kaatiba

[kaatiba]

making a collection

#Ow.inspo #Tropes and archetypes

[kaatiba]

Writing tip of the day: whenever you can, plug a plot hole with a character flaw!

Every time you realise that it makes no sense that the characters didn't do some super logical thing in the first place, figure out which character could have prevented it by simply the way they are as a person. You're not only solving the problem of the plot hole, but also the issue of writing flaws into your characters in a way that doesn't feel gratituous and contrived.

Why did the characters not use this weapon they had access to the whole time? - The character who could have told them about it wants to have control over people and had personally decided they shouldn't have it.

Why didn't that one genius character just tell everyone how to dismantle the robots? - They meant to, but being an absent-minded genius, they literally just forgot.

How did nobody notice that this little girl has been hanging out with an actual demon for seven years? - The demon made her pinky-promise not to tell anyone about it, and being naive and overly trusting, she didn't find that sketchy at all.

Why didn't the characters go to The Big Cool Guys for help in the first place? - The character who is stubborn and overly proud wanted to choose death before dishonour and didn't want to ask for help.

Every time there was a perfectly reasonable solution accessible to the characters all along, that could've resolved the whole plot in minutes, always try to find an angle where someone prevented it just by who they are as a person.

#......oh this is genius #Writerly

[kaatiba]

Would y’all be interested in seeing the cover for my YA Fantasy novel?? (That I plan to self pub in 3 months) 👀👀

#fellowship* #Lmk if rebloggings OK! This looks so awesome

[kaatiba]

Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home (translated by Megan McDowell)

#writerly #quotes

[kaatiba]

Favorite Lines from Writing Session (4/28/24)

My favorite part of today's writing session was dreaming up the adventures of the daring Captain Mattie and her trusty steed, Mr. Kerfluffle (her uncle) in their quest to steal the treasure of the evil Captain Roo.

I had too much fun with this exchange:

“Me and Uncle Richie found the lost treasure of Atlantis,” Mattie explained breathlessly. “We could’ve bought a palace but we used it to save the turtles instead. They and the dolphins won’t have to go to war now.”

“Wow, that’s a lot!” [Emery] and Richie exchanged a look while the latter laid on his side in the grass. A look that said “the imagination of this kid.” It was the closest thing they had to a bonding moment in a long while.

A determined shine came into Mattie’s eyes. “Did you want to help us take out the evil Captain Roo and take his treasure. I need a second mate. Mr. Kerfluffle can carry us to the other side of the island.”

Richie heaved himself up to his feet with a grunt. “Mr. Kerfluffle is an old steed. He can’t carry more than 50 pounds on his back and his knees aren’t what they used to be.”

#I love them #Fellowship*

[kaatiba]

I’d divorce him too lmao

#That last addition #We make art in part to connect #And when there's no connection it starts affecting the well of creation #Until I dries up #Writerly #Social

[kaatiba]

Rewrite My Line

I got tagged by @tildeathiwillwrite! :D

Rules: Take the line the previous person offered and rewrite it in your own style!

---

my line:

The box's weight had a certain familiarity to it, almost like she’d held it before. Reese had the strange desire to shake it, but she held back in case the contents were breakable. Instead, she tried to pry the box open, but the rust kept it sealed tight.

rewritten as:

The weight of the box was... familiar. It was like Reese had held it before. She could shake it to gain some clue as to what was inside, as to where she knew it from. But the chance of the contents being fragile stayed her hand. She set it down and tried to open it, but the rusted lid was keeping its secrets.

---

I'm tagging @afoolandathief, @amethystpath-writes, @annakayy, @gummybugg, @kaatiba, @those-damn-snippets, @serenanymph, @surplus-of-sarcasm, @written-in-starlight, and anybody else who'd like to play!

Your line today is:

I put the bow over my shoulder and crouched by the water. I cupped my hands and drank two deep mouthfuls. The water was ice cold across my hands, and it brought back memories of knuckle hardening. That had been a painful phase of training. I looked at the back of my hands now. My knuckles were rough, and I'd been sure to keep them that way on the punching trees. I made a fist, watching the callouses glide into place, protecting my hardened bones. Squared knuckles and callouses couldn't protect from bad form, though. I'd broken my wrist for that lesson.

[sorry if this is kind of long; feel free to subtract where you want :3]

@thelazywitchphotographer :D

#oh neat! #fellowship* #thanks for the tag! #im excited to play!

[kaatiba]

It’s fine because I’m actually using a secret technique called writing it in my head and nowhere else.

#Yeah........ #Writerly

[kaatiba]

Favorite Lines from Writing Session (4/27/24)

I haven't done one of these in a while so I'll share two. Besides, I just finished one (very long) chapter and just began another.

From Chapter 14:

The biggest waste of space were the boxes of old books and yellowed paper he amassed over the years. September couldn’t bring himself to throw any of it away. He didn’t know what would be important later.

Yes, he knew that was hoarder speak. Yes, he knew he had a problem. Just add it to the ever growing pile.

From Chapter 15 (this one's really rough but...):

[Emery] didn’t have the time or energy to deal with Richie. He was busy enough with work and building up the barricades needed to keep Oak Hill safe from “the Resurrected.” God, that term was so stupid. Zombies were dangerous. They needed their heads shot off, not a fucking rebrand.

#Zombies and September!!! #Fellowship*

[kaatiba]

"She will take it back some day." -Pink Floyd

#Rivener.inspo

[kaatiba]

Text: I sell mortality of all sorts to those who come seeking it. Often they want just enough to appear human, to bleed, or cry. Some want to meet with death for business, and need to die to do it.

#REAPER WIP REAPER WIP REAPER WIP #prompts #This is GENIUS #reaper.wip

[kaatiba]

❝ There's this dream I keep having. Maybe it's more of a nightmare, but I don't wake screaming from it.

In the dream, I'm standing outside my house. It's winter. The world is blue, the snow is high. The lights are all on, glowing warm yellow. Music spills faint from behind the glass.

There's no door.

I stand there, looking in.

Nobody looks back at me, but they know I'm there. ❞

— Winter

#q'd

[kaatiba]

❝ There's this dream I keep having. Maybe it's more of a nightmare, but I don't wake screaming from it.

In the dream, I'm standing outside my house. It's winter. The world is blue, the snow is high. The lights are all on, glowing warm yellow. Music spills faint from behind the glass.

There's no door.

I stand there, looking in.

Nobody looks back at me, but they know I'm there. ❞

— Winter

[kaatiba]

21, 36, 38 ? 👀✒️

Thank you so much for the ask, @kaatiba!!!

21.  Who is/are your favourite character(s) to write?

You're making me choose my favorite children. I love them all equally.

Buuuut...if I really had to choose, September would be the clear winner in my Festival Project wip. He's messy and contains multitudes (in both the literal and figurative sense). Following quickly behind him and tied in second place is Hero and Mariela. Mariela for being a combative live wire and Hero for doing his best, even when he'd rather go to bed.

36.  Last sentence you wrote

But [September] braces himself for when he can’t. When staring into the dark void in that bright halo of light will make him shatter across his timeline.

38.  Weirdest story idea you’ve ever had

The most recent weird idea I've had (and executed) is a story about a gas station employee working the night shift and attending to the needs of unique otherworldly clientele. The story opens with the main character having their brain scrambled while trying to interpret a request for gum.

#idk ur boy September but on the name alone i already love him #so off i go to discover more about him!!! #also that last line!!!!!! TIME TRAVEL? DIMENSION TRAVEL? EXISTING ON MULTIPLE TIMELINES? IDK BUT IM EXCITED TO FIND OUT #ooooh gas station story sounds so cool bc! liminal spaces!!!! #replies #fellowship*

[kaatiba]

can't stop thinking about how the "convinced to return for one last job" trope is a kind of resurrection. digging up a restless corpse that maybe should have stayed buried.

#Tropes and archetypes

[kaatiba]

Text: The priests have been crushing fertilized basilisk eggs into my food for years, hoping I’ll develop Death’s Sight. The fifth egg I steal from the kitchen manages to hatch. My first and only friend.

Goes with this prompt, if you like

#prompts #q'd

[kaatiba]

The Storyteller, The Djinn & The Prince ✧ a WIP Re-Introduction

The crown prince has been kidnapped by the djinn, and his mother will stop at nothing to find him and bring him home, even if it means marching into the realm of the Unseen on what everyone insists is a hopeless mission. He's gone, she is told. Grieve him, for he is as good as dead. If he is returned to you, he will not be the same child you knew. But he isn't dead, and Queen Sirin refuses to accept his loss, refuses to grieve him, even if she is called mad for her insistence that he is alive, for her determination to rescue him. She cares not that no one has ever returned from such a venture. She's going to save her son or die trying. Enter Halah; the only person taken by the djinn who claims to have escaped them, rather than been returned. Only she can lead Queen Sirin and her cousin, Raoul, into the Unseen realm and guide them through the kingdom of the djinn...so when Sirin pleads for her help, she agrees. She can't abandon a child, even one she doesn't know. Even if it does mean returning to the last place in all the realms she ever wants to see again...

[[ Updates below the cut! ]]

Sixteen-ish years of working on this wip and I finally have a title! My favourite thing about the new title is that it all refers to multiple characters, which is SO fun to me. Spoilers though, so I shan't say more about that.

The title came to me just after suhoor (~6 am) in March, and I was so excited I immediately jotted it down in my phone before I fell asleep. Legends of Mourra was always the series title, but the volume I've been working on is the first in a series of standalone novels set in this world I've created!

For the longest time, I'd been planning for LofM to be a duology + a spin-off. But as volume no.1's story changed (and as I've changed as a writer), I've come to realize and accept that this is going to be a self-contained story and it works so much better that way. I've finally fully let go of the last remnants of the Grand™ Plot spanning entire decades that I'd initially conceived of. The Storyteller, The Djinn, & The Prince will be very much in the vein of a tale from Arabian Nights, self-contained and (hopefully) satisfying.

I've also finally allowed this to be truly my MC Halah's story, which is reflected in the title (she's the storyteller....or, one of them...). Weird, I know, but I'd initially wanted to write this from the pov of a 'sidekick' to the 'main heroes', but that meant I'd resisted actually letting Halah be a fully realized character. It made my story feel very flat and surface level. I only belatedly realized I could still make it seem so from the perspective of the events that occur in-universe, while still allowing Halah to be the main character of her own life, as we all our to ourselves.

I'll keep the tags I've been using because I'm used to them, so if you want more updates you can keep an eye on the #lofm.wip and #lofm.inspo tags specifically or #kaatibawrites tag more generally.

Thanks for reading!