Four Part Story Structure

I love compelling plots, so this is where I start. Some people start with characters, but since I have a pretty good idea of who they are (yay for fanfic!) I bust out a 4PSS worksheet. My earliest one for “Ten” looks like this. Don’t worry about reading it and spoiling too much of the story. A lot of things have changed since I wrote this one and I’m not showing 80% of the story, anyway.

The most important parts of the 4PSS worksheet are... ● First Plot Point (Something irreversible happens) ● Midpoint (Symbolic death) ● Second Plot Point (Somethign irreversible happens again) ● Resolution (That’s right, NOT THE CLIMAX)

In my head, I already have a few scenes in mind, so I look at where they might fit. I know that I want Ten to find the crystal that warns him of danger and I know what the final scene is going to look like, so I write those down first. But that’s about all I know. Now it’s time to...

MAKE STUFF UP.

Getting down ideas, even mediocre ones, help me think up more INTERESTING SCENES, build the world, and see the characters more clearly. I work on this for about 1-2 weeks. I move things around, GET RID OF weak scenes and try other ones. I try out character-driven events and plot-driven events to see what makes me go, “Ooooo!” Bonus points if the idea makes me go, “Ooooo! That would SUCK!” I think you all just learned a lot about me.

From this, I make a new worksheet. The one I have now looks like this:

Different, isn’t it? Not only did plot points shift, but there’s a lot more character in there. But there’s also LESS CONTENT. That’s because the content is HIGHER QUALITY. By the way, that “Killer Hook Event” isn’t usually plot related, so it’s fine to not worry about it or even write it last.

Let’s look at the FIRST PLOT POINT really quickly.

Version 1 ● First Plot Point - Ten keeps the crystal. Will Mr. Kicker find it???

 Version 2 ● First Plot Point - Ten promises to make Quota. Will he be able to do it???

Version 2 is an improvement because now the PRESSURE is on Ten. In Version 1, all of the action was on Mr. Kicker to find the crystal, and that’s not very interesting for a Plot Point. Better to make it an underlying tension than a main one.

Now, I have a sketch of my plot for “Ten.”

This is enough for me to move forward with because I know that as I work on character and world building, I’m going to think of more stuff and it’ll be easier to fill in these blank spaces.

Look forward to next time: CHARACTER ARCS! P.S. DM me if you want a copy of the 4PSS Worksheet I use.

[journeytotheblackmountain]

It’s decided. I’ll be starting work on “Ten” in the coming weeks.

Congratulations, “Ten,” for being the more compelling story!

Instead of just doing the usual snippets and progress updates, I thought I’d catalog the MAJOR POINTS of my WRITING PROCESS. (I know I like to see how other writers’ brains and processes work. It lets me know I’m not crazy.)

I’ve already done some PLOT sketches, CHARACTER arc work, and SETTING research, so I’ll be talking about those soon. Then it’ll be onto scene and character development! WOO HOO!!!

[journeytotheblackmountain]

Character Arcs

As I prepare for the upcoming NEW STORY, I’ve been working a lot on character arcs.

So, I went back and looked at “On the Job” and “On Another Job” to see how I did on Kanan and Hera’s character development through the course of each story and it was VERY REVEALING.

Basically, I NAILED IT for both of them in “On the Job.” Kanan is only able move forward in his relationship with Hera by taking a step closer to accepting his Jedi past. Hera faces the trauma of her lonely childhood and opens herself to having a relationship with Kanan. Score!

But in “On Another Job,” the character arcs were a lot WEAKER. I always felt like this story. Although it was very exciting and plot-heavy, was the weaker of the two and THIS IS WHY. Kanan overcomes his horrible visions and escapes from Giza by taking another step forward on his Jedi path. But HERA DOESN’T CHANGE much. She has a great antagonist in the form of Talik, but I underutilized this and didn’t have a personal growth in mind for Hera as I was writing. Sure, she’s a bad-ass the whole time, but she doesn’t grow as much as Kanan does.

If I were to do it over again, I think I would play up Hera’s internal conflict of loyalties  between enacting change in the short term (i.e. helping Free Ryloth) and sticking it out in the hopes of helping the galaxy in the long term (i.e. continuing her team-building/intelligence-gathering activities).

For those who are interested, I am working with the LIE, GHOST, WANT, NEED model of character arcs to learn more about what I’m doing right and what I can improve in. Here’s a link to a cool, Star Wars related video about it:

https://youtu.be/DukMwCPhd3Y

[journeytotheblackmountain]

Hello everyone! I’m still officially on writing break, but I thought I’d share a SNIPPET from one of the stories I’ve been working on in the background.

From a writing perspective, this one’s a new challenge because it’s told in the first person present tense.

From a fandom perspective, this is a very AU of my favorite kids’ show: Lazytown!

Comments always welcome! (^_^)/

  The mag-tram jostles from side to side as we round another silver smooth building. Bands of unbroken blue sky flash between the high-rises and then disappear again. Adverts meant for the foot traffic below blur by. Next to me, a man in his twenties loses his footing and bumps into my backpack, making me stumble.

“Sorry,” he mutters quickly and then his eyes rake over me from foot to face. His mouth shifts into a lazy smile. “Maybe I’m not sorry. What your name?” he asks raising his chin. The edge of his goatee is asymmetrical over his throat.

“Sola Z,” I answer.

The man shares a twisted lip with his friend who’s been staring at me over his shoulder. “Should have known you were a chrome.”

“I’m a Lei-Z,” I correct. It’s hard to keep the annoyance out of my voice. Chromism–discrimination against genetically altered people–is something I learned about back in the Lei-Z Centre, but haven’t encountered too much of in the six months since I left.

“Yeah, I could tell by your name,” the man scoffs.

“I’m proud to be a Lei-Z,” I say, stretching myself higher than my 165 centimeters.

“Did they program that into you, too?”

I wince at the ignorance. “Lei-Z doesn’t program us with anything. We’re-”

“Expensive toys,” he cuts me off. “Rescuing kittens and teaching kids to eat their veggies.”

His friend laughs. “One hundred percent vegan, right? How’d you like a taste of real meat?” He makes a lewd gesture towards the front of his pants.

The rest of the tram has gone silent. Eyes are watching us from turned-down faces. I can feel the blood drain from my cheeks. I think back on my training and try a response that one of the female instructors taught us. I straighten my back as I say, “I’m not interested in cocktail wieners.”

The friend’s face goes slack, but the first man chuckles just as the mag-tram slows to a halt. The bell rings, rin-rin-ronn, and the doors hush open.

“This is my stop.” I join the group of people moving towards the front. “Good luck with your chromism and small penis,” I say resettling the bag on my shoulders. A few people chuckle, but no one says anything.

[journeytotheblackmountain]

Hi everyone! Being on writing break is HARD! I’m always thinking about stories and characters and plots! So I’m keeping myself busy by making covers for some of the NEW WORKS I’ve been putting together.

Take a look at the covers and synopses and tell me what you think!

Which one would you be the most interested in reading?

“Ten”

The mines are all the children have ever known. They forgot their families, homes, and names long ago. Called by number by the cruel Mr. Kicker, the children dig gems from the side of a frozen mountain lost beyond a thousand twisted valleys. Even the optimistic “Ten,” whose well-intentioned games don’t always go as planned, dutifully fills his bucket with jewels to earn his meat and gruel. But when the oldest of them disappears, it’s up to Ten to take up her mantle and protect the other kids from Mr. Kicker’s wrath. Can he keep everyone safe and collect enough treasure before the dreaded Delivery? Or will Ten be the next to disappear?

“Welcome to Lei-Z Town”

In a semi-utopian future, genetically engineered humans called “Lei-Z” help keep citizens safe and promote healthy living. But being created “above average” is far from a guarantee of being successful, happy, or even liked. When Sola Z applies for a position as the city’s second guardian, she quickly uncovers a complicated world that doesn’t always live up to her “above average” expectations. With the city’s power grid faltering and old shadows rising from the past, will two guardians be enough to keep Lei-Z Town safe?

[journeytotheblackmountain]

😥OMG, I'm sorry everyone!😥

Those outlines I'm working on are for NON-Kanera stories.

...

I'm sorry if I let you down...

...

But I still hope you read them...

😓😓😓

💧💧💧

[journeytotheblackmountain]

What it's like to be on "break"

It's been over a week since I finished "On Another Job." After posting the final chapter, I declared myself on writing break for 4 to 6 weeks.

That lasted about four days.

I've already written out the plot points for one short story and one full length novel.

What does this mean like, existentially?

It means...

I love writing.

It's my destiny.

So...

Look for more cool things from me in the near future!

(^_^)/￣

[journeytotheblackmountain]

Thank you to everyone for reading and supporting this fanfic!

Be sure to check out the concluding chapter, now on Archive of Our Own!

[journeytotheblackmountain]

✨WRITERS CHALLENGE✨ Give us the last sentence of your WIP and then send this to five other writers!!! 📝

The way he moved has purpose, like a shark has purpose, and I’m sure that there’s only one place he can be going.