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8 and 9 from the WIP ask game? (I think these have already been asked but I don't remember the ask game protocol about repeats, I get nervous 🥴)

Don't worry, there's no protocol against repeats. Personally, if I get asked a question twice, I just come up with another answer.

♻️A scrapped idea for your current WIP

My Arateph Rapunzel retelling has so many scrapped ideas that it's hard to move forward with the ideas I do have (because the odds suggest most of those won't work either). One of the most significant changes is that originally, Zemma was the equivalent of a doctoral candidate, working underneath the authority of a mentor, near a university campus. However, that campus setting made it really hard to justify the logistics of a fugitive repeatedly returning to the tower, and it was hard to justify why Zemma would take such risks when she was so close to attaining her degree. Now, Zemma is a full-fledged scholar at an isolated research site, who still has frequent contact with her mentor, but doesn't have to worry about the restrictions of a campus setting.

🤔What’s a story you’d love to write but haven’t even started yet?

I've got three ideas for time travel stories that I like for the Christmas Inklings Challenge, and I'd love it if at least one could come together as a full story.

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Writers asks: ⚠️❤️

⚠️Which wip your most likely to finish or update next?

Probably the "Riquet of the Tuft" retelling, because it'll be the shortest.

❤️Not a question, just a second kudos to send.

Aww, thanks!

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this from the WIP ask game

🦈, 🖍, 🛠

🦈Tell us the name of your/ one of your WIP(s)

The only one that has a title right now is Shadowstruck.

🖍Post any sentence from your WIP

Here's another sentence from the "Riquet of the Tuft" retelling.

She only smiled knowingly and said, "My sister has always been a romantic little fool."

🛠Is there a scene or anything in the WIP you are struggling with right now?

With the "Riquet of the Tuft" retelling, I'm struggling with scene-setting, and debating about the exact progression of the conversation between these characters--do I want it to resolve in one scene or would it work better to extend the story across a longer time frame?

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🧭🖍️♻️ for the WIP ask game!

🧭An alternative title to your/ one of your WIP(s)?

The original title to this version of Shadowstruck was The Shadows We Hide. I'm still debating whether the original title fits the new story better.

🖍Post any sentence from your WIP

Unfortunately, Shadowstruck is on the computer currently having technical difficulties, so here's a sentence from my other stalled WIP, a flash fiction retelling of "Riquet of the Tuft".

"What do you think of your sister's intended?" he asked.

♻️A scrapped idea for your current WIP

Originally, heartlight in the Shadowstruck universe was just called "magic". Personhood was defined as "the ability to enforce your will upon your environment/non-persons", and the colored light was the physical manifestation of that magical ability. However, even in the original version, the magic's ability was very limited and not well-defined, so the story didn't come together until I called it "heartlight" and spoke of it more like a medical condition than a magical one. Treating the lack of heartlight as a disability that people with heartlight have to figure out how to integrate into society works better as a parallel to the real-life issues I'm exploring, and this system is much easier to wrap my head around.

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2 and 9 for the writing asks?

2. Describe your wip/one of your wips in the format of “___ + ___ =___”

Victorian England + 1850s American politics + pro life debates + glowing people = Shadowstruck

9. What’s a story you’d love to write but haven’t even started yet?

I'd love to write the portal fantasy culture shock romance of Lily Between Worlds, but I've yet to write a word of an actual draft.

Also, over the past day, I keep seeing things that make me want to read/write my retelling of "King Thrushbeard" set during the Great Depression.

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🛠

Is there a scene or anything in the WIP you are struggling with right now?

In Shadowstruck, I'm struggling with overthinking. There were a couple of very clear scenes, but now that I've allowed myself to step back, I'm considering different options for the characters and plot, and I feel like I can't write until I decide, but I can't decide until I write, and it's this horrendous feedback loop of indecision.

I took a stab at my Arateph Rapunzel retelling yesterday, and aside from the computer problems that kept shutting down my computer and erasing everything after two sentences (not even exaggerating), my main problem is proving to be style and scene setting. I know what needs to happen in the story. I just don't know how to translate it into words. It's made worse by the fact that there are so many drafts of this opening, and knowing that I've failed at all of them makes it hard to believe that this effort is going to result in anything worthwhile.

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An ask game for writers to procrastinate working on you WIP(s)

I am also procrastinating actually writing. If you’ve multiple works in progress you can give a different answer every time!

🦈Tell us the name of your/ one of your WIP(s)

🍄Decriscribe your wip/one of your wips in the format of “___ + ___ =___”  

🌍What tags or warnings will your / one of your wip(s) need if you intend to share it?

🧭An alternative title to your/ one of your WIP(s)?

⚠️Which wip your most likely to finish or update next?

💾What is your document of your wip/ a wip called? (not the stories actual title but what you’ve saved it as)

🖍Post Any sentence from your wip

♻️A scrapped idea for your current WIP

🤔What’s a story you’d love to write but haven’t even started yet?

🤡How many Wips are you actively working on?

🛠Is there a scene or anything in the WIP you are struggling with right now?

❤️Not a question, just a second kudos to send.

Enjoy!

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Story List

Fairy Tale Retellings

The Beggar's Door: King Thrushbeard

A Daughter's Gift: Beauty and the Beast

A Day Late & A Christmas Alone: Beauty and the Beast

Beneath the Surface: The Frog Prince

For Love of the Princess: Sleeping Beauty

A Garden of Wishes: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

The Golden Shoe: Cinderella

Jack and His Wife: Jack and the Beanstalk

Length of Years: Rapunzel

Loving Memory: East of the Sun, West of the Moon

Marks of Loyalty: Maid Maleen

More Than All the Gems on Earth: Diamonds and Toads

The Nightingale Returns: The Nightingale

The Other Option: Rumpelstiltskin

Purity of Mind: Bluebeard

Reflection: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

Those Who Sleep: Sleeping Beauty

The Turning of the Year: Cinderella

The Unseen Soldier: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

A Wise Pair of Fools: The Farmer's Clever Daughter

Without Words: The Six Swans

Woven Together: Clever Anait

Fantasy

Daughter of the House of Dreams

Fable: A Portal Fantasy

A Feast in the Lanternwood

From the Other Side of the End of the World

Heartsong

Honors From the King

In Chains

Instructions

The Memory Garden

The Return of Queen Emma

A Song of Starlight: A Starfall Story

Stars and Shadows: A Fairy Tale

Stolen Moments

Sylvia

Queen of the Fairies

The True Story: An Epistolary Novelette

Warning Signs

The Waters of Time

Science Fiction

Christmastime Again

Beyond the Legend: An Arateph Fragment

Beneath the Surface: An Arateph Story

Good Rich Earth: A Retelling of "The Secret Garden"

Until Death: An Arateph Fragment

Unfinished

After Midnight: A Cinderella Retelling

The Dust That Falls from Passing Stars: Part 1

The Christmas Card Caper: Part 1

Letters from Athelor: Part 1

Light of the World: Part 1

Shadowstruck: Chapter One

Shadowstruck (previous edition): Prologue, Chapter 1

The Sylph in the Storm

The Tawny Mouse: A fragment from a post-WWI historical fantasy

Fragments

Arateph Fragments: One, Two

Cinderella Retelling

Small Wonders: A Thumbelina Retelling

The Star That Stays

Time Travel Story Idea

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Maybe the truth at the heart of Shadowstruck is the importance of family. Because the most compelling stories in this universe are about what happens when you tell parents that some of their children have no right to their love, care, and protection. It destroys what should be the strongest and most natural bonds of love, and that simple horrible thing leads to all the complicated problems in their oppressive society.

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If I were the kind of person who could podfic, I would definitely record an audio version of "A Wise Pair of Fools". It would be so much fun to read aloud.

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In the interests of keeping up my enthusiasm for Shadowstruck, I decided to share part of the scene I wrote during the Inklings Challenge. I was trying to see if this could be the beginning of a short version of this story, but now that I'm not trying to meet a ridiculously short deadline, this would be part of a novella that comes after the original beginning of this story. It skips at least a chapter's worth of scenes, but I wanted to give a glimpse of where the story is going.

Clara’s shadow stretched before her, black and menacing in the moonlight. She clutched her cloak around her form, as if to protect herself from it. Without Mama—with no yellow glow of heartlight—she felt small, helpless, alone. The few coins in her purse—never-spent birthday presents—were all the money she had. Technically, even these weren’t legally hers. Shades couldn’t have possessions.

She looked away from her shadow, from her memories, and focused on the train station at the top of the hill, aglow with gaslight. When she stepped into the station, her shadow tangled with the shadows cast by other soulless things—pillars, chairs, luggage. Even at this early hour dozens of travelers sped around her, each enveloped in their own glow of heartlight, some tended by silent, shadow-casting shades.

One shade—a tall boy of about seventeen—trailed after his master with an enormous suitcase, bumping into Clara as he passed.

“Sorry, miss,” he said.

His master snapped at him for dawdling, and the shade hurried to catch up. Clara caught the flash of a brand upon the pale skin of his neck.

If she were caught, slavery was the best fate she could hope for.

She tried to calm her racing heart. The slave hadn’t recognized her as a shade. He’d only seen her fine clothes, befitting a senator’s daughter. If she were quick, quiet, and calm, she could get on the train and be safely away.

When the crowd cleared, she approached the ticket window. She’d ridden a train only once in her life, when she and Mama had spent a summer at the seaside. Clara practiced the words to herself, hoping to sound like a seasoned traveler and not a runaway child.

One ticket to Ivaria.

One ticket to Ivaria.

The man behind the ticket counter—with a thick gray mustache and a purple heartlight—looked down as she approached.

Clara clutched her cloak tighter and forced a cough, hoping to make her lack of heartlight look like illness.

One ticket to Ivaria.

She wasn’t a senator’s daughter, recently revealed as a shade. She was a sickly young merchant’s daughter, traveling to the sunny shores of Ivaria for her health.

Clara stepped up to the window and slapped a gloved hand on the counter. Her voice was weak and thin. “One ticket to Ivaria.”

The ticket seller frowned. “Are you traveling alone, little girl?”

“No,” she stammered.

The light fell upon Clara’s arm and stretched its shadow across the counter.

The man’s heartlight turned a darker shade of purple.

Clara’s heart raced. Stupid, to try traveling at night. If he sent her back home, she’d be dead by morning—

Behind her, a voice called out cheerfully, “Clara, there you are!” A lanky man strode toward her, a carpet bag in one hand. His orange heartlight was nearly as bright as the red of his hair.

Clara examined his face, trying to place him. He was maybe thirty years old, dressed like a gentleman, though his clothes were a couple years out of date. Not rich. Not a politician. Not one of her father’s set. Then how did he know--?

The man bent over and placed both hands on her shoulders. “I told you not to run off. It’s not safe.”

“I—”

He pulled away to face the ticket-seller, but when he did, a faint orange glow surrounded Clara.

Heartlight.

His heartlight.

The stranger smiled at the ticket-seller, “They think they’re so independent at that age. You can’t take your eyes off them for a second.”

The heartlight clung to Clara’s skin, orange and flickering, like a candle flame. The chill of the night seemed more distant. It was easier to breathe. It felt like she was with Mama again.

“Can you tell me,” the stranger asked, “when the next train runs to Starsby?”

The ticket-seller consulted a schedule. The stranger leaned against the counter; his smile was casual, but his face was paler.

Clara’s blood ran cold.

This was what Mama had died from.

Papa was right. She wasn’t human. She was a soulless thing, stealing heartlight from the innocent.

She turned to run, but without taking his eyes off the ticket-seller, the man stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. His heartlight flared. A feeling of peace washed over Clara, slowing her heart, calming her breathing.

“Don’t get skittish, duck,” the man said with a laugh. “We’ll get there in plenty of time. Trust me.”

He was giving Clara his heartlight. Why would he do such a thing? Who was he? Could she trust him?

Clara found that she did. She felt safer than she had since her shadow had appeared, and she wasn’t going to run from that until she found out more.

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Creative projects fighting for attention right now:

Shadowstruck: This one's actually keeping my interest a lot. When I think about other major WIPs I could work on instead, none are as appealing as this one. Unfortunately, I'm terrified of it. There are so many big issues and so many characters and a world that needs so much careful consideration that I'm afraid to write it down and find out how threadbare it is when it could just stay this nice idea in my head.

Trick-or-treat retelling: I owe @isfjmel-phleg a flash fiction retelling of "Riquet of the Tuft". I found an angle I love so much I decided to wait until I had time to finish rather than rushing it out before I had to work on Halloween. Unfortunately, that gave me time to overthink it. I'd love to do a more fleshed-out retelling (I think this idea could sustain it), but the overthinking suggests I may just need to scale it back to flash fiction again.

An East of the Sun, West of the Moon retelling: Because it's that time of year and I'd love to sink into a no-stress fairy tale world and finally write the traditional retelling I've always dreamed of for this tale.

A collection of Christmas poems: Because it could be fun and I'd have time to write some before Christmas

A Christmas novella: I'd love to write one. No clue what it'd be about. Doesn't stop it from distracting me.

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It turns out that I never research because it makes me think the details are the point instead of the story.

The story is the point! It doesn't matter if I don't have an entire world with all its history and cultural and political customs realistically fleshed out! Focus on the story and fill in the details later!

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Shadowstruck worldbuilding could become an endless time sink, because even beyond the big-picture cultural and political aspects, the concept of heartlight suggests endless trivial details like:

Intricate fashion rules of what colors people can wear based on the color of their heartlight

Maybe even sumptuary laws about what shades can and can't wear

Multiple branches of pseudoscience that analyze your personality/character based on the color/strength/activity of your heartlight

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I was valid for this, because walking out into a bleak, gray, damp, foggy November day was an excellent backdrop for imagining people being surrounded by clouds of colored light.

Okay, I'm calling it. The November vibe is going to be Shadowstruck.

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Okay, I'm calling it. The November vibe is going to be Shadowstruck.

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Prepping for the end of Daylight Savings Time by trying to build enthusiasm for Starfall stories.