Tuesday, 20th July 2021

i wish i was the birth of a newborn or an infant's first word,

so i could make you beam like a child's proud mother.

i wish i was the first day of school, or a girl's 16th birthday,

or her high school graduation and the after party.

i wish i was your first kiss, or the first time you liked a girl and thought about marriage. 

i wish i was the first heartbreak or the love you'll die with,

i wish i was special, or something like it. 

- i wish i was special

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

I will learn strength in compassion, so perhaps I will begin with understanding myself.

Thursday, 26th August 2021

I haven't left but the spiders are already moving in

I find them in my bed, my curtains, dead and coiled in an old blanket fort

They ring the chimes that hang from my ceiling light

And find space among the creaking boards

I had a dream of this once, spiders hung in every corner and footfall

Taking over my life, my memories, as they crawl into the space left before

It is only when I know I am leaving, that I see the dust in the corner

And the tide coming in from the far away shore

In writing I find a solace in growing my love to give, until the words become me and everything I did 

Why do I keep myself hidden in layers of self-control

Afraid of the dark whilst summer lines my curtains

Choking back these haunting fears, and numb

Is the only feeling that's certain

What joy can be felt today? Frozen yet

In feigned sensibility, I ask myself...

Even in shadow

does nature thrive

a silent spectre

full of bristling sighs

with a glimmer

the light then shows

the blooming tree preserved

alive in its shadow

I was a gifted child. Until I wasn't. I was the golden girl. Until I couldn't burn anymore.

My parents expected me to build wings of gold and fly further than anyone could ever try. I don't blame them, having a child to raise is like sculpting a clay pot, you can shape it the way you like, paint it the colour you fancy. To raise a child is to play God. To raise a child is to be God.

But to be a child is to fall, to make mistakes, to fail. The thing about being too bright at an early age means you burn out by the time you're 16 and suddenly the world around you becomes more gray and terribly, terribly lonely. The fire is never warm enough, nothing is ever enough. And one day you find yourself begging to a godless sky, begging for a new spark.

I was a gifted child once. I was the golden girl. And one day, I burned out.

-Ritika Jyala, excerpt from The world is a sphere of ice and our hands are made of fire

Writing Notes: The Story Circle

The Story Circle by Dan Harmon is a basic narrative structure that writers can use to structure and test their story ideas.

Telling stories is an inherently human thing, but how we structure the narrative separates a good story from a truly great one.

The Dan Harmon Story Circle describes the structure of a story in 3 acts and with 8 plot points, which are called steps.

When you have a protagonist who will progress through these, you have a basic character arc and the bare minimum of a story.

As a narrative structure, it is descriptive, not prescriptive, meaning it doesn’t tell you what to write, but how to tell the story.

The steps outline when the plot points occur and the order in which your hero completes their character development.

These 8 steps are:

You - A character is in their zone of comfort

Need - But they want something

Go! - So they enter an unfamiliar situation

Struggle - To which they have to adapt

Find - In order to get what they want

Suffer - Yet they have to make a sacrifice

Return - Before they return to their familiar situation

Change - Having changed fundamentally

The hero completes these steps in a circle in a clockwise direction, going from noon to midnight.

The top half of the circle and its two-quarters of the whole make up act one and act three, while the bottom half comprises the longer second act.

In their consecutive order, the Story Circle describes the 3 acts:

Act I: The order you know

Act II: Chaos (the upside-down)

Act III: The new order

Working with the Story Circle enables you to think about your main character and to plot from their emotional state.

The steps will automatically make your hero proactive as you focus on their motivation, their actions and the respective consequences.

Sources: 1 2 3 More On: Character Development, Plot Development

This numbness wails against the silence of my lips, my mind haunts the existence of my abyss...................

everytimeyousaygoodbye ©