Nighterwriter Asks - Blog Posts

Happy STS! [Also, happy birthday, apparently? Hope you had an amazing day!]

What's your favorite mood to write about, when it comes to your fiction?

Oh, I was trying to say happy birthday to someone else- Sorry for the confusion. It is like... three months too late to be my birthday (Gotta love being a winter child when I freeze so easily-)

Anyway... I guess I like writing characters when they are more at peace. Or when they are just alone in a place they are happy about. Part of it is that I often have my stories start with somewhat peaceful scenes (such as a character alone in a forest) and that is my favorite part to write since it is usually the only part I write- I abandon stories a ton.

Happy STS, Night!

What’s a trope or tropes you like writing, even if some people think it’s cheesy?

Thanks!

You know, that's the first time someone went and called me Night here and it makes me happy for very little reason :>

Honestly, I don't know if I play into any tropes in my writing. I don't play into them, I guess. Or I don't realize that I am. But I guess after thinking on it, there are potential tropes.

If Stars of the Sky goes the way I initially thought, it would be enemies to lovers, if it goes differently, there would probably be friends to lovers. There's potential soul mates (Because I am random) and I wanted to make Eros and Hades have more to their abilities than the obvious one can tell when death is nearby to people and the other can make people get together. So there's that. But even that might be done interestingly due to how the Named are granted their abilities.

I dunno, there might be things that I write that fall within tropes without me knowing. (Though honestly, if we look only at fanfiction, if killing the mc was a trope, I do it a ton)

Happy STS! What's the best gift your OC has ever recieved?

I forgot to say happy birthday to you- Apologies-

Anyway, gift giving is rare in the setting of Stars of the Sky, especially where Hades grew up since the lifespan of humans there is so much longer and the Kingdom/general area has a tradition of giving gifts to the living when someone dies. So Hades has received gifts on two occasions, both of which were occasions where her parents died. One of the gifts she got when her mother died from family (aside from having to move in with her aunt and uncle) was a very very shiny dagger with phrases related to Hades (Hades' personal God) and Zeus (Her mother's Personal God) on the blade. She carries it everywhere with her, even if you can't see it. She doesn't even use it. She also doesn't exactly follow the gift giving tradition that much. She likes giving gifts.

Eros (Who, believe it or not, is not a second main character, I just like talking about him as though he is) receives gifts more often than Hades due to being a bit of a player. But his favorite gifts are a collection of gems Hades gives him. Not because people around them died, she just felt like it.

Ares' favorite gift was just the knowledge that somewhere out there, there is a woman with silver hair, black eyes, and a penchant for getting in his way. I don't exactly know why, but he likes the challenge.

Zeus (the Named, not the God) was once gifted lucky bamboo. He lives it and still has it and if you touch his bamboo in any wrong way, you are likely to lose the hand.

I’m here with a Wacky Wednesday question!!

Hades has woken up cursed! She can now only speak in haikus. Describe her reaction and the reactions of others. How does this impact her life?

Bonus points: share some of her haikus

Answering this as a break from something important the day after it was asked, so I apologize for the delay and any spelling/grammar mistakes I might make. (It bothers me when I make them.) So Hades can now only speak in haikus. Great. The fun part about this happening is, no one knows what the heck is going on. No one knows what a haiku is, in her universe. She would feel like she's going crazy. If she were aware that she is a character in a written piece, she'd likely realize that her dialogue has been split.

Now, others would... Well, her teachers would either join along in confusion or try to get her kicked out of the school. No in between. Her friends would tease her. Her family is half dead so that doesn't matter. Her Clan would go with it--they respect her too much to even try to test her.

So I am not good at poems in general, and here you are, asking for a haiku. Because I want to fulfill the whole ask. I'll give it a few attempts.

This first one would probably be her messing about, honestly.

The stars glow golden Heart beats of fiery anger Sworn of dead and live

A cursed speech fights A dead blade lingers alone A woman gives life

Death brings to an end What was given to a life A beginning tale

I am not proud of these, but Hades would be messing around with her new curse. She'll suffer.

🐧 a funny quote (silly! laughs! jokes! puns!)

Uhm I don't think there are any funny quotes to be had in Stars of the Sky yet, but maybe-

Maybe this counts as a funny interaction? I dunno I lack the funnies.

"I'm Aphrodite!" The loud female rushes to Hades' side, hugging her arm. "How did you hear me? I was being quiet!" Aphrodite presses her plump breasts against Hades' arm, peering up at the younger girl with eyes of pure violet. Hades blushes slightly, tugging her arm free. The other girl is very pretty, which doesn't make suppressing the involuntary reaction easy. "And how did you fight while carrying all those bags? They look heavy! They didn't impede you at all?"

"You were right next to the door and talking much louder than the others. That's how I heard you." Hades scowls as Aphrodite tries to hug her arm again.

Aphrodite was just meeting Hades and has no sense of personal space.

April Fools! I'm hiding two dozen tiny plastic babies in your characters' house :3

Oh no! Whatever will they do?

Here's an AU where none of the characters hate each other to death and lived in the same house ig.

Hades would know immediately that the babies are fake. She can get a vague feeling of what around her is alive, and so she would know immediately... and say absolutely nothing to the others. Especially to those she knows are scared of babies. There... there is a story behind why there are people scared of babies. She isn't going to tell.

Zeus would try to relocate them, but he wouldn't be serious about it. He'd move them so they are a bit... harder to see, but what you can see is way creepier than the original. Like places where all you can see are the eyes or where you pull something out and there a tiny baby is.

Nyx would scream in an attempt to wake them up and, when they don't wake, she'd leave them. She isn't scared of them, she just likes freaking people out. Especially because she's the quietest of the group.

Eros would be confused. He'd know they aren't alive, but he'd want to know which of the people he's slept with are sneaking plastic babies into his house to tell him that he got them pregnant even though he takes all measures to not do that.

Ares would scream bloody murder. Then he'd try to burn the house down. He'd also somehow break his leg in the process. He would rather be homeless than exist in a house with babies.

Aphrodite would collect them all and put them in a fire proof clear case that blocks out any and all heat so she can see them all and scare Ares whenever she felt like. She's part of why Ares hates babies. She gave him the talk and has tormented him with it ever since.

⛲️ - Is there anything [character] would be tempted to change if they went back in time?

Hades wouldn't want to go back in time initially. Time happens and all that. But after she discovers her abilities as a God-named of Hades, she'd probably try to use her powers to give her mother a bit more time. She respects that people die and all that, and that death has to happen, but she was quite close to her mother and so would try to give herself a few more days with her mother alive. She would not change how she lost her father, since he died in battle, which is more honorable than dying to a disease that, in universe, doesn't have a name, just symptoms.

what made you start your blog?

show us a picture of your handwriting?

From the 40 assorted questions

Here's both answers in one image!

⁉️"what do you do when stuck on a scene?"

❤️"what are your favorite scenes from your WIPs?"

Honestly? When I am stuck on a scene, there are two things that could immediately happen. I just decide to time skip to a different scene as a temporary fix, or (the reason I have so many WIPs) start a new story because my brain churns out new story ideas. Worst case scenario, the story gets abandoned for a few months only for me to decide to rewrite it entirely and, in such rewriting, circumvent the scene that had bothered me or write it in a way that I like. Rarely do I ever erase a scene to write a new one. Often, for me, it's the case of the story wanting the scene for reasons unexplained to my conscious mind, but rewriting the scene tends to help.

For my favorite scene, it has to be the opening scene for Stars Of The Sky. I am not going to write it out here, but I feel that it is a perfect blend between describing the scenery, the area around the main character and the main character herself while not throwing every detail out. It describes major things for the scenery, then describes Hades, the main character, and then a mix of the two without putting every little detail in one paragraph, but over many paragraphs, and it helps establish a bit about Hades' Clan while still giving her the primary spotlight. It was also done in a way that I haven't done before, which made it enjoyable to do because it was new to me while maintaining my style of not immediately using the mc's name.

I've posted seven sentences of this opening scene, but not the entire opening scene. Just a small chunk. In total, the scene is 765 words, which... It is only a coincidence that the number does that (counts down). I don't really plan scenes, especially at the start of my stories, but I like how this one turned out.

From the behind the scenes game:

❗"how many WIPs do you have?"

🖊️"how does your magic system work?"

Thanks for the ask!

Currently, I have one primary WIP (Temporarily titled Stars Of The Sky) and in the upper end of twenty that I sometimes return to and add on to, but those are primarily fanfiction, aside from one.

I do have a secondary WIP that I return to, which has more of a magic system than my current primary, which is the one that I will talk about for the magic system.

In the world of Sightless, the WIP that I have a planned magic system for, people are born with a set amount of magic power. Everyone has some amount of it, but not everyone is given the same amount, and no one can increase the amount. Most people barely have enough to enchant an item, which is the majority of the populace. The next level are those who can enchant items but can't cast a spell. Then are those who can cast spells.

One can increase how efficient they are with their magic power through repeated use, but for those who cannot use it at all, as in, those who can't even enchant items, this route is not possible. Of course, there are limits to the use.

The first stage of magic overuse is blindness. For those with higher healing factors, this goes away, but for most mages, this is the end of their vision. This doesn't mean the permanently blind cannot cast magic at all, but they would be relegated to being healers and farming spells. The stage beyond blindness, if a mage ignores the blindness, is heart attacks. For the more resilient mages, or those with healers nearby, they live. For most, they don't.

There are exceptions to the rules, but not for reasons most would expect.

The main character, for example, wasn't born in the world with this magic system, but she has quite the large magic power pool. She is also fairly resistant to the drawbacks of magic overuse due to having quite the fast healing rate without magic. She's also one of few whose occupation doesn't match her magic pool, as she's a guard/blacksmith, not a mage. Guards and blacksmiths tend to fall in the enchant but not cast spell range, and she can fairly easily cast spells without giving it much thought.

Her twin brother, Astro, works as a merchant, but he has a relatively good magic pool, falling in the enchant but no spells range, and he has less reason to use magic than his sister.

Their adoptive brother completely lacks magic power. Which is unheard of.

As for magic types, there are quite a few. Enchants and spells have the same types, but the range of effect is limited for enchants.

There are

Cultivation spells, which increase yield in harvest and mining

Fire, which has everything to do with fire (including fireballs)

Water, which is everything to do with water, but not ice

Steam, which occurs when mages or enchanters use both fire and water spells/enchants at the same time

Ice, which is everything to do with ice, including different shapes and temperatures

Holy, which includes healing, undo curses, and light

Dark, which includes poison, curses, and darkness

Holy and dark also include incantations for either banishing the presence of dark gods or evoking a dark god

Earth, which works with rock and soil

Location, which involves teleportation, locating, and gravity related things.

And many others.

There can be blending, as noted with steam, but one has to be careful not to mix the wrong elements because things can go wrong. Extremely wrong.

Yeah, Sightless has a lot just in the magic. That is ignoring the possible classification of powers as magic, in which case... That would be too much to get into.

Hope that satisfies any curiosity. Might add a magic system to my current WIP, but I haven't yet.