Underwing Ask: Do you prefer writing dialogue or action? (Bonus if you share a snippet, but no pressure!)
Action, usually! Dialogue is typically the bane of my existence, though there are times where it comes almost naturally. In the Amphitrite/Poseidon thing, it’s come along well (and is also a lot longer than I thought it’d be fghkolp).
Have a more dialogue-heavy snippet from it.
Her lips curve. “So where is your power? Tell me, great one, what domain is yours?”
His face flushes. She thinks that if she was on land, he’d tackle her. He’s apparently not fool enough to dive in the water for her. Unfortunate. It would have been a fun sight. “What is your domain?” he redirects.
“I am Amphitrite,” she tells him. Defeat causes his eyes to darken. He recognizes the name. “I am goddess of the deep and the creatures that dwell there.”
“A sea patron,” he clarifies, lip thrusted out.
One corner of her lip rises without consent. “Yes.”
He wrinkles his nose at her reply, staring petulantly at the sand under his bare feet. He drags the ball of his foot against the sand. “So you mock me,” he grumbles. “I am just searching for what you have.”
Amphitrite laughs. “I belong to the sea,” she says, waves lapping against the deep gills slashed on her throat, curling over her collarbones. She looks like her creatures, like a thing of the ocean. It is of no question that she belongs. It is of every question that he does. “You do not. It is as simple as that.”
Hi there! Here for the Underwing Challenge! :D I gotta ask, what's the world *outside* of SWORD like? Just like ours, barring a few changes (obviously, including a full-on digital world), or something more dystopian (driving people to seek the relative peace of SWORD)?
Hi there! :D
The World outside of SWORD is meant to be exactly like earth! (except given the few changes so the whole digital world works!)
It's actually set up so it ties in with a few Historical events! (Ex; Millard was a serving as a military pilot when his plane was shot down and he went MIA, Millard's father died serving in WW2, CB lived through the Vietnam war and it's had lasting effects on her, and the Cold War caused a lot of tension between Millard and his son-in-law, Ian, as he was Russian. There's also a few mentions of the Second Sudanese Civil War.) Most of those were wars, but there are other examples too!
So, I guess other than the few changes in technology so the digital world of SWORD can exist, it's meant to be identical to the Earth we know, specifically Earth in 2017, as that's when the story takes place.
Sorry it's not more interesting! The whole dystopian idea actually sounds really cool! (But it doesn't work with the overarching story sadly.)
Hello to you and pup!:) Day 14 is still for Calypso haha: we've seen snippets of what she thinks of other gods, but what do they think of her? (Is there any god with a leviathan body or any other sea creature, or is it only Calypso?) Can one god kill another?
Hello! We all love our sassy goddess, don’t we? :)
Poseidon thinks she’s a nuisance and would prefer that she stays out of his castle. He doesn’t like that she’s so close to his wife and has an open invitation. Thanatos thinks her a bother, but like, a friendly bother. Hades likes her and has a favor he owes her (that she intends not to call but that he insists upon keeping). The other gods are fairly neutral — don’t have much of a personal opinion. Calypso’s pretty solitary, uneventful. They see her as potential aid or (more likely) an obstacle to work around. Or they hardly think of her at all. As long as they keep distance from the sea, she is nothing to worry over. Some gods know to work with her, that she is reasonable and can bargain their way into letting a ship pass without the Kraken’s interference (because the gods know or some do but mortals do not).
There is Charybdis and Scylla, but they’re not gods. Calypso is the only goddess like she is, who is both creature and divinity. If there were more, than mortals would probably know. She’s an anomaly so no one suspects she’s the same as the Kraken — is just isn’t something that is done. Gods can, in theory kill each other but death does not mean quite the same thing to gods. It either creates a vacuum of power and/or they can be reincarnated (maybe that’s the reason behind conflicting parents? But that’d mean Calypso has died a couple times and idk if she would have or how it would have worked,,). It’s something to avoid, nonetheless. War is started so easily (eyes Eris’ golden apple) and death of a god is a sure fire way to make one happen. And wars admist divinity is far bloodier than anything mortals could imagine.
Hello!!! You mentioned a little while ago that Soulwood is Not chronological. So for day 13 of the challenge, how do you do that? Do you write beginning to end? Are there flashbacks? Or dual timelines? How do you keep track of them?
Hey!! I did mention that. It’s indeed A Thing.
Draft 1 was written scene by scene. Some of the early scenes are getting tossed as I was finding my footing, but once I did hopping between times became easy. Draft 2 is... making sure everything is fleshed and pretty, basically. The only docs I have are draft 1, draft 2 and a draft of cut scenes/lines. It’s... a little weird. I’m usually a very chronological person, but Soulwood, I think, benefits from the changing between past and present. And writing it as it is has been pretty natural, so I don’t know how well I can describe how I do it, but I attempted.
Short answer: there are two timelines. I've mentioned a third, maybe, but it's not really there. There's present day and TGWNN time. It's a dual timeline situation where we have two chronological timelines, but they're mixed together. The tones/scenes of both are different enough that I don't get them mixed up. Writing Soulwood as it is has been natural and I could not imagine it being completely chronological as the jump between TGWNN time and present would probably give someone whiplash. They work best weaved together, two halves of the story.
(My original attempt at answering was long and convoluted but I didn't want to delete it so I put it under a cut. Fair warning that it might not make a lot of sense. I got rambly. But it's basically how the different timelines work.)
Long answer:
There are two timelines that are the focus/bulk of Soulwood. In draft 2 we might also visit Keithia pre-TGWNN but we’ll see. As of now, it’s mainly scenes of the time where TGWNN was a thing and present day scenes. They’re very different. TGWNN-time scenes narration is a bit tainted by the present, but Keithia still has a naiveness to her and she’s still in the ‘present’ (with TGWNN). Those scenes are typically soft and fluffy with bits of foreshadowing sprinkled in. Present day scenes are different. The Keithia there is harder, a little less naive. There’s no counterpart for her to bounce off, it’s just her and her forest, like everything started (except for the things that are different).
The tones of the two are different. The pacing of them is different. Keithia is a little (or more than a little) changed between the two. They’re very different but also bounce off each other. In draft 2 I’m going to do a pass just to make sure that the scenes (because it goes time1 scene, time2 scene, time1 scene, etc.) flow together well, even if they’re not at all chronologically close. You know, make sure there’s a reason it’s like this, a reason you see this scene after the last and that scene after that.
The flips between times should probably be jarring or hard to keep with, but it (to me, at least) seems pretty seamless. I couldn’t imagine Soulwood being chronological. It never really was, technically. It’s just what happened and it worked, so that’s what it is and now I’m making it better. Now I know the story so I can do it better justice. It’s also probably worth noting that the scenes are all pretty short (a few hundred words, I don’t think any reach 1000), so that probably helps. The scenes are also fairly contained. Each scene is just... it accomplishes one big thing. It has one purpose and it does it. They're all a single moment. TGWNN arc focuses on the relationship with TGWNN, present day arc has aftermath and consequence (I don’t think I’ve shared the prompt or gone into detail about the present day arc, have I?). Each scene is firmly set in the timeline it’s in — in some cases, the scene/time skip is almost the flashback itself.
Also should probably note that scenes within a timeline directly follow the previous. Each timeline is chronological— no late TGWNN scenes followed by meeting TGWNN or anything. We meet her, know her, the arc ends. Same with present day arc. The two timelines are just mixed together. So it’s. Kind of chronological? Halfway?
It’s one of those things that will be better seen, I think. But have a little trust! I believe it all works well, even if the explanation may have been a little convoluted (sorry). I tried! Maybe got a little off track, but I’m sure your answer is in there somewhere.
Day 27 greets you two, and it's for Calypso<3: what's her biggest insecurity? What's the first thing she notices in others? What was her lowest point?
You do love her, don’t you XD Don’t worry, though, you’re not the only one.
She’s mmm, I don’t know if afraid is the right word, but she doesn’t want to be known as just the Kraken. The idea of it unsettles her, leaves her with an empty gap in her chest she can’t fill.
She notices... I don’t know, maybe their power or potential for amusement first. Probably the latter, though the former does impact it. She only really meets with mortals for fun (aside from Kraken risings), so she’ll walk shore or stroll about the ship and try to pick a mortal she thinks would be most fun to mess with for an hour or so.
Her lowest point is. Pre-Ocean’s Heart, would probably be letting Amphitrite deal with Poseidon. You’ll see a bit of her regret in that side story (up tomorrow probably). Over the course of Ocean’s Heart — getting trapped. Letting a mortal have enough power that he chains her from her home and her other form and her divinity. Knowing that she was the one who granted him the power and the trust to make that possible. It’s something old her would have mocked.
Hello Nikky and best pup! Day 26 is sowwy for being late: How does Poseidon see his life? Is he proud of all he's done overall, does he wish he could've tried something different at one point? Is he satisfied with his current life? How self-aware is he?
Hello! You’re not late, don’t worry. It’s the 26th for me.
He is.... hmph. Well, for one he’s pretty self-absorbed. Not all that self aware. He lores his hold over the ocean like he wasn’t once stuck screaming at the shore because it rejected his attempt to claim it. He’s fairly proud — he still wishes he got the sky instead of the sea. But since the early days, his divinity has rooted to something strong. He knows he’s powerful and he’s proud of that, if nothing else. He has enough to take things he wants now and that is nothing to scoff at.
His life is... more something he’s settled for. It’s comfortable. He has a strong domain and a strong wife who will not rise against him in fury like Hera so often does with Zeus. He almost thinks he’s better because he managed to chain an obedient wife and Hera spits ice at all the trophies of her husband’s affairs. It’s his fault, he thinks, for taking a goddess of marriage to wed than turning to take every mortal woman he could take. He’s content and proud of what he’s managed to make with the little he started with. He thinks he’s smarter than he is and because he’s one the throned — and one of the big three, to boot — he’s never really been proven wrong.
Hello to you and your pup:) Day 12 question: is there any criteria places must meet before they become magical? Something that must've happened beforehand? Before they get a Guardian, what is one thing that tells the others they're magic?
Hello! Puppy says hi too. We just finished playing fetch.
So magic is technically everywhere, or almost everywhere. There’s always an undercurrent of it, bits scattered in the dirt, blowing in the wind, swirling in the sea. When enough magic gathers in one place, enough to react and actually do things, it’ll sort of burst out and make a soulplace/haven with a Guardian to match.
It’s rare that enough magic gathers, though and it can go wrong. There’s not different sorts but different... flavors (?) of magic. Like how there’s a difference between rivers and lakes and the ocean, or how there are different types of trees. Magic is sort of similar. Some flavors (I don’t know a better word) don’t mix right and instantly warp to chaos but only for a moment (chaos made by havens are longer lasting and more devastating, ruining the area even after the chaos has run out of power). But when it’s all compatible and successful (sometimes a guardian isn’t made quite right or the haven is too weak), it begins. Forests start with a tree sprout, lakes start as a little puddle and wind places start as a tiny gust or a teensy cloud. I haven’t figured out the specifics of soulskys yet. It might change.
But as for prerequisites/things that help a haven settle and grow strong enough to stay, it changes depending on the type. Forests need good, fertile soil and flow of wind. Lakes need some sort of basin and a particular mix of magic. Bits of sky need gentle wind and a great space of open sky. Forests are the most common type of haven, the easiest to make. Lakes are rare. There’s other types that I need to figure out, too. Maybe a desert oasis. That seems super magical. But should also be super rare.
But magic pre-haven and post are different. Loose magic is, well, loose. Haven magic is grounded to the place and that’s what’s visible, what’s real enough to touch. Loose magic cannot do anything until it changes into grounded magic.
Thank you for the ask! This was good to figure out.
Hello to you and your pup:) Day 11 question is for Keithia, or more specifically, her forest: does the forest try in any way to protect her? Is there some deeper Guardian-place bond?
Hi to you too! :)
Her forest is more or less just a forest. It’s not sentient. Havens in general are more like... vessels that are strong enough to house magic and guardians are made where the magic is. Keithia is tied to it, but it’s a fairly one-sided thing, with the barest scraps of exceptions.
But, depending on how you look at it — yes? Sorta? It’s what substitutes as her soul. So when there’s a large enough imbalance it’ll buzz in her bones, or pinch at her mind. It can very weakly communicate when something is amiss, will pulse her blood with weak warnings of a change (river redirection or a new grove of trees or a different settling place for a kind of animal). It’s rare that her forest needs to bring something to her attention, though it holds the capability if it’s needed.
As for a bond— kind of? Yes. Her forest grows based off Keithia’s care, knows that she loves running in the trees so it keeps sturdy branches that won’t break under her weight. It knows she likes to lay in grass and keeps a meadow just for the purpose, raises a flat bit of stone for when the grass is too ticklish. It adapts a little shelter by that meadow, for her to sleep when it is raining. It will sometimes hum in her bones for no reason other than she cares for it well and it loves her. This is an example of a good guardian/place bond. Some guardians do not care for their soulplace as well and are not granted little boons. It cares for her in tiny little ways because it is grateful but all it can do is what ordinary forests are capable of.
