Happy Storyteller Saturday!
What's one writing skill (craft, process, whatever) you feel like you're doing well at and what's one you'd like to improve?
Thank you for the ask!
Y'know, "skill" is debatable, but finishing things. I have finished 10+ works, among those 5 full size novels*, which teenage me who never made it past chapter 6 would never have believed.
*I guess Glass Shards is still awaiting major edits, but I finished it once in German already :p
As for the improvement… those fucking prepositions, man. I will throw them all at in under against into to behind and above a wall.
Also I'm gonna frame two pictures of "this" and "that" and put one next to my damn PC and the other in the bathroom.
Do you think The Rognarrs aka the look like red big and ferocious lizard can hurl superwoman/Kent??
So— This might seem like a cop out answer, but it really depends!
If she’s on Earth, or has been under a yellow sun for quite a while, then no. It feels like an incredibly rough, painful grip. But the ragnars are unable to pierce her skin.
And a cut for those who’ve watched the most recent episode as it’s slightly spoilery—
In a hypothetical where she is in space fighting in the space around Viltrum, she would be able to be injured by them.
It’s been a while since she’s properly sunbathed, and passing different types of suns don’t help. She’s not as vulnerable as the Viltrumites, but they are able to pierce her.
Happy Storyteller Saturday! What is a favorite line you've written recently?
Hi there!
I wrote this in ch10 of Wild Type, and frankly I'm just a sucker for the rhyme lol
Through some trick of the low light, the late night, and pure animal fear, Ozzy kept finding himself startled by the illusion of shadows moving in the corners of his eyes as he walked.
The year is almost over! Did you have any goals for 2024? Did you reach them? How do you feel about it?
What are you most proud of this year?
hii Elli, thank you so much for the ask!!<3
oh yeah, I think all my goals were writing-related, and I did reach them, yes :)) This time last year, I was still working on draft 2 of When White Crows Cry, and I wanted to start querying with this book in the summer. I started in early autumn, so I'll count it as a success lol. I finished the second draft, the third, the fourth, gone through a couple of beta-reading rounds, and polished it enough to feel comfortable about querying. I also wanted to outline the second book, which I did! so yeah, I feel pretty happy with my progress this year :))
besides the fact that I actually got this book to the point where I'm genuinely happy with it, I'm very proud of my bookbinding project. I knew I wanted this book to have a physical body, and dammit I was gonna do it myself !! I'd made a whole post about it, but here are a few pics :))
Have you ever brought a specific object or thing from your real life into your work? If so, which and why?
Happy STS!
In my original version of the very awkward Resh/Carr conversation at the end HD, I had given Carr a ball of fidget rings (bc that's one of my fav fidgets lol). Unfortunately, it didn't make it into the final version :(
Let's just imagine Resh buys them for her on down the road <3
For those curious, they look like this:
Although hers would probably be all silver. Not sure they could color them in the fantasy world lol.
Happy STS! Your characters have a lazy day. Do they sleep in? Have their favorite couch snacks? Marathon a show? Lay on the floor for hours?
Happy STS a week late! Thanks for the ask and the opportunity to talk about my characters here for the first time in quite a while!
It's funny, because this is the kind of fluffy scene I have attempted to write between Louisa and [Redacted] many times -- except it always seems to quickly devolve into something involving angst, whump, and/or international intrigue. 😅
In other words, they are not very good at relaxing. 😅 [Redacted] is the type who reads dense scientific papers for fun in his spare time. Lou has been known to relax with a novel, but it's usually far from a beach read. Plus, her anxious personality makes it hard for her to really relax for long, and she's never really had the attention span for marathon TV binges -- she just wants to jump forward to the last episode to see what happens. [Redacted] prefers documentaries, of course. I do know for a fact that they both love hammocks, so if the weather is nice enough wherever they happen to be located, you'll probably find them in one. Maybe they'll share some kind of sweet snack (perhaps Namur pralines, a Luxembourgish treat that plays a role in the revised version of Never Broken, previously GSNBTR), or smoke some cannabis, or both.
Hello! I return your STS-- I see that you do a lot of fanfic as well as original writing, which is awesome! Engage with what interests you! I wanted to know what your favorite part of worldbuilding was as well, and what worldbuilding is like in fanfic, if there's worldbuilding at all? I hope that doesn't sound rude, I just haven't really engaged with fanfiction on the writer or reader's end too terribly much, and on one hand, you would think the world is already established, but on the other, I feel like there have to be gaps you need to fill in sometimes? Thank you!
Thanks for returning the STS!!
So, first a disclaimer: I am still very new to worldbuilding! At least, worldbuilding in-depth. I used to just make sure I had basics figured out, enough for the story to progress, and then just figure things out as I went. Worldbuilding used to be super daunting to me 😅 and still is sometimes, I won't lie! But recently I've found myself really invested in it, and it's been a lot more fun than I could have imagined!
Alrighty, that outta the way...
A TL;CR as well because I kinda rambled on: favorite part of worldbuilding is magic systems and was the whole reason I began writing Not of This World. As for fanfics, I personally rarely worldbuild with the exception of my most beloved fic (by me. i adore writing this fic) Eternal, where I did quite a bit of worldbuilding especially where the magic system is concerned.
My favorite part of worldbuilding:
My favorite part of worldbuilding is definitely creating magic systems. I love writing high fantasy, and creating a system (or systems) of magic has always been a part of worldbuilding I've enjoyed, even when I was hesitant to do much worldbuilding. Usually, it's the magic systems that get me really invested in a world.
My current wip Not of This World began, really, with the initial thought of "what if magic physically manifested on a person?". Then it turned to considering what kinds of magic would have a physical manifestation, what those manifestations would look like, why would certain manifestations occur (arms vs legs vs hair vs eyes etc.), what are some kinds that wouldn't have much physical manifestation. This then led to considering, okay, what if people practiced more than one kind of magic? What would the consequences be? What would they look like then? And then as I started writing some characters, I also started considering would these characters feel pain when learning magic? Could this lead to these characters becoming disabled? How would they accommodate those disabilities in the world?
And I gotta say, exploring all that has been probably my favorite part of writing NoTW so far. I could talk all day about the magic system beyond like, the questions that led to my decisions, like full on just ramble about the answers to those questions and more, but I shall move on for now ^^
Worldbuilding in fanfics!
By the way, not rude at all to ask about this! Especially if fics aren't something you dabble in, I think it's really great that you asked, cause there are definitely differences I think! Personally, I don't worldbuild too much in my fics unless I am writing an AU and even then, it's still not often. Often I stick with the canon world, and only worldbuild if I am drastically changing the setting. (my awesome friend @hihopelessromantics does some fantastic worldbuilding for fics though!!)
I will talk about the one fic that I have done more worldbuilding than usual for though!! It's my darling child, Eternal. It's a canon rewrite and divergence of the anime/manga Nanatsu no Taizai (The Seven Deadly Sins). In a lot of aspects, I kept what was from the canon world, because I enjoyed how that world was already built. It was one of the things that drew me to the series originally on top of the potential the characters all had.
However, just because I liked most of what was in the world already does not mean I liked all of it. As you mentioned, there are definitely gaps in places, and in others, there are downright plotholes that, when planning a canon rewrite, just... gave me a headache if I'm honest. And then in some instances, I just outright did not like what was in canon.
Ironically, for me, this happened to be the magic system. Specifically how some characters were impacted by magic they either possessed naturally, were bestowed with by higher beings, or cursed with in some way. So, a lot of my worldbuilding for Eternal has focused on this, altering the magic system to make more sense to me but also, in my opinion, utilize potential that was not met in canon. Figuring out these aspects of worldbuilding genuinely makes ne super excited to write the fic, because I'm excited to share my twists with others and get their takes on it, and see how other's may like it compared to the familiar canon worldbuilding.
I think for me, I have two mindsets when it comes to worldbuilding: original fiction worldbuilding and fanfic worldbuilding. For the first, it's more of a sense of "What do I want to see/explore? How far can I take x concept and what would it then influence in culture, characters, and landscape?" For the latter, for me personally, it is very much a case of "What do I want to change?" And I'll admit, for fics? If I worldbuild too much/too far from the original world, I end up wanting to just turn it into an original story instead. That's how I got wips like You're Something Else and The Prince's Guard (which I still need to put info about here eventually lol).
Happy STS, Grey! For Those Lovely Cuspids: If your WIP was a color, which color would it be? And why? Sending good ☆☆ vibes ☆☆ and good luck to you. - ✨ Enc
Hello, Enchant! Happy STS to you too! I appreciate all the good vibes and good luck!! ✨
I was thinking and debating about this question for so long, and I've finally decided on a color. If TLC was a color, it would be a deep purple. I've always associated Icarus with the color pink because of his hair and his personality while the vibes of TLC are generally blue. When I make mood boards for the WIP in general I always lean towards having some sort of blue in there. Since Icarus is such an important part of TLC because well, he is the protagonist after all! He creates this purple sort of vibe whenever I think about TLC as a whole.
