#wtwspotlight

[uraniawrites]

𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝟎𝟒.

𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐒: Create a playlist for your wip.

Hidden heroes playlist!

[uraniawrites]

𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝟎𝟑.

𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐋 𝐁𝐀𝐋𝐋: Outline a scene, act, or your entire wip.

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟖.

TW: Death.

For chapter 8, Athena will have to fight with another person in order to survive.

I'll start with Athena sitting in her prison cell, trying to prepare herself for whatever she's about to do in the arena. Mark, Colin and Frank, the guards of the day, take her to the arena.

Then Athena finds out that she will have to fight Alyssa, the girl who she just saved two nights ago. Athena doesn't want to do it, but she can't let her twin brother, Elijah, feel her death. So, against her will, and trying to end up things quickly, she kills Alyssa and feels guilty about it.

Just when Athena thinks everything is over, the guards open the gates of the arena and let in two altereds... It was a set-up for her: the guards wanted to get rid of Alyssa, but didn't want to get themselves involved, so, they let that someone else kill her. Athena gets mad at this realisation, fighting and killing both altered, of course, getting kicked in the process.

In an act of revenge, Athena uses her telekinesis to tear down a small section of the arena, where 6 guards are, and kill them, torturing the last one because he used to beat Athena so many times.

At the end of the chapter, many guards beat Athena, and she blocks Elijah so he can't feel her pain, and ends up unconscious.

[lexiklecksi]

Monster

Genre: horror, pov: first person, word count: 1419, trigger warnings: monster, suicidal ideation, mental illness, paranoia, car crash

Months ago, I wrote the first few sentences of this horror short story and saved it in my notes. Today, I finished writing it. I hope you like this change of genre and give it a read!

Lights are blinding me. I flinch, holding a hand out against the white light coming closer. An engine breaks through the silence of the night. I squint and suddenly there's a car moving towards me at high speed. I stumble to the side, my heart racing. How did I end up here? In the middle of a crossroad. My fingers ache, so I flex them, slowly gazing down while my sight is still flickering from the headlights. Something warm trickles down my hand, it oozes onto the grass where I'm crouching. What is this? A realization hits me: It's blood, and it's not mine. What happened? My head hurts. The texture of the grass beneath me feels soothing. I want to lie down and never get up again. My back hurts like a thousand needles are pricking it. I roll onto my side and let out a heavy sigh. The air is freezing, my breath turns cold. Everything hurts. Oh please make it stop.

A high-pitched scream pierces the air and I cover my ears, but it only makes it louder. Am I screaming? Something flickers behind my eyes, my vision blurs and then I suddenly see it. The monster. It stared at me with overbearing eyes, saliva dripping down its chin, the hairy forearms and a breath that tastes like death. I thought I escaped, isn't that why I'm on the road? How could it find me? Wherever I go, it always follows me. You can run, but you cannot hide. A deafening scream escapes my sore throat. This time, I know it's me. A cry for help, but no one will hear it. This road is deserted in the middle of the night. Achingly, I try to stand up again. My legs turned into jelly, I fall down on my knees. Everything hurts. Worst of all, my head hurts. My head always hurts, but something feels different. Thoughts are chasing each other by the tail, but I can't grab any of them. My mind remains a blank slate, preparing itself to be eaten by the monster. Despite the brain fog, a thought emerges. A command: Run! Run! Run!

On all fours, I'm crawling towards the street. Pain shoots like an arrow to my knees, but I force my legs to stand up again. The monster is lurking in the dark, chuckling at my desperate attempts to save myself. Am I even worth saving? She told me I was beyond saving. Before it all went wrong, she tried. I'm thankful she tried, even though I don't deserve such kindness. She said, I don't hate you, I just want to save you while there's still something left to save. We compared scars. She said, I'll show you mine if you show me yours first. My body is a haunted house, only a few would dare to visit it. I can cry about the sorry remains of myself another time. Now I need to focus on saving myself. Though, it would be so much easier to give in, to accept my fate of being eaten by a monster. What's there to live for anyway? Since she left, I have been lying in my bed like it's a deathbed. My feet are still running down the road. Where am I going? There is no escape from the monster. It's roaring laughter keeps haunting me, trailing behind the line of blood drops I'm leaving on the road. So much blood. Bloody hell, I am such a loser. When they finally found my mangled body on the road, there will be no way to recognize me. There is no one left to recognize me anyway. And I would spare her the look of my fucked up body. Of my remains they scraped from the road and put on a steel table under a harsh white light. I can picture it so well as if I'm already dead.

Am I dead yet? Is this nightmare ever going to end? I haven't slept in weeks. Once upon a time, the night was my friend. It welcomed me into its warm embrace after an exhausting day. I didn't feel lonely, even though I was alone. I didn't question the natural order of life back then. That was before she came into my life. She taught me that my life was lonely and she was the missing puzzle piece to my happiness. Then she left me in pieces, shattered glass on the ground, drops of blood smeared on the mirror. How can anyone be so cruel to love me? What a sick joke love is. Everyone wants to be loved, right? I'd rather have people hate me, it's less cruel for my broken heart. Tree after tree passes me as I stumble down the road, the monster slowly walking behind me. It is taking its time because it knows it will catch me. Like a cat with a mouse, it's playing with me. Giving me just enough hope to keep on going. Even though we both know how this will end. There is no chance I make it out alive. I won't see another sunrise. How sad that I didn't appreciate the last sunrise.

A distant memory of sunshine on my scarred skin. A warm embrace on a cold day. I'm shivering as it starts raining. The hairy monster shakes the rain off its fur. It smiles at me, like a friend. I know better than to trust that smile. Friends become enemies very quickly. They cared for me, a long time ago. They stopped visiting me in the hospital a few weeks after … the incident. Not only that, but they couldn't understand that I'm still sick. That there is no cure for this kind of disease. It's eating my brain inside out. It's tearing at my flesh and no matter what the doctors tried, they couldn't help. The only visitor that kept coming was the monster. Somehow it managed to get past hospital security. Somehow it was invisible to others. All that doesn't matter. It's real, it's here and it is still going to feast on me. Blinded by the lights. A honk, screeching tires, then the road falls on my face. Darkness engulfs me.

Muffled voices near my ear, a hand checking for a pulse on my slit wrist. “Oh shit, oh shit! Is he okay?” Then a deeper voice shouts: “Darling, call an ambulance! He lost a lot of blood!” Footsteps approaching. “Shit, I didn't see him! Why was he walking on the road at midnight?” Yes indeed, why? The monster! How could I forget about the monster! I open my mouth, but just a gurgling sound escapes. “He's trying to speak! Move closer!”, the deep voice commands. “The monster … look out … can't escape … it will eat us all”, I manage to mumble under my breath. “Honey, what is he talking about? There is no monster, is it? The road is empty!”, she says, confused. Idiots! We are all going to die. More food for the monster, that must make it happy. At least one of us will be happy. I will never be happy again. Sirens in the distance. “Oh, thank God, the ambulance is coming!”, he shouts out, relieved. “Please just leave me to die here”, I whisper into the darkness.

A hand holds mine. “No, stay with me, buddy. You will live. The ambulance is nearly here. Don't give up yet! You will live, I promise!”, he speaks softly yet eagerly in my ear. Tears are running down my face. “I want to die”, I whisper in the direction of the voice. “You won't die tonight”, he reassures me. Then four strong arms lift me up. “His pulse is steady, but he lost a lot of blood. Give me some bandages! And open his vein for me, I need to inject”, one says to the other. The monster smiles his devilish smile and waves me goodbye. “Please don't leave me”, I cry out. “I'm right here”, says someone. “Stay with me”, someone begs me. It sounds just like her … impossible, it can't be her! She was taken by the monster a month ago. “He's got a hospital bracelet!”, someone shouts. “Great, where are we taking him?” Someone grabs my wrist. “It says: Mental Ayslum Georgetown.” A cough of disbelief. “Didn't that close down years ago?” Hands are grabbing my body, rearranging it. “Let's just drive him to the nearest hospital then.” Lights are blinding me, then darkness engulfs me.

Tag list: Never miss a poem or a short story I write! Comment + if you want to be added or - to be removed from my tag list. @matcha-chai @dg-fragments @silversynthesis @heartofmuse @scatteredthoughts2 @rhapsodyinblue80 @alaskaisnothere @stoic-words @september-stardust @wordsforsadpeeps @writingitdown @intothevortex @aubriestar @warriorbookworm @raevenlywrites @alex-a-roman @artsymagee @giantrobocock @theheightofdepression @writing-is-a-martial-art @beautifulimposter25 @callmepippin @a-musingmichelle @kirkshiresloss @rhythmiccreatorofbeuty @eos109 @azriel-alexander-holmes @tini-rat @captain-kraken

[uraniawrites]

𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝟏𝟎.

𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇: Write or brainstorm the opening paragraph.

Rikers, New York. Athena heard a gunshot. The noise was not so close, but it was enough to startle her immediately. The girl did not move in the absolute. It was more a precautionary habit, or trauma, than anything else; a reflex she had acquired over the years. It was nothing new and unusual. Some guard would have shot a prisoner. Anyway, Athena crouched in the corner of her bed and the cold wall welcomed her. She had been accustomed to this small, drab, horrible place for almost four years. It was a ten by ten meter cell, located in the highest security area that Rikers prison had to offer; where all the superhumans and alters were.

[uraniawrites]

𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝟎𝟗.

𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐘 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐍: Tell us how you chose the title for your wip?

Uhhh, this one is tricky.

To be honest, I'm still debating if the name that I chose for my main wip is the right one. However, after a while repeating it out loud and writing it everywhere, I ended up liking it.

"Hidden Heroes"... They're not heroes in the good moral way that everyone would think, like Captain America thinking it's the right thing to do. Nope. They have to become heroes in order to survive, to not to get back to prison and to stop being seen as the villains of the tale.

Most of them, if not all of them, are hidden in prisons all around the world just because they're superhumans and humans are afraid of them.

They accept to save humans because it's the only way to get out of prison... Is that, or dead. The best option for them is to accept, even if they resent humans for what they did to them, because they were just kids.

[uraniawrites]

𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝟎𝟖.

𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓: Set some writing goals or milestones for your wip.

I didn't plan to participate in Nano this year, but yeah, why not?

Nano goals:

Write at least 200 - 500 words every day.

Write everyday.

Milestone goals:

Reach 50k of my wip, since I have now like 26k.

To write at least half of my book without thinking it's not good enough.

Write every single day.

Since it's my last semester of my last year in uni, I'm struggling so bad because it's a heavy year with lots of assignments, but I don't want to lose my habit of writing everyday, no matter what.

[uraniawrites]

𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝟎𝟕.

𝐒𝐊𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐎𝐍: Plot structure.

I tend to write down all of my ideas (and possible ideas because they can help me for this or another wip) in different notebooks. I have like 10 of them filled with many ideas that I'm developing or plan to develop.

I also plot my books in 3 acts, it's easier for me to do it that way. I tried to use the one with 4 acts, but it's not my style actually.

The first thing I do after writing down my ideas is start to develop the ones that I think are the most important for my book. I start to picture more characters than my MC, villains, rivals, antagonists, etc. The settings, worldbuilding, powers, etc.

Then I start to write down some ideas for scenes. I tend to re read my old writing (kind of cringe when I do it, lmao) to get inspiration and to develop some scenes that I liked in the past.

My characters are my everything, so developing them (their desires, ambitions, wishes, and most important, pasts) is a big thing to me. I take my time trying to give them backgrounds, plan their families, their goals and their endings (if they die or not, lol), their traumas, their powers according to their personalities, and their personalities. Also my plot is important, so I write it and start to do some research that will help me to understand certains thing that I'm instered in).

I write down scenes, plot twists, scenes, premises of the book and every chapter, how to introduce some characters and incidents that help the plot.

Once I have everything planned, I start to write. I like to plan things first, so I can make a draft and see if some things are good where I placed them or if I can change them. Sometimes, I get random ideas out of the blue, and I write them down so I don't forget them and develop them before adding them to my book.

[uraniawrites]

𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝟎𝟔.

𝐕𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐄: Motivation and inspiration.

My first inspiration to write science fiction for Hidden Heroes was Pittacus Lore with Lorien Legacies. I can't say it's the perfect series, but it helped me a lot to understand some powers and moral dilemmas. I also read a lot of science fiction book and watch sci-fi and superhero movies.

My motivation is to publish my books. I've been plotting, developing and perfectioning my series (the prequel trilogy, the main series and the standalone sequel) for 10 long years. I can't say it's been easy, because I've been wanting to give up so many times... But I look back at the 15 y/o girl who used to get excited over superheroes, who used writing as a form of scape, who cried because she was falling in love with what she was doing and... I can't wait to publish my books, to hold my books in my hands and to finally cry of happiness because I didn't give up.