If you're following the project: an aside

Last week, poor health struck. It always happens at the worst times. Right before my health slid my characters decided to become unpredictable. Midway through that last "chapter" they went off on tangent I didn't expect. They might be taking me down a different plot than I planned for. So while the next chapter is started, I need to weave myself back into the complete surrender for the chapter...

Chapter 5

It took a week of sitting on the stool before we actually began to discuss magic. And the day and week did not go according to plan. I had heard the others girls chatting in the room at night I still understood very little, but had the impression that they were impatient....

Chapter 4

The first night I couldn’t sleep much. Everything was new, and new was scary. The room had an aroma of spice and dust. I slept on a bed, and not the ground. The softness of the mattress seemed another example of unnecessary excess. The roof prevented me from seeing the stars. But I supposed that it was for the bette...

Chapter 3

The boat wobbled and groaned. We plunged into the night, and clouds rose to hide the moon and stars from me. If it weren’t for the bahga’s wuffling breaths I could have convinced myself I was alone in darkness. I thought that being on the inland sea at night felt a lot like being trapped between words. Well, at least as I would have imagined being trapped between worlds would b...

Chapter 2

He arrived on a hairy bahga that shook its head as it shuffled its paws through the sand. He war white to arm against the sun, but was slender under the piles of fabric. I saw nothing but his gray eyes, and somehow that unnerved me. I felt that I was being greated by a ghost, a vision of walking sand with storm-light eyes.Then he reigned in his beast. It reared it’s head, sending the long gray-white...

Chapter 1

When spring came to the Hadhen plains, all the ViKaTogani set off to meet at the Midsummer Gathering Mound; this was my favorite time of the year. We followed the Genna-ko, who called to the Genn and got them to move in an orderly fashion with no more than the sound of her voice, the click of tongue to teeth and the pounding of the ko-staff on the dry earth. The Genn, long legged and docile, were...

Elessa Chianic and the Magics of Chiadina

Next up! Gods, Magic, and choosing my main character. Planning a world requires planning how it works. I usually like tying magic to gods, it just has always made sense. I mean, when we hear of magical things happening in mhythology, it's generally tied to some god, goddess or mystical creature that originates from the Realm of the Gods. If I go off of the concept that we need to draw boundaries...

Notes on Chiadina: Resources

Based on the map, I then select resources that would make sense. Namely, crops, lumber, fish, etc. Because this is a fantasy and I absolutely love wold-building, I am choosing made-up names for items. I welcome anyone who wants to draw what they think any of these things might look like to e-mail me their pictures. I promise to post them! Kwenda of the North: Trade with Xolanh Fish from Dwoba...

Chiadina: The Map

While it may be crude and childlike, I begin all projects with a map. I suppose I work backward. I draw the coastline, make the mountains follow the coast, the water (rivers) fall from mountain to ocean, occasionally pooling in lakes and land-bound seas. Trees follow the water. People build along...

New Project Just For this Site!

All right, so awhile back I wanted to revamp my blog. I've gone through a load of different things I wanted to do with this page. Then, finally when I decided what I wanted to do: stress hit. I am now working 3 part time jobs, and still writing. Unfortunately my writing is increasingly limited to non-fiction because that is what I can be paid for. Not that I'm currently making much, but it...

Lemons and Photos

On top of working to improve my food-blogging, I am also trying desperately to use up the oodles of food that somehow ended up hanging out in fridge and cupboards. It's no easy task. And as fruits and berries lend themselves easily to breads, muffins, scones and desserts, that's where my time is being...

June Starts Dreary

I woke up not quite feeling well today, as if i hadn't slept well enough or long enough. Neither of which were true. I stumbled through my shower, the picture taking for today's blog posts and am slowly forcing the coffee down. I hate slow mornings, they make me feel lazy, even when it is nothing...

Writing What I Know

I used to have a problem with the phrase, "Write what you know," because many of the individuals who taught this ideology placed heavy emphasis on experiential learning. Only, not all of us "learn" that way, or go about life that way. I have to get my mind wrapped around a concept or some level of...

Planning. Drafting. Doing.

The hardest part of writing is writing. I never believed this when I was a kid and not even a surgeon was likely to remove a pen from my fingers. However, it seems to me that the main issue with getting to the point of writing has been (for me) the assumption that i can do it at any time. I mean,...

The Blog Reboot

I think I got a little lost in the trees. There are times that I see something that I want to do and I go after it, only to lose myself along the way. I guess I have a tendency towards obsession, and whenever I reexamine the road to which I have pledged myself, it gets larger. I'm just not good...

Character & Environment, in Honor of Earth Day

Myths and Legends abound with fears and stories of natural disasters. Humans have this ability to shove the natural world away, and forget it's out there. if it's too rainy, or too windy, or too hot, or too--whatever, we complain. As if the weather the world were constructed for our inconvenience....

5 Reasons to Use Short Story Writing when Prewriting

Lately I've been focused on a self-imposed short story writing frenzy. So here are some of my thoughts on why short story writing is helpful. 1) World Building In Fantasy writing especially, but also in any piece of fiction, the rules of “the world” dictate much about your characters’ actions....

In a World where the Print Industry Falters

--A friend dressing up for last year's Horror Movie Night, put on by SWS. Barnes & Noble. Borders. Now, there are big names migrating to self-publishing...what is this world we have wandered into? Questions of how much quality writing will exist in the future abound. Pessimistic comments float...

(Re)Building Lara with Polyvore

I'm going to try this one out for a week! We'll see how well I like it :D Meanwhile, I have been distracted by Lookbook and Polyvore... It can be fun to create characters' outfits on Polyvore. Mind, all the branding makes these items far more expensive than my High School student characters in Wished...

So I failed...

Meant to be good this year...and organized. I got a job...not much, just tutoring. Sylvanopolis Writers' Society has progressed towards nonprofit status, but the work involved has taken my attention away from blogging. I seriously miss it! I will return soon...this is me checking in. I have found a new template! Yay! now for remembering how I did this before >.< See you soon! Promise...

Wednesday World Building!

I'll add a picture later :P My story building is partially affected by High School History teacher who was convinced that geography affected history. I tended to like this concept. All of my stories start as maps. My knowledge of geography is rudimentary... Mountains follow faults, which may/may not be near a continental shelf...some distance from shoreline. Too many mountains produce desert...

Technique Tuesday: Methodology

So I fussed with templates yesterday, worked and went to class. And didn't post :( Sorry! As you can see--no change yet. It probably won't happen till Thursday. And then Thursday, Friday, and next week, I might try out a few different looks--so input would be helpful! I'm having such a hard time making up my mind :( Anyhow! Tuesdays will be dedicated to the the hows and whys of technique--sentence,...

On the Quest for a Blog-Makeover

A few months back, I started to realize that I wanted a new look for this blog. I also want to tackle things a little more regularly...and consistently. However the quest seemed to take up my blogging time...so I'm posting even though I do not have the perfect new template installed. What's gonna be new: I am going to have daily posts on the following topics: Media Mondays Technique Tuesdays Wednesday...