Tag: storytelling

Posted in Writing

Writing Prompt – The Shot

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

“I only have one shot.”

“Good,” she smiled. “One shot is all you need.”

Frowning, I looked at exaggeratedly large bullseye. The gun was too small in my hands. I could grasp it with one hand and even then, it wasn’t such an easy shot. Did she really think I could hit the center with such a tiny gun?

Didn’t she know that I had terrible depth perception? I turned to look at her again. Her hands were clasped to her chest and she nibbled on her worn out thumb nail.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a crowd had gathered at the booth.

Great.

“You got this. Just point and shoot.”

Like it was so easy. I took a deep breath and rubbed my hands against my jeans. First the right hand then the left. I could do this. Sure, I had never shot a gun before but I had shot a toy gun before. My brothers and I used to run around the backyard all the time. I had prepared for this. I had trained for this.

My gaze flickered to the left. The panda’s  bug eyes stared lifelessly at me. There it was the source of my misery and perhaps happiness. It was its fault if this went sideways. It already cost $12 and it was totally not worth it.

I could probably sew something better. I’m sure there were some store that sold that puke colored pink material. Amazon could have it too.

“You got this,” she whispered. She did a little hop.

Maybe she wanted the bunny instead.

“Just one shot,” said the carny behind the booth.

Why was everyone reminding me? I took my stance and aimed the little orange gun. The height mattered. It couldn’t be too high or two low . . . something in between. I closed one eye then the other and decided to keep them both open. I could barely see as it stood.

I’ll do it in three, I told myself. One . . . two . . . deep breath . . . three.

For a moment, everything stood still. No one said anything. Then . . .

“Would you like to try again?”

I heard her speak one word. “Please.”

 

 

Posted in Methods, Writing

The Magic System – Part 2

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Creating the magic system for you world can be a lot of work. It also takes a lot of time. Personally, I have never created a full magic system for any of my stories that require one. However, I have understood the rules of magic.

What can magic do?

This is an important question I like to answer. Can magic raise the dead? If so, why aren’t zombies roaming around? Is this type of necromancy magic forbidden? What is the penalty of being caught performing such magic? Have a lot of magic users tried?

These question bring to mind a certain character where his family or someone close to him/her has died. if such magic existed, would they go out and find a way to raise the dead or find someone to do it for them? That simple fact – whether or not magic can raise the dead – cane create an entire story for that character. I also think about the popular manga, Fullmetal Alchemist, by Hiromu Arakawa. After failed attempt to resurrect their mother by using alchemy, the boys lose body parts and go on a journey to find a way to restore their bodies.

Can magic turn copper into gold? Or can magic users turn anything in general into gold?

It’s the transmutation question. This questions brings to mind a thief/peddler who is not really good at magic but he does have a small gift to transmute certain things to appear like gold. With the system I created, this is possible. However, I put in place limitations.

The transmuted object will always return to its original form. The effect is not permanent otherwise the economy wouldn’t exactly work.

What does magic require?

For example, if someone tries casting a spell, do they need certain ingredients? Can those ingredients be replaced? Do they need candles? Or perhaps a magic circle? Does it need the person’s willpower? What fuels magic? Does it burn away people’s life-force? Does it need “mana” or other forms of energy?

With this, remaining consistent is key. Otherwise readers might feel like there’s nothing concrete. There’s only so far suspense of disbelief will stretch.

Any limitations on magic?

This questions goes back to the beginning. It’s important to know what magic can’t do. There are times when I need to start backwards. I need to place limitations on what magic can do because otherwise there might be plot holes. Why couldn’t a character do this spell at the end when he could do it at the beginning without any problem?

The rules are up to you to decide. Personally, I like to keep things consistent. It also helps to keep a notebook with all the rules for magic. If I ever need to go back and double check something, I have a place to go for easy access.

Finally, beta readers are a good resource to use. Those who read your story will, hopefully, point out things that don’t make sense.

Posted in Methods, Writing

RP and Storytelling

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

It’s been close to a year that I fully got into playing Dungeons and Dragons. It’s been a lot less than that since I took up the role as a Dungeon Master.

In this role, I basically give the players a situation, e.g. they are hired as guards by a merchant to escort him and her goods to the next trade city, and they play out tue scenarios as they wish. Of course, this situations are part of modules and hard-cover campaigns so mostly everything is scripted.

As a player, I’ve had really good DMs. They manage to bring the world to life with a couple of words and it’s so easy to imagine everything that’s happening in the scene and round by round. It’s flawless how they can paint so vivid images. As a DM (dungeon master), I know I will never be able to do that.

It’s not like I’m putting myself done or anything. I just know that that’s never going to be me. I won’t be able to paint vivid worlds with the spoken word, I plan to do this through the written world.

Lately, I’ve been hyper aware of how I described an environment/scene to my players. They rely on me for information and it’s my job to provide it to them. This is similar to writing a story. The readers need information, not only to comprehend what’s going on but also to imagine the world you’ve built in your head.

This has helped me in my writing because describing the situation or environment in speech tells me that maybe I’ve forgotten to include sensory details or perhaps one social interaction didn’t go so smoothly.

By taking note on all of this, writing and describing things has gotten easier. I’m aware of what I’m missing and try to include everything I can. Of course, I do this in moderation. Personally, I don’t like to bog down my readers with so much description. I try to only include all the necessary information.

While I haven’t exactly perfected all of this and I have a long way to go, I’m going to keep learning. I believe as a writer that there’s always something new to learn. Perhaps one writing style doesn’t fit a genre or theme. The beauty of it is that I can try new things and figure out what works with the story I want to write.