#& luckily i had planned to make this edit before so i wrote down the quote too

[prisma-does-things]

My Interpretation of Daganronpa V3′s ending (plus extra goodies)

Hey everyone! Long time no see, but I think I may finally have time to do things regularly now. I’m gonna try and split this blog across Writblr/Fic, Danganronpa, and Edits so we’ll see how this goes, lol. I’ll have a new intro out sooooon!

Anyways onto what you clicked for:

This is a compilation theory of my interpretation of DRV3’s ending. I can justify why I think anything I say here if you want me to, but if I wrote down evidence for everything here it’d literally be 100 pages long so if you wanna discuss just ask me! Some of these things are just straight up indulgent but that’s the fun of interpretations!

1 | The Beginning of Team Danganronpa

After the events of DR3, and I mean LONG after the events of DR3--like at least a century--Hope’s Peak Academy has been diluted into a small and insignificant government program, totally out of the way of society. Talent isn’t as much of a big deal anymore and everyone’s chill now. The concepts of hope and despair, Junko and company are reduced to stories and paragraphs in history text-books.

Eventually, and slowly, the stories of the killing games entered into the world of fiction. The idea of the ultimate clash between Hope and Despair was quite enticing, and so Team Danganronpa was created to make these ideas come to life on the screen.. Reenactments, roleplays, museums, you name it and Team Danganronpa had a part in it. The hardships of the past lead to inspiration for the people of the present. Hope and despair became little aesthetics and concepts for people to attach themselves too, like coping mechanisms. 

However, as society grew to appreciate this, it grew more and more perverse. The reenactments became more and more realistic, and the people consuming it cared less and less about the specifics. All they cared for was the mindless and constant clash between Hope and Despair. Good or bad. It wasn’t even despair that society was experiencing, more like a perverted sense of sentimentality. If it sounds like I copied that I did, that quote was from Undertale.

2 | The New Killing Game

Anyways, at the rate things were going, it was inevitable that Team Danganronpa would eventually start recreating killing games using actual students, probably a combination of scouted out individuals and volunteers with actual murders. Remember that this is a society that bounced back from a near-end of the world decision, they’re all recovering, even the kids that were raised by the survivors. 

And please note that when I’m talking about the society in the Danganronpa world I don’t think that it applies to the fandom AT AL. In fact I think the society in DR is the exact opposite of the fandom, but let’s keep going.

3 | Rantaro’s Plan

We really don’t know the amount of ‘Seasons’ there’s been, but we’ll just call this one ‘Season 52’. Season 52 stares a whole new story continuing from the ‘fictional’ stories of Hope’s Peak. The only two members of this group that we know are Rantaro Amami...and Kaede Akamatsu, the two that chose to sacrifice themselves at the end of the 52nd killing game. Rantaro and Kaede both get survivor perks for their troubles, and the other two survivors are allowed to have their memories replaced so they can return to society with their sanity. Rantaro and Kaede can leave to the real world too, but they will be brought back for the next season, which is planned to be a sequel featuring them as the fan favorites.

Luckily for Rantaro, this is the perfect situation for his plan to destroy Team Danganronpa for good. Everyone else in the world is generally repulsed by Team DR’s actions, but their reliance on them is too great for them to break away or do much of anything.

He starts out by getting in contact with Kaede’s twin sister, we’ll just call her Haru as a temporary name. Rantaro needs to pitch a good plot for the next season, since it’s a sequel he’ll have the advantage in knowing where everything is, including the one weakness of the seasons mastermind. Because Kaede, being positive and bright, and Maru, being cynical and rude, are polar opposites, a twin vs. twin plot seems like the perfect thing to pitch to Team Danganronpa. 

In addition Rantaro also adds Shuichi Saihara and Tsumugi Shirogane to his little squad. Shuichi’s mind is analytical, but he lacks confidence. Rantaro knows Team DR enough to predict what they’ll do with him, so he becomes Rantaro’s backup. He adds Tsumugi only because she and Kaede were dating-A and he thinks she’ll make a good first victim, letting Rantaro get a bit more time to find the mastermind and convince the world to fight against Team DR.

 4 | Scouting of the other members

Before any of this, back when he was recording his Survivor Perk, he made sure to structure it in a way that would motivate a Rantaro in a killing game to get out and survive another game so he could try again. He really wanted to cover all of his bases, he was dealing with a huge corporation by now after all.

In another sect, Kaito Momota and Maki Harukawa, who are both dating, join in with Rantaro’s idea. And, somewhere entirely different, a prince by the name of Kokichi Oma, and his personal maid, Kirumi Tojo, are both scouted and kidnapped by Team Danganronpa for the next killing game. A shy but sweet mechanic whose father is friends with the Queen of the kingdom, Miu Iruma, decides to volunteer.

After much planning from Rantaro’s group, they strategically get everyone in the 53rd killing game, lying on their audition tapes...well-everyone except for Maru. Team DR accepts the whole twin vs. twin plot, and they start modification of the sets, making them seem dilapidated and old to show a passage of time. Right on the cusp of the plans success, Kaede succumbs to her guilt. After seeing the horrors of the killing game her spirit is broken, and soon before the game’s beginning, she commits suicide. The final note she leaves to her sister asks her to end the killing games, despite their differences. 

Without a twin to complete the plot, Team DR is forced to improvise. They bring out a beta for a project they were planning, a robot named K1-B0, or Keebo. Keebo’s purpose was to be the audience's eyes, something suggested by Miu to give her friends an advantage in ending the game. 

5 | The Start of Season 53

Finally, the killing game starts. 

The 16 students are brought to Team DR one way or another. Maru is especially shocked, as she’s never participated in a killing game before, but is treated like she did. Everyone’s memory is replaced, save for Rantaro who’s allowed to keep a set few memories that would’ve worked well for the sequel plan. Everyone wakes up in the lockers, with Maru waking up next to Shuichi, now forced to take the identity of Kaede. She tries to get the hang of her sister’s personality, as we see in pregame, but eventually her entire identity is replaced with a Flashback light when she receives her talent. You could also describe it as an Ultimate Revival if you wanted to. Maru becomes Kaede Akamatsu, now able to fulfill the role that her sister is now unable to.

After the events of the prologue (Which is called Ultimate Revival by the way, I don’t want you to miss that wordplay) Tsumugi wakes up in a locker, right next to Keebo. Something not even Rantaro accounted for happened, Tsumugi was chosen to be the mastermind. Not Kokichi or even himself like he was expecting. However, Team DR saw Tsumugi as a perfect candidate for a mastermind, as her obsession with fiction was seen as relatable. She was a perfect reflection of what society had become.

Tsumugi’s mind was barely touched by the Flashback lights, but all of her relationships with her friends and girlfriend were replaced. Upon waking up and seeing Keebo, he explains to her that they’re currently in a spaceship that was supposed to take off ages ago and the outside world is inhospitable. Panicking, she sets K1-B0 into it’s ‘friendly’ mode and lets him go off and talk with the others, entirely forgetting about his set role as a future traitor, as well as the Flashback Light machine. 

However, K1-B0 was set to teach the mastermind how to do their job, and now without that information in their memory, Tsumugi doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do. All she knows right now is that she has some involvement with the mastermind. As a result, the Monokubs, another set of helpers, also have no idea what they’re doing and have to rely on Monokuma, an AI the mastermind can’t control, for instruction.

6 | Tsumugi as the Mastermind

Tsumugi ends up wandering around, stopping and staring at an odd dragon statue. That’s when Shuichi and Kaede find her in-game. Tsumugi can’t explain why, but Kaede touching her cheeks made her feel all fluttery inside. After their ‘first’ interaction together, Tsumugi takes note of the big round ball in the dragon’s hand. 

The first motive, The First Blood Perk, comes around, along with the time limit soon after. The pressure of this definitely scares Tsumugi, but she wants to see Kaede get out okay, especially since she feels inspired by her.

At some point Tsumugi goes to the bathroom and discovers the hidden room entirely by accident. Once into the room with Motherkuma, she asks about the whereabouts of Kaede, and Motherkuma gives her details about her and Shuichi’s plan. Wanting to help out, but not wanting to seem suspicious, she gets about the bathroom a.s.a.p and goes back to blending in. She’s planning to get Kaede out as soon as she can, but she doesn’t know if she can do it.

Time goes on, and eventually that really loud music starts playing. Tsumugi knows Kaede’s gonna make a move, so she rushes to the hidden room in the library again and starts her own little plan. After stealing a shot put ball from the warehouse, something she did out of inspiration from the dragon, Tsumugi opens up the hidden door in the library to see Rantaro lying crumpled on the floor by the bookshelf.

Without thinking, she smashed the ball into Rantaro’s head and finished him off. She initially thought him to be the mastermind, but after checking his survivor perk she realizes that there’s a lot more to Rantaro, and this game, than she realizes. Desperate for more time to solve the mystery, she rushed back with everyone else to get on with the investigation.

7 | The First Trial

As the investigation rolled around, she started panicking. She formed a quick alibi in the form of her cospox, but planned to explain herself more in the class trial. She wasn’t quite ready to face reality yet. She knew Monokuma was supposed to punish her, so she let herself act like she was innocent until the time came. 

Once the class trial DID come around, she realized what Kaede was doing. Once Monokuma declared the voting right, she was confused, but took it as an opportunity to defeat the Mastermind. Her death made her distraught, but she bit her tongue and promised to solve it for Kaede’s sake.

The night of the Class Trial, she went back into her secret room when she was greeted by a Flashback Light. This one, on top of the one everyone else received, was built to make her be a more efficient mastermind. 

8 | The Trials After…

Trials 2-4 were largely the same. Just after each Class Trial, Tsumugi was given a different special Flashback Light to get her to question everything around her more, specifically targeting the idea that everything Danganronpa, including Hope’s Peak, isn’t actually real. Monokuma had been no help, fully content holding the truth over her and making her dance around to find it. I don’t have any idea what those Flashback Lights could’ve been, but I DO know that one of the ones meant for Tsumugi was nabbed by Angie in chapter 3. Tsumugi planned for her to find it, but didn’t expect her to destroy it.

By Chapter 4, Tsumugi asked Monokuma to show the “outside world” for the first time, confirming what Keebo said. During this time, she fully believed the scene outside to be real, mostly because she had no other evidence to disprove it. After this, Tsumugi decided to start a plan of her own that she’d enact by herself.

9 | Tsumugi’s Plan

Before getting a look at the Neo World Program in Chapter 4, Tsumugi used a Flashback light on herself to replace the memory of her seeing the outside world with her doing something else. This was because she needed a fresh reaction to seeing the outside world, but also because she needed to avoid Kokichi, who was definitely the closest to being able to figure her out and expose her.The other one she needed to keep an eye on was Shuichi, who could also figure her out if he ever caught his suspicions. In her desperation she never noticed the secret of the Flashback Lights, which lead to her replacing memories instead of erasing them like she was excepting. 

The next step of her plan involved her overhearing Kokichi and Miu’s plan to create the Electro hammers. She knew they’d be used to escape the ship at some point, and with a fresh reaction everything would be in place for the next step, which was getting Oma killed to give herself time to figure everything else out so she could finally come clean. Of course, since she really believed the world outside was destroyed, she really just wanted to trick everyone into not committing any murders. That just happened to mean getting rid of Kokichi. 

With all of this in mind, she wrote down her plan and used the Flashback light on herself. After having her memories erased, she went through the game as normal until trial 4 passed. Luckily for her, it gave her just the motivation she needed to want to kill Kokichi. She wasn’t quite able to see through Kokichi’s mask, she was blinded by a mix of power, confusion, and rage by then. 

Immediately after trial 4, she was hit with her usual mastermind Flashback Light, however this one made her remember something extra important, the script of season 53.  

Tsumugi actually wrote herself a fake set of plans as part of her plans. That was the whole ‘script’ thing she was talking about in chapter 6. She set the plans up so that way she truly believed she was the mastermind. She was taking the risk of Kokichi finding her, but she figured the confusion would throw off any secretive actions she could’ve done. The reason why she did this was to give herself confidence. If she made herself think that everything in her plan was already set to happen, she’d believe in herself enough to make it so. 

Going into Chapter 5 now, after seeing the outside world for the ‘first time’ she blended in with everyone else, but she did know that Kokichi wasn’t actually the Mastermind as she read the script she made for herself. Tsumugi didn’t plan for this, but it did help her out because it got everyone to go again Kokichi. 

After trial 5, and his sacrifice, Tsumugi was hit with her final flashback light. This one made her ‘remember’ her time as a part of Team Danganronpa. This didn’t mess with her plan too much, as she already knew that something would happen to her head before she made herself forget the secret of the outside world. However, after all of those lights..her head couldn’t take much more. There was too much stuff going on in her head, too many confusing contradictions for her to process. She ignored this originally because she thought that the Flashback Lights erased and created memories instead of replacing them, but it was too late. Keebo started destroying the academy, something she DEFINITELY didn’t plan for.

10 | The Final Trial

Without any way of solving the mystery of Team DR, she scrambled around and put together a class trial of her own, leaving the shot-put ball Kaede used in the trash for Shuichi to find later. All of her attempts came crashing down, but she was able to convince Monokuma to shamble together something to make season 53 end with a ‘good climax’. 

Trial 6 starts, and after Tsumugi’s found out as the mastermind, she uses a series of Nanokumas to help her cosplay. By now she believes that the stories of Hope’s Peak are fiction, so she’s able to cosplay them...and only them...all she wants. She doesn’t know anything about Team DR’s history, so she makes it all up, including the titles of the seasons, which she shambles together from her favorite fandoms. Monokuma plays along, and even adds in a huge audience set to make it look like everyone’s watching. In fact he’s so wrapped up in how good everything’s doing that he doesn’t realize Tsumugi’s baiting Shuichi into helping her.

During trial 6, she even brings up the motive that no one had a chance to see in chapter 5, the Pre-Game tapes they did when they were together ages ago. 

By presenting herself as an ultimate evil, Tsumugi took Shuichi’s will to find the truth and twisted it so that he’d end up finding what she wanted him to. She wanted Shuichi to discover the truth, that fiction can change the world. 

At the end of it all, Tsumugi allowed herself to be killed, succumbing to the after effects of the Flashback Lights and letting herself be consumed by the lies. Believing herself now to be some kind of replacement to Junko Enoshima, and thus a ‘cosplay-cat killer’, she allows herself to be killed and finally rest. She wanted to admit what she did more carefully, to say a final goodbye or at least hint to the fact that she meant to help them, but she couldn’t. 

Shuchi, Maki, and Himiko all survive, finally able to leave Danganronpa together. Team DR allows it, as it feels satisfying, but they do look forwards to seeing the 3 of them try to truly end Danganronpa for good. Tsumugi doesn’t know what’s on the other side of the End-Wall, but she trusts in her friends to face that truth.

11 | Conclusion 

And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed this read/arrangement of evidence for what I think happened behind the scenes of Danganronpa V3! This took sooo much thinking it’s not even funny. Seriously I spent at least 4 full school periods doing nothing but thinking and taking notes. A lot of this is indulgent, specifically the parts with Kokichi being a prince and the whole Kaede + Kaede Twin Sister switch, I just thought those were neat. 

I didn’t say it there but I think that The Ultimate Talent Development Plan was actually two things. The first was a board game released alongside Season 53 featuring all the characters, and the second was actually a real program, sorta like the Izuru project. I don’t really wanna consider the implications of what this could do to my interpretation though, lol. 

But yeah, V3’s ending is really important to me. It upsets me wayy more than it should when people consider it to be stupid or lazy or insulting to the audience of the games. I think what they were trying to do with the ending was both stupid ambitious and super cool. Killing Harmony is like...my 2nd favorite piece of media ever. It’s so important to me, and as a storyteller I totally respect them for what they did with the ending. The idea of using the enjoyment of the franchise against the player was so brutal and effective for me. Danganronpa helped me grow as a person, and being undermined and told the emotional connection I had with everyone was all just bullshit hurt. Buuuut then Tsumugi and Shuichi helped me realize that even if it is just a bunch of silly bullshit, the emotional response that it gave me...and all the happiness I got from it, that’s all real. Ain’t no black and white bear taking that from me.

So yeah, thanks for reading.

Thanks for everything, Danganronpa.

[words-and-fangirling-wonder]

Study Buddy

Hello everyone! So, this is a bit of a cop-out, but I am very tired tonight from working like a maniac so instead of writing a new piece from a prompt specifically for this event, I did some edits to a little drabble I wrote a while ago and didn’t publish based on a prompt from some friends. Please forgive me, and enjoy this tribute to all you kids at university who are dealing with finals right now! 

Fandom: One Piece

Rating: Mature? There’s smut but it’s more like mentioned smut than real smutty smut. 

Pairing: Law/Kid

Prompt From a while ago: Law puts Athlete!Kid in his place (or something like that, I don’t remember exactly).

Author: Fangirl Wonder (WordsandWonder on AO3)

"Your grades are exceptional, of course, but your extra curricular activities are a bit less so. Everyone who is applying to these top medical schools has perfect grades, Mr. Trafalgar. Try doing something for the community. Volunteer, perhaps. It could be the difference between acceptance to your first choice of schools and rejection." With those words ringing in his ears, Law grudgingly signed up with the free tutoring program. All the other students here were smart enough to get into an Ivy League school, right? So how much tutoring could they really need? It was a great plan; it would look good on his resume and would require very little effort. He didn't even have to find a client because the people running the program would match him up with someone. Piece of cake. Or at least, that's what he thought until this red headed piece of shit walked into the library and unceremoniously plopped down at his table. Law didn't even know what the other guy was doing for a solid minute until he smirked at him and rudely suggested that they could move this "study" (and yes, the asshole used air quotes) session to his apartment if al Law wanted to do was stare at him.

The rest of their hour long session did not get any better. Apparently this guy, Eustass Kid ("but don't fucking call me Eustass"), was some kind of athlete and Law was apparently supposed to know this and/or give a flying fuck about this because Eustass was "a pretty big deal." But Law did not know, or care, what type of ball Eustass kicked or tossed or dribbled around what field or court, and this fact seemed to infuriate the redhead, much to Law's unabashed delight. So instead of studying Biology like they were supposed to, they spent 90% of their time bickering and issuing increasingly graphic threats of violence against each other. It got so bad that on their way out the librarian informed them that if they planned to study together in the future they would need to find a different venue. Eustass assured her that he was never studying with "this fucking freak" again and stormed out. Considering those parting words, Law was understandably surprised when the man once again gracelessly sat across from him when Law was expecting a new student in need of tutoring, this time at a coffee shop. "Shut up," he demanded in response to Law's stony stare. "They said you're the best, so just teach me this shit." A few smart comments later they were both (surprisingly) studying almost civilly, which was about as friendly as Law figured they were going to get. Overall things were going pretty well. Until Eustass went and ruined it by giving Law a long once over, smirking that obnoxious, overly self confident smirk he had, and saying "You know, you're actually kinda pretty once you shut the fuck up." Law proceeded to not "shut the fuck up" for the remaining 40 minutes of their study session, berating everything from Kid's attitude to his fashion sense until a nervous looking waitress asked if they could please leave. Despite the fact that Law couldn't stand him and constantly did his best to deflate the redhead's enormous ego, Eustass continued to request study sessions with him. Rarely did those sessions actually include anything even remotely resembling study, however. No, it was more like Eustass made crude advances which Law angrily rejected. Unfortunately, each rejection just seemed to spur Eustass on. He would simply laugh at whatever insulting name Law had called him and make an even more obscene suggestion until Law kicked him out or yelled at him until the staff kicked them both out (which was really happening too frequently, Law needed to stop bringing Eustass to places he enjoyed). By the time they reached midterms the two had fallen into a weird sort of rhythm. They would sit down, trade insults, work for a bit, Eustass would be obnoxious, Law would go on a tirade, they would work a little more, and then Eustass would be obnoxious again and Law would storm off, reminding himself over and over that it was worth it if it got him into the med school he wanted. And honestly, he could at least console himself with the fact that despite what seemed to be his best efforts to the contrary, Eustass actually was doing better. His grades were steadily improving, and Law even noticed that the athlete had started bringing a notebook with him, which not only had notes on what Law was saying, but also what appeared to be lecture notes. Law was almost tempted to say that Eustass was actually prepared for his midterm exam. Of course, he was rather glad he hadn't said it when Eustass proudly presented him with his returned test. "An F? You got an F. I don't believe this," Law deadpanned. "Believe it sweetheart." "But how? You knew this material, Eustass!" They went back and forth for a solid twenty minutes before Eustass finally shrugged and said "Whatever, so I don't get it as much as you thought. Guess you'll just have to keep teaching me." And then it clicked. "Eustass, did you fail this test ... intentionally?" Of course, Kid refused to admit that he did. That is, until Law informed him that if after all their work he still couldn't manage a passing grade he was a lost cause, and he would not continue to waste his time on a lost cause. Then suddenly Eustass was confessing everything, and of all the stupid shit Eustass had put him through this probably should have been the worst, but somehow Law actually found it incredibly endearing. So when, halfway through their study session, Eustass once again insisted that he was more of a hands-on learner and suggested they go back to his place for some "practical application" of the material, Law surprised the hell out of him by saying yes. ++++ Kid would be lying if he said he hadn't vividly (and repeatedly) imagined what it would be like if his tutor finally agreed to one of his suggestions. It drove him insane every time his lines (some of his BEST lines, too) were shut down. So even though he didn't know what had caused the raven-haired beauty to finally cave, he certainly wasn't going to do something bat-shit crazy like question it. But somehow, he never imagined it quite like this. First off, he was completely unprepared for the pre-med student to be such a fucking animal. He didn't think there was an inch of him not currently covered in bite and scratch marks, and never had someone, especially someone so much slimmer than him, so easily manhandled him, or coerced him, or whatever the fuck Law had done to him to get him on his back, panting helplessly into the arm he'd pressed firmly to his mouth in an attempt to stifle his moans with two long, slender fingers pumping in and out of him. In every fantasy he'd had about this moment, he was the one making Law pant and moan and stubbornly choke back a desperate plea for more. He was the one taking the other by surprise with his sexual prowess and … stuff. This was entirely unexpected. As a third finger joined the first two and Law brushed teasingly against his prostate, Kid had to at least admit that it wasn't ... unpleasant. But it was exactly the opposite of all his fantasies, and he really wasn't sure what he was going to do about it. Luckily Law chose that moment to remove his fingers and replace them without so much as a warning, thrusting into Kid hard and effectively wiping his mind of any thoughts at all except "holy fuck big, hot, good, fuck." By the time they were done Kid was a total wreck, and Law looked like he'd gone for a short but satisfying jog. It was completely unfair, and also incredibly hot, putting Kid in the awkward position of wanting to go again but also not being entirely sure he still actually had the ability to use his legs. He found out that he did (although it was shaky at best) when Law tried to leave and he had to stumble to the door and drag the asshole back to bed, demanding he stay the night. For the second time that evening, Law gave in to the redhead’s desires, and the rest was history.

[beermanoftana]

suicidals anonymous // chapter 1

warnings: swearing, drinking, vulgarity., mentions of death and attempted suicide. not edited as good, sorry about that. notes/disclaimer: this fic is set in the philippines (my home country). there will be some tagalog words but i will be translating them and hopefully i don’t miss anything. this is actually a novel that i’m hoping will be published one day. this is one of three that i’m working on atm. summary: university student kitty is back to attending her suicidals anonymous meetings. and she also has a secret admirer (signed as “dog lover”) she talks to pretty much everyday. her older brother wes wants her to end things. but her other best friend, cassie, has 4 prime suspects: cirian “wolf” (her brother’s best friend), duke (her childhood friend), baste (her crush and Duke’s twin brother), and tom (her sa mate). chapter summary: for her older brother, a secret admirer isn’t always a good thing but kitty’s not having any of that, and he also thinks it’s time to go back to her sa meetings

Dog Lover: Did you get the flowers I sent you?

The ding of that message in Kitty’s phone startled her. She was in her room, supposedly doing homework, but she was staring off into space instead. Usually, the message notifications don’t bother her, in fact, she gets excited when she hears them. Lately, she’s been texting with that one person back and forth for the past few weeks.

She reached for her phone just a few inches away from her book and smiled as she saw the text. Immediately, she replied.

Kitty Langit: They were very lovely. Thank you.

Dog Lover: Aren’t those your favorite?

Kitty Langit: I don’t think I ever told you what my favorite is. Dog Lover: Because you have a lot. I chose the big gerberas especially because I know they’re your number one fave. Kitty Langit: Then goes the white and pink roses with three sunflowers. Dog Lover: I’m glad you like them.

Kitty smiled. Her heart fluttered. This guy really knew her yet, she didn’t have a clue as to who he was.

Kitty Langit: I have to do some homework. :(

Dog Lover: Aww :( I was hoping we could chat some more. Kitty Langit: Tell you what, I’ll finish my papers and message you when I’m done. Dog Lover: Sounds like a plan. Just ring when you need me. Kitty Langit: Haha. You any good at philosophy? Dog Lover: …no. Kitty Langit: :P I’ll message you later, oki? Dog Lover: I love you. Kitty Langit: Oh please. :P

Kitty skimmed through her book and quickly wrote down her thoughts. Philosophy was not one of her strong subjects so thankfully she only had one class of that her whole university life. Math came and went; now that was one of her strong subjects. She loved analyzing numbers and solving problems. English and Literature were so-so. She liked the subjects but not to a great extent. She did love reading Smaller and Smaller Circles in her Lit class.

She closed her book after reading a few chapters, leaned on her chair and sighed. “Done,” she murmured. Glancing at the clock, she grinned when she realized that it only took her about two hours to finish everything.

Quickly, she fixed her desk and placed everything she needed in her bag that she had to bring the next day. She had hoped that her mystery admirer messaged her without her noticing but she had no new message and she heaved a sigh of slight disappointment.

She knew she should not feel so entitled just because she had an admirer. On lonely days, she would be the first to message them, then regret it as soon as she did. Luckily, her admirer would reply with an “I was just thinking about you” or “I was going to message you in awhile” and all those other comforting one-liners…but who knows when he’ll begin realizing that she isn’t worth it.

Sighing, she flopped down on her bed and raised her phone up to her face, waiting. She knew she should be the one to message first, she was the one who had to go earlier. But she was scared. She didn’t want to annoy him or anything. What if he was busy studying or working? He had told her that he was a working student. And he assured her that he was a ‘he’; not that she had a problem if he were a ‘she’.

Finally, she gave a firm nod to herself and opened her texts. She quickly typed a short “Hello :)” and sent it but quickly regretting that she initiated it. In less than a minute, she got a reply from him.

Dog Lover: Hey! You done with homework? Kitty Langit: Yeah. Wasn’t as difficult as I thought. You studying or working? Dog Lover: Neither. Not on shift and I was studying while you were, too. Kitty Langit: Fuck, did I disturb you? Dog Lover: You know as much as I do that you are never ever a disturbance to me. Kitty Langit: You really know how to make a girl feel good, know that?

Then there goes that feeling of a pit in her stomach again. He was probably doing this to other girls, too. She can just feel it.

Dog Lover: ;) I’ve been told I’m a smooth talker.

She doesn’t respond.

Dog Lover: Shit. I didn’t mean it that way. Kitty Langit: Haha. It’s fine, don’t worry about it. Dog Lover: You’re the only one, I swear. Kitty Langit: I didn’t think that, haha.

Dog Lover: I don’t believe you.

Well, it is true that she wasn’t thinking that. But she wasn’t thinking that she was the only one either. She may not know how this guy looks like but he sounds like just her type. Call her superficial but that’s just the way it is for some people.

Dog Lover: Can I call?

That wasn’t unusual. He would sometimes call her. She was wary at first but when she became curious, she decided to try it out. And God did she love his voice.

Dog Lover: If you don’t want to then it’s okay. I just wanted to hear your voice.

Kitty rolled her eyes. She’s heard that line before so many times…all from him.

Dog Lover: Please, Kitty? Kitty Langit: I have to go get dinner. Dog Lover: After? Kitty Langit: Let’s see.

She dropped her phone on her bed and pursed her lips. There were times she wanted him to just go away. But no matter how much she pushed, he would always come back. He’d send her sweet messages and chocolates and flowers and really, anything she wanted she found herself getting it.

There was another ding from her phone and she read it.

Dog Lover: I’ll wait for you, okay?

“Wait until you drop dead,” she muttered. She frowned. She knew that was mean. Damn her and her mood swings.

She got out of bed and exited her room. She went down the stairs and turned to the kitchen to find some grub. “We got anything to eat?” she asked the housemaid Lenny. “I am hungry.” That was one of her quotable quotes…she would say that every single day.

“The cake that your secret admirer sent you,” Lenny replied. Esther, the other maid who happened to pass by, nodded. “We’ll eat if you don’t,” she joked.

Kitty sighed and closed the refrigerator. “I don’t feel like eating that. I want some chips.”

Esther shook her head. “You’ve been eating chips for the past three days. No, I’m cooked some bistek [Filipino beef steak]. You’re eating that.”

Kitty pouted but sat on the kitchen table anyway. Lenny brought out the cake and said, “Why don’t you want to eat it? You were happy to see it awhile ago.”

Kitty propped her elbow on the table and placed her head on the palm of her hand. “I changed my mind,” she grumbled. Her chest heaved as she thought of Dog Lover’s response earlier. That he was told to be a smooth talker. She may have read it a bit too much, maybe he really just was. Maybe he actually didn’t have anyone else he’s courting. Maybe…just maybe. “They’re all maybe’s,” she muttered.

After eating some dinner with their housemaids, she loved talking to them during meal times, she headed back upstairs and dropped on her bed. She reached for her phone and saw that she had three messages. One from Dog Lover, two from her best friend Duke.

Dog Lover: I hope you’ll allow me to call. :(

Duke Montemayor: I need help with the philo homework. Duke Montemayor: Come on, Kit-Kat. Just because we’re not in the same course doesn’t mean you can’t help me. We’re still in the same class!

Kitty rolled her eyes at the drama queen. And just then, another ding from him.

Duke Montemayor: I know you’re probably talking to Mr. Casanova but I really need your help.

Immediately, Kitty answered.

Kitty Langit: Sorry, I was eating. And don’t call him that. I’m not associating Dog Lover with Wolf Casanova.

Duke Montemayor: He’s your brother’s best friend. Kitty Langit: And your point is…? Duke Montemayor: Nothing, I have no point. But know that you gave Wolf his nickname, which is pretty similar tot Dog Lover. Kitty Langit: Cirian was really hard to pronounce! Anyway, video chat so I can help?

And not a minute later, he called her via Skype.

After forty-five minutes of bickering back and forth, the two finally bid farewell knowing they might not be able to see each other the next day. There was another text from Dog Lover a few minutes ago asking if she had fallen asleep.

Kitty puffed her cheeks then blew out the air. Fine, she thought.

Kitty Langit: Hey. Dog Lover: Can I call?

She thought it over for a minute before giving her response. A few seconds later, the familiar tone of her phone blasted and she slid her thumb after five seconds. “Hey,” she greeted.

“I didn’t mean…I…you’re the only one, I swear.” His voice was deep and heavy; as if he was thinking of what to say yet did not get it right. “My friends say I’m a smooth talker. And yes, other girls have said that well, but I swear, I don’t smooth talk them the way I with you. You’re the only one I’m courting, I swear.”

“Dog Lover—”

“You’re the only one I want.”

Kitty sighed. “Yeah, you’ve said.”

“It’s true.”

Silence.

“Do you want to put down the phone?” he asked.

Kitty shook her head despite knowing that he couldn’t see her. “No, it’s cool. We can talk.”

“Great.” She can feel his grin. “How was your day?”

“The highlight was definitely those flowers. That’s the first time you’ve sent me a bouquet.” She smiled. “Any special reason?”

“I just wanted to surprise you.”

“All the girls were so jealous,” she said, proud. She replayed the memory.

She was sitting on a chair, waiting for her turn to sing a song in front of those auditioning with her. Before her were some of the best singers she’s ever heard of and she knew she had no chance but she wanted to give it a shot.

“I was the only one who got a ‘great job’ gift.”

She returned to the back room where they were all waiting for instructions. Her head was low and she could feel the eyes on her. As she was about to sit down, someone had called her. Initially, she thought that she was the first go but she only saw a huge bouquet of assorted flowers being held by the attendant standing by the doorway. He repeated her name as he looked at a clipboard he was holding on the other hand.

Kitty raised her hand. “That’s me!”

The attendant looked through his clipboard, turning the page once, twice, three times before nodding his head. “These are for you.”

She rose from her seat feeling eyes on her again. As she got the bouquet she heard the attendant mutter, “Lucky you.” And really, who wouldn’t be proud of that?

Immediately, she examines the gift before looking at the tag. “Break a leg!” And under it, in smaller handwriting wrote, “And if you do, I’ll be there to catch you.” She grinned. Of course, the usual paw print was the signature.

“You can sit back down now, Ms. Langit,” the attendant said.

Kitty blushed and returned to her seat. Some of them cooed and teased her, others stayed put and were either indifferent or looked at her with envy.

But in the end, she wasn’t even in the shortlist.

“You were a little too late though,” she told her admirer through the phone.

Dog Lover sighed. “I know. I heard from a source that the attendant didn’t give it to you until after the audition.”

“A source, huh,” she murmured. “I’m not even surprised anymore.”

He chuckled. “You know me so well.”

Kitty smiled at that. “You know me more.”

The two talked to one another until the wee hours of the night. When Kitty yawned a bit too many times, Dog Lover said it was time for her to sleep. She refused and said that she was still up and about.

“Shadowcat,” he started, “you’ve been mumbling things that don’t make sense anymore.”

“What are you talking about?” she said, yawning once more.

“You’d just be embarrassed,” he said. “Come on, it’s time to sleep.” But she continued to refuse. “Tell you what, I won’t put down the phone until I know you’ve fallen asleep. Sounds good?”

“What if you fall asleep first?” she half-said, half-mumbled.

“I’m not. Because when we get married, I’ll be watching you while you sleep.” Kitty told him how creepy that would be just as he said, “And I’ll be the luckiest guy in the world.”

She smiled. “You’ll be the luckiest guy in the world when you score with Ariana Grande, or J-Lo, Kathryn Bernando…”

“Too loud, too old, not my type…I’d still be a bit lucky if it were Liza.” He laughed nervously. “And I said a bit because you know she’s my celebrity crush.”

“I’d be lucky if I had Paulo, or Albie,” she murmured.

“Now that hurts.”

“Are you not as macho as them?” she teased.

“You know I am.”

“I’ve never seen you.”

“Just know that I’m better.”

Kitty rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

“So, about that sleeping deal…”

She hummed. “Yeah, okay, sounds good.” She stood up to turn on her lamp before turning off the main lights. She sighed as she laid down on the bed. “How do we do this?” she asked. “Do I get my earphones or something?”

“Have you been talking without them?”

“Yeah,” she answered. “Hold on.” She turned to her side and fished for her earphones from the side table. She plugged them in and put on one bud. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“Do you want me to sing you a lullaby?”

“Are you a good singer?”

“Um…” he began, “I think I’ll leave the singing to you. Sing to me?”

She smiled. “But oh/can’t you see/that no matter what happens/life goes and on/so baby/just smile/’cause I’m always around you/and I’ll make you see how beautiful life is for you and me…”

And as she sang, she began drifting off. When Dog Lover realizes that she had fallen asleep, he smiled. “Goodnight, Kitty. I’ll see you soon.” Click.

The next day, Kitty was walking to her usual spot in the garden of her university. People never sit there because the room behind it would always be left open and the AC was on at maximum level. Plus the area would always be a target of the strong winds during a good day, or the drizzles of rain when the water would pour.

Unfortunately, it was a rainy day and although she brought her cardigan to block out the AC and wind, she hadn’t expected a heavy downpour. She shivered a little as the water touched her skin from time to time.

She felt a poke at her cheek and she didn’t bother whirling around to see who it was. Wolf used to do that to her when they were younger…and he never stopped. Her cheeks were puffy then, her weight wasn’t what you called average, and so Wolf teased her all the time. Even as she worked hard to get to her weight now, he wouldn’t stop. Wes Langit, her older brother and Wolf’s best friend, wasn’t really helping much.

“You’re cold,” he stated.

“Yeah,” she said, shrugging, “I don’t really listen to the weatherman.”

Wolf chuckled. “Here,” he started. Kitty turned to her side and saw him removing his hoodie. “You can have it for the day.”

“What about you?” she asked but not refusing his offer. She had given her belongings to him as she put on the hoodie. It has his number on it, 3, and his last name. She has always wondered what the number 3 meant to him. It was her lucky number, that’s for sure, but that didn’t really add up. “Thanks though.”

He shrugged. “I’ll live. Besides, Wes would kill me for not being a gentleman to his baby sister.”

Kitty rolled her eyes. “Yep, he would.” They reached the stone bench with a matching stone table. There were seats on either side. “Sit with me?”

Wolf nodded and sat down. Kitty sat opposite of him.

“Is Duke coming?”

Kitty shook her head. “Just me and you for now. Cassie’s coming, though. We have Lit together and she wasn’t very impressed with Circle.”

“Nice,” Wolf murmured.

Kitty couldn’t hold back a scoff. “You do know she’s gay, right?”

“Can’t I admire her?”

She nodded her head slowly then shrugged. “I suppose so.”

The two took out their materials in silence. Before Kitty could start on problem number 1, Wolf cleared his throat.

She looked up and tilted her head a little to the left. “Yeah?”

“How’s Dog Lover?” he asked, looking anywhere but at her. “Everything good?”

She smiled. “Yeah, everything’s fine. I still get wary and all but he seems good. Thanks for asking. But…why did you ask? Hasn’t Wes filled you in?”

“Wes doesn’t really like talking about it,” he admitted. “He doesn’t like the idea that…” he trailed off, “that some guy is getting too close to you and you don’t even know him. He could be doing all these things to impress you but he has other agendas.”

Kitty puffed her right cheek. “Possible.”

“But…?”

“I’m just enjoying the moment for now, I guess.” She shrugged. “No one has ever noticed me.”

Wolf rolled his eyes. “Keep telling that to yourself.”

“Wolf,” she began, “you know my past…relationships, if you can call it that, have been huge failures. Maybe this time it isn’t!”

“He’s a stalker, Kitty.”

Kitty paused. “True. But he gives me things.”

“So you’re using him?”

Kitty shook her head. “No, of course not.”

Just a Wolf was about to speak, Cassie arrived and sat beside him. “Okay, so Circles made me fall asleep and—oh hey, Wolf. What’s up?”

“Nothing,” he grumbled. “I was just asking Kitty how she’s doing.”

Cassie laughed. “Bullshit. But okay, okay. Anyways,” she took out her materials, “I was hoping you could help me with this part…”

The three spent some time together before Cassie had to go again. “You coming to practice or have you gotten another audition?” She smiled. Kitty knew Cassie supported her but she has been missing practice a lot.

“I’ll be there,” Kitty replied.

“Great. The team hasn’t seen you in awhile.”

But awhile meant a day, Kitty gave a sorry smile either way. “I know.”

Cassie nodded and waved before leaving the table. And as soon as she left, Wes Langit appeared and sat beside his sister. “Cassie hates me.”

“She does not.”

“After what happened?”

“You didn’t mean it.”

“But I still did it.”

Both Wolf and Kitty sighed.

“Have you been going to the meetings?” Wes asked, turning to his sister. Just as Kitty was about to reply he stopped her. “Don’t,” he held up his hand, “don’t even bother answering that question.”

Kitty bit the bottom of her lip.

Wolf said, “The meetings are on Sundays, right? Usually after the first mass of the day.”

Kitty nodded.

Wes sighed. “It’s for your own good, Kits. I know it can be a hassle but it helps.”

“How do you know?” she murmured.

“Because when you were going to them, you made pretty good progress. You were more jolly, you kept telling yourself that there are always solutions to problems…that you weren’t alone in fighting this battle. You would always go to me, you know?” His eyes softened. “I know you don’t really like going to Mom and Dad so you would go to me.”

Kitty laughed a little. “You were the one who signed me up.”

“And it worked, didn’t it?”

Kitty shrugged. “I guess so.”

Wes shook his head. “I’ll go with you.”

“You can’t enter the room.”

“Then I’ll wait for you out there. I’ll have my phone to keep me company.”

Kitty stayed silent for awhile. She turned to the side and saw Wolf waiting for her response as well. “Okay,” she said. She looked back at her brother and nodded. “Okay, I’ll go back.”

Wes smiled. “Great. That’s great.” He looked at her for a few seconds then frowned. “Why are you wearing Wolf’s hoodie?”

Kitty replied, “He knew I was cold.”

Wes sighed and shook his head at Wolf. “No wonder people have been giving her the stink eye.”

“Like that’s my fault,” Wolf said defensively

Kitty scoffed. “It’s all your fault.”

Wes chuckled, Wolf followed right after.

Later that day, the practice was kind of better than she thought it would be. She knew none of her teammates would criticize her for missing a day to audition for a small role she didn’t even get. They knew her love for singing matched her love for archery. They supported her, but they also had to think of their team, and she understood that. If she wasn’t a good singer in the eyes of the judges, then there’s nothing to worry about, she was a good archer, that she knew.

She stretched her arm, leveling it to her lip. She let out a bit of breath, locked her eyes on the red dot then released.

Straight hit.

Someone from behind her clapped. “Nice.”

Kitty smiled and turned around. “I’m just as good as an archer as bad as I am as a singer.”

“You can carry a tune,” Cassie said.

A small, sad smile appeared on Kitty’s face. “Not enough, I guess.”

Cassie frowned. Putting her bow down on the table, she shook her head then looped her arm around Kitty’s. “There’s a play in my village. It’s a small production but it’s something.”

Kitty placed bow next to Cassie’s. “I’m not from your village.”

“I know,” she said. “But no one wants to join but the people have already spent all the budget. They’re pretty desperate.”

Kitty giggled. “That doesn’t sound very nice.”

Cassie sighed. “Mm, yeah, it is their fault.”

“What play?”

“An original one.”

“Nice. You wrote it?” Kitty knew about Cassie’s love for writing. “I bet you did.”

“If I said yes will you join?” Cassie grinned.

“I’ll consider it.”

Cassie laughed. “I didn’t write it. Some twenty-something who works for the barangay did. I don’t know what it’s about.” She shrugged. “Probably something about lost love or a forbidden one or…I dunno, something about love.”

“Don’t you write about love?”

“I don’t go all cliche if you must know.” Cassie looked up and nudged Kitty lightly. “Duke Montemayor sighting.”

Kitty could never admit but she always found Duke cute in his boy-next-door kind of way. But she’s known him her whole life, ever since they were both whiny babies until they hit puberty and were each other’s first kiss until now where they realize nothing is ever going to happen to them…despite admitting that they were attracted to one another.

“Oh, and look who’s with him.”

Baste Montemayor, Duke’s twin brother, was with him. And he was the one that Kitty couldn’t help but imagine was Mr. Dog Lover. They had the same voice and Baste’s love for dogs is no secret either. Kitty’s had a thing for him since she stepped foot on the school grounds.

Baste had lived with his father after his and Duke’s parents separated. Duke never talked much about him since they were never close, their father leaving their mother when they were just two-years-old. But they reconnected when they realized they were in the same university.

“Oh,” she sighed. Her heart fluttered, she knew that it was the same flutter she felt with Dog Lover, and she had a strong feeling that they were one and the same.

Duke waved his hand as they got closer. “Hey,” he greeted.

“Nice of you to visit,” Cassie said.

Duke shrugged. “Baste wanted to see the archery range.”

“Are you sure that’s what he wanted to see?” Cassie narrowed her eyes at the two boys. “Nothing else?”

Kitty could feel her neck getting red.

Baste chuckled. “I’ve always been an archery fan but I’ve never seen one up close. Duke said he was on his way here and I jumped at the chance to ask him if I could come along.” His head circled the place and he nodded, a smile forming on his face. “It’s nice.”

“It should be,” Kitty can’t help but murmur. She could then feel someone’s eyes on her and she dared look in front. Baste Montemayor was looking at her with interest. “We have some classes together,” is all she can say after racking her brain for something to say to him. “Lab, math and—”

“Filipino,” he finished, nodding his head. “Katharine Langit, right?”

Cassie tilted her head. “She’s Duke’s best friend.”

Baste nodded again. “Yeah. But I’ve never interacted with her,” he explained. “This is the first time we’ve been up close.”

But you’re such a stalker, Kitty thought. She bit her lip from saying anything. “Do you want to try to shoot?” she offered.

Baste’s eyebrows raised. “Legit?”

Cassie shrugged. “Yeah, why not? Come on.” She gestured for him to follow her.

Kitty and Duke were left alone.

“You agreed to bring him here,” she said, not bothering to look at him. “When you know I’m not ready.”

Duke rolled his eyes. “Oh please. Even if I tell you, give you a warning, you would never be prepared.”

Kitty nodded once. She then watched as Cassie taught the guy how to hold up his bow.

Unlike Kitty’s pink bow, Cassie’s was a neutral blue.

Cassie then put leveled his arm and nodded. Kitty heard her say something about aiming and a second later, he released the string and the arrow flew to the board…missing the bullseye by a foot.

Duke couldn’t help but laugh. Kitty nudged him. They walked towards them just as Cassie’s arrow hit the board, missing the bullseye by just a few inches.

“That was so cool!” Baste clapped. “Do it again.”

“Who am I? Your dog?” Cassie glared at him. She noticed Kitty and Duke beside her and smiled. She turned back to Baste and smirked. “Watch the pro.” She looked at Kitty. “You ready.”

Kitty snapped her head back a little but a part of her knew that this was going to happen. “Yeah, sure.” She took Cassie’s bow and got an arrow from her quiver. She put it in place, readied her stance, let out a bit of breath and released.

Like earlier, she hit the bullseye with ease.

When she turned to look at Baste, and feeling very proud of herself, he was gaping.

“Y-y-you h-hit the uh…um…bullseye,” he stammered.

Kitty smiled. “I did.”

“Amazing!”

Kitty blushed. You should know that, the voice said. She shook her head. You have no proof, Katharine. No proof at all. But good Lord did she wish that he was just a really good actor and that he really was Dog Lover.

“You should definitely teach me!”

“You’d have to sign up and try out first,” Cassie told him with a roll of her eyes.

“Be nice,” Duke teased.

“During your free time?” Baste asked, hopeful.

“She auditions for musicals or bands during her free time,” Cassie continued to talk for the lady in subject. “I don’t think—”

“Let Kitty speak for herself,” Duke said in a serious tone, but it was obvious that he wanted to laugh at the scenario.

Cassie shut her mouth. The three then looked at Kitty and she felt very pressured. “I suppose it’s fine,” she said with a shrug. “There’s an archery range not too far from my house. If you’re willing to—”

“Yes!” Baste interrupted her.

“Great,” she said. A smile was on her face.

Duke pursed his lips. “Well, I think we have to go.”

Baste frowned. “Okay then.”

Kitty hid her disappointment. If you want to spend time with me then this is your chance, the voice inside her shouted. Another voice told her to shut up. “Just tell Duke if you’re still interested.”

He nodded. “I will. Definitely.” He smiled. “Thanks, Katharine.” Then he turned to Cassie. “You, too, Cassie.”

“I never told you my name,” she said, surprised.

“I’m friends with Duke, remember?” he chuckled softly.

Cassie lifted her head a little. “Right.”

Duke grabbed Baste’s arm and began dragging him. “I’ll see you later, Kit-Kat!”

“Meatloaf for dinner!” she shouted.

“YES!”

Cassie laughed. “He really loves his meatloaf.”

Kitty watched the two disappear. One second Baste looked back at her, and three seconds later it was Duke’s turn. Her heart began to beat faster. Cassie noticed her frozen form and reached for her hand.

“We don’t know who it is, Kit-Kat.”

Kitty sighed. “Yeah, I know.”

It has only been a few days but Kitty was getting anxious about Baste’s offer to be her student. Duke hasn’t mentioned anything and she didn’t really want to pry. So she stayed quiet.

But it was Sunday and she and her family had just finished hearing mass. Like their excuse before, Wes said that they would be having some sibling bonding at the ice cream shop nearby. They knew their parents didn’t have sweet tooths so it was the perfect alibi.

As they walked to the building next to the Church, Wes began giving her a lecture. “I haven’t been able to hear mass with you on Sundays because of training. I asked them to give me a day off. So please, Kitty, the next time I’m not here to have mass with you, go to the meeting. It isn’t hard. It’s free. It helps.”

Kitty’s head was low. “Yes, Kuya [older/big brother].”

They reached the building and then entered. Wes pushed the door open and allowed Kitty inside first. There weren’t much people and she was still familiar with how it is. She walked in and inhaled the scent that she had been missing out on. She can’t help but admit that she liked the vanilla and pumpkin aroma. They headed up the second floor and walked to the third door on the left.

Before them was one of her meeting members. Tom. They only knew each other by the names they want to be called.

Tom noticed that he was being watched. He looked up and a grin formed on his face. “Kitty. It’s been awhile.”

“Yeah,” she said with a small smile. She introduced Tom to her brother and her brother to Tom. “I’ll see you later?”

Wes nodded. “Yeah, I’ll see you. Be good. Or else no Sundae’s Best after.”

Kitty smiled. “You really know a way to get to a girl’s heart.”

They chuckled and Wes left.

Kitty walked over to the door and Tom let her in first.

As Tom closed the door behind him, the sign on the door became very visible as the blinds behind it closed.

Suicidals Anonymous.

[arthur36domingo]

J.K. Rowling’s Top Tricks for Working Magic With Your Writing

One of the most miraculous aspects of J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world is that it’s just so darn big. If you’re an aspiring author, you may wonder just how Rowling managed to crank out so many books, use so much imagination, and keep the ideas flowing.

Here’s a secret: she didn’t just wave a magic wand. She wrote every single one of the 1,084,170 words in the Harry Potter series (and lots more in her other books, plays, and movies). How does she keep churning them out? Will the wizarding world ever stop growing? And what’s the real trick to becoming a bestseller?

Before you stop reading and start googling “Hogwarts School of Writing and Wizardry,” here are eight steps for diving into your writing, creating a routine, and not giving up���even when it seems He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named and all the forces of the Dark Arts are against you.

1. Believe in Magic.

Okay, not literally (at least, unless you do). But this tip is just about believing in yourself as a writer, the content you create, and your ability to keep going. Take it from J.K.: she had always wanted to be a writer, and she kept inventing stories until people read them (and boy, did they read them). To make it as a writer, you have to believe you’ve got the magic it takes to make words come alive on the page.

It all started out as a dream for J.K. Rowling, too. Hear the world-renowned author talk about her pie-in-the-sky idea of becoming a writer.

2. Treat writing like it’s your job.

This is true whether writing is, in fact, your job, or whether you just want it to be. Treating it like a job means setting aside time to finish what you need to do. Some authors give themselves strict daily word limits (Mark Twain averaged right around 1,800).

J.K. hasn’t talked about giving herself a word limit, but she has made it clear that she puts in her time. Since she hit the big time with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s Stone, in the American edition) and managed to make it her full-time gig, she’s careful to put in her eight hours a day—even if that sometimes means working through the night. But before that, when she was a single mom on social assistance, sometimes it was all she could do to snatch a spare moment to scribble a stray idea.

In her words:

You’ve got to work. It’s about structure. It’s about discipline. It’s all these deadly things that your school teacher told you you needed…You need it.

3. Treat writing like it’s not your job.

Yes, that’s the opposite of Step 2 and no, you’re not reading it wrong. It’s important to set a routine, make yourself fill quotas, and be serious about this gig, but if it’s too much of a job, you risk losing the magic (remember Step 1?).

That said, don’t over-stress about things like words per day if it’s not your style. For some writers, tallying up those numbers is a big motivator. But for other writers—and also for certain projects or stages in creating a new project—it’s not all about hitting a word quota. It’s about brainstorming, coming up with lists of names and ideas, making a chart of how your story will unfold, or doing research about the history of wizards in Europe. That sort of work feels a lot more like a game.

4. Inspiration can strike at surprising times. Be ready.

If you chain yourself to your desk and stare at a piece of paper hoping for words to appear on it, they’re probably less likely to materialize than if you mix in a little bit of Step 3. But sometimes a lightning bolt strikes—and you’re suddenly imagining a kid with a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead.

For J.K. Rowling, the idea for that kid “fell into” her head while she was staring off into space waiting for a train from Manchester to London. No, she didn’t happen to be on Platform 9 ¾; she just happened to have an idea. But unfortunately, she didn’t have a pen.

This might sound like a cautionary tale against not being ready for inspiration striking. But being ready isn’t just about carrying a pen, post-its, or an iPad: it’s about being prepared to let the ideas flow. Rowling says of the experience:

I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, while all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn’t know he was a wizard became more and more real to me […]Perhaps, if I had slowed down the ideas to capture them on paper, I might have stifled some of them.

There you have it: a delayed train and lack of writing utensil were all it took to conceive of one of the greatest literary franchises in recent history.

And it wasn’t the only time she found herself short of materials, either: another famous anecdote tells of Rowling scribbling down the names of the characters on a barf bag on an airplane. Luckily, it was unused. That’s why Rowling says:

I can write anywhere.

It doesn’t mean you should deliberately forget to bring stuff to write on or with when you’re traveling from point A to point B. The lesson here is to keep your mind open to ideas that drop into it.

5. Plan ahead. Way ahead.

The idea for Harry Potter may have fallen into J.K. Rowling’s head in that train station in 1990, but actually writing the story took a lot longer. Over five years, Rowling mapped out the entire series, book by book. She had the plot developments, characters, names, and rules that governed the wizarding world all figured out before she so much as considered the words “Chapter One.”

That shows the importance of planning. Readers learn the word “Horcrux” for the first time in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince—six whole books into the series—but by the time they’re fully explained, you realize that they’ve been showing up ever since the very beginning. (Note: that wasn’t a spoiler, in case you haven’t read the books. Maybe you know to look out for Horcruxes, but just try figuring out what you’re looking for.)

Anyway, by planting a seed early in her series that would become central to the plots of the later books, J.K. shows the vital importance of planning before you write.

And here’s the kicker: this doesn’t apply only when you’re writing a multi-book series. One book, one story, an article, a blog post, you name it: create an outline, determine when you’re going to incorporate key details, and don’t start at the beginning without knowing the ending.

6. Kill your darlings.

This quote isn’t from J.K. Rowling; in fact, it’s most often attributed to William Faulkner.

In writing, you must kill all your darlings.

The gist: be willing to leave stuff out, even if you think it’s good. In other words: edit, edit, edit.

This is an important one after Step 5: you may have made a thorough plan that looks really solid in bullet-point form, but once you start turning it into prose you might find out that some details don’t work as well as you thought they would, or a scene leads somewhere unexpected, or maybe doesn’t lead anywhere at all. It can be agonizing, but willingness to adjust your plan and edit your writing is key to success.

Our author of the hour, J.K. Rowling, is no exception. She wrote, re-wrote, and re-worked the opening chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone not one, not two, but fifteen times. Here’s what she has to say about those early drafts:

You have to resign yourself to the fact that you waste a lot of trees before you write anything you really like, and that’s just the way it is […] It’s like learning an instrument, you’ve got to be prepared for hitting wrong notes occasionally, or quite a lot, cause I wrote an awful lot before I wrote anything I was really happy with.

Be willing to make changes, and know that you might end up cutting out words, sentences, and entire sections you thought belonged. The reason? You might love those little darlings, but to a reader they might just be unnecessary details. Which leads us to…

7. Write like a reader.

J.K. Rowling says she didn’t have a particular target audience in mind while writing Harry Potter; she just thought of what she would want to read.

Ask yourself questions like these: Are you giving away a juicy detail that could come later? Including a “darling” idea that you’re proud of, but doesn’t really advance the plot? Telling what happens, instead of ending the chapter (or book) on a cliffhanger?

This ties in with planning: keep the excitement and the mystery by not giving away your secrets too early. J.K. Rowling says she had finished her first draft of the first Harry Potter book before realizing she’d included some key plot elements that shouldn’t show up until much later in the series. So it was back to the drawing board.

Plot and pacing are the meat and potatoes of writing for your readers, but it’s also important to work in time for some sweet, sticky candy to keep your readers addicted. Rowling does this with things like fun-to-say names (Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans), out-of-this-world concepts (earwax flavor), and characters that real-live humans can truly empathize with (no, not Bertie Bott—Harry and his friends). Her ability to capture readers’ imaginations and hearts is as much about the details of the wizarding world as the sequence of events in the series.

Hear Rowling talk about where some of her ideas come from—the blend of influences from her life, pure invention, and human motivation is exactly the reader-focused recipe we’re talking about.

8. Read inspiring quotes about writing.

The overarching tip here: love what you write and don’t give up. But we’re going to give the last word (or words) to J.K. Rowling. Sometimes all it takes is a push from a role model to get you rolling in the right direction, so keep these mood boosters nearby if you’re feeling down on yourself or writing. Believe us: J.K. knows what she’s talking about.

Can you make that kind of transformation with Polyjuice potion?

Failure is inevitable—make it a strength.

A step up from writing for your reader: being your reader.

I just write what I wanted to write. I write what amuses me. It’s totally for myself.

Maybe you thought you are what you eat. Not according to J.K. Rowling.

What you write becomes who you are…So make sure you love what you write.

If you’re waiting on publishers, agents, or other forces beyond your control, you just have to let those forces do their thing. It’ll work out in the end.

Wait. Pray. This is the way Harry Potter got published.

How could you not feel inspired?

We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.

In the end, we can’t promise that these tips will snag you a Pulitzer Prize, but setting a writing schedule and letting your imagination run free are important first steps.

The post J.K. Rowling’s Top Tricks for Working Magic With Your Writing appeared first on Grammarly Blog.

from Grammarly Blog https://www.grammarly.com/blog/rowling-work-magic-with-your-writing/

[ber39james]

J.K. Rowling’s Top Tricks for Working Magic With Your Writing

One of the most miraculous aspects of J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world is that it’s just so darn big. If you’re an aspiring author, you may wonder just how Rowling managed to crank out so many books, use so much imagination, and keep the ideas flowing.

Here’s a secret: she didn’t just wave a magic wand. She wrote every single one of the 1,084,170 words in the Harry Potter series (and lots more in her other books, plays, and movies). How does she keep churning them out? Will the wizarding world ever stop growing? And what’s the real trick to becoming a bestseller?

Before you stop reading and start googling “Hogwarts School of Writing and Wizardry,” here are eight steps for diving into your writing, creating a routine, and not giving up—even when it seems He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named and all the forces of the Dark Arts are against you.

1. Believe in Magic.

Okay, not literally (at least, unless you do). But this tip is just about believing in yourself as a writer, the content you create, and your ability to keep going. Take it from J.K.: she had always wanted to be a writer, and she kept inventing stories until people read them (and boy, did they read them). To make it as a writer, you have to believe you’ve got the magic it takes to make words come alive on the page.

It all started out as a dream for J.K. Rowling, too. Hear the world-renowned author talk about her pie-in-the-sky idea of becoming a writer.

2. Treat writing like it’s your job.

This is true whether writing is, in fact, your job, or whether you just want it to be. Treating it like a job means setting aside time to finish what you need to do. Some authors give themselves strict daily word limits (Mark Twain averaged right around 1,800).

J.K. hasn’t talked about giving herself a word limit, but she has made it clear that she puts in her time. Since she hit the big time with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s Stone, in the American edition) and managed to make it her full-time gig, she’s careful to put in her eight hours a day—even if that sometimes means working through the night. But before that, when she was a single mom on social assistance, sometimes it was all she could do to snatch a spare moment to scribble a stray idea.

In her words:

You’ve got to work. It’s about structure. It’s about discipline. It’s all these deadly things that your school teacher told you you needed…You need it.

3. Treat writing like it’s not your job.

Yes, that’s the opposite of Step 2 and no, you’re not reading it wrong. It’s important to set a routine, make yourself fill quotas, and be serious about this gig, but if it’s too much of a job, you risk losing the magic (remember Step 1?).

That said, don’t over-stress about things like words per day if it’s not your style. For some writers, tallying up those numbers is a big motivator. But for other writers—and also for certain projects or stages in creating a new project—it’s not all about hitting a word quota. It’s about brainstorming, coming up with lists of names and ideas, making a chart of how your story will unfold, or doing research about the history of wizards in Europe. That sort of work feels a lot more like a game.

4. Inspiration can strike at surprising times. Be ready.

If you chain yourself to your desk and stare at a piece of paper hoping for words to appear on it, they’re probably less likely to materialize than if you mix in a little bit of Step 3. But sometimes a lightning bolt strikes—and you’re suddenly imagining a kid with a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead.

For J.K. Rowling, the idea for that kid “fell into” her head while she was staring off into space waiting for a train from Manchester to London. No, she didn’t happen to be on Platform 9 ¾; she just happened to have an idea. But unfortunately, she didn’t have a pen.

This might sound like a cautionary tale against not being ready for inspiration striking. But being ready isn’t just about carrying a pen, post-its, or an iPad: it’s about being prepared to let the ideas flow. Rowling says of the experience:

I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, while all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn’t know he was a wizard became more and more real to me […]Perhaps, if I had slowed down the ideas to capture them on paper, I might have stifled some of them.

There you have it: a delayed train and lack of writing utensil were all it took to conceive of one of the greatest literary franchises in recent history.

And it wasn’t the only time she found herself short of materials, either: another famous anecdote tells of Rowling scribbling down the names of the characters on a barf bag on an airplane. Luckily, it was unused. That’s why Rowling says:

I can write anywhere.

It doesn’t mean you should deliberately forget to bring stuff to write on or with when you’re traveling from point A to point B. The lesson here is to keep your mind open to ideas that drop into it.

5. Plan ahead. Way ahead.

The idea for Harry Potter may have fallen into J.K. Rowling’s head in that train station in 1990, but actually writing the story took a lot longer. Over five years, Rowling mapped out the entire series, book by book. She had the plot developments, characters, names, and rules that governed the wizarding world all figured out before she so much as considered the words “Chapter One.”

That shows the importance of planning. Readers learn the word “Horcrux” for the first time in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince—six whole books into the series—but by the time they’re fully explained, you realize that they’ve been showing up ever since the very beginning. (Note: that wasn’t a spoiler, in case you haven’t read the books. Maybe you know to look out for Horcruxes, but just try figuring out what you’re looking for.)

Anyway, by planting a seed early in her series that would become central to the plots of the later books, J.K. shows the vital importance of planning before you write.

And here’s the kicker: this doesn’t apply only when you’re writing a multi-book series. One book, one story, an article, a blog post, you name it: create an outline, determine when you’re going to incorporate key details, and don’t start at the beginning without knowing the ending.

6. Kill your darlings.

This quote isn’t from J.K. Rowling; in fact, it’s most often attributed to William Faulkner.

In writing, you must kill all your darlings.

The gist: be willing to leave stuff out, even if you think it’s good. In other words: edit, edit, edit.

This is an important one after Step 5: you may have made a thorough plan that looks really solid in bullet-point form, but once you start turning it into prose you might find out that some details don’t work as well as you thought they would, or a scene leads somewhere unexpected, or maybe doesn’t lead anywhere at all. It can be agonizing, but willingness to adjust your plan and edit your writing is key to success.

Our author of the hour, J.K. Rowling, is no exception. She wrote, re-wrote, and re-worked the opening chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone not one, not two, but fifteen times. Here’s what she has to say about those early drafts:

You have to resign yourself to the fact that you waste a lot of trees before you write anything you really like, and that’s just the way it is […] It’s like learning an instrument, you’ve got to be prepared for hitting wrong notes occasionally, or quite a lot, cause I wrote an awful lot before I wrote anything I was really happy with.

Be willing to make changes, and know that you might end up cutting out words, sentences, and entire sections you thought belonged. The reason? You might love those little darlings, but to a reader they might just be unnecessary details. Which leads us to…

7. Write like a reader.

J.K. Rowling says she didn’t have a particular target audience in mind while writing Harry Potter; she just thought of what she would want to read.

Ask yourself questions like these: Are you giving away a juicy detail that could come later? Including a “darling” idea that you’re proud of, but doesn’t really advance the plot? Telling what happens, instead of ending the chapter (or book) on a cliffhanger?

This ties in with planning: keep the excitement and the mystery by not giving away your secrets too early. J.K. Rowling says she had finished her first draft of the first Harry Potter book before realizing she’d included some key plot elements that shouldn’t show up until much later in the series. So it was back to the drawing board.

Plot and pacing are the meat and potatoes of writing for your readers, but it’s also important to work in time for some sweet, sticky candy to keep your readers addicted. Rowling does this with things like fun-to-say names (Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans), out-of-this-world concepts (earwax flavor), and characters that real-live humans can truly empathize with (no, not Bertie Bott—Harry and his friends). Her ability to capture readers’ imaginations and hearts is as much about the details of the wizarding world as the sequence of events in the series.

Hear Rowling talk about where some of her ideas come from—the blend of influences from her life, pure invention, and human motivation is exactly the reader-focused recipe we’re talking about.

8. Read inspiring quotes about writing.

The overarching tip here: love what you write and don’t give up. But we’re going to give the last word (or words) to J.K. Rowling. Sometimes all it takes is a push from a role model to get you rolling in the right direction, so keep these mood boosters nearby if you’re feeling down on yourself or writing. Believe us: J.K. knows what she’s talking about.

Can you make that kind of transformation with Polyjuice potion?

Failure is inevitable—make it a strength.

A step up from writing for your reader: being your reader.

I just write what I wanted to write. I write what amuses me. It’s totally for myself.

Maybe you thought you are what you eat. Not according to J.K. Rowling.

What you write becomes who you are…So make sure you love what you write.

If you’re waiting on publishers, agents, or other forces beyond your control, you just have to let those forces do their thing. It’ll work out in the end.

Wait. Pray. This is the way Harry Potter got published.

How could you not feel inspired?

We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.

In the end, we can’t promise that these tips will snag you a Pulitzer Prize, but setting a writing schedule and letting your imagination run free are important first steps.

The post J.K. Rowling’s Top Tricks for Working Magic With Your Writing appeared first on Grammarly Blog.

from Grammarly Blog https://www.grammarly.com/blog/rowling-work-magic-with-your-writing/