#FantasyIndiesOctober
It has come to my attention (I looked at the image in full for once) that the proper tag for this is #FantasyIndiesSpooktober. Well, oops.
I've already committed, lol, so I'm sticking it out for the last two days!
Day 30:
Is my MC brave?
Hell yeah they are.
#silverleaf
#FantasyIndiesOctober
Day 29:
Taiga: failing his people's mission.
Mouse: losing his family.
Ellio: losing Jule.
Jule: never uncovering what happened to she and Ellio's parents.
Azhar: her nightmares exist everywhere, and will be forgotten the moment they're remembered.
#silverleaf #booksky
FantasyIndiesOctober 29. Do you enjoy writing villains?
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29. Do you enjoy writing villains?
Yes, I do. I think it's important for villains to reflect real-world evils, and they can do that while still being scary and satisfying for the story, too. I like rounding them out as characters so they're not just mustache-twirling cartoons.
#FantasyIndiesOctober
Phew, I'm back from vacation and ready to go!
Day 28:
Guilt or regret in WIP.
In SILVERLEAF, there's an abundance of both.
But let's talk Taiga for this post.
He suffers a great deal from survivor's guilt....
#silverleaf #booksky #writersky
FantasyIndiesOctober 28. Are you a horror film fan?
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28. Are you a horror film fan?
I don't like slashers or "horror" films that are actually disgust and shock films that depend on gore, torture, rape or other cheap crap. I like psychological horror, body horror, and anything that uses atmosphere instead of jump scares.
FantasyIndiesOctober 27. MC's and villain's weaknesses
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27. MC's and villain's weaknesses
In Prophecies, Gallara's weakness is her anxiety and self-doubt, which the villain uses against her. The villain's weakness is his not-immunity to plant-based poisons, which she uses against him.
#FantasyIndiesOctober
27. Dante from Re: Shattered Memories' main weakness is his self-hatred. The villain's weakness is spoilers. Massive spoilers.
#WritingCommunity #Writersky #ReadingCommunity
FantasyIndiesOctober 25. Favourite candy
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25. Favourite candy
I try to take it easy on candy; I have enough difficulty resisting pastries. I did recently discover that my favorite candy bar is Nutrageous (even though it's way too sugary, like most candy bars). I also liked candy corns until I read the ingredients.
FantasyIndiesOctober 24. What scares you most as a writer?
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24. What scares you most as a writer?
I walk a constant line between fearing I don't write enough and feeling that I should do whatever I enjoy at the moment. I'm afraid that if I make writing into an obligation, it will stop being fun.
FantasyIndiesOctober 23. Autumn walk in the woods or a cosy afternoon under a blanket?
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23. Autumn walk in the woods or a cosy afternoon under a blanket?
They both sound lovely, but cozy afternoons in are my default. So really, I think the walk in the woods sounds more appealing for that reason.
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Day 22:
What? No.
... What??
But this reminds me of the time my creative writing teacher (college elective course) told me my poems are like being punched in the face over and over and over and that they sucked.
So anyways. I never wrote a poem again. The end.
FantasyIndiesOctober 22. Autumn and/or spooky book recs
an eyeless, partially decayed woman's face from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
an illustration of a bloody, screaming man wrapping his arms around someone else as strands of blood rise from him; maybe he's falling feet first
The cover of Tales for the Midnight Hour: a skeletal hand clutches a pocketwatch showing midnight while lightning flashes behind an open window.
#FantasyIndiesOctober
22. Autumn and/or spooky book recs
Hard to beat the classic Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series (here are the illustrations that gave me the most trouble as a kid), but Tales for the Midnight Hour was a good scary series, too.
#FantasyIndiesOctober
Day 21:
Scary movie? Uhhhh it took me 12-14 times to get through the first Resident Evil movie. I am like, NOT the person to ask for scary movie recs from.
Idk, my best Halloween movie recs is def The Nightmare Before Christmas. That's as scary as I can go.
FantasyIndiesOctober 21. Spooky Flash Fiction
My brother's ghost appeared to me, years after his accidental death; I wasn't responsible for it, but he came to me anyway. I'd gotten over his death and moved on, but here he was. Having him there was an uncomfortable comfort at first, but his constant presence grew tiresome, then unbearable. I became resentful of how I felt obligated to put my life back on hold for him for however long he would be there, and I feared grieving him again when he finally left. Resentment became hate, until I snapped. I could touch him - and I could strike him, wrestle him to the ground. His screams made me reconsider, and then they made me more certain than ever, as I smashed and throttled him until I was sure beyond a doubt that he was dead again. He was back the next morning, though - and after a few more days of guilt, I killed him again. And then next day, and the next. Every day, I killed him for a different reason: my hatred for his intrusion. The grief he'd caused me by dying in the first place. Every childhood infraction, no matter how small. My ever-growing hatred, fulfilled in violence every day.
Then I began to enjoy killing him for its own sake: the feeling of power over another person, the perverse joy of overruling my conscience, of listening to his pitiful screams again and again as I chose to withhold mercy I could easily have given. The deep, primal thrill of life and death and ultimate control sang through my veins like a dark, harmless drug - after all, there were no consequences at all for killing a man who was already dead. I looked forward to killing - to killing him - every day. Sometimes I would kill him first thing in the morning, sometimes I would savor the anticipation until just before I went to bed. He was no longer dear to me, except as an object of sadistic entertainment, and that was all I wanted from him. And then, one day, he didn't return. The plans I had made for how to kill him this time were wasted, disappointed, frustrated. I waited anxiously for him, realizing how much I missed him - or rather, what he had become for me. His absence left a gnawing, agonizing hunger in me, and I realized that it wasn't just about him anymore. He's never come back, and all I'm left with is the knowledge of the sheer joy of killing - a knowledge that I can't forget, and that I fear someday I can't control.
#FantasyIndiesOctober
21. Spooky Flash Fiction
FantasyIndiesOctober 20. Monsters in WIP
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20. Monsters in WIP
Prophecy #71 includes a sand hydra, a unicorn, aggressive plants, a golem made of aggressive plants, subterranean demi-humans, a huge acid-spitting mole, a tumbleweed elemental, and a handful of others just mentioned in passing as jokes. We have fun here.
#FantasyIndiesOctober
20. There are lost of monsters in Re: Shattered Memories. The main one that showed up so far are the soles, which are murderous little shrew-like goblin-like creatures. With venemous fangs.
#WritingCommunity #Writersky #ReadingCommunity
#FantasyIndiesOctober
Day 19:
Scary moments...
Honestly, I think Chp 4 hits the scary pretty hard with the first encounter with a Guardian Spirit.
Next would be when Mouse was caught in a cave-in and awoke to his legs being gnawed on... Yeah that might be #1 actually lol.
#silverleaf #booksky
#FantasyIndiesOctober
I know I've been doing a few less of these than usual. But I've honestly just had nothing to post for some of these??
I write serial fiction, so my villain hasn't even done much appearances if at all (depends where readers are at)
FantasyIndiesOctober 18. Free Friday or talk about your hobbies
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18. Talk about your hobbies
Along with writing and reading, I love games. Strategy-based board games, tabletop roleplaying games, party games, video games (especially JRPGs). I'm having friends over for a game day tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to it.
FantasyIndiesOctober 15. Victorious Villain or Defeated Villain
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The tone of the story decides what happens to/with the villain depends for me. I usually keep an element of hope even in my dark stories, so total victory for the villain isn't likely; that said, some villains are institutions that don't end with a handful of individuals dying.
FantasyIndiesOctober 14. What is your favorite season?
#FantasyIndiesOctober
My favorite season has been autumn for most of my life, but I'm beginning to wonder if it might be spring. Maybe it's because the cold hit so fast this autumn that I'm not enjoying it as much as usual. But yeah, I like the transitions and the moderate weather.
FantasyIndiesOctober 13. Villain's goals
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13. Villain's goals
In Seff's story, the Grekaan mercenary group is quietly building political influence by controlling an increasing number of key mid- and high-level bureaucrats. When money alone isn't enough, there's blackmail, physical threats, and necromancy.
FantasyIndiesOctober 12. Snippet Saturday: Fight
Alakshi put a foot against the edge of the table and shoved it into his stomach, hard; in the second that it left him doubled over, she slammed her tankard down into the back of his neck with all her might. She was on her feet before they were, every muscle flooding with the frantic urgency of combat as Rimber slid limply to the floor. Stilg was the closest to her; he was already reaching for her and in the middle of what was probably a racial slur when she lunged between his arms and shattered his nose with her forehead. Not her best headbutt ever, but he staggered just long enough for her to shove him backward into Roic; it threw both men off their balance until she snatched up her chair and slammed it into Stilg’s temple, dropping him like a horse turd. Kolent. … no. Roic was already stepping over Stilg’s body with formidable grace on the left, raising his fists defensively as Hevic squeezed around the table to get her from the right. Alakshi raised the bloodied chair just enough to draw Roic’s attention, then let go with one hand and shot a jab into his throat. It wasn’t enough to seriously hurt him, but his wheezing and stumbling kept him busy as she threw the chair at his knees and pivoted to face Hevic.
#FantasyIndiesOctober
12. Fight
Early in Prophecy #71, Alakshi has a barfight with some human traffickers, and decides for the first time not to call on Kolent for help.
#writingcommunity #writesky #writingprompt #writingprompts
FantasyIndiesOctober 10. What would you wear to a Halloween ball?
#FantasyIndiesOctober
I've always wanted to do a group costume with everyone dressed as different Tarot cards. The Magician, Strength, Death, the ten of swords, the Hanged Man, and plenty of others could be cool costumes.
Or maybe something kind of creepy, like a John Doe corpse.
FantasyIndiesOctober 8. MC fears
#FantasyIndiesOctober
In Prophecies, Gallara is afraid of heights and Zedenko is afraid of death, since it will also mean his soul ceases to exist.
In Seff's story, Seff is afraid of losing her job and going from working class back to poverty, but she's developing higher goals than just survival.
FantasyIndiesOctober 7. Is your WIP filled with more tricks or treats?
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Seff's story is dark and full of hardship for the MCs, with several nasty tricks coming up against them.
Grinks & Co. is about open communication and enthusiastic consent - the opposite of tricks - and lots and lots and lots of treats.
6) Bonus: Least favorite
My least favorite is definitely the research. While, yes I do get to read and learn something, I always stumble into the hard part of having to remember that information and figure out how best to use it.
1/2
#fantasyindiesoctober #writersky #booksky #books #writers #authors
6) Process
Of the three major steps in writing, I find Writing the most fun, and editing to be the most rewarding.
1/3
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