Katherine Frances's Blog, page 77
February 13, 2018
I can’t get over how harmful “write every day or give up” is as writing advice.
If I’d kept pushing when I was hitting my breaking point, I would have given up. I needed to allow myself a few days to breathe. That doesn’t make me less of a writer. It allowed me to come back with fresh eyes and a rejuvenated passion because burnout happens! If I hadn’t allowed myself a few days manuscript-free, my first draft wouldn’t have gotten finished. If I hadn’t allowed myself time off again a few weeks later, I would have given up on editing.
It’s okay if you don’t write every single day of your life. That expectation is absurd.
Kim Shimmers and the Veil of Death
A Harry Potter fanfic by me (and the 4th instalment in the Kim Shimmers series)
How could we ever hope to flicker on against a
darkness so complete, against an evil so prevailing?
This Harry Potter fan fiction (as long as all goes according to plan) will be posted at the beginning of every week. The pictures above are not mine, though I edited some.Chapter 6
Interrupted Christmas
“A little dark for a Christmas party, don’t you think?” said Clemon as she came down from the dormitories and approached Kim in the common room. Kim looked down at herself. She was wearing the same black dress her mother had bought for her to wear to the Yule Ball. While that had also been around Christmas time, she supposed there was quite a difference between a ball and the event they were headed to now.
She put her hands on her hips and slid her pointed gaze back up at Clemon. “Do you want to go, or not?”
“Yes, yes! I was only saying,” she said in a high voice.
“I don’t have another dress,” Kim continued to explain, insecurity making its way through her mask of sarcasm.
“You could’ve barrowed one of mine,” reasoned Clemon as they left Raven Claw tower.
“Is it really that bad?”
“No, it’s not. I suppose it’s fitting, for you,” she said simply. Kim wasn’t sure what she meant, but she decided to drop it. Too late to do anything about it now.
As they arrived at Slughorn’s office Kim got a glimpse of Hermione with McLaggen on her arm. It looked an awful lot like he had hooked her and she was sort of stuck, trying to casually slip free of his grasp to no avail.
“Oh my goodness,” Clemon said, smile spreading on her face in an awestruck manor. “This is amazing.”
Kim looked around to try and decipher what was amazing. There were many older witches and wizards around that clearly did not belong at Hogwarts. This wasn’t too surprising, since Slughorn always promised his students introductions with famous people to whom he once taught. Kim supposed that was kind of the deal; get connected to important wizards, get important one’s self, owe it all to Slughorn, visit his stupid parties even after they’ve long gone out of style for you because you owe him one. That certainly seemed the shape of it anyway, judging by the dull expression on a nearby gentlemen’s face. He was awfully pale with shockingly dark hair to contrast is pallor, and dark shades shadowing beneath his eyes.
“Is that a Vampire?” Kim said under her breath to Clemon.
“Oh, never mind that. It’s Eldred Worple!”
“Who?”
Clemon merely withered at her and then reflated with determination a moment later. “I must talk to him,” she said and marched determinately in his direction.
“Don’t let me stop you,” Kim muttered to no one, because Clemon was already well off and gone.
Kim wandered toward the snack table, trying to remain unnoticed by anyone, which was easy because out of everyone here, she was probably one of the least important. She was just enjoying a pastry, quite happy to not talk to anyone if it meant she got the tray to herself, when she heard a high voice.
“Oh, Kim!”
She had to turn to identify who the voice belonged to because it was unrecognizable. Hermione was hurrying toward her with something manic in her footsteps and a smile that was far too wide to make since on her face. She put her arms around Kim in a forceful hug.
“I’m so glad to see you,” again speaking far too emphatically. “I was hoping I’d run into you.” She let go of Kim and gave her a flash of her eyes while they were still very close to one another. Kim glanced behind her and saw that Cormac was following just behind Hermione, and everything in his demeanor and the way his eyes swooped up Hermione’s form again implied that he’d been laying it on thick. If that was the case, Hermione’s desperate pleadings could only mean one thing.
“Hey, McLaggen,” Kim said abruptly, snapping his eyes from Hermione’s backside to Kim’s face. “Fuck off for a bit, would you? I need to talk to Hermione- alone.”
He screwed up his face at her crassness and seemed disarmed by it enough to actually do as he was told without another word. He wandered away, looking put off.
“Oh thank goodness,” Hermione huffed, like she was breathing easy for the first time that night. “He won’t leave me alone… He’s… such a dog.Ugh… How did you do that, I’ve been trying to lose him all night.”
“You saw, I literally just told him to buzz off. You should try it,” Kim said with a chuckle in her words. Hermione made a sound like she wanted to agree but was unsure.
“Hermione! Hermione!” Came a voice squirming its way through the crowd.
“Harry! There you are. Hi, Luna!” Hermione said to Luna who drifted along in Harry’s wake.
“Oh, hey Luna. Having fun?” Kim said, nodding and finishing her pastry by popping it in her mouth and sucking on a finger with frosting on it.
“Yes, I truly am. It’s delightful to be here, to meet all these interesting people.” She sounded genuinely excited, to which Kim smiled.
“What’s happened to you?” Harry asked Hermione, eyeing her slightly frazzled hair and the disheartened expression she wore.
“Oh, I’ve just escaped- I mean, I’ve just left Cormac,” she said. “Under the mistletoe,” she added in explanation. Kim noticed some of her lipstick was a bit smudged. Did Cormac manage to land one on her? Perhaps more than one. Kim snorted at the thought.
“Serves you right for coming with him,” he said.
“I thought he’d annoy Ron most,” said Hermione dispassionately. “I debated for a while about Zacharias Smith, but I thought, on the whole—”
“You considered Smith?” said Harry, revolted.
“Wish you’d picked him,” Kim said matter-of-factly. “Could’ve just decked him instead of asking him to leave.”
“You would do that for me?” Hermione said, briefly distracted from her argument.
“I’d do it for me. I hate that little shit.”
“Well, I’m starting to wish I’d chosen him too. McLaggen makes Grawp look a gentleman. Let’s go this way, we’ll be able to see him coming, he’s so tall…”
Hermione pulled the four of them away from the snack table, much to Kim’s disappointment, and moved to the other side of the room. They passed by the table laid out with flagons of mead, which Kim helped herself to along with Harry. She wondered how much of this she would have to drink before this fiasco really started to be funny.
expectations vs reality
what writers want to look like
what we really look like
February 12, 2018
firewritten:
katekarl:
hello-kitty-senpai:
hello-kitty-senpai:
There is a specific and terrifying...
There is a specific and terrifying difference between “never were” monsters and “are not anymore” monsters
“The thing that was not a deer” implies a creature which mimics a deer but imperfectly and the details which are wrong are what makes it terrifying
“The thing that was not a deer anymore” on the other hand implies a thing that USED to be a deer before it was somehow mutated, possessed, parasitically controlled or reanimated improperly and what makes THAT terrifying is the details that are still right and recognizable poking out of all the wrong and horrible malformations.
hey I totally fucked up and forgot the 3rd type, which is “Is Not Anymore And Maybe Never Was” monsters
“The thing which was no longer a deer and maybe never was” implies a creature that, at first glance, completely appears to be a deer, but over time degrades very slowly until you realize (probably too late) that it is not a deer anymore, and had you seen it in this state first, you wouldn’t have recognized it as a deer at all, and there’s a decent chance that it was never actually a deer to begin with but only a very good mimic, and what makes this one scary is the slow change from everything being right to everything being wrong, happening slowly enough that you don’t even notice it until its too late, as well as the fact that something now so clearly not a deer could have fooled you to begin with.
And the fourth type, which is, “I dunno, but it sure ain’t a deer.” Which implies complete confusion about what the creature could be, to the point that even a person as comfortable in this world as someone who would use the word ain’t unironically is uncertain, which should horrify you to the deepest depths of your soul.
I like all of this but I especially like the last comment, because as a person who grew up in working class rural Appalachia, I use “ain’t” unironically all the time. Witness my comfort in this world! Watch as I use whatever implements I have at hand to take out the undefinable monster! Come visit and eat green beans and taters and biscuits with me and dance to some old time music afterwards!
:)
"I had a heart of ice. Too cold to touch, but still easy to break."
- dream-poet349 (via wnq-writers)
Kim Shimmers and the Veil of Death
A Harry Potter fanfic by me (and the 4th instalment in the Kim Shimmers series)
How could we ever hope to flicker on against a
darkness so complete, against an evil so prevailing?
This Harry Potter fan fiction (as long as all goes according to plan) will be posted at the beginning of every week. The pictures above are not mine, though I edited some.
Chapter 6
Interrupted Christmas
“A little dark for a Christmas party, don’t you think?” said Clemon as she came down from the dormitories and approached Kim in the common room. Kim looked down at herself. She was wearing the same black dress her mother had bought for her to wear to the Yule Ball. While that had also been around Christmas time, she supposed there was quite a difference between a ball and the event they were headed to now.
She put her hands on her hips and slid her pointed gaze back up at Clemon. “Do you want to go, or not?”
“Yes, yes! I was only saying,” she said in a high voice.
“I don’t have another dress,” Kim continued to explain, insecurity making its way through her mask of sarcasm.
“You could’ve barrowed one of mine,” reasoned Clemon as they left Raven Claw tower.
“Is it really that bad?”
“No, it’s not. I suppose it’s fitting, for you,” she said simply. Kim wasn’t sure what she meant, but she decided to drop it. Too late to do anything about it now.
As they arrived at Slughorn’s office Kim got a glimpse of Hermione with McLaggen on her arm. It looked an awful lot like he had hooked her and she was sort of stuck, trying to casually slip free of his grasp to no avail.
“Oh my goodness,” Clemon said, smile spreading on her face in an awestruck manor. “This is amazing.”
Kim looked around to try and decipher what was amazing. There were many older witches and wizards around that clearly did not belong at Hogwarts. This wasn’t too surprising, since Slughorn always promised his students introductions with famous people to whom he once taught. Kim supposed that was kind of the deal; get connected to important wizards, get important one’s self, owe it all to Slughorn, visit his stupid parties even after they’ve long gone out of style for you because you owe him one. That certainly seemed the shape of it anyway, judging by the dull expression on a nearby gentlemen’s face. He was awfully pale with shockingly dark hair to contrast is pallor, and dark shades shadowing beneath his eyes.
“Is that a Vampire?” Kim said under her breath to Clemon.
“Oh, never mind that. It’s Eldred Worple!”
“Who?”
Clemon merely withered at her and then reflated with determination a moment later. “I must talk to him,” she said and marched determinately in his direction.
“Don’t let me stop you,” Kim muttered to no one, because Clemon was already well off and gone.
Kim wandered toward the snack table, trying to remain unnoticed by anyone, which was easy because out of everyone here, she was probably one of the least important. She was just enjoying a pastry, quite happy to not talk to anyone if it meant she got the tray to herself, when she heard a high voice.
“Oh, Kim!”
She had to turn to identify who the voice belonged to because it was unrecognizable. Hermione was hurrying toward her with something manic in her footsteps and a smile that was far too wide to make since on her face. She put her arms around Kim in a forceful hug.
“I’m so glad to see you,” again speaking far too emphatically. “I was hoping I’d run into you.” She let go of Kim and gave her a flash of her eyes while they were still very close to one another. Kim glanced behind her and saw that Cormac was following just behind Hermione, and everything in his demeanor and the way his eyes swooped up Hermione’s form again implied that he’d been laying it on thick. If that was the case, Hermione’s desperate pleadings could only mean one thing.
“Hey, McLaggen,” Kim said abruptly, snapping his eyes from Hermione’s backside to Kim’s face. “Fuck off for a bit, would you? I need to talk to Hermione- alone.”
He screwed up his face at her crassness and seemed disarmed by it enough to actually do as he was told without another word. He wandered away, looking put off.
“Oh thank goodness,” Hermione huffed, like she was breathing easy for the first time that night. “He won’t leave me alone… He’s… such a dog.Ugh… How did you do that, I’ve been trying to lose him all night.”
“You saw, I literally just told him to buzz off. You should try it,” Kim said with a chuckle in her words. Hermione made a sound like she wanted to agree but was unsure.
“Hermione! Hermione!” Came a voice squirming its way through the crowd.
“Harry! There you are. Hi, Luna!” Hermione said to Luna who drifted along in Harry’s wake.
“Oh, hey Luna. Having fun?” Kim said, nodding and finishing her pastry by popping it in her mouth and sucking on a finger with frosting on it.
“Yes, I truly am. It’s delightful to be here, to meet all these interesting people.” She sounded genuinely excited, to which Kim smiled.
“What’s happened to you?” Harry asked Hermione, eyeing her slightly frazzled hair and the disheartened expression she wore.
“Oh, I’ve just escaped- I mean, I’ve just left Cormac,” she said. “Under the mistletoe,” she added in explanation. Kim noticed some of her lipstick was a bit smudged. Did Cormac manage to land one on her? Perhaps more than one. Kim snorted at the thought.
“Serves you right for coming with him,” he said.
“I thought he’d annoy Ron most,” said Hermione dispassionately. “I debated for a while about Zacharias Smith, but I thought, on the whole—”
“You considered Smith?” said Harry, revolted.
“Wish you’d picked him,” Kim said matter-of-factly. “Could’ve just decked him instead of asking him to leave.”
“You would do that for me?” Hermione said, briefly distracted from her argument.
“I’d do it for me. I hate that little shit.”
“Well, I’m starting to wish I’d chosen him too. McLaggen makes Grawp look a gentleman. Let’s go this way, we’ll be able to see him coming, he’s so tall…”
Hermione pulled the four of them away from the snack table, much to Kim’s disappointment, and moved to the other side of the room. They passed by the table laid out with flagons of mead, which Kim helped herself to along with Harry. She wondered how much of this she would have to drink before this fiasco really started to be funny.
"How does my name fall
from your lips in my absence?
Does it get caught in your throat,
a purr or a..."
from your lips in my absence?
Does it get caught in your throat,
a purr or a growl, does it
slide off your tongue,
the soft sibilant sounds
carrying hints of secrecy
and subterfuge?
Does it land lightly, half
forgotten, a grace note
outside melody and harmony?”
-
Grace Note
- Grace Babcock © 2017
(via gracebabcockwrites)
