Katherine Frances's Blog, page 238
April 6, 2016
ronanblu:
the song of achilles
—
“It is right to seek peace for...
the song of achilles
—
“It is right to seek peace for the dead. You and I both know there is no peace for those who live after.”
You know I can't approve that request.
In one sentence is the spark of a story. Ignite.
Mission: Write a story, a description, a poem, a metaphor, a commentary, or a memory about this sentence. Write something about this sentence.
Be sure to tag writeworld in your block!
April 5, 2016
"I realized that my life of late had consisted of far too much dialogue and not enough exposition. I..."
- Catherine Lowell, The Madwoman Upstairs (via quoted-books)
April 4, 2016
Kim Shimmers and the Black Prophacy
A Harry Potter Fanfic by me (and the 3rd installment of the Kim Shimmers series)
This Harry Potter fan fiction (as long as all goes according to plan) will be posted every weekend. The pictures above are not mine, though I edited some.
Chapter 5
Glorious, Traitorous Thought
Dumbledore led Kim to a horse drawn carriage, the same method by which she and the other interns had gotten from a local inn a few miles away to the andasoe village. The ride was as jostling as Kim remembered it, but she was in a much worse mood now than she’d been when she’d arrived.
“Where are we going, exactly?”
“I’m glad you asked. We’re going to the place that you saw in your dream.”
“My dream… you mean the one with the portrait-” and then she sealed her mouth shut with a snap. Hermione had said not to mention the dream to anyone, but surely Professor Dumbledore was an exception.
“It’s quite all right,” he assured her, a faint smile crossing his face. “I was the one who asked Hermione to tell you not to speak of the dream in the first place, though indirectly… The fact you were able to have such a vision is troubling indeed… it’s protected by a Fidelius Charm.”
“Fidelius Charm?”
“Yes. It’s supposed to keep the very existence of the place on which you cast it from all except those whom the secret keeper, in this case, me,tell directly.”
“Strange… are you sure what I saw was this place?”
“Quite certain, you described it identically. And Sirius is there.”
“Well, the vision was odd looking. It was as if I was there, but only half so… Normally my visions are very crisp and real feeling. Not like a dream at all, but like a slice of real life that belong to someone else, that I’m just borrowing. But this was more like looking at something far away through a foggy mirror.”
“Fascinating. My thoughts are that the charm is still in effect for you, in part. You haven’t an idea where it is, or what it is, do you?”
Kim shook her head. “No. The vision cut out before anything of substance happened.”
Dumbledore hummed in thought. “Still concerning… but nothing to be done for that now. I should explain to you a few things before we exit this carriage, so listen close.” Kim leaned forward intently.
“The place you saw, the place I am taking you now, is headquarters to a secret organization called The Order of the Phoenix. Its purpose; to find and eliminate the dark threat that is Lord Voldemort. Its operations are highly secret, not only to protect it from Voldemort himself, but from the Ministry of Magic as well… Have you read the papers lately?” he asked a bit wryly.
“There’s been nothing,” Kim said, shaking her head to show her disbelief. “No word of anything.”
“They’re covering it up.”
“But… why? What could they possibly have to gain? Unless you think they’re controlled by…”
“Nothing so dark as that, though the possibility does exist. No, I find it more likely that Fudge is merely unwilling to see the possibility that lies before him. It frightens him. He’s so desperately needs to believe it not true, he’ll orchestrate half-truths to make it seem so! But, enough about that… When you arrive, you will be expected to follow the same rules of secrecy as all the others. I trust you understand that.”
Kim nodded readily. Dumbledore leaned back a bit, taking a breath.
“You’re too young to be a member of the Order,” he continued. “And yet I must ask you to act as one in one in this single respect… Once the school year begins, the Department of Mysteries will contact you. You’ll be working closely with them. In this way… you are a double agent, in an unofficial scene. I must ask at least this much; the vision you saw must remain hidden from them. I know they’ve asked you to report all your visions directly to them. But this one, you must not tell.”
Is that all? “Yeah, of course.”
Dumbledore’s brow rose. “You realize this request entails you lying to a Ministry official?”
“Oh- eeh… right, well if it’s for a good cause,” she reasoned. In reality, she’d already lied to the Department of Mysteries once, when she’d told them there was nothing odd about Strix. That was seeming more and more of a lie now.
“Good. I’m hesitant to ask more of you…”
“Is there something more?” Kim asked. She of course wanted to help in any way she could.
“There is the matter of Sirius’s location. The Ministry is hunting for him fervently. We’ve thrown them off the scent for now, but all the information about Sirius is coming from one office. If, say, the Department of Mysteries were to corroborate our false story, it would seem all the more convincing. And it would deflect any likelihood that the aurors we have working for us would be looked upon suspiciously.”
"I used books the way some people use alcohol, to obliterate the noise of the outside world."
- Graham Joyce, Smoking Poppy
(via wordsnquotes)
"Put them in the closet
Hide them under the bed
But they aren’t gone
And they aren’t dead
They’ll get..."
Hide them under the bed
But they aren’t gone
And they aren’t dead
They’ll get out before long
They have a map
And it leads to you
They will come back
Because that’s what monsters do”
- crusadertitanarum (via wnq-writers)
Leaving Holes
Your story is 50% reader. It’s that mixture of reader and writer that makes the magic.
Which means your story needs to have holes for the reader to fill in. You need that negative space for the puzzle pieces to fit.
I’m not talking about plot holes, I’m talking about giving one sentence the power of two. A book that means what it says is a mediocre book. A book that means more than what it says is a great book.
Don’t over-develop your characters, having them analyze every feeling, or spelling out what every character in a scene is thinking. Don’t follow up a powerful line with an explanation with what makes that line powerful.
Let your words imply as much as they state.
