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In this issue:
Without Judgment
December
Writing Prompt
WWT Tool Kit Craft Card
Without Judgment
Remember that new idea I mentioned a while back? I’m staring down the ending. I know what to write and I’m not writing it.
Why not?
Because it doesn’t feel as epic as I want it to feel.
Bear in mind, this isn’t an epic story. It’s a story about one woman and the ending expands to include a member of her family. Nothing epic going on here. Dangerous, maybe. Magical, hopefully. But not epic.
At least, not to Critical Mind.
I’ve been staring at the ending for two weeks now. Knowing what to write.
The ending fits. It just doesn’t feel epic. And I love that epic feel.
I love that escalating, things-are-coming-to-a-head, oh-my-gosh-this-is-amazing feel of a book as it heads into the climax—when it happens, anyway. I suppose it rarely does.
But last night I was reading for my class and I remembered something. We think it’s the events happening in a story that make the story epic, but it’s not so much. It’s the reactions of the characters living through those events that make them feel epic.
It’s the way we tell the story.
And that I can work with. It is only my judgment of the events—not the character’s—that is making it unepic for both of us.
And it’s not even my judgment. It’s specifically Critical Mind’s judgment.
I don’t know. Maybe since this idea came to me before we started writing it, he thinks he’s in charge. So, all said and done, I think this will be good for him: a reminder that he gets to be in charge of making sure we get up at a decent hour and that we show up at the computer and get some words in every day and learn new craft when we’re done—but that he really should leave the actual storytelling to Creative Mind. Because even now—because we’ve been making progress every day; my streak is keeping us going despite the lack of epicness—Creative Mind is surprising him with what she can do with all the ‘lame stuff’ he thought we had to work with. She can do it. Even he can see that she’s better at storytelling than he is. He just has to let her do it.
Without judgment.
That’s the key. He can judge all he wants when the story’s done, but not during its telling. No judgment while we’re writing. And now that I’m aware of that again, I can call him out on it. I think we’ll be finishing soon.
December
I’ll be taking December off again, but I’ve scheduled a lineup of helpful things written by other people, so stay tuned for that. See you in January!
Writing Prompt
Character: THE BOTANIST
Light attributes: Capacity to identify and cultivate rare species for medicinal advancements. Willingness to share every finding freely with the scientific community.
Shadow attributes: Creating highly addictive or poisonous strains for a criminal enterprise. Destroying a unique species to keep its properties secret.
Setting: A sterile, high-tech laboratory basement.
Object: Gemini says a hand trowel, a leather-bound journal, and a single vial of iridescent fluid.
Emotion: Paranoid. Suspicious, guarded, constantly looking over their shoulder.
WWT Tool Kit Craft Card
As mentioned before, I’m making a deck of craft cards to quickly remind myself of techniques while also having a convenient place to keep track of elements like character, conflict, and theme specific to each story. This week’s card is back to basics.
Thank you for reading!
I hope this helped you, and I hope your writing goes well this week.
Keep at it,
Megan
WritesWithTools
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