Shear the Lion, Fear the Lamb: Chapter 3; “You chewed on the past and breathed in the present.”
It’s kind of a random line but the way you write is very elegant, you have a way with words that makes it almost effortless to visualise the world you’ve crafted and understand the emotional subtext being portrayed. 🙏 idk you’re incredibly eloquent and it serves your writing really well; I’d love to pick your brain on your phrasing and impressive vocabulary.
- a random who only started reading ur stuff like last week
OKAY I AM SO GLAD YOU NOTICED THIS LINE. i really liked it when i wrote it and i felt that it did what i wanted it to do really well, while also not being too over the top. im not a huge fan of purple prose personally, i stick to the belief that when youre writing, you should make things count. i dont usually get all fancy with it, but when i do, there is a reason behind it.
yn in this fic, and particularly in the first three chapters, has a really wonky way of thinking and viewing the world. even without the other factors of fever cooking their brain and the dissociated/blurred way they take in the world, yn is just… kind of a poetic windbag i guess? 😭 so its much easier to get all fun and fancy with their inner monologue than it is with other pov characters.
as for my reasoning for the word choice, ‘chewing’ on the past, grinding it up in your jaw is one way you can imagine it, like rocks to gravel. however you can also chew food, and candy, and sweets. particularly taffys and caramels that get stuck to the roof of your mouth. those are two of the most common ways a reader can interpret ‘chew’ being used, and both are correct! yn is struggling to break rocks into gravel with their teeth when they think of their past, but its also getting balled up in their mouth into a thick gooey mess. both are particularly hard to swallow. also yn is being specifically coded as ‘goat-like’ and goats love to fucking chew.
‘breathing’ in the present, its a much sweeter sounding word. (ohhhh connotations i love you) there is nothing more satisfying than taking a breath when you need it. of being underwater and surfacing to fill yourself with sweet, sweet oxygen. i wrote it with the visualization of when spring first hits. you can feel this warmth in your throat, not sticky with summer yet. you can taste blooming flowers. maybe even notice that a rain shower is on the way. its not particularly overt yet considering that yns home has only been described in dream sequences, but that was the year round climate: a perpetual spring. despite the abuse that occurred back there, it is yns home, and they are fond of it. for the first time in a very long time, they can breathe easy, absorb the present as something good. just like they did when they greeted their brothers and sisters for the first time in the morning on the way to church. the relief of community.
me calling yn a windbag when i, too, am the biggest yapper. like father like son ig. but hey, thank you for reading my fics and thank you for the ask, i looooooove to ramble and talk. :] please feel free ro send an ask whenever!!
