Category Archives: My Writing

My Writing

The Seventh Short Story: The Hunter

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Hello, readers!  Welcome to the Seventh Short Story!  Over the years I have written several single-page (ish) stories that were tucked away somewhere and forgotten.  I decided to dig them up, start a blog series, and post one of them on the seventh of every month for. . . as many months as I can find stories, honestly.  This one is rather long, but I wanted to kick off the series with it.  Enjoy!

~*~

The Hunter

“How long has it been?” Aubrey asked. “How many days?”

Claudio shifted his attention from the busy street to the young girl beside him. Her dark brown head covering was hardly level with his shoulder. “No more than three weeks,” he answered with an apologetic shrug. “‘Tis no worse now than it was a few days ago. All our chances are the same.” He always told her what he said to himself–the things he told himself when he couldn’t afford to count up the cost. He could not tell if that was comforting for a terrified girl. “Ahnna will be fine,” he added.

Continue reading The Seventh Short Story: The Hunter →

My Writing

Villainy

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That disturbing moment, that happens while you’re comparing all your characters (from the story you’re currently writing) to your acquaintances, finding a real person that matches each one’s personality, to help you write them more realistically–that disturbing moment when you realize that your big, power-hungry, super evil villainess is. . . you.
I mean, we all knew writers could be cruel, but really?
#awkward #writerproblems #nieo&star
Faith, Life, Literature, My Writing

A Writer and the Word

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Since I attended a girls’ conference when I was little more than a decade old and committed to read my Bible every day, I’ve known it was important for me to read the Bible as a Christian.

While I did not honor my original commitment very well at that stage, it was the beginning of my journey towards making the habit of picking up my Bible every day.  It’s a been a roller coast to say the least, but I stuck with it fairly well.

Then I started reading “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers, and he posed the question: am I worshiping God while I form good habits, or have I started worshiping the habit itself?  And I began to wonder if I was worshiping the habit.  Was I reading my Bible to “be a good Christian” or to learn more about God?  In the circles I move in, reading your Bible every day is “cool”.  Was I persisting just so I could smile and answer affirmative if the topic of daily reading ever came up?

So I started to let myself take breaks.  I took the pressure off.  If I didn’t find time for the Bible, I would assure myself I was doing important things and God didn’t want me to spend all my time reading (like that argument would have carried a fleck of weight if we’d been discussing reading The Lord of the Rings instead *cough*).  And maybe if I remembered I would run through a psalm I had memorized before I fell asleep.

It’s not like you would have found my Bible a month later, in the back of a cupboard, covered in dust; I probably still read it most days.  But it certainly wasn’t a priority.  Even when I came to the conclusion it probably was beneficial to read it every day, it was still not top of the list.

But then I noticed a difference.  When I didn’t read the Bible, I was different–and I didn’t like the different me.  Reading God’s Word changed me.  And THAT was the beginning of another journey, towards prioritizing my Bible reading. . . again.

So I read the Bible every day; not because someone tells me I should, not as a safety net in case I’m asked, not even really because I want to know what’s in it.  I read the Bible every day because it makes me feel closer to God, and that’s where I want to be.

But what I didn’t anticipate was the how darn inspirational this reading plan was going to be–while I knew it was going to affect me spiritually, I didn’t expect it to affect my imagination.  My writer-brain gets on fire when I’ve been consistent in reading God’s Word.  I don’t why it took me seventeen years to understand it’s important to read the Bible as a storyteller.  It’s gotten to the point where I can hardly read my Bible anymore, if I’ve been consistent for days, because the story ideas come so fast while I read.

I mean, tell me this isn’t Middle Earth or Narnia-esque:

“But you, O God, are my king from of old;
you bring salvation upon the earth.
It was you who split open the sea by your power;
you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.”
-Psalm 74:12-14

And is this not just begging for a novelization?

“I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: There was once a small city with only a few people in it.  And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siegeworks against it.  Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom.  But nobody remembered that poor man.”
-Ecclesiastes 9:13-15

And that’s only two of many I’ve run across (Job, for instance, always just sets my imagination on fire!!).  I’m sure I’ll find more.

My Writing

Earl Grey Tea

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I make horrible decisions pretty often.  But once in a while I make decisions like deciding to incorporate tea into Nieo and Star’s story world–that was a good decision.  You have to describe tastes, so I can now randomly make myself my favorite kinds of tea and call it story research.  Clever, I know. 😉

Happy Wednesday!!

My Writing

Notebooks

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While we’re talking about writer-ly things, I just read this blog post about what excites writers and knew I should share it.  I expected to relate with a few points, of course, but I did not realize I would agree with all of them!  Each new point and I was thinking, “Oh my goodness, yes, that thing makes me feel so excited!”  So if you’re a writer and you love reading about yourself (like me!), or if you’re not and you want to hear some things that make us whoop with excitement, click through and read ahead!

http://www.notebooksandnovels.com/2017/10/5-things-that-excite-writers.html

Happy Saturday!

 

My Writing

All the Writerly Angst

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I think one of the perpetual questions a writer asks is will anyone really want to read this?  I often find myself wondering if anyone else cares even a bit about the things I write about.  I have yet to find some perfect way to know what the world (or even my corner of it) wants to read, so I fall back on writing to myself–I like reading this kind of thing and I’ll trust that others do too.

So we have this post.

I love reading about other writers’ writing processes, so I’m going to take a little long post to talk about my writing desk.

When I finished writing Catania’s Forest close to this time last year, I was left with the inevitable question of what to write next.  The stories come and go so fast!

There was a quaint little story I had left lying around half-written called Blue Eyes Eastward.  I picked it up again and decided to finish writing it before anything else.  I got a new story idea partway through (Anchored, my pirate story) and started plotting it, but Blue Eyes was still a priority.

Well, then I had a setback, that started when I realized my villainess was sadly shallow.  In the end I realized I didn’t like the themes of my story at all, I was doing things I had seen other authors do and hated, and I needed to consider dropping it.  So that story died–I killed it.  And man! was that hard.  When I look back on it, I don’t feel much for that story, but at the time it was a very hard decision to make.  As Anchored was still deciding what it wanted to be and how many characters would live through it, I was not ready to start writing it (still not!).  So there was a lull.

And into that lull came “Nieo and Star”, the story I’m currently writing.  And guys, I love this story so much!  There literally aren’t humans in this story, it’s straight fantasy creatures, and my imagination is. in. heaven.  While Cat’s Forest was certainly fantasy, I was very focused on making it feel real and it’s darker than what I usually write (I know that some of you will find it amusing that I call Cat’s Forest dark, but it’s dark for me!).  And so as Anchored isn’t typical fantasy and all the important characters are human, and I’ve been toying around with some sci-fi lately, this story is just perfectly timed!  It feels so, so good to get back to good ol’ classic Medieval fantasy and remember why it’s my favorite genre.

But, of course, it isn’t all peaches and rainbows through and through.  While this has been a pretty peaceful stage in my writing with minimal writer’s block, it’s also lead me to think about being a writer more than usual.  This story feels unique.  It’s also very, very me.  It’s been a long time since I wrote something so fresh off my imagination.  It’s hard to put into words, but this story feels personal.  Which means it’s more fun to write, but it’s really scary!  I feel like I’m slicing a piece off my heart and pasting it to a page.

And hence: the inevitable question.  Does anyone want this stuff besides me?

And I don’t really have an answer.  Would people like Nieo and Star?  Would anyone read it?  I don’t know.  But I’m writing it anyway, and I’m writing it the way my imagination wants it, in hopes that someone else is like me, and someone else likes to read such things.

Anyway, I hope this post didn’t feel too down-in-the-dumps and someone found it interesting.  If anything, it was interesting to write!  Happy Monday!!

My Writing

“The Summons”

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This is a little poem I wrote while Becca was in Italy last summer. . .  It’s rather melodramatic and sentimental, but I’m quite proud of how consistent the rhyming is:

The summons is echoing across the waves,
To the one who slays and the one who saves.
The voice calls low, and thou must go;
The song of farewell hath found me.

I smell the tang of gulls and brine,
I feel thy hand slip out of mine.
Blow me a kiss, through the mist;
I know that it shall find me.

The black oars dip in the green waves fast,
I know our parting hath come at last.
Watching the foam, I’ll stand alone;
‘Till you come back to find me.

My Writing

“Describe Tag” Re-Run

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Ugh, it’s been way too long!  Anyway, I’m back now, with a new story idea in tow.

This random plot bunny showed up a little while ago, and I liked it but didn’t give it much attention.  Very recently though, it started to take over more and more of my thought-life, until it finally just straight-up asked to be written–right now.  I tried to explain I had too much going on and it wasn’t fair to the older story ideas if I didn’t write them first, but to no avail.  If you haven’t yet realized, I frequently argue with plot bunnies, yet never win.  All that to say, the story won as usual, and I started writing the first draft yesterday.  Still not sure where it’s going, but I’m still super hyped about it right now and I decided to do The Describe Tag again with five of my new characters!

(I changed the order of the questions and left the last one out, because I’m just having fun here and making my own rules. 🙂 )

  1. Alin

Is the character the main character of the book it’s in? Yes!

Is the character magical? I don’t think so. . . ?

What is your character? Human or other? Other.  In fact, there isn’t (as of yet!) a single human to make an appearance in this story.

(And because you probably want to know, Alin is an elf.)

(Yes, I am obsessed.  End of story.)

Good or bad? For some reason, this question always throws me off!  Maybe because I end up redeeming so many of my bad guys and I try so hard to make all my characters realistically flawed?  I don’t know.  To stay on topic, I’d call Alin good.

What hair color (if applicable) does the character have? Blonde.  Because for some reason I’m really “in” to blonde elves??  I do often relate to elves, and I’m blonde, so maybe I just subconsciously portray all elves as me?  I really have no idea.

Is the character mean, loud, quiet, reserved, etc.? Hm.  Pretty quiet and reserved before he gets to know people er, creatures really well.  Very determined.  A bit impulsive, quick to act.  A deep feeler, but quiet about it.

 

2. Nieo

Is the character the main character of the book it’s in? No.  But he might be my favorite. . . *insert guilty smile*  What?  Authors pick favorites?  Yep, totally.

Is the character magical? Not. . . as of yet?  As you can see, I don’t have my world-building figured out yet.

What is your character? Human or other? Nieo is a troll, but since my trolls aren’t typical trolls, I guess that’s not super helpful. . .

Good or bad? Good.  Like I said, potential favorite.

What hair color (if applicable) does the character have? Inapplicable.

Is the character mean, loud, quiet, reserved, etc.? Very reserved, very quiet, but very strong and opinionated.

 

3. Star

Is the character the main character of the book it’s in? Nope.

Is the character magical? No.  (As far as this poor, uninformed author can tell!)

What is your character? Human or other? A goblin.  But once again, not a typical goblin, so that’s not an altogether appropriate title, though I don’t know what else to call him.

Good or bad? Good.

What hair color (if applicable) does the character have? Brown.

Is the character mean, loud, quiet, reserved, etc.? Uh. . . Star is hard to categorize.  He’s energetic, but pretty laid-back and forgiving.  He’s cautious, very sarcastic, squirrelly (in every sense of the word), and pretty emotional.

 

4. AEmilia

Is the character the main character of the book it’s in? The story began by following Alin, but I’m pretty sure some of it will be from AEmilia’s perspective as well.

Is the character magical? Potentially.  Even probably.  I could see her being “magical” like Luthien was in The Silmarillion (subtle magic connected to her voice and–when she wants it–her hair).  I think I want to give AEmilia healing powers.

What is your character? Human or other? Another elf.

Good or bad? She doesn’t always move the story in a positive direction, but I’d call her good.

What hair color (if applicable) does the character have? Also blonde. *cough cough*

Is the character mean, loud, quiet, reserved, etc.? Hm.  She isn’t reserved, she’s very open and blatant about her opinions, though she usually tries to be respectful of others’ beliefs.  She likes to think things through, but once she makes a decision, there’s no turning back!  AEmilia goes all in, and she’s very loyal.

 

5. Kaen

Is the character the main character of the book it’s in? No.

Is the character magical? This story world is very open to magic, so I’m really enjoying experimenting with it, as you might have noticed!  The plotline would work perfectly well with Kaen only using his wit and physical skill, but I think he’ll use some simple magic as well.

What is your character? Human or other? ‘Nother elf.

Good or bad? Once again, kinda grey area here.  But unlike AEmilia, he doesn’t really have a decisive ending and character arc, as he’s not a main character.

What hair color (if applicable) does the character have? Blonde again, but dark blonde, slightly red.

Is the character mean, loud, quiet, reserved, etc.? I wouldn’t call him reserved–he’s friendly and very outgoing–but I wouldn’t exactly call him loud.  Kaen is very sympathetic, and very loyal–loyal to a fault, maybe.

 

And there’s that.  Yes, they’re all pretty much good–my bad guys are boring, so I never talk about them. 😉  Hope you all enjoyed reading this!  Do my characters catch your interest?