Category Archives: #LoveWritingChallenge

#LoveWritingChallenge – Everything about Writing

And with this, week four, we already reached the end of the #LoveWritingChallenge by Katie Kling. Scary how a month flies by without anything getting done…
(For more information see the introduction post.)

Week 4

This weeks theme is Everything about Writing and as I wouldn’t have that much to say about the different topics, I’ve decided to put them all into one post again.

For stuff about Warlords feel free to check out our Facebook Page.

Plotted-Pantsed driven Worldbuilding

From the Inspiration week I do believe one can figure that I’m a pantser. I have an idea and then just sit down and write. Everything else then comes when I start to edit (or lengthen) it and think about what things actually make sense.

Though that doesn’t mean plot isn’t involved. I usually have a few markers that I want to reach, but what I write to get there or for them is then pantsed or dictated by the characters involved. Usually these markers are rough ideas/scenes that I want to see in a chapter or part of the story, so I make notes about them and fill them out when I’ve got time to pantse it. 😉

This graphic from Tumblr, even if it is for Fanfiction, still describes my process quite well:

Other than that are there only a few occasions where I think about the world beforehand. Usually this is done, when I actually write a Fanfic, as I always try my best to have the story fit into the given narrative. When it’s my own world it’s mostly in the editing phase that I think about things in the grander scheme.
E.g. for The Queen’s Wish, which is the story I’m writing for Projekt Myra, I had to adjust the idea I had for the layout of the land, so it would fit onto an island in the Myra world, (though I’m still not sure, whether it will really work for them, but that’s just my insecurity talking again…).

Selfpublishing vs Publishing House

I’m a no-name. That’s a fact. So for me to even try my luck at a publishing house I’d have to write extremely well or so mainstream that the bigger ones would like it. I don’t do either. That leaves the smaller ones, which either are busy with their own brilliant authors or turn out to be DKZ (Druckkostenzuschuss – Print Cost Grant) publishers and so on.
Plus, I’m really insecure when it comes to my writings, so I will either one day try my luck with selfpublishing or stick to just putting stuff on my Blog, because I think no one would want to read it anyway. 😉

Weird Research

There certainly was strange research I had do make over the years, but I don’t really remember what it was. I only remember that one of the last „weird“ things I had to google was: Is it possible to kill a bear with a knife? Those who thoroughly read my Advent Calendar last year, know why I had to research that. 😉

Interestingly: I only do research when I’m in the editing process to check if what I thought up (pantsing, remember?) does even make sense. While just writing down stuff I find research to be far too distracting and counter productive…

My very first Story

was written, in second grade (together with a classmate, but I did most of the work, I think), at least I have no memory of other stories. It was filled with spelling mistakes and handwritten on small (A7 maybe?), glued together pages with little scribbles of the characters. It also has an incredible twist [/sarcasm], because somehow, as a seven year old, I thought it very plausible that people from Australia talked backwards because they lived on the other side of the planet…
I still have it somewhere, so I could photograph it, but for now, have this German transcript of „How Horse and Kangaroo [became] friends“ (Warning: Please keep tissues at hand, you might cry):

Wie Pferd und Kängeruh Freunde [wurden]
Es war einmal vor langer, langer Zeit. Im fernen Lande Australien dort wonte ein kleines Kängeruh. Eines Tages wurde das kleine Kängeruh nach Deutschland verfrachtet.

In Deutschland angekommen blieb es erst einmal in einem Reiterhof. Im Reiterhof gab es ser viele Pferde so ca 40 stück, zwischen disen 40 war auch das schwarze Pferd Robert.

Er war nicht nur das einzigste schwarze Pferd sondern auch das schnellste Pferd im Hof. Die anderen 39 fragten Robert: „Wie machst du das du so schnell bist?“ „Ich teile meine kraft ein“. Es wuselte nur so durch den Stall. Alle dachten leise: kraft einteilen, kraft einteilen, dachten sie die ganze Nacht.

Robert konnte diese Nacht gut schlaffen.
Bei dem nesten Renen war es wie verhekst. Ein Kopf an Kopf Renen. Aber Robert gewonn trotzdem. Die Anderen Pferde wahren total neidisch auf Robert.
Der ausrit aus dem Stall war eine woltat für Röbert.
Die Reiter sprachen wun einem Kängeruh. Ein Kängeruh im Stall dachte Robert.

Er wuste was ein Kängeruh ist. Als sie wieder im Stall waren machte Robert sich auf die suche nach dem Kängeruh. Robert suchte hir und suchte da, aber er fand es nicht. Aber im lestem gang fand er es. Das Kängeruh sang immer wieder „Kleine Maus komm aus dem Haus. Sonst holt dich di Katze raus und dann ist es aus.“ Sang es immer wider.
Das hörte Robert und ging sofort hin. Er sag es und fragte wie er heiße. Das Kängeruh antwortete „Hci eßieh Lrak“, Robert verhstand nicht was er sagte. Johannes das war sein Johkej. Er hörte Roberts gejammer und rannte sofort hin. Johannes fragte Robert: „Was ist los?“ Robert Antwortete: „Dieses Kängeruh hat eine undäutliche ausschbrache.“ Was hat es den gesagt.“ „Ich habe in gefragt wie er heist. Und er hat gesagt: „Hci eßieh Lrak.“ „Also du verschtestin nicht, aber ich.“ „Was hat er gesagt Johannes?“ „Er hat gesagt „Ich heiße Karl.“ „In Australien spricht mann so. Das ist rückwertz.“

I really hope you didn’t forget the tissue, I always have tears in my eyes when I read this. :’D
It’s just so…I don’t even have words for it.
(The song was from my classmate I think, no idea why that wasn’t in „Australian“…)

At least I can proudly say: I’ve come a loooong way since then or so I think. 😀

My stories in five words

For this I focused on the three stories I told you about in the Character-week.
I’m not entirely satisfies with the words, but well, it’s all I could think of.

The Unnamed One: Werwolf, Vampire, Family, Prejudices, Life

The Queen’s Wish: Intrigues, Magic, Family, Change, Compassion

Neubrandenwolf: Werwolf, Change, Full Moon*, Life, Running

Well, this concludes the challenge.

I hope you enjoyed this look into my different projects, I certainly enjoyed writing about them.

See you around

PoiSonPaiNter

* I know I cheated with this, but Full Moon in German is Vollmond and that’s one word. 😉

#LoveWritingChallenge – Themes

And week three of the #LoveWritingChallenge by Katie Kling. For more information see the introduction post.

Week 3

This weeks theme is Themes and as I would just be repeating myself with the sub-themes, I’ve decided to put them all into one post again.

For stuff about Warlords feel free to check out our Facebook Page.

Loving and losing your family and friends

For some reason do I always end up creating families in my longer projects. I can’t figure out why that is. Part of me thinks it’s far too cheesy to give everyone a more or less happy end or at least someone that cares deeply for them, but another feels like it’s important for those characters, that it fits for them and their story to have someone in their lives. They just wouldn’t be the same without their families. I mean, Andrew would barely survive on his own…
Though that doesn’t mean all my families are the same. As I have mentioned in the character-week posts does not everyone of my characters fall into the usual sexual spectrum, so their love-lives are equally different from the norm. It feels like I have several kinds of couples on various levels, even if the majority is still the „traditional“ female/male relationship. Apart from that, does, even if they have kids, barely anyone get married in my stories…
There is one couple from The Unnamed One that’s had an on-and-off relationship for over twenty years, including kids and different partners in the meantime, before they finally tie the knot (twice if you count human and wolf wedding 😉 ).
Another couple has a very unhealthy, kind of co-dependant, relationship that’s mostly based on lust and the thrill of being with something that is able to kill you and of course the outdated thought of having to make it work with the father of your child/ren.
But love isn’t only between couples, it’s between parent and child, siblings and friends. It’s about caring for one another, about being with someone if they need you and about kicking their butts if they’re being stupid. In short terms. 😉
With friends and families comes tragedies and the more I think about it, the more I’m certain my subconscious wanted to prepare me for losing my own Mum. There is no other reason I could use to explain why so many of my characters have lost their mothers (at a young age). Though, I could blame Disney…
Just like in real life, do I try to keep the reactions realistic and differing from character to character. As I said does, e.g., Andrew not deal well with loss. He sinks into a very deep hole that he can’t get out of by himself. Others have it a bit easier to move on.
Dying isn’t the only way you can lose someone, so obviously I also have a few characters just drifting apart, breaking up or just losing sight of each other.
Describing this part of the human condition is fun for me, but I’m never sure if it’s too much, too detailed or just enough to get invested in the characters…
Curiously: In my short stories the characters rarely talk about their families and only occasionally have friends (mentioned). 😀

Tempting Courage and Fear

Temptation in the meaning of forbidden love is something I certainly use as a theme in variations (age-/status-gap, existing relationships, species), even if I don’t like the term. Love isn’t something a law can dictate it just happens, even if it’s sometimes creepy and/or weird – or biologically questionable/unhealthy, if you want to go down that road.
Besides with werwolves and vampires there is a different kind of temptation at play. 😉
But there is also the temptation of power that a few characters have to face (I wrote a short story a couple of years ago about the Tree of Knowledge that I feel I should link here: Knowledge is Power (German), be warned: It’s old!). My antagonists usually succumb to this, but at least one main character dips into it pretty badly until he realizes what he’d become.
I couldn’t say if any of them is particularly brave or frightened in a situation, but there are of course different ways to be either. It’s part of a person to succumb to/overcome fear, but overcoming fear isn’t necessarily courage, just as not being brave doesn’t mean you’re afraid. It’s a thin line between all these things and I think it’s interesting to play with it and „throw“ the characters into uncomfortable situations. 😉
Though there are short stories where I intentionally played with fear, which was fun:

Just to name a few.
Courage on the other hand doesn’t seem to be one of the themes I focus on. The Christmas Light is pretty much the only thing I can think of, where a character displays some kind of courage (the moving on-kind).

My own theme

In short stories a reoccurring theme is running (away) or flying from something. In the longer ones it’s „life“ and what troubles it and the setting in general throws your way. Other than that is I think „being different“ one of the main topics in my writings.
Sometimes I include stuff to discuss it or work through it myself (like a death-scene in the 2015 Advent Calendar), at other times I just write something without much thought behind it and someone else interprets it completely different and pretty deeply (happened with Blind Date (German), though Evanesca has yet to tell me about all the layers she discovered. 😀 Though I can’t find where we talked about it… =/).
Well, it’s not much and I didn’t really go into that much detail, but I’ve already covered some of it in the first week and other things would give too much away, soo….let’s just say: I try to keep an open mind to how my characters would react in a given theme, even if I have to push it onto them at times. 😉
See you with the next theme next week (or hopefully on Sunday with the update of Neubrandenwolf)!
PoiSonPaiNter

#LoveWritingChallenge – Inspiration

I’m participating in the #LoveWritingChallenge by Katie Kling. For more information see the introduction post.

Week 2

This weeks theme is Inspiration and as I wont be able to write proper length posts about the different sub-themes I’ve decided to put them all into one post.

For stuff about Warlords feel free to check out our Facebook Page.

Inspiration

Inspiration for me is a tricky thing. I might not be too dependent on a muse any more, meaning I can sit down and write, when I’m up for it, but that doesn’t mean I’m always up for it. And even if I’m up for it, it doesn’t mean I’m working on the stuff that I need to be doing and instead write something entirely different. I have so many unfinished projects and ideas floating around it’s annoying. I know this would be easy to change, but there is also the whole thing with the writing mood. 😉
I’m fairly certain that most of the time the thing that gets me to write is a deadline. 😀 Due to this I try to set them for myself and with the Advent Calendars or writing contests it works, more or less(, with a regular posting schedule it doesn’t…). Still, that doesn’t mean my head isn’t constantly working on something. I’m just too lazy to write it down…and of course there is this thing, that I talked about in my Update on Writing:

[M]otivation plays a rather huge part in my process and when the voice in the back of my head tells me something is not worth doing, then I have the tendency to listen to it, which is awful and counterproductive and absolutely annoying.

Regardless of all that do I technically only need to let my mind wander to find a new idea for a story. Different media help here as well. As I’ve mentioned on the Blog before, did I go to an organ concert a couple of years ago and during the concert I simply closed my eyes and let my imagination show me scenes that fit the music. The Queen’s Wish, whose characters I talked about last week, was one of those ideas/scenes. Though it turned out different from what I originally expected…
When I want to focus my writing I mostly listen to the same (more or less fitting) song(s) over and over again until I’m done with the scene. I primarily do this for my different Fanfiction projects, but Winter Moon, and the re-work I made for it, got the same treatment. Recently I also tried instrumental playlists for TQW, but that felt more like background music instead of focus. The music helps me to imagine (visual writer, remember?) the scenes a bit more clearly. I can just concentrate on watching the scene unfold without any distractions and then write it down, even if it will never be 100% the same.
Watching movies and tv shows makes me think about how my characters would react to certain situations, but more often than it makes me think about creating crossovers for different tv shows with the same actors instead… >_ < (recently happened again during my Buffy-re-watch…). The same goes for other authors. Just as I do with my spoken language, where I sometimes pick up other peoples way of speaking, do I pick up similar stuff from other stories (ideas, format, expressions, …). I don’t set out to copy anyone, but I guess it is possible to see their influence in my writings, even if I myself couldn’t put a finger on it. I might not have read as many books as others, but I do know what I want and especially what I don’t want in a book/story, so I know what I want to/wont add to my own stuff.

Something that gets me writing quite easily are pictures. Back in The Forum there was a challenge where you had to write a story for a picture and I was always fascinated by it, but never dared to participate. Then back in 2014 I decided to give it a try and the idea for my first Advent Calendar was born. In the end it consisted of 24 stories I wrote for pictures friends and others sent me. We later picked up that idea for Your Picture – A Story on DF.PP Entertainment. I don’t know what it is about pictures that makes it easy for me to think something up, even if not right away for every picture, but it’s always a fun way to try out new short stories. Titles or topics or prompts/quotes or clues aren’t as easy for me though. Sometimes it clicks and I just know what I want to write about, sometimes there is nothing. [The titles-story is another first person narrator that I wasn’t sure about but forgot to check, but it still kind of falls into the same category as the other two…]
As for inspiration from everyday Real Life and stuff: I wouldn’t have started writing the Neubrandenwolf if watching the full moon wouldn’t have inspired me. 😉
By the way: A new chapter will hopefully be published on Sunday!
See you next week for the next theme!
PoiSonPaiNter

#LoveWritingChallenge – Favourite Characters

I’m participating in the #LoveWritingChallenge by Katie Kling. For more information see the introduction post.

This weeks theme are Characters and today is all about Favourite Characters.
To make things easier for myself I will focus on the characters in three of my longer stories:

Though I might add more from other stories.
For stuff about our characters from Warlords feel free to check out our Facebook Page.

Favouritism

Have I ever mentioned that I don’t like picking favourites? No? Then let it be known now… Alas, I need to pick favourites her, so let’s take a look at them…
Top on this list should probably be Michael and Andrew from TUO. I just like exploring their characters and their stories. I really like their interaction with each other and the other characters and stuff… A close second this this would be „their“ mum (Andrew’s biological, Michael’s adopted mother). Haven’t talked about her, but I throw a lot of crap her way(, just as I do with her boys), but she gets out on top anyway. Sometimes thanks to them, sometimes thanks to her own strength. Besides: She was one of my first OCs …

For some reason did Emry not just weasel his way into TQW(, where he was only supposed to be a passing mention), but also became quite dear to me very fast. I have no idea why … It might be his compassion, his humour, his loyalty or of course his magic, but really, why would anyone like that combination? 😀

Same with Rasha and Nina, but this might be due to their real life counterparts. 😉

Other than that do I enjoy writing pretty much all my characters and they’re all special in their own way, but that’s probably the same for every author …

Do you have a favourite character from one of my stories?

Anyway, see you next week when I’ll talk about inspiration … that’ll be hard …

PoiSonPaiNter

#LoveWritingChallenge – Fun Facts

I’m participating in the #LoveWritingChallenge by Katie Kling. For more information see the introduction post.

This weeks theme are Characters and today is all about Fun Facts.
To make things easier for myself I will focus on the ladies (and characters) in three of my longer stories:

Though I might add more from other stories.
For stuff about our characters from Warlords feel free to check out our Facebook Page.

Jokes on you…

All right, fun facts about my projects…let’s see…

I already told you that I had characters that wanted their names changed and that Nina’s and Rasha’s names are based on real people…hmm…

Is it a fun fact that I prefer writing my stories by hand, but haven’t written a single line on paper for TQW?
Well, unless you count corrections made on a print out…

Is it a fun fact that a story tells me which language it wants to be written in? That’s why NBWolf is originally English and TQW was German to begin with.

Is it a fun fact that I’m a visual writer? That I imagine the conversations, the way characters interact/move/etc. and then try to write down what I saw?

Probably not, as neither of those have to do with my characters…Let’s think again…

Hmm…how about this:

I only noticed that Emry was left handed, because he kept doing stuff with that hand.

Just as it only occurred to me that Amir was a biologist when I envisioned a scene of him and Thomas walking around a lake and talking about it.

This is a pretty common occurrence when I write, as I put the characters in scenes and then see what happens. Sometimes the direction it goes sounds interesting, but then I rethink it and realize that it doesn’t fit and I either cut out/not write the scene completely or rearrange it to fit better.

As we’re already talking about funny things:
Another thing that is pretty common amongst my characters is that they share my humour. It’s hard for me to tell jokes I wouldn’t laugh about or wouldn’t make myself – regardless of how bad they are, so I add those to lighten the mood at times. Well, because of that I wouldn’t be surprised if some characters from different stories would get along well and just have a pun-tastic time. 😀

See you tomorrow, when I talk about my favourite characters…

PoiSonPaiNter

#LoveWritingChallenge – POVs

I’m participating in the #LoveWritingChallenge by Katie Kling. For more information see the introduction post.

This weeks theme are Characters and today is all about Point of Views.
To make things easier for myself I will focus on the characters in three of my longer stories:

Though I might add more from other stories.
For stuff about our characters from Warlords feel free to check out our Facebook Page.

Look at it from a different perspective…

From all my stories I believe, I have only two in the first person narration (both German): The secret Life of an Enter-Button and The adventurous Life of Stan the Desert Cactus. Is it telling that both are inanimate „objects“ I lend my voice to? 😀
Usually I write third person narrations with a hint of character thoughts and knowledge. It’s kind of easier that way and I prefer reading books/stories written like that as well. Not sure why I don’t like first person narrations…I just don’t.
POVs are a good way to explore things from different sides as not all characters are there at all times.
As TQW is the story with the most progress I can only talk about that one. Here I chose a couple of characters to tell the story.
With Kurth I can take a look at what’s happening with the lower ranks. With Lihsa I have a look into what the maids are up to. Emry gives me a chance to explore magic and preparation for different events. And so on…
I’m still not entirely sure how I will actually portray the change in POV in the final version, but it sure feels like copying if I do it similar to GRR Martin
As I’m not entirely sure what else I could write here, I’ll simply ask:
What’s your favourite POV?
See you tomorrow, when I tell you a couple of Fun Facts. 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter

#LoveWritingChallenge – Male Characters

I’m participating in the #LoveWritingChallenge by Katie Kling. For more information see the introduction post.

This weeks theme are Characters and today is all about Male Characters.
To make things easier for myself I will focus on the characters in three of my longer stories:

Though I might add more from other stories.
For stuff about our characters from Warlords feel free to check out our Facebook Page.

So let’s take a look at the guys in my stories…

Just like I don’t care much about gender roles with my ladies, are my guys not typical males. Their compassionate and supportive of their ladies/lady friends, some would even be considered as feminine. Though that doesn’t mean they wont mistreat my girls. With male characters it’s easier to explore certain aspects of personalities and the asshole is kind of one of my favourites to write. It’s just so much fun…
Somehow are males still kind of the default gender I use for stories, especially short stories. On occasion I find myself wondering: Would it change the story if I wrote about a woman instead (especially the first chapter of the NBWolf)? Most of the time the character stays male…

Anyway, let’s talk jobs.

As I did with the ladies let’s take a look at what my guys do for a living. Which if I really think about it, isn’t that much…
Though I do have: cook, teacher, programmer, zoo keeper/veterinarian, biologist, accountant, advisor, soldier and painter/graphic designer. Well, and at least one king. 😀
I’m not entirely sure, why I have most of the jobs for the ladies figured out, but the guys either struggle to find a proper job or just don’t really have a description for what they do…

And what about their relationships?

As they mostly are counterparts to the females this answer isn’t much different to the previous one. Though it feels like they are a bit more open about things than the ladies. A lot of them don’t mind one night stands where the ladies would contemplate them a lot more. They flirt, they talk back and they’re usually stronger and taller than the women. But I still wouldn’t change it, because, well, it’s part of who they are…
On the other hand are they not as progressed when it comes to sexual preferences as I only have (two) side characters that are gay. The only lead character with a different orientation is pansexual, which I only realized after learning about it.

Special cases

Well, let’s take a look at some of them that are not the typical male characters. This time two of them are even lead characters.

Andrew (TUO)

Andrew is a vampire-like creature and Michaels older half-brother. He is a gentle person that doesn’t like conflict and deals badly with change and loss and sometimes reacts the way a little child would. This is mostly due to his birth conditions, as his mother was turned while she was pregnant with him. When he loves, he loves with his whole heart and would do anything to make whoever that might be happy.
What I like about him: He was one of the first characters I created for TUO and therefore has a special place in my heart. He’s just this cute little guy that you just want to hug and keep save, even if he can kick your ass if you threaten his family…

Kurth (TQW)

He’s a young boy that aims to become a strong knight to protect the queen. Kurth can be quite naive, but his heart is in the right place, even if his tongue sometimes gets the better of him. He faces a lot of backlash from his peers and superiors, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t give it his best.
What I like about him: He provides a different look on some of the story aspects and he’s this dorky little guy, that’s just fun to write.

Amir (NBWolf)

Amir is a kind person burdened with a cruel fate. He is the lone survivor of his village, where he used to be a respected biologist (plant research), now he is nothing more than a refugee trying to find his footing again. It’s hard for him to adapt, especially with his condition as a newly turned Werwolf without any control.
What I like about him: Like Rasha am I still exploring what makes him, him and the more I do, the worse I feel about what will happen to him…

Boys, boys, boys

Just like my ladies, do I let the boys tell me what they like and who they are. Somehow it’s easier for me to write them. I’m somehow less worried about writing clichés in their cases, but I also prefer exploring things with them. It’s a bit strange and I’m not sure why that is…
Anyway, see you tomorrow when I’ll talk about Point of Views (POVs)
PoiSonPaiNter
P.S. This is my 400th post. o.O

#LoveWritingChallenge – Quotes

I’m participating in the #LoveWritingChallenge by Katie Kling. For more information see the introduction post.

This weeks theme are Characters and today is all about Character Quotes.
To make things easier for myself I will focus on the characters in three of my longer stories:

Though I might add more from other stories.
For stuff about our characters from Warlords feel free to check out our Facebook Page.

Say something nice!

Well, this is tricky…mostly because I haven’t written most of the stuff in those three stories and partly because I don’t remember quotes…and some of my favourite quotes are already covered on Facebook with Warlords…but let’s see what I can come up with…and you’ll get a sneak peek through it. 🙂

From TQW:

This one is a spoiler, but not really. Read at your own risk. 😉

As a disbelieving realisation: „The wizard shagged the queen“

I’m not entirely sure why I like this one, but I guess it’s mostly the picture in my head of the boy sitting down when this dawns on him. As I said: Not really a spoiler as this doesn’t tell you when it happened and who it is really about. 😉
And a tiny bit longer (though shortened) scene:

„And what are you learning today?“ [He] asked.
„I drew a bird!“ She told him proudly.
„Well, then let’s take a look at your bird“, [he] declared with a wide smile.
She pulled a parchment with a mazy scribble closer so [he] could see it. „There look“, she proudly presented it to him and [he] raised his eyebrow. With a exaggeratedly confused frown he looked first at the drawing then at his daughter. „A bird you say?“
„YEAH!“ She protested and explained the different parts of the line clutter: „That’s the beak, those are the wings and these are the feet!“
„Daughter, if this is a bird, then I will have to take you collecting herbs again, so you can see a real one“, he taunted her jokingly.
[later]
„Papa look! My horse is finished!“ [She] called out to him and held out another parchment.
„Your horse looks like a bird“, [he] commented with a wide grin and earned the expected indignant „PAPA!“

Of course I’m not telling you who is who here either. 😉

From the NBWolf:

An (unedited) excerpt from the upcoming chapter Water Moon:

„I don’t like this, [XY]“, her girlfriend told her over the phone while she was getting ready.
„Don’t worry Sweetie, I’ll be fine“, she assured her for the umpteenth time.
„But…you don’t know if someone will see you-“
„Honey, we’ve been through this: It’s the middle of the week and I’ve got work tomorrow, I can’t come home to change with the pack“
„I’m just worried“
„I know. I don’t like it either, but I’ll be fine“
„Have you eaten?“
„Yes“
„Enough?“
„More than enough, I’d be surprised if I don’t sink into the lake like the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood“
„[XY]!“
„I’m just kidding! Relax!“

I just like their interaction and if you paid attention so far, you can guess whom it’s about. 😉
I always try to make dialogues and interactions realistic and I think this is a nice example of it.
Well, let’s round this up with a quote that made a couple of people laugh when they read my short story for the Bücherstadtkurier Advent Calendar

The Crib:

“And The Doctor, Superman and DARTH VADER are the Three Wise Men?”
“Yup. They always say one of them is black.”
For a moment Harry quarrelled with himself, then he corrected: “Black: yes; Mass Murderer: No.“

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little look at different stories of mine. There are many more stories – especially my short stories – that I could look through for quotes, but as I don’t even know where to look it would take quite some time…
So, if you remember any quote from one of my other works: Feel free to add them in the comments!
See you tomorrow, when I’ll talk about my Male Characters.
PoiSonPaiNter

#LoveWritingChallenge – Naming Characters

I’m participating in the #LoveWritingChallenge by Katie Kling. For more information see the introduction post.

This weeks theme are Characters and today is all about How to find the names.
To make things easier for myself I will focus on the characters in three of my longer stories:

Though I might add more from other stories.
For stuff about our characters from Warlords feel free to check out our Facebook Page.

What’s in a name?

I’m horrible at naming people and cities and countries and have I mentioned characters?
I have either no idea what I should call someone or I keep ending up with the same names…
I already talked a bit about this when I mentioned my usage of Georg(e) and Richard, but that’s only part of the problem…
For most of my stories I go through real life names I have in my mind and then either use them as such (TUO/NBWolf) or change them to fit the story (TQW). I know I could use baby name pages and I sometimes do that, when I have a specific meaning in mind, but that’s rather rare.
Sometimes I try to use names that actually serve a purpose or have some kind of „hidden“ meaning, sometimes I just come across a name that fits the character and keep it that way – or change it if it doesn’t. Though I usually do the meaning part with surnames, at least, if I give people a surname. 😀
In TUO most of my surnames are references to movies and such: There is a family called „van Saken“ originating from „The Fosaken„, another is called „Carfax“ like the abbey where Dracula comes to live in London, another „Verlaine“, which was the name of Bela B.’s character in the German Zombie movie „Garden of Love“ and so on…
For TQW I not only added the rule „royals (or those working for the royal households or those wanting to be as grant as them) add H’s to names“ (e.g. that’s why she’s called Lihsa and not Lisa), but I also pretty much used my Mums family tree as inspiration for the names of a certain family, including her actual name. On the other hand did I make an unsubtle reference to Merlin and Athur by naming the main wizard character Emry and Aturo respectively (For those who don’t know this: Merlin was sometimes called Merlin Emrys and Arturo is the Spanish version of Arthur), not to mention that Sarah isn’t just a princess in name…
By the way: Rasha is an anagram of Sarah, because Nina is an anagram of Anni and I wanted to name those two after two girls by the same name, I know in real life. 😉
So, yeah, my names aren’t really original, but well, so far no one complained about them. 😀
See you tomorrow, when I talk about Quotes from my Characters.
PoiSonPaiNter

#LoveWritingChallenge – Female Characters

As I told you yesterday am I participating in the #LoveWritingChallenge by Katie Kling. For more information see the previous post.

This weeks theme are Characters and today is all about Female Characters.

To make things easier for myself I will focus on the ladies (and characters) in three of my longer stories:

Though I might add more from other stories.

For stuff about our characters from Warlords feel free to check out our Facebook Page.

So let’s take a look at the ladies in my stories…

In general am I not a fan of the Damsel in Distress so most of my ladies are strong and independent, but usually also compassionate about something and sometimes girly.

I’m fairly certain that I only have one girl that is obsessed with her male counterpart, but I still portray this as very unhealthy, at least I would if I had written any of it …

And when I think about it, do I have quite a lot of ladies in my stories, especially in leading roles … Michael’s family alone has about ten important female characters … interesting …

Though I still don’t always manage to pass the Bechdel test, as sometimes those ladies‘ main focus of discussion in a scene is a guy in trouble or at least one of their male family members …

Anyway, let’s talk jobs.

I’m fairy certain that housewife is a non existent job in any of my stories. I have pretty much everything from (kinder garden) teacher, maids, barkeepers/-owners and housekeeper over journalists, psychiatrist, doctors, corporate consultant, lawyers (to-be) up to matriarch and queen.

Usually I try to fit the job to the character and not the other way round, but sometimes it has to be the latter way (if you write about a queen, then you have to make someone queen 😉 ).

And what about their relationships?

I’m not entirely sure any of my ladies have what is generally considered a normal relationship…

Sure some of them got married and stuff, but the circumstances are a bit different.

In TUO I created the concept of the True Mate, which is basically the only partner a (wer)wolf can mate with and expect to conceive a (healthy) child, so some of the couples there are created through that concept, others defy it.

Thinking about it also made me realize that the love-arc in both TQW and TUO follow a similar pattern: Two people fall in love, but stuff and logical reasoning keeps them apart. It’s not innovative, but it fits the characters. They want to be together, but they also know that it’s not a good idea. And I think that’s also a pretty important point: Don’t force a relationship if it might end badly and you already have a bad feeling about it.

Talking about relationships means talking about sexual preferences and I have to admit that those have changed quite a bit over the years. When I first started working on TUO every character was straight, simply because I was forteen and I didn’t really know it any better.

Now I do and my characters come to a headcount of at least two bi, four lesbian (+ three side characters), one ace (and a transgender side character).  It’s not much, but through this they no longer feel like something is missing and they’re not themselves. It just makes so much sense for them…

Special cases

Okay, let’s take a closer look at some of my ladies, all of which are minor lead characters, without giving too much away. I’d talk more about all of them, but then I wont be able to finish the post any time soon…

Rita Desmond (TUO)

Rita is a pure blooded Werwolf and therefore quite peculiar. She would do anything to preserve her species and is therefore not just a well trained doctor and genetics/racial history specialist, but also an executioner. She is also the head of a multi-species (different Therianthropes) asylum for strays.
One of her biggest flaws is that she loves what she is and gets pretty violent towards anyone calling her „human“ and she also looks down on them as the lesser species.

What I like about her: She is one of my few female asshole characters and it’s fun to write her badass side, but also her vulnerability.

Lihsa (TQW)

Lihsa is one of the queens maids and deeply loyal to her. Originating from a small village she came to the castle to become a member of the staff and over the years even became the right hand to the head cook (also female). She can be spunky, but also melancholy, challenging and thought provoking, but most of all: She knows what she wants. It’s not always easy for her to manage her (love) life in the castle, but she gains a certain wisdom from it that even makes the queen admire her for it.

What I like about her: That even though she always receives the bad end of something, she doesn’t lose hope and is strong enough to give something up that is important to her.

Rasha (NBWolf)

Like much of the story in general was Rasha not planned, but writing more about her makes me quite like her. She is one of the few human characters in the story and cares deeply for her wolf friends and lover. Yet at the same time is she a fierce protector of the law and striving to become a lawyer. She has a certain light headedness about her and manages to lighten the mood in almost every situation. Her big heart lets new people in easily and she accepts them as they are and wants to be accepted like that as well. Which isn’t really easy as human fiancée of a wolf, who doesn’t want to turn her(, yet).

What I like about her: Her optimistic personality that I’m still exploring. 😀

Girls, girls, girls

When creating my girls I don’t think about breaking gender roles, I pretty much let them tell me who they are. Sometimes they surprise (e.g. when I discovered that one of them liked girls, when I had already planned for her to get a boyfriend), sometimes it’s a transition of exploring different topics and seeing what fits for the character or how they would react to it.

It’s important to have a variety of characters in a story, just as we have in life.

Life is colourful and fiction should follow its example.

See you tomorrow, when I talk about finding names for my characters…

PoiSonPaiNter