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Showing posts from September, 2023

A Change in Perspective: Understanding POVs in Writing

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 Writing a story of any kind comes with its own collection of characters and sometimes it's hard to tell who's telling the story. It can be fun to mess with perspective in your writing, but it can also be dangerous.  I had a story I was writing for an anthology that was told in third-person, from the perspective of the male main character. Meaning, that it was completely focused on my male MC- his emotions, his thoughts, and the way he was seeing things.  In this story, Midnight Magic , Aiden is accompanied by three other characters. There's Sabrina, Marshall, and Penny. Aiden's focus starts off completely on Sabrina, so the story talks a lot about what he feels when he looks at her, his memories of her, and how he watches her trade in one guy after another for a newer model.  Since both Sabrina and Marshall were side characters, it wasn't hard to keep them out of the narrative. They were there because of the plot but how they felt and saw the world did not influenc

Shelf Life: Episode 8

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  66. Busted Vamp, L.D. Wosar August Paranormal 18+ Ebook 5/5 I was impressed with this book. Busted Vamo is the fourth book in this saga. I was concerned going in because book three ended in a cliffhanger and there were a lot of loose ends to type up, but Wosar wrapped everything up nicely in here. She did set it up where she could continue the series if she wanted as there are mentions of a possible future relationship between Maverick and Vee, but honestly, this was a nice little wrap-up to everything that'd been going on in the series. Kaysee has come a long way from the young inmate she was in book one. Her character development is outstanding. Busted Vamp is not a romance. It's a paranormal story about how a woman can rise above her situation and the harm people do to her. The final battle in the book was well-written and sets up all the characters for a bigger and brighte

Playing Tetris - My Parents' Greatest Advice

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       When I was a kid in the 90's I lived for game nights. My parents would have my aunts and uncles over, or their friends, and would play Rook and the Farming Game. We, kids, would sit under the table and go on massive safari adventures where we were Indiana Jones. My favorite nights were the ones where it was just my parents, myself, and my siblings. I've always preferred smaller gatherings but these nights, in the 90s, were some of the best.      Back then my parents had a Sega Genisis, which if you aren't familiar with you can think of as an early Xbox. When it was just me playing the system I'd be on Echo the Dolphin or Bugsy , but most of the time I'd play it with my parents.      My mom and dad had this tradition that stopped years ago, as more of us kids were born and they got 'grown up' jobs. They'd order pizza or make grilled cheese (on the actual grill) and we'd all stay up all night playing Sonic the Hedgehog . Mom and Dad would take

Life as I know it

 This blog started as a way for me to combine my two passions - mental health and manuscripts - but it slowly developed more into a writing advice column. Don't get me wrong, I love writing about writing, but lately, I haven't been writing about anything outside of sports and community events. I can't get my personal projects to flow. The characters are 2D and there are only so many ways to describe a forest. I'm going, to be honest, I shifted my focus this year. My writing is catered towards the midwestern lifestyle, despite still having fantasy elements, and my life is catered towards my personal wants.  I've spent too much of my life trying to please others. 2023 has been a villain era for me, where I've stepped into the narrative and have been making conscious decisions based on my own desires. What I want is to be out of debt. What I want is to be a good daughter who can help my parents as their medical issues are starting to become a big hindrance in their