Hello! An origami bird flutters in the land before landing on your lap. It unfurls to reveal the ask you ordered!
Your question is: Does your world handle illness? Scientifically, homopathically, magically? If materials are neccessary are they easily accessible? What happens to those who struggle to access these materials?
Hi thank you for the ask!
So illness is handled similarly to how it would have been in the dark ages or medieval times where herbs and other natural sources were the primary form of healthcare.
However on top of that is magic which covers potion making and healing involving spells. But healing spells are not silver bullets. They don't just heal injuries and that's that. It requires the caster to have a good knowledge of anatomy and a strong understanding of what they're fixing.
The more complex the injury, the more skill and magical energy it takes to heal the wound. Even then, it doesn't always work. I depicted my main character, Lissandra, receiving a deep wound on her leg and the healer managed to get a better outcome from fixing it. But her leg still bears scars and it causes Lissandra discomfort now and then ranging from minor weakness to itching.
I hope that helps answer the question somewhat and I'm happy to expand on this if you're interested!
it's that time of year again where I try my best to assign WIP thoughts to my Spotify Wrapped songs!! Send me a number between 1-100 and I'll write a scene / write down some thoughts / link you a snippet that the song helped me imagine!!
Let’s do Priest Dante for this one! Need to talk about him more. Thanks for the ask sea!
🍎: where was your oc born?
Like the Grand Bishop, he was born and raised in Kathados, so he’s spent his entire life there. Only the Vanguard and the Soldiers, along with a handful of people with special permission, are able to leave, so he’s never seen much of the outside world. Some days he wishes he could go travel around and see the world, but knows he shouldn’t; it’s too dangerous for followers of Zakel like himself
💛: how many languages does your oc speak?
Only two; the Alrenian common and, due to his position as a high-ranking member of the Messengers of Zakel, knows Old Kathodian, which is what’s essentially Latin or Ancient Greek for them
🐍- How do you deal with it when you come across a plothole?
I sit on the edge of it, my little shovel in hand, and stare into its depths as I contemplate my life choices.
Once I finish doing that, I try to look at what happens before the hole, after the hole, and at what's currently in the hole and figure out where the problem actually is. Like, if it's a "[character] would not do that" sort of issue, for example, I need to figure out if the problem is that [character] would, in fact, not do that, or if they would, but I just haven't done a good enough job of convincing the reader of that, yet.
Sometimes, though, a plot hole comes up because something I've written legitimately makes so sense with an existing bit of worldbuilding. When that happens, I have a choice: I can change the plot hole, change the worldbuilding, or dive headfirst into the plot hole and change the rest of the story to accommodate it. I chose the third option near the end of the first draft of The Art of Empty Space, which is how I ended up with an entirely new story lol
Not sure how much you saw of it while I was posting last year, but the basic premise of the first draft was a Beauty and the Beast style, monster-in-a-castle story, with the curse centering around Baz (the monster) and his real name. The plot hole came at the very end, when Lienzo was meant to learn the true name and break the curse; the problem was that anyone who learned the monster's real name would immediately forget everything about him (as, you know, part of the curse). What would make Lienzo so special? Why wouldn't he forget, when everyone else did?
The solution was: he wasn't special. He did forget. And that's now where the second draft of AES starts: after all the events of the original draft. Now, instead of it being a Beauty and the Beast retelling, it's a mystery thriller where Lienzo has to uncover what's already happened to him, break the cycle of this magically-induced amnesia, and break the curse on the beast and the city (and figure out who originally cursed them and why).
So, short answer: sometimes I fix the plot hole. Sometimes the hole fixes the plot 🤷
Thank you so very much for the ask hen <3. Hmm.. let me see what I can come up with just for you.
Oh what the heck, have a little snippet from an old WIP that I want to re-visit at some point.
“Ye ken, ye’re gonna lead yer father to an early grave if ye keep this up.” The beardling kneeling in front of the massive statues of Moradin and Throff started and glared at the Paladin, who had just sat down in a pew at the front of the Cathedral.
“I thought I made it clear that I am not in need of a constant escort.” the younger dwarf sniffed, rocking back on his heels and continued glaring at the newcomer.
I'll give you two guesses as to who these two are 😘.
Thank you to the fabulous @that-cyber-writer for tagging me in this Writing Questions Tag Game! D.M. Foyle, as @that-cyber-writer is also known, is working on a nail-biting crime thriller entitled Tangled Wires starring Raz, a brilliant hacker on the run from the Russian mob. Interested? Go check out Tangled Wires and all of Foyle's projects here!
I'm tagging (no pressure!): @inkovert @outpost51 @aquadestinyswriting @merlina87 @sarah-sandwich @lucianinsanity @winterandwords @threeking @avrablake @the-finch-address @thawinoakenshield @the-down-upside-finch @lunarmoment @sodaliteskull @kingkendrick7 @harps-for-days @cee-grice @tate-lin @rubywrite @poppy-in-the-woods @hippiewrites @the-down-upside-finch @lexiklecksi @linaket and anyone else who'd like to participate!
✦ What is your absolute all-time favourite idea you’ve ever had?
The one that inspired the novel I'm writing right now, The Sorcerer's Apprentice! Initially, I just wanted to explore the relationship between two individuals at completely polar opposite moments in life: one, an elderly character, preparing to die and looking back; and the other, a youthful character, just beginning to come into their own, in early adulthood, still figuring out who they are and what they believe in, facing forward. It would be a lie to say that the novel isn't still very much built around this dynamic, between the elderly sorcerer Valeriano and his young apprentice, Altaluna. But it's grown from the original idea to incorporate issues and topics I hadn't expected; climate change, environmental disaster, colonialism and neocolonialism, the body as a machine, contemporary theories of perception, abusive family dynamics, and more. These topics and their associated plot/world ideas are likewise what makes The Sorcerer's Apprentice my favourite written piece to date. It's like the more I dig, the more I enjoy what I'm doing. If the first idea was compelling but lukewarm, the accumulation of ideas that has ensued as I attempt to do the initial idea justice has taken it to the next level.
✦ Is there a question you’ve been asked that really stands out to you and that you still think about sometimes?
Not that I can think of off the top of my head! Sorry :S I wish I did.
✦ What is your favourite part of being a writer? What parts could you take or leave?
The trouble is, you can't have any of it without all of it, so this is a bit of a trick question, to which I don't really have a clear answer. I love it all. I hate it all. I struggle every step of the way. And I have the time of my life, always.
✦ What is your greatest motivation to write/create?
It's changed over the years! As a child, I just liked exercising my imagination. In my teens and early twenties, I wrote to escape or to envision the life I wanted, the person I wanted to be, and how I wanted to be perceived by others. Now, my greatest motivation is rage. I am one very pissed-off adult lol I suppose the difference is also that now I actually have something to say, something I feel is worth saying. And I feel that very strongly, which helps me get over the bad days at the desk where no words are coming or where I doubt my capacity to write at all. Because it doesn't matter. This -the message of my novel- has value to me. It's more important than my small personal feelings of insecurity or ups and downs. So I'll find a way. That's my motivation. It's not really that I want to write, it's that I have to. It's that I can't live in a world where this isn't said ~ and where it isn't said the way I'd like to say it.
✦ What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever read or been given as a writer?
The best advice I ever received was from a world-renowned author in his 90s who told me that it (writing) never gets any easier, so basically, your choices are either quit or keep going with the knowledge that it's never going to magically turn into a picnic, no matter how much experience/talent you have. I also got some lovely advice a couple years ago from (I think?) Anne Lamott in her writer's memoir Bird By Bird. In one of the chapters, she mentions that if you lack inspiration, you can always write to get your own back, aka. you can always write as a way to avenge yourself. And that just flipped a switch in my brain. I don't think I'd be writing The Sorcerer's Apprentice without that little seed she planted.
✦ What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out writing?
Nobody knows what they're doing. You'll never be more prepared than you are right this minute. But also, you have to live a little before you can know what you want to say ~ the same way you have to live a little to figure out who you are. Writing is organic. It grows with you. You have to let yourself grow, so the writing can follow.
✦ What is your favourite story you’ve written to completion? Link it if you’d like and can!
I don't have a favourite completed story to share, so I'm sharing a link to my current WIP, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a fantasy novel exploring the interplay between colonialism, capitalism, and environmental catastrophe through the fraught relationship between a mysterious sorcerer and his protogé.
✦ Which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? Why do you say so, and how do you personally feel about their ideals?
Valeriano, the antagonist of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, is the only character I've ever written whose views are absolutely despicable in almost every way. I'd be very concerned if my readers don't find his mindset controversial. The man is sexist, racist, and classist; he discriminates against any LGBTQ+ classification that isn't his own (biphobia, anti-lesbian, etc.), he's morally perverse, and he bristles with a sense of in-born superiority. In short, he represents the polar opposite of my own personal views and ideals.
✦ If you, when you first started writing, met you now, what would younger you think?
A younger me would definitely not recognise me, let alone understand why I'm writing what I'm writing. And that's how it should be! I'm glad little me enjoyed a time when all that mattered were unicorns and fairies, and the world was bright, open, and good. I wouldn't take that away from little me for all the world, not for anything. Plus, I have the lingering feeling that little me would be proud of me anyway. Even if she doesn't quite get it. She'd trust me and my choices. We'd be different, but we'd be cool, you know?
