#mythrilreflections

It’s really always Chessi, my sweet (and very stupid) Hyur. However, what I’d really like is a bad relationship for her (because I’m mean) that’ll put Chessi in terrible situations where she has to try and explain away either her lover’s actions or her own involvement. 

Why? Because look at her! She’s cute! And friendly! Of course she needs to suffer!

And then perhaps one day actually have a healthy relationship that she’ll never believe is actually happening.

More sporadic than I would like. Needing to wait until late at night when everything else has calmed down, unwound, and then my brain wakes up. Which is frustrating when one works an 8-5 schedule but literally cannot sleep until some things get written down, and I’m naturally a night person.

I’ll write paragraphs or pages, then set it aside awhile. Maybe write more paragraphs or pages later (days to weeks to months). Edit/revise in fits and starts, bit here and there. Until I say the heck with it, give it one more serious pass and yeet it into the void (and inevitably find something I forgot to fix before posting after all).

I keep a notebook and pens with me; at my work desk, in my purse, by my bed. If I can’t write something quick on phone or tablet or computer, I get the ideas down as they come; sometimes just a line or turn of phrase, sometimes a brief dialogue, sometimes a whole scene. I don’t want to lose it, so I write when it comes.

Sometimes I write “outlines”; really just notes to myself, in bullet points, fragment sentence, ideas blurted onto the page. Things to keep in mind. Sometimes that’s enough for an idea and nothing comes of it. Sometimes it simmers and waits and gets adjusted as writing happens. It depends on the story, in that case (longer one shots or the rare multi-chapter).

I research; for fanfic this means rewatching some scenes, rereading some lore, digging up info on characters, places, timelines, etc. Maybe some Wikipedia dives for things I have characters doing or know that I’m less familiar with. Frequent trips to dictionary sites to make sure I’m using words correctly, and for some a pass through ProWritingAid to find redundancies and other issues, like adverb abuse. I try to read a draft out loud before publishing to catch difficult sentences and phrasing, or grammar needing fixed, or word issues. It helps to slow down and see what is awkward or needs correction.

I write a lot. Some of it stays in WIP form, some go to note files, phrases or scenes I particularly like but they aren’t really part of anything whole. But they’re ideas, and practice, and maybe I’ll find a place to slot them in someday. Maybe I won’t. That’s OK. It’s all practice.

Maybe a third of what I write ends up published. Maybe only a quarter. There’s an idea one can only write something they intend to finish and post, that one has to finish and post a piece once started, but honestly that’s not true.

Sometimes we’re just not ready to write a thing, though the idea is there; it needs to percolate awhile, depending what it is. Sometimes a scene really just doesn’t work but it’s fun to write anyway. I don’t know when or how I got over needing to “finish” and post everything, but I’m glad that I did. The things I do post are the things that work for me and I can be proud of.

Also stay hydrated, get snacks, get sleep, consume other media and do other research. Recharge the creative battery. The “muse” is fickle many times because we don’t take care of ourselves or keep her fed. Hard to keep up output when there’s no input (which is something I have to remind myself of, too so hey).

@symbiotic-seeker trying to be dominant? In the slightest?

Being happy.

It might sound like a cop-out of an easy answer, but in her case it really never has been. Rinalys, for everything about her, is a master of denying herself such things and holding back. Even when plain that it’s wanted, it’s easier to let someone else take a hold of it for themselves than to ever admit what she wants. 

She has also been incredibly adept at holding onto the past and all that pain to where there was no room for happiness or moving on. Those things are going to slowly start to change, but it is a process. There is no switch that can be flipped to make it just instantly so and she’s bound to keep falling back into that ‘comfort’ she knows. Because what she wants to improve on, to some extent, also frightens her. Good things can be taken away, lost just like that.

In time though she might improve. ♥

Answering for my new OC to flesh him out more:

Corvus Starling has already died and come back...once, protecting his people and his kingdom of Voeburt from a Sin Eater attack. Of course, it was a hundred years ago and he was made into a Greenman for the time so the memory is a bit fuzzy. 

However should he die (again) it would be doing what caused his death in the first on the First. Sword and shield in hand protecting his people, his family and his nation against any force that would seek to destroy them. That’s what a Knight does, right? He needs a Just Cause, for what is a knighted paladin without a Just Cause? For the moment he has no inclination or desire to suffer a second death. It was only by fae compassion that he returned to his own living form, whole and healthy if not full in his memories of the hundred years that came before. He awoke to a Voeburt that was no longer the kingdom he remembered it to be and with the dreadful half knowledge that his family, his people, and his Kingdom were gone.

He is an elf out of place and out of time, starting a new life on the Source, Hadaelyn. 

Thankfully with the help of a fond if not occasionally annoying Sylphon his shoulder, he’s learning how to live again before he dies again.

“Come, my Lady Fortemps. Would you walk with me a while? It’s rather stuffy in here, and I should imagine you’d prefer to enjoy the fruits of your efforts whilst we continue our little conversation, beneath the night sky you fought so hard to restore—to my eternal consternation, might I add.”

Make coffee. Kestrel doesn’t really function until she has had coffee.

If she’s sleeping alone, she’ll share breakfast with Dodger and just take it easy. If she slept with someone she’s friends with, she might make them breakfast. Even though she doesn’t cook regularly, she CAN cook a fairly nice breakfast when the mood strikes her!