Find your tribe in a Sea of Creativity
Your mystery question is here! :)
Moon: Does your character have a dark side? What makes their dark side come out?
Ooh, interesting. I'll answer this one for my character, Sylas, and the answer is...yes.
Sylas is young and desperate and hurting, and that sense of desperation leads him to justify certain actions which I think can count as him having a dark side.
In the very beginning of the story, Sylas finds his estranged brother's address after years of fruitless searching only to have his phone stolen by his childhood bully/frenemy and in a heat-of-the-moment type decision where he can either save her from danger or his phone (with the address pulled up) he chooses his phone and it takes him a while to even admit to the other characters that he left her behind and she needs to be rescued
thanks for the tag @sharkblizzardblogs (and @aalinaaaaaa, who tagged me with this game as well!)
What is the main lesson of your story?
I think there could be a few takeaways from Forest Fire but it's mainly about learning to let go of a romanticized image of the past and learning to face the things you've been running away from (a lesson for each main character, respectively).
What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding?
The idea started when I was looking out at the scenery during a spontaneous road trip to California but none of the worldbuilding I did then actually ended up in the version of FF im working on now, lol. For the current version, Studio Ghibli is a big inspiration (especially a scene towards the end of the boy and the heron) as well as the song This Place Is a Shelter by Ólafur Arnalds.
What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? So you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, or help them grow as a person?
Forest Fire is set in a dual POV, following two estranged brothers forced to grapple with a past they remember very differently, so-
Sylas just wants his older brother back and for his family to be the way he remembers it as a kid. He's desperate to bring his brother back home and keep him there.
Lincoln, on the other hand, doesn't want anything to do with the town he grew up in or the memories he can't escape there. He wants to be a responsible adult and return both Sylas and another young character (Peggy) to their respective homes and then get the hell outta dodge.
Through them, I'm trying to tell a coming-of-age story that teaches both of the characters to stop letting their past overshadow their present/future.
How many chapters is your story going to have?
Genuinely I have no idea, but hopefully at least 20?
Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?
Original content! No idea what to do with it after I finish but once I start the editing process (or if I particularly like any snippets from the first draft) I'll probably share them here on tumblr :)
When did you start writing?
Literally the end of last year, this is a very fresh project for me.
Do you have any words of encouragement for fellow writers of writeblr?
I think my best advice is to not let the fear of the blank page overshadow your creative drive. Firsts drafts are meant to be of a lower quality than you want (or than you're capable of) because there are just so many elements to juggle at the same time while also learning how to best tell your story, so don't sweat the small stuff and give yourself the space to be curious and interested in what you're writing!
Take a breath. Take a stretch. And just write :)
gently tagging:
@peaceheather @moody-tortured-artist @mk-writes-stuff @agirlandherquill @antsday @sorrowsfallallaround @emilywrites185 @aether-wasteland-s @cee-grice and @blu3ha1redbrat
As promised, here's what I've got so far:
Summary: Lincoln was fourteen when he went crazy and got lost in the woods, fourteen when he was rescued from something he still refuses to talk about, and fourteen when he left his town behind without a second glance. It’s at 22, though, when Lincoln falls apart. Forced to bring Peggy, a young girl who can’t get in contact with her father, and Sylas, the little brother he never expected to see again, back to the town where everything went wrong, Lincoln will have to decide if it’s also the place where he can finally set things right or if the ghosts of the past will drag him down with them.
I feel like I was able to address more of the story elements in this summary, since Forest Fire is mainly about Lincoln reckoning with his past (out of necessity, rather than desire) while still leaving an air of mystery around the specifics of the story
I'm still figuring out how best to frame this, though, so any comments/advice/questions are more than welcome!!
in 2025 i'd like to write a full, first draft of my WIP Forest Fire (working title) and I think some external motivation would be a great push for me to keep engaging with my piece on a regular schedule! soo, what would you guys like to see me post by the end of january?
The setting and style of Forest Fire has been fighting me a little, and I think I might be able to fix that if I lean more into the style of gothic fiction. I don’t know if the whole genre of my piece will shift as I write it out more, but it’s certainly a fun place to take inspiration from!
in 2025 i'd like to write a full, first draft of my WIP Forest Fire (working title) and I think some external motivation would be a great push for me to keep engaging with my piece on a regular schedule! soo, what would you guys like to see me post by the end of january?