owl's writing blog

chapter four is here!! we're almost done with nemeth, and then the camelot gang will be headed somewhere merlin's very familiar with ;)

chapter three is out!! debating making shorter and more frequent chapters the norm, but please give me your thoughts in the comments.

PART TWO IS OUT PEOPLE!!!

The long awaited second chapter to king of my heart is now out. a thousand apologies to all of the people who waited and gave up waiting because it's been 9 months. i genuinely debated just deleting the draft of part 2 for the longest while until i decided to just post what i had to get the ball rolling. i have a lot of free time so im going to push myself to finish what i set out to do.

Merlin Memory Month: Day 3 (Hands, Fingers)

📚 favorite fandom to write for?

bbc merlin, definitely! i've not had time to finish anything lately, but the amount of wips and prompts i have stored up is insane. it's just such a cool universe to write for that i find myself never bored playing with it

🍄 how do you get in the mood to write?

if i ever need to force being in the mood to write, i literally just open a blank doc, grab a prompt, and start writing. there's every chance it'll end up being good, and every chance i'll hate it, scrap the doc, and go finish something else instead.

normally, though, i wait for the mood to strike instead of forcing it. when it does, i'll often crank out like 5k before i even know what's happening 😂

Having to hide who you are, pretend not to be bothered by the sight of someone like you dying in the courtyard of the place you have to call home, having to hear your best friend talk about people like yourself as if you deserve to be executed because you’re “evil” even though you were born that way and can’t control it.

Merlin should’ve gone mad at Arthur and he deserved to. Arthur (¿kind of?) had a right to feel betrayed because Merlin never said anything or seemed to trust him after telling him that but oh my giddy god Merlin deserved to be furious with Arthur after everything he had to endure. This is what I’m picturing:

- Arthur is mad and shouting all about trust and lies and betrayal because he’s so caught up in his feelings

- Merlin is dead silent, not saying a word but his eyes are burning with anger looking at the floor/ground and his clenched fists are shaking and he jaw is tense.

- And Arthur finally seems to finish his shouting feeling all energy and adrenaline rush out of him and it’s a few moments before he just hears "You really think you have the right to shout at me that I’m a traitor and a liar after everything you put me through?"

- And Arthur just dumbly goes “what?” but he says it in an annoyed tone to cover his shock and fear of the silent rage in Merlin’s voice.

- And that’s when Merlin’s furious eye that are glistening with tears look up at Arthur and Arthur gets unnerved because he has never seen that look on Merlin’s face.

- Merlin would start off quiet at first. Listing off all the times Arthur condemned his very existence. 'You told me as my bestfriend’s body burnt of the pyre that people like me were dangerous.' 'Thanked people like me for showing you the truth on how deceitful and evil people like me are.' And he gets gradually louder and louder screaming his head off at Arthur. He mentions Freya, all he’s lost in order to keep him alive, his injuries, the pain he felt. By the end his voice is hoarse and tears have made their way down his cheeks while Arthur stares in frozen horror.

- When Arthur just can’t respond and stands there frozen while Merlin clearly eyes him daring him to respond. So when he can’t - because he literally doesn’t know how - Merlin just scoffs and storms off leaving Arthur standing there.

when you put an arrow on the string, the verb is called “nocking” i.e. eyes glued on the target, he nocked the arrow

also the part of the arrow that gets put onto the string is called the nock. depending on the type of arrow this can be a piece of plastic glued into the arrow, or with wood or bamboo arrows it can be carved into the shaft of the arrow itself

you do not close an eye when aiming or shooting; you see better with both eyes open.

everyone has a dominant eye that more naturally your brain focuses with. that determines whether you are right or left handed when shooting, and doesn’t necessarily correlate to whether the person is right or left handed in anything else

so if you’re writing a character who has difficulty seeing out of one eye, take that into account when they are shooting

if they are right eye dominant, they hold the bow with their left hand and draw the string with their right. if they are left eye dominant, they hold the bow with their right hand and draw the string with their left

if they shoot left, the quiver sits on their left side/hip/thigh. shoot right - right side quiver.

there are several different ways to draw, if you are writing something historical or in a specific region, then do research on that style of archery. but for a generic place to start that is a more universal way of drawing a bow, here are some things to include

the chin stays down. raising your chin will fuck up your aim

the pointer finger on your draw hand rests on the side of your chin/jaw, and the string of the bow will touch the tip of the archer’s nose

weight is on the balls of your feet, leaning slightly forward off your heels

if it is an older bow/barebow, there is not usually a place for the arrow to rest on the bow. this means the arrow rests on the archer’s hand. if they are not wearing a glove on that hand, the fletchings (that’s the feathers on the arrow) will more than likely slice their hand when firing. this scars.

so if you’re wanting to describe someone observing and archer’s hands (hands are hot, don’t @ me) they would see a silver scar about halfway between the pointer finger knuckle and palm of the person’s hand. (turn your hand vertical and trace down the length of your pointer toward your thumb and stop next to the knuckle. that spot there.)

most archers wear something to protect their fingers on the hand that draws the bow. even with that, they have callouses. without it, a lot of callouses, scars, and blisters.

most common draw uses three fingers on the string: pointer, middle, ring. the arrow sits between the pointer and middle. just like where the draw point is, this is not universal and do research if you’re doing something culturally important.

barebow means that the bow is bare of any instruments. no sight, no weights, etc. the most basic/traditional form of bow

a recurve bow is anything where the tips of the bow curve back around forward, away from the archer

a compound is what you think of as a modern hunting bow, and is recognisable by having wheels at the ends and three strings

arrows have three fletchings that form a triangle, the point faces the archer so that the flat of the arrow will pass the flat of the bow on release. the arrow sits on the side of the bow facing the archer

archers with a larger/raised chest will sometimes where a chest protect so that the string does not catch when firing (this is regardless of gender, i know several cis-men who need it as well)

string can also catch on the forearm that is holding the bow and creates bruises and welts if you don’t wear a protector. modern ones are small plastic and cover just the spot, with elastic holding it in place. traditional ones are leather and wrap all the way around, lacing up on the back of your arm like a corset.