#PennedPossibilities 330 How does your MC go about expressing or not expressing their sexuality?
Any expression of sexuality is largely accidental. Whenever it is on purpose, she's not subtle about it and bluntly drops her clothes mid-conversation.
She accidentally reveals her attraction to Cedric by beating him in combat training and restraining him on his knees with a couple of ghost vines. The mutual blush on their faces was a little too obvious to ignore.
It took a little getting used to and some in-depth interviews with my three-year-old nephew (Did you know happiness is made of grandma and pancakes?), but I finally managed to write Freya as a two-year-old, including a train of thought that matches her age.
I'm comfortable with it, but it certainly is not easy. I like child characters to have personalities, but I also dislike it when they're portrayed as adults.
#wordweavers 30/5: Are you comfortable writing from the POV of a child? Written any?
I haven’t published anything with POV younger than about 19, but I have unpublished work that takes in considerably younger characters. One who is about ten, for example. It doesn’t feel too hard. I used to be ten, after all.
The risk, I think, is making the character too ‘childish’, not too grown up. #writingCommunity#ThreeKindsofNorth#TheSunderingWall#VowsAndWatersheds#writing#books
"Then she fishes half a glossy purple eggplant from the fridge, and a ball of fresh mozzarella, too. She hands me a knife, and we both begin to slice. We work close together. Our shoulders almost touch." Sara Franklin for Taste
#PennedPossibilities 330 — How does your MC go about expressing or not expressing their sexuality? CW: Sexuality?
Intellectually? Tactically?
She was reputed to have the kiss of death, but that gets ahead of that she used it to control the Doña's underlings in the mob. She even arranged for her own teacher, a mob lieutenant, after she'd throughly studied for the test and felt she was ready. She didn't kill him, don't worry! She found she enjoyed kissing, and used it aggressively on men (and women) as a tool until she discovered the whole thing could be fun—then incidentally found herself "expressive" with two boyfriends in two days.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 9 Nbr 30 — How do you achieve a sense of wonder in your stories? CW: Intimacy
I don't have a formula, and it isn't something I try to create arbitrarily. It's usually written by accident (or incidentally), and almost always requires tuning of the found passage to make it truly wondrous. It's the right words in the right order. [Not helpful, R.S.!] If anything, wonder is usually tied up with emotion, a sense of achievement, or something well deserved, maybe even something so perfectly crafted by people or nature that it would make a person stare or feel goosebumps. However, I find simply being human can evoke the best sense of wonder—for example:
I woke to dawn rays filtering through lace draperies. A cool jasmine-scented breeze tussled the soft fuzz on my arms and brought the sounds of twittering robins and sparrows. My bombastic bedmate had not molested me. Perhaps she had heard me when I said I preferred men. That, however, did not prevent her from snugging up to me in her sleep.
I grew aware of warmth against my back. I commended myself for not flinging myself from the bed like a crazy person this time, but instead lifted my head and looked back. She lay there, sheets kicked off by one of us, her golden back against my paler one, making us a pair of Cs. Her usually poofy hair matted against her face and spread out in night-sweat glued-together curly tresses across her pillow. She snored imperceptibly, and somewhat daintily for such a large-boned woman.
When I shimmied to break contact, she began to shiver. Even after I gently replaced the sheets over us, she continued. She twitched. After a few moments, I heard the faintest whimper.
I lay my head on the pillow and felt bad. I shimmied back, until our skin made contact. In a minute she quieted and fell deeply asleep. I didn't move. Didn't want to. Because, I knew. She had felt terribly alone—worse, I realized, so had I.
Shiro is an exhibitionist and Kao a sub. Sorry no detail will be given here.
Ume and Shiomi are Disaster Lesbians, which means they are terrible at communicating. They are convinced at first they don't like each other and then they believe the other is acting out of duty.
#WordWeavers 2405.30 — Are you comfortable writing from the POV of a child? Written any?
I'll answer it this way: I recently wrote a novelette in the POV of a headstrong 7-year old girl. The story was neither medieval nor urban, simply modern, with the child convincing herself she's been both tricked into being where she doesn't want to be, and lied to. In a make-a-wish scenario, circumstances grants her the djinn's powers. I found it easy to write since I had a good feel for her mentality and her understanding of "pretend" aka "the magic." I kept having to rein in my vocabulary, however. It wasn't a matter of dumbing it down so much getting her clever sophistication right.
Oh, yeah... And she was the first person narrator. Rather than making it harder, it helped narrow everything down to a singular often exasperated voice that made the twist that much more heart-rending.
#WordWeavers#writing 30 Are you comfortable writing from the POV of a child? Written any?
Doesn't look like it. The few stories I've done about children are 3rd person. I don't think I would mind doing it for flash or microfiction but anything longer would tax that voice too much.
…I am a very slow writer. When people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them I am a rewriter. I doubt that I have ever published a page that has not been refried eight or ten or twelve times. As is true of many writers, I do not begin with a clear idea and then commit it to paper. The very act of writing helps me discover what I feel or know about something, and since each succeeding draft drives that discovery a little deeper, it is hard to know when to stop.
—Parker J. Palmer #writing
#PennedPossibilities 329 — How is your SC typically seen by others? Does it ring true to who they really are?
The roommate SC in a previous story is seen by others as an imperious arrogant bully who is always correcting people and not at all friendly. To say her adoptive mother runs things is an understatement of epic dimensions. The SC, as a controlling person by nature, accepts and amplifies the sense of power her mother lends her. Since she is rarely, if ever, seen around her adoptive mother and then seems both cowed and agitated in her presence, many consider her a bossy blow hard. She's proven herself the smartest student in school and holds a TA position in practical magical arts.
Is this who she is inside?
Hardly.
She has the expected problems with self-esteem. Her mother is her mentor, but she's unable to demand attention despite needing it, and instead drinks (and will take drugs). She feels horribly lonely. Boys run away at their first opportunity, despite the status they could acquire befriending her. She even considers letting herself be used—not that anyone would have the temerity to try, which turns it into a fools quest.
The MC ends up in a situation where the SC offers her a bed when the MC loses her job (okay, quit the mob) along with her apartment (which becomes unsafe). A bed. Literally. The SC's.
The MC discovers her roommate only sleeps well when held.
The Joy of Writing When A Story Builds Upon Itself
One of the things I love about writing in my fantasy world is that the story ideas just seem to flow. I can be working on a story--for example the new serial I'm starting--and all of a sudden pieces begin falling into place. The short story that I've released for free (pick it up multiple places here), A Pony In Time, https://kitauthor.com/the-joy-of-writing-when-a-story-builds-upon-itself/ #AuthorLife#SerialFiction#StoryIdeas#writing
#WordWeavers 2405.29 — How would your MC handle finding a spider in their home?
Technically, Wintereyes lives and runs with wolves in the Fell Woods so she doesn't have a home. However, in the worst couple of months of winter, she puts up a lodgepole tent and invites the wolves to stay with her around her cook fire. That means fire wood. That means spiders. If I know her, that probably means blowing them from the wood and safely away.
#PennedPossibilities#Writing 329 How is your SC typically seen by others? Does it ring true to who they really are?
—Don Pepe is a strange man. At first you might think he's a drunk and horny kind of guy, one who thinks with his…you know. One who avoid serious relationships and don't care about his family. But you's have to know his personal story to understand him. Or, really, to understand why he IS exactly what you think of him at first…
#WordWeavers#Writing 29 How would your MC handle finding a spider in their home?
Our Hero don't like spiders and will kill them on sight. Quickly. He doesn't fear them, either, so he'll do it with his bare hands, no matter the species, using a finger if it's a small one, or his fist, if it's something like a tarantula. Scorpions are the exception. With those he'll use either the energy sword, or throwing any heavy object at hand at the "bug". Like Laura. And yes, he did that once…>=)
Pelliniana is small for her age and a kind-looking, adorable teenage girl. She wears dresses and giggles a lot. She's fully aware of the innocence she portrays, and if anyone messes with her family in any way, she literally starts collecting eyeballs. Beneath the surface, she is feral, angry, and unforgiving.
She has a profound capacity for love which is precisely why she is volatile and deadly at times.