I bustle around my small but cozy cabin, reaching a hand up occasionally to brush the drying herbs hanging in neat bundles from the ceiling. Their soft aromas twine down to greet my nose. A sneeze behind me brings laughter to my mind but not my lips; I learned long ago that my familiar does not take kindly to being laughed at, no matter how playfully.
“I wish you would not do that,” Akie grouses, his familiar voice sounding in my mind like pebbles tumbling gently in a stream. “Your magic needs time to settle and here you are dashing it about without a care in the world.”
“I am not ‘dashing it about’,” I mock his grave tones with a raised eyebrow. “I am simply saying hello.”
“Well, say hello some other time.” Akie turns, tails swishing behind him as he makes his careful way to the hearth. We’ve come to a careful agreement, my familiar and I. I no longer leave piles of books and materials strewn about the cabin, and he no longer keeps to his full, majestic size inside. Although Akie only has five of the nine fabled kitsune tails, the damage a careless movement can cause has left scorch marks burned into the log walls.
Akie halts in front of the wood pile, carefully biting down on some logs. When he reaches the hearth edge he sets his load down, nosing his pile onto the flickering flames. With a pop hiss the fire flares higher, greedily lapping at the logs. That done, he lays his head on crimson-dipped paws, blue eyes staring into the flames. I leave my familiar to his musings and head over to my kitchen table to finish darning the holes in my clothes.
We pass a companionable hour, each lost in our own thoughts. Akie occasionally shifts to a more comfortable position, while I have to stand and stretch my sore limbs. It’s on one of these stretch breaks that a sudden and furious knocking at the door falls heavy in the air. Akie leaps up with a yowl, fur standing on end as he flattens his tufted ears against his skull. I startle mid-stitch and jab the needle into the soft pad of my finger.
Thrusting my chair back, I hiss a curse as I shove my bleeding finger into my mouth. The solid oak door rattles again, sounding this time as if beak or bone are being struck against the surface. I fling the ornately carved door wide open as I mutter countercurses under my breath.
“Leave that last one,” Akie breathes into my mind, referring to the one that keeps unwanted guests out. The trio standing on my doorstep seem far from dangerous but I’ve learned to trust his judgment when it comes to mythological beings arriving on my doorstep.
“Well, what do we have here?” Akie purrs, weaving between my legs to sit regally in front of me. He faces the glittering beasts, who hastily bow. I look over the three, recognizing patterns I’ve only seen in the stars. “Aquila, Aries, and Leo. What brings such distinguished constellations such as yourselves to my doorstep?”
The flurry of sounds that erupts from their throats surprises me and I grip my door frame for support, fingers brushing lightly against the rune spells carved there. Akie flicks his ears at me and I relax slightly. If there were any true danger from our visitors, he would have taken care of it by now. Since I can speak neither animal nor divine, I am forced to wait somewhat impatiently for a translation from my fickle familiar.
Their conversation stretches on before the constellations all nod and make their way to the edge of the forest. Akie rises gracefully to his feet, growing to his larger size as he does so. His maroon and orange tails wave in the gentle breeze as he lowers his front end to kneel in front of me.
“Haste,” he murmurs. Gripping his soft white fur, I slide onto his back. He raises his head and yips twice before bounding through the forest after the constellations. The chilly spring wind brings tears to my eyes and I hunker deeper into Akie’s warmth, winding my hands through his fur in vain attempt to protect them from the biting cold.
“Care to tell me what we’re doing dashing through the forest before I’ve had my breakfast?” I complain, only half joking. Akie only grunts in my mind and I heave a sigh. I know he’ll tell me in his own time, but sometimes I wish he would just tell me what’s happening.
After half an hour of relentless wind, I feel his muscles bunching beneath me as we slow. The ground starts to grow softer, hard-packed dirt melting into soft mud that squelches beneath his paws. The constellations, having set the breakneck pace, barely even touched the ground. Once we fully stop I shake my head to clear the noise of the wind, only to realize it’s not the wind roaring but vast quantities of water.
“There’s normally not a river here-,” I start to say, before a screaming cry cuts me off.
“No.” Although I’ve grown used to his taciturn self, even this curt response sets the hair on the back of my neck standing up. “Save the cub. Fast.”
I start to ask, “What cub?” when the dying shriek of millions of blades of grass rips through my head. A loud crack draws my attention to a widening gap a few feet away. The sound of the ledge hitting water makes me lean over Akie's neck, forcing him to shift his shoulders protectively to keep me on. I stare in open-mouthed awe at the furiously raging river below. Somehow, enough water has appeared to create a raging river below. I catch sight of whole trees bobbing along, roots dangling in the air. The scream rises again and I sweep my eyes over the river to find out who or what is making that noise. I glance over a half-fallen tree several times before my eyes catch a sparkle clinging to the branches dipping dangerously low above the river. I gasp as the bear cub slips further towards the water, claws scrabbling furiously against the damp tree bark.
“Light!” I bark as I leap off Akie’s back and dash towards the edge. Akie gives a vicious shake, fur mohawking against his back before a spark races through it. His tail and paws burst into vibrant flames more real than fire itself, illuminating the scene with a bright intensity. I squint down at the sheer cliff drop, mind racing. I need a rope, but how do I get one? The uncontrolled chaos of the river is making the magic too unstable; crafting one from plants is out. We came straight from the cabin without my usual supplies so I can’t just reach into my satchel. I glance at Aki as he apparently reads my mind. He lets out a series of yips, causing Aries to step forward and lower his shaggy head. Looped around his horns and over his neck lies a wispy, blurred halter. His low bleat sounds deep in his throat.
“Use his halter,” Akie advises. “It’s Orion’s belt, it should give you the length you need.” I almost laugh at the irony of using a hunter’s belt to save a bear cub, but let it pass. This is no time for distractions; the cub is slipping closer to the river with every passing heartbeat.
I slowly reach up and grasp the halter around Aries’ muzzle. The belt feels murkily intangible, with soft shocks running up my hand. It almost feels like when you fall asleep on a limb and it starts to wake up, shooting static into your muscles. It doesn’t hurt, but I know if I hold onto the star material for too long, my hands are likely to grow numb. I quickly tie as strong of a knot as I can, conjuring up thoughts of strength and unity. Aries offers his horns to me gracefully and with a grateful nod, I loop the end around him. He plants his feet and I give him one more glance before lowering myself over the edge and towards the fallen tree.
I reach the cub quickly, but realize I have no way to communicate. Grabbing a panicked bear, albeit a small one, sounds like a great way to have us both end up in the river. A screech overhead draws mine and the cub’s attention to Aquila soaring down towards us. She lands as lightly as she can on my shoulders, but her talons still manage to draw blood. Add that to the river spray and I send up all the prayers I can that I can still haul us up before my hands slip right off the end.
“Tell the cub to stop struggling and grip the tree as hard as he can,” I bellow, voice straining to be heard. “I’ll get close enough for him to climb onto me instead. I’ll need both hands free to climb, so he’ll have to hold on!” Aquila nods before turning to the cub. I can only tell the silent exchange is over when the cub’s furious thrashing slows and his claws sink deeper into the soft, peeling wood. Aquila launches herself upward, forcing me down the rope a few feet faster than I wanted and rubbing my hands raw. I hiss in pain but grip the rope tighter.
Landing on the outstretched tree limb, I crouch right in front of the cub with my back to him. He lets out a low cry before heaving his weary, soaked body up the tree. I reach one bloodied hand down to him and grasp his forepaw, using it to drag him up closer. I’m grateful for the strength spells lining my clothes; without them, we would have slipped into the river and been dragged beneath the current. They’ll also help me drag us both back up the muddy cliffside. The cub can only make weak grunts now, too worn out from his struggle. Climbing on, he wraps his paws around my middle and tightens until I almost black out from the pressure. Tiny spots of heat leap into my chest as his sharp claws pierce right through my clothes.
“Less tight,” I gasp out, coughing and heaving huge gulps of air when he lessens his grip with a squeak. “Hold tight, we’ve got a long climb ahead of us.” Aquila squawks somewhere behind us as I brace one foot against the mud wall. I start to haul us up, reaching one hand as high as I can manage, muscles straining against our combined weight. With a jerk that almost shakes me loose, the rope starts rushing towards the sky. I yelp and hug the rope tightly. Aries must be pulling us up, using his enormous strength.
It seems like forever to my aching muscles before the brown is replaced with gray sky and grass. The minute our heads crest the edge Akie lunges forward to grab the cub’s scruff. He pulls the cub off and I collapse onto the grass, trembling. Akie nudges me worriedly. I weakly pat his nose as he nestles beside us, using his fire to warm our trembling limbs. I turn my head to look at the cub, passed out from exhaustion. The constellations set up a loose guard around us as I study our new friend. His fur shifts color subtly, catching the light with a soft twinkle. Trying not to wake him, I whisper to Akie.
“Is he-”
“Yes,” he interrupts, lowering his head to sniff the cub’s fur. “Jal, meet Ursa Minor. You just saved his life.”
I laugh incredulously. “Ursa Minor, huh.” I let my head fall back onto the ground. Soon, we’ll have to find a way to return him home. After a little rest, of course.
I’ve seen a lot of videos going around of urban-dwelling critters coming to humans for help with various problems, ranging from boxes stuck on their heads to young trapped down a storm drain, and it’s gotten me to thinking:
On the one hand, it’s kind of fascinating that they know to do that.
On the other hand, setting any questions of how this sort of behaviour must have arisen aside for the nonce, does it ever strike you how weird it is that we’ve got a whole collection of prey species whose basic problem-solving script ends with the step “if all else fails, go bother one of the local apex predators and maybe they’ll fix the problem for no reason”?
well, come to think of it, we’re at the top of the food chain but we almost exclusively hunt and kill prey out in the country.
raccoons and possums and foxes and crows all succeed in an urban environment because they’re opportunistic and observant. and almost none of them would have observed us pounce on one of their species and then start eating it, you know? a lot of them would have observed that we scream and chase them out of wherever we don’t want them to be, but other animals are territorial too. but there’s a number of situations where humans feed whoever’s bold enough to take them up on the offer, and we do tend to pull garbage off of other animals as soon as they slow down enough for us to catch. ‘a human got me but nothing bad happened’ is a much more frequent thing than ‘a human got me and tried to eat me’.
anyway like, we’re masters of our environment, we make weird shit happen all the time, we have lots of great food and sometimes we share, and we almost never eat someone. it makes sense for urban animals, over the last century or so, to just keep an eye out for opportunities to use us, and to pass the habit on to their kids.
It really is a weird, funny thing. Like yeah, technically they’re predators, and they get pretty screamy, especially if you try to take any of their stuff… but given the chance it seems like they’d rather help us out and sometimes they’ll just randomly give you food, so???
I mean, I guess in fairytales and myths we’ve got our fair share of stories about dangerous people/creatures who might well kill you or otherwise ruin your life, but to whom people nonetheless turn for help in desperate circumstances. So it’s not like the perspective is exactly a foreign thing to our own mindset, really… It’s just that, y’know, we can’t actually go make a deal with the faeries when there’s something we can’t figure out.
(Which brings me to an interesting thought about the ubiquitous rule about never eating the faery food lest you find yourself forever unsatisfied with anything in the human world - and the potential parallels to the dangers of feeding wildlife human food lest they become addicted and too tame and dependent to be safe for either themselves or us. Hmm.)
Okay, but that last bit with the Fae…makes almost perfect sense.
Of the stories I’ve read, the food of the Fae, its origins and effects, are often strange and/or obscure.- Just like our food to most animals.
The Fae are strange beings that seem to know weird things that give them power or an edge over us.- Just like us to animals.
The Fae work and live by strange rules also often nonsensical or obscure to us.- Just like us to animals.
The Fae can easily obtain vast amounts of things we consider rare/precious/desireable, and have no problem with dishing it out wantonly for no other reason than amusement.- Just like us to animals.
The Fae sometimes are amused by having us around, but only on their terms and IF it amuses/intrigues them.- Just like us to animals.
-they have arcane social conventions and the punishment for not paying the correct respects right is banishment, if you’re lucky, and death if you’re not.
-they have wild and unexpected parties where you’d least expect to find them, but if you’re bold enough to entertain them they’ll feed you and caress you and play with you all night.
-time runs strangely in their realm. their homes are summerlands: warm and bright, no matter the season. there is always fruit on their tables. but not everyone who comes in from the cold is let back out again.
-their games are cruel and complex and unfair, but if you can beat them by their own rules you will access riches beyond imagining.
-sometimes they just fucking fuck with you, the fuckheads.
-they will absolutely steal your children away. when your children return— if they ever do— they will come back strange. they will have magic earrings or necklaces or bracelets. they will know things they shouldn’t. they won’t know things that they should. your strange children might survive, might even prosper, might take wives and husbands and have children of their own. but they will always be marked by their time away from your world.
-the price for pissing them off is always death. sometimes just you. sometimes your whole community.
-if you are very good, and very smart, and very brave, they will grant your wish.
This actually provides a good explanation for why you have such inconsistency about whether their wish granting is benign or perversely twisted. They can’t fully understand you or your attempts to communicate either. They grant wishes the way you would grant a squirrel’s wishes: with lots of guesswork, assumptions, and projection.
And like that trope where they grant a wish perversely and then get mad at you or punish you for being ungrateful? Looks a lot less like utterly asinine unreceptivity to criticism and a lot more like how you might react if you try to help a wild animal and it bites or claws you.
How much you have changed after you went to sit by the fire with the Others, said Wolf.
How little you have changed after I left the Old Pack, said Dog.
You have baubles jingling from your harness, and your coat has grown soft to invite stroking hands, said Wolf.
I have an iron collar of deadly spikes, said Dog, and my teeth have not grown dull.
You are sleek and well fed, said Wolf, and then she asked, won't you share a lamb from your flock, so that I may prosper this bleak winter, as your sister?
I will not, said Dog, for the Others have given me the sacred duty to guard them. The Flock gives its body so the New Pack may keep its strength and use it to nurture the next generation. I have made my pact to uphold this cycle. You have made no vow, and run from your mother's flank to scavenge the middens of my New Pack.
I will give you not one lamb, Sister Wolf, and if you wish to take one, we must fight, pronounced Dog.
“the sea doesn’t care about you!!” ok well just because the ocean is unspeakably powerful and can’t stop the rhythm she’s held for uncountable eons just for one person doesn’t mean she can’t love you. loving and changing are two different things. we wouldn’t have life without the ocean…. and yeah, if you don’t respect her and treat her cavalierly, you’ll perish. but how can anyone say the sea doesn’t mourn when she holds so much life and beautiful secrets in her belly? why are we putting atheism on the ocean that loves us?
you want the ocean to change for YOU? you think that being tamed is the only way for her to prove her love??? go sit on a rock by the seaside and listen to the tide. find some gratitude for one of the only things in existence that always keeps its promise to come back
Humans could have never guessed that, in the far future, they would need to cover their faces with fancy masks in order to not scare other species.
It’s so strange, isn’t it? To think that fragiles humans could give so much fear to others that they have to cover their most human features. There’s species that look so much scarier than you - things that float, things with sharp razor teeth -, but you are the only ones that need to cover yourselves.
Everyone, however, seems to be terrified of humans. Their small teeth, single pair of eyes, weird-shaped nose… Separated, those things don’t scare anyone. But together, and combined with the bipedal shape and weird claws humans refer to as “nails”?
No one can look at all of this combined without wanting to run away.
Humans have found this to be strange, but they quickly got used to it. They made fancy masks, experimented with cloths, made new fashion trends to they could adapt to their new alien friends.There were laws regarding what humans should hide from others, too. They all varied from planet to planet, but were always there.
The earthlings wanted an explanation. Why were they the only ones who had to do it? Why just them? Why not others? Why?
They researched for a long time. Libraries, databases, rumours all across the Universe. Some even tried to contact spirits via an Ouija board in order to get some answers! It obviously didn’t work, and that story should be left for another day, but, eventually, an answer was… Almost found.
It was apparent that every single alien culture had a myth about the death of the Galaxy. A war so big and outrageous that it killed almost everything - and what was left either died, or was locked away for someone to find. And you know what one of the things that was left looked like?
Descriptions always referred to it as “bipedal, furless and scaleless, with two things that could see, two to smell, and another to consume”. The world’s first universal boogeyman! A little thing to scare children off.
Humans, however, didn’t know what to do with that information. Sure, they matched the description, but so many species also matched each other’s descriptions of monsters! Why would they be any different?
…
…
…
But you don’t care, do you?
You are a human from the 21st century. You are almost ashamed of how soft you are. How your insides break so easily, how all it takes is a single conflict for you to go to the hospital. You go to your little friends and talk about how fragile you are. “Look at me!”, you say, and you just don’t care. “Look at this scar I got!”
Stupid human. You are one of the few that can survive so many scars. Stupid, foolish human, who forgot that your parameters of survival were made inside a death world.
But you don’t care, do you? You will finish reading this. You will think of this as fun. You will forget.
Stupid. Foolish. Naive. Little. Human.
Born inside a death world, raised to hate, made to protect.
Earth was the prison someone made to contain you. And you grew to love it. You grew to care for it. You grew to become a part of it. And then you tried to get away from it, to distance yourselves from the nature that you broke your bodies to become a part of, because suddenly you felt all too good for it. And then you killed it.
But you were scared, weren’t you? You were soooo scared of killing your own little prison. You were so terrified for it. You replaced your claws with nails and your canines with fragile teeth and your eyes with souls to become a part of it. The prison made trees and changed its shape so it could be a part of you. And you were so scared of that sudden acceptance, weren’t you? Earth loved you, but all you wanted was to be alone.
So. You killed it.
And then you felt even worse. Because your species was made to be social, and the planet became a part of your stupid little pack, and now that there wasn’t anyone else to worry for, you began to worry about yourselves, and realized that your destiny was to die on this miserable wasteland all alone because you were too afraid to lose something you loved.
There’s acid on your stomachs, electricity on your bodies and blood on your veins. Things that kill. You were made to kill. Not care. Kill.
And you just had to kill the only part of you that didn’t feel remorse. You just had to do it, didn’t you? You killed it and ate it raw because you were starving, and then your little minds crumbled down in shame because now you could think clearly.
You rebuilt Earth. Made it love you again. Centuries of trying to do better, that’s what you did. Centuries of going to other planets and making them love you just like your home does, but you were small and stupid and did not realize that your parameters of living were based on a deathworld that hated you first before realizing you were a monster that was thrown away to die.
Everyone knows what you did. Everyone knows what you were. A monster, a weapon that killed the galaxy before being found and thrown away to the most lonely deathworld this Universe has ever seen.
And you just had to kill the part of you that made you hate the world, didn’t you?
Just like you simply had to kill the part of Earth that despised you.
I'm kind of fascinated by Ares/Mars as a character. Understandably he's not very well liked. Because he generally represents the undesirable parts of war. Bloodlust, fighting, terror, chaos.
But he's also a god of courage, and a god you want on your side when you go into a war. He also seems to respect women more than other Greek and Roman gods, generally. There's few direct references to him forcing himself on people that I've found. They exist, and many of the references to his lovers are vague so we can't be sure what the women thought of the situation so that should be kept in mind.
His daughters are often prominent in the myths, founding the Amazons and becoming various queens and notable warriors within that tribe. In fact, I'd wager his daughters often take a bigger space in our collective consciousness than his sons, Queen Hippolyta being among one of his most famous children. And he gives courage to his daughters in equal measure to his sons, giving one of his infant daughters the ability to suck milk from her dead mother and survive by force of will.
He's also surprisingly weak. He loses a boxing match against Hermes when they fought over a woman. He gets trapped in a jar for several months by giants. He isn't always on the winning side.
In the Orphic hymn 65 to Ares it says he is "pleased with war’s dreadful and tumultuous roar." but also, it asks him for peace. "Stay furious contests, and avenging strife, whose works with woe embitter human life;... for arms exchange the labours of the field; encourage peace, to gentle works inclined, and give abundance, with benignant mind."
Ares Mars is confusing. Like he's still an embodiment of some of the worst parts of war, but he gives power to the worthy regardless of gender, he's the one you go to to beg for peace, he's the one you go to for courage. Also, he's not indestructible. I think I get why the Romans smushed him together with a fertility god. You need land for agriculture. What's the only way to get more land in the ancient world? War. And Rome, above anything else, was into farming and war. Putting the two together isn't as illogical as you think.
I also always think off how Athena Minerva is almost universally loved even in the present day. But why? She's also a war god. She gets to sit in the tent seeing soldiers as chess pieces while Ares is on the field with them. Arguably she is just as responsible for carnage and woe as he is.
When death goes missing and the mortals are left to suffer through their wounds, never dying, it's Ares who notices. Not Athena. Not anyone else. He's also the one who does something about it and goes to save him.
Do I like Ares? No, not really. Like anyone else I don't particularly enjoy war. In fact, I wish it didn't exist. However, I do think that as a character he's way more complicated than he's often given credit for.
Also one of his sons is a literal dragon. Hell yeah.
A girl stands alone in a field. The weight of the world is placed on her shoulders.
A farmer walks past. “please. help.” The girl says.
The farmer responds. “can’t you see I’m hauling this load of hay? How selfish must you be, asking me to set aside my own burden to help you”.
The farmer leaves.
A girl stands alone in a field. The weight of the world is placed on her shoulders.
A noblewoman walks past. “please. help.” The girl says.
The noblewoman responds. “Help you? You seem to be managing well on your own. How lazy must you be, asking for me to help a burden you can very well carry”.
The noblewoman leaves.
A girl stands alone in a field. The weight of the world is placed on her shoulders.
A knight walks past. “please. help.” The girl says.
The knight responds. “Whoever would I help you? Every man is given a burden to carry. How weak must you be, asking your burden be relieved”.
The knight leaves.
A girl stands alone in a field. Tears flow down her face. Her back is breaking. Her arms are so weak. She hasn’t felt her legs in days. The weight of the world is still on her shoulders. She lets it go. She is crushed.
News of the girl’s death reaches the capital.
“What a shame” said the farmer. “if only I could have helped”.
“What a shame” said the noblewoman. “if only I could have helped”.
“What a shame” said the knight. “if only I could have helped”.
A great memorial is erected in the capital, honoring the girl who gave so much.
“So selfless” said the farmer.
“So driven” said the noblewoman.
“So strong” said the knight.
“If I had met the girl” says the farmer, “I would’ve taken the weight from her. It would be easy for me to stow it in my cart”.
“If I had met the girl” says the noblewoman, “I would’ve taken the weight from her. I carry so little, it’s the least I could do”.
“If I had met the girl” says the knight, “I would’ve taken the weight from her. I am strong and noble, I could surely carry such a burden more readily than she”.
“Run into a cave and break your ankle so that people have to come find you and they see you lying at the bottom of this beautiful cave and maybe there’s a waterfall and the light from the crystals makes you look really beautiful and they say “Are you okay?” and you say “I think so” and they say “oh my God have you been here alone this whole time with a broken ankle” and you say “it’s okay” and they say “you’re so brave” and you are brave and you look so beautiful surrounded by cave crystals and everyone stands over you and says “oh wow” and “you poor beautiful thing” and “I’m so sorry we let you run into the cave but I’m so glad we found you” and let them carry you home and promise to be your best friends forever and that everything’s their fault and also they named the cave after you and you’re prettier than all of your enemies and your enemies all died of jealousy while you were in the cave.”
— Daniel M. Lavery, How To Respond To Criticism (via boringoldraphael)
E.A. Deverell - FREE worksheets (characters, world building, narrator, etc.) and paid courses;
Hiveword - Helps to research any topic to write about (has other resources, too);
BetaBooks - Share your draft with your beta reader (can be more than one), and see where they stopped reading, their comments, etc.;
Charlotte Dillon - Research links;
Writing realistic injuries - The title is pretty self-explanatory: while writing about an injury, take a look at this useful website;
One Stop for Writers - You guys... this website has literally everything we need: a) Description thesaurus collection, b) Character builder, c) Story maps, d) Scene maps & timelines, e) World building surveys, f) Worksheets, f) Tutorials, and much more! Although it has a paid plan ($90/year | $50/6 months | $9/month), you can still get a 2-week FREE trial;
One Stop for Writers Roadmap - It has many tips for you, divided into three different topics: a) How to plan a story, b) How to write a story, c) How to revise a story. The best thing about this? It's FREE!
Story Structure Database - The Story Structure Database is an archive of books and movies, recording all their major plot points;
National Centre for Writing - FREE worksheets and writing courses. Has also paid courses;
Penguin Random House - Has some writing contests and great opportunities;
Crime Reads - Get inspired before writing a crime scene;
The Creative Academy for Writers - "Writers helping writers along every step of the path to publication." It's FREE and has ZOOM writing rooms;
Reedsy - "A trusted place to learn how to successfully publish your book" It has many tips, and tools (generators), contests, prompts lists, etc. FREE;
QueryTracker - Find agents for your books (personally, I've never used this before, but I thought I should feature it here);
Pacemaker - Track your goals (example: Write 50K words - then, everytime you write, you track the number of the words, and it will make a graphic for you with your progress). It's FREE but has a paid plan;
Save the Cat! - The blog of the most known storytelling method. You can find posts, sheets, a software (student discount - 70%), and other things;
If you want a piece of writing advice: write a story that is what you needed to hear at whatever age your target demographic is. I can guarantee you there’ll be someone out there who needs to hear it as much as you did. And maybe you’ll help them the same way someone else’s story did for you.
As a european i sometimes forget furefkied are actually real and not american folklore/cryptids. Like you’ve got friendly little bugs that glow in the dark….. b r uh
