Editing Adrian two

Hello out there,

Got my manuscript back again and I realized I made a huge mistake. I was supposed to do a line edit before sending it off to my editor. I forgot to do that so I’m going to have to pay for another copy edit. Mistakes happen and I’m learning to roll with those.

As for how my book is doing. The line edit I started is going well. I’ve been reading it out loud on twitch.tv. It’s been a really great way for me to find those lines that don’t sound right and fix them.

My editor decided to help me out and converted my prologue to 3rd person on a separate document.

I got a lot of feedback about the confusion people were having while reading Adrian. They were having a problem figuring out if the main character was the same character from the prologue. Now that the Prologue is in 3rd person it helps separate the main character from the other character. It just makes more sense to do it that way.

I took my editors suggestions and implemented them. Then I went through and removed/added stuff that I liked/didn’t like.

Last night I finished doing the same thing to the Epilogue.

I was honestly afraid to change them that much because I’m not really comfortable with writing in 3rd person. I’m happy that I stepped up and did it though.

Other than that I’ve been working on Adrianne the second book. Its going slower than I wanted it to go but I am mainly focusing on my first book and getting it ready to share with the world.

It doesn’t help that I have been having some tooth pain and a ton of Dr’s appointments. Those are all going to be done soon enough so I’ll be looking forward to that.

Thank you all for putting up with the prolonged Blog absence. I’m going to finish up the line edit soon and then do a lighter edit. After those I’ll move my focus back to this blog and maybe I’ll toss another excerpt in between.

I hope your day is going wonderfully!
Katherine

Mobile Games

Hello out there,

I don’t discriminate against any particular device, be it a PC, Console, or Phone. If the games are good and they aren’t buggy I can fall in love with it.

Mobile games are… special. There can be fantastic games for mobile but you have to shift through a lot of trash before you find the good stuff.

There’s a certain type of game called “gacha ” that I can’t get behind at all. You might not have heard of the term but you have probably played the type of game I’m talking about.

In gacha games there’s a ton of different characters you can “collect” by spending real life cash or you can sometimes get lucky and open a box to have a “Chance” to get the character you want. It’s not always a box sometimes it’s a direct “summon” or some other weird mechanic like that.

I got stuck on one once. It was Mobius Final Fantasy. For the first like year, the game stayed pretty fair with its free to play options. Once it started catching up to the Japanese version though is when it got bad. You had to grind over and over for hours. It had an auto battle system but I couldn’t sit and watch the game play itself for more than 5 minutes before shutting it off.

There’s a lot of those games. I suggest you stay away from them no matter how good it looks.

My favorite games are the games you pay for. There’s usually a fee between $1-$20. (I hardly ever see a mobile game above $20.) These paid games are usually fully fleshed out games. You do need to watch out though because some of them are Gacha games with a $1 starting fee.

While I complained about Mobius Final Fantasy there are other RPG’s out there that are full RPG’s with a story and everything. I’m a pretty big RPG fan but that’s pretty normal for writers since RPG’s are all about story.

Other games out there are competitive games. I talked about me and competitive games and how we don’t mix. There is an exception though. I play a mobile game called “Brawl Stars” it has several 3v3 teams game types and a 1vs10 battle royale style system as well. They are all pretty fun. I don’t take the game seriously, which is probably the only reason I can keep playing it and not get angry.

I recently found a game that’s free to play and pretty great called “Sky” which is 80% exploration and 20% socialization. It has beautiful scenery and has a really fun glide mechanic. You wander around and collect flames/wings which allow you to glide longer. Collect enough flames and they become a candle. You can gift candles to other players and increase your friendship. There’s also little benches with a small candle in the middle where you light it up and sit and talk to someone. It’s really cute.

Another one I’ve been playing a lot lately is called “Death Road to Canada”. It’s pretty much the old school “Oregon Trail” game but with zombies. You stop off at random locations and gather as many resources as you can. Sometimes you’ll get stuck in a hoard of zombies and have to fight your way through. I once got a flame thrower and demolished wave after wave of zombies only to get to the very end and die to a single zombie. It was embarrassing but it only made me want to play it more!

Another free game that I’ve had on my phone for a really long time is “Godville” remember when I told you about Mobius FF and it’s auto play features being boring? Godvill is almost 100% auto play. You’re a god and your subject goes out and kills creatures, collects weapons and armor. It will gather around one thousand gold bricks and make a temple dedicated to you.

After you complete the temple it starts collecting wood and makes an Ark. After the ark it starts gathering two of each species… etc. You know the god mythos stuff.

It’s completely text based and you can only interact with your “GodPower” which you can use to either harm or heal the character. I tend to heal mine as you can see to the left.

The best part about Godville are the little diary entries. I left the picture a bit bigger than normal so you can have a look.

Beyond those games are games like Minecraft or other “ported” games but there’s one special game that really stands out.

The Room, is one of those games that graces your phone with beauty and puzzle solving. It’s absolutely fantastic. There’s three sequels to the original and each one has their own puzzle to solve. They don’t try to out do each other, they are just fun physics based puzzles.

I’m not sure if the developers have moved the game to PC yet but the gameplay is perfectly suited for a touch screen.

There are plenty of other games that I could probably get into but I don’t want to ramble too long.

Do you have any mobile games that you like? Maybe I’m completely wrong about Gacha games and you’re now on a keyboard crusade. We’ll see about that one. *cracks knuckles.*

Anyways I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day! Happy Friday everyone!
Katherine

PS: I’m sorry I didn’t put the links to the respective sites I may end up doing that later. You can disregard this when or if I do.

That of a Child

Hello out there,

I wrote a short story near the beginning of the pandemic. I was really panicked and depressed. Now I’m a little depressed and the panic has faded.

This short story is about a child and her father walking home from begging most of the day. It’s a bit shorter than some of the excerpts I put up but people have said it’s good. The story is open ended and I may eventually continue it.

Enjoy.

That of a Child

A lightning bolt branched out over the darkened purple sky, arcing halfway across the city. As the light faded, the clouds disappeared into the darkness. A breeze tickled my nose, bringing an earthy smell of the rain to come.

I rubbed my arms through the heavy jacket I was wearing — it wasn’t doing a good job of keeping me warm. Dad reached down and I grasped his gloved hand. He led us through the night-covered streets. Our only light source was the arching street lights above. 

I wished we were inside where it was warm.

We reached an intersection. I let go of Dad’s hand and tried to switch sides. He pulled his hand away and shook his head at me. I returned to the street side and held his hand again.

The walk light came on and I took a step off the sidewalk. When Dad didn’t move, I looked up. His eyebrows sank, and he shoved his face into the elbow of his jacket and coughed.

When he finished, we started walking again.

My stomach hurt. I hadn’t eaten in almost a day. My hand started shaking, and I tried willing it to stop. It wouldn’t, so I shoved it into my pocket.

I finally began to recognize where we were. Our bridge — the one we were staying under — was just down the street from here.

The streets hadn’t been very busy the last couple days. I was just beginning to get used to the sound of cars crossing the bridge.

We carefully descended down the slope, and I saw my mom covered in blankets. I let go of my dad and ran over to her. She smiled when she saw me and opened up the blankets to let me in.

I gleefully joined her.

“Hey, sweetie,” she said and gave me a hug while pulling the blankets around us. She was so warm.

“Hi, Mom!” I said and returned the smile.

She turned her attention to my father. “How’d it go?”

He shook his head. “We tried a few stores but once they saw me coughing, they made us leave.”

“Did you try the shelter?”

“We tried, but they were full.”

Mom started shaking as tears began streaming down her face. “I don’t know how much longer we can do this, Johnathan. We need food.”

“We just have to last a few weeks. The Presiden—”

Mom snarled, “Fuck the President!”

I reached down through the covers to feel my mom’s belly. It was so round like a soccer ball. I could feel my little brother in there, kicking.

Mom looked down at me as if she had just realized that I was there. 

She said, “Sweetheart, here,” and handed me her phone with a pair of earbuds. I slipped them into my ears, flipped through the phone, found the music app, and pressed play.

An ad came on, “Remember to wash your han…” I hated these, I just wanted to listen to my music.

Mom and Dad talked for a long time until Dad walked over to his spot, pulled out a blanket, and covered up.

I felt Mom’s fingers slowly comb through my hair. 

Sleeping in my clothes was a new experience for me. Normally, we would have pajamas that I would get into before bed. I missed the routine of it all.

***

The concrete walls shook as a car drove over the bridge. I awoke to the light pitter-patter of rain as it echoed down the lonely canal. A small stream of water now flowed ever closer to our feet. Our possessions were scattered amongst the debris.

Mom and Dad were both asleep. I slowly wormed my way out of the covers, crept over to my dad, and snuggled up next to him. He was so much warmer than Mom.

I’d begged to go with him to the store so we could get some food. I couldn’t believe how mean they were to us. I just wanted my stomach to stop hurting.

Dad coughed, and I felt his breath on my hair.

I suddenly remembered something my mom had said. “Don’t let anyone cough on you.” 

I rolled away from my dad and tried to wipe my hair clean. When I was satisfied it was better I got up and wormed my way back into the covers with my mom. She pulled me close and I lay my head on her chest.

I fell asleep to the beat of her heart.

It’s more of a slice of life story rather than a standard story. If you wanna know more about slice of life I wrote a blog about it last week.

I’d like to know what you think about this one. It’s one I’m on the edge of if I should continue writing it or not.

We’ve gotten over hump day and we’re even closer to the weekend! One more day!
Katherine

My Brief Stint with Photography

Hello out there,

While learning Cinematography, the course I was taking suggested I start with photography.

I learned a lot of basic lighting techniques and more importantly shot types.

I’m not really going to talk about shot types today though. I am going to showcase some of my favorite pictures I took. It’ll be hard to compact them down because I like so many of them.

Today you just get to enjoy some photography.

Thanks for having a look. I really like how these ones came out. If you like them let me know in the comment section below!

As always, I hope your day goes wonderfully.
Katherine

The Future of Film

Hello out there,

Yesterday, we talked about Daredevil and how it inspired me. You can read that here.

Today, we’re going to talk about the future of film.

Okay, so I’m going to geek out a bit and give you a little bit of my film history. If you want a more detailed account of my film history check out this post.

In my early years, I was always interested in cameras. I got an inexpensive cannon really early. A sony camcorder and half a dozen other cameras later. I settled on a Panasonic G7.

It’s a 4k camera and I was so super hyped when I got it. I still get giddy thinking about pulling it out of the case and filming something.

I mentioned that the camera is 4k because it’s pretty important in this discussion.

Right now most of us watch movies in 1080p. Blue ray is capable of 4k but beyond 4k it’s pretty much not usable until we get another format capable of holding such big files. In fact I don’t think owning a movie at home is going to be a thing soon. Streaming is king and it’s going to eventually take over the medium altogether.

Does that mean we shouldn’t even bother making more detailed cameras? 8k cameras are pretty common and affordable.

In Febuary of this year the Linea HS 32k TDI was announced. 32k, that’s crazy!

With a camera like that, you could film a wide shot with the character deep into the scene and be able to zoom in and use it as if it were a full shot without losing much detail. You can already do this in part with 4k and 8k.

Imagine being able to take a close up, medium shot and full shot all with one take on a single camera. It’s absolutely mind-bending but right around the corner.

When you combine that with cellphone bokeh technology (which will only get better), we may be able to completely stop messing with aperture. That is unless you want to mess with old technology. Learning how to use a camera lens could soon be a thing of the past.

There’s already big budget movies made on phones and I can only foresee more of that coming in the future.

Phones are also getting better at software that steadies your shot. When that tech gets even better imagine what you can do with cellphones! Anyone can just walk around and look as if they are using a steady cam.

Can’t forget to mention the low light capabilities of phones. Generally, you need to use the higher end phones to get good low light capabilities. Eventually, these phones will get better than the human eye. The possibilities will be endless.

This is just the technology I can see coming in the future. Who knows what crazy things people might come up with between now and then.

Either way, editing a film is about to get much more challenging!

Maybe you can see tech going in a different direction? Let me know in the comments below!

Hope you have a great day!
Katherine

Marvels Daredevil Inspired Me

Hello out there,

There are two series that inspired me greatly. Breaking Bad, and Daredevil.

I wasn’t a big Daredevil fan until Charlie Cox started playing him in the Marvel/Netflix series. Like Breaking Bad, Daredevil decided to go at a slower pace which is how I like series today.

A slower pace is my jam. Mostly because I write Slice of Life, which I already talked about here.

When a show slows down, I can get to know the characters, and learn to care about them. If a show doesn’t establish that sort of connection, I tend to lose interest quickly.

After seeing Ben Affleck play the role in 2003, I didn’t care for the character at all. Which is why it was a huge surprise to me when I saw Charlie Cox’s performance. It really made me care about Matt Murdock.

There’s a lot of reasons. The slower format, the performances, the writing, and the fact that the characters were supposed to be a part of something greater. The Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It was 2015 when it first came out and Marvel/Disney already had several very popular movies out.

The first season of the series dropped in April. Then a month later, the second Avengers movie dropped. I was ecstatic! All of this comic book content coming out, made me question everything.

Sure I’d read a few comics growing up. I wasn’t a huge fan to be honest. (My first comic book was Iron Man. I don’t remember the number. It’s up in the attic somewhere.)

The early 2000’s Spider-man movies came out and I loved watching those but they still lacked the connected universe that today’s movies have.

Daredevil had insane scenes like this.

Season 1 Fight Scene

It’s absolutely insane! They didn’t stop there eiether they decided to add two new ones for season two.

Season 2 Stairwell Fight Scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnYsc6T_GX4
Punisher Hallway Scene

Of course they topped that one in season 3 with an 11 minute long jail fight scene. It was so long that that no one could share it on YouTube. In fact they tried to enter it for an Emmy but it broke the time limit for nomination. (They seriously should have made an exception.)

This all completely blew my mind. It’s no wonder I started learning Cinematography!

I’m really looking forward to making movies with fantastic scenes to inspire younger generations.

Tomorrow, I’ll be continuing with the subject of film. We’ll talk about the future of film. Hopefully it’ll blow your mind like it is mine.

Have a great rest of your day.
Katherine

Expanding Your Brand on Social Media

Hello out there,

It’s Friday, I’m tired, you’re tired. You’re probably ready for a nice relaxing weekend. Wait. That doesn’t happen anymore does it.

No. In all likelihood you’re driving your car or truck somewhere to drop someone or someones meal off. Maybe you have that book you wrote on the side or that side business that makes you a little bit of money.

Are you going to be relaxing this weekend or are you going to be pushing your business to the next level?

I know what I’ll be doing.

The internet is a vast resource of people spewing out any number of things. Their lunch, how much they spent on a specialized item, their (obviously superior) cat, or other pet.

Are you taking advantage of this? Maybe you have one account and you see this pop up on twitter, linkedin, facebook, or tumblr.

Are you posting about your business on there? Are you properly targeting the audience you want to target?

Maybe you don’t know how or you don’t really care about social media.

“Social media? Riiiight that stuffs for kids. It’ll rot my brain!”

If you want your business to succeed you need to take advantage of it!

“But Katherine! I’m too old to learn that!”

You’re not. Really you aren’t. It takes a little time but it’s easy. Everything is a few taps away.

I have to admit that I’m still working on social media myself but I’ve learned a lot along the way that I’d like to share with you.

First thing you’ll need to do is get an account for every social media app out there. I’m talking reddit, facebook, twitter, tumblr, pinterest, instagram, periscope, youtube and even tiktok. Yeah tiktok might be going away any day now but who cares! Where peoples eyes are is where you should be.

But what would I even post? Your lunch, your specialized items, your (obviously superior) cat or other pet and your business.

As a small business you have an advantage over those big businesses. You can be personable.

No one really connects with the billionaire executives of those businesses. That’s where you’re going to get your customers.

“But I don’t have money!”

Truth is you don’t need money. You need to hustle! Every social app out there has a search button and uses hashtags. You need to learn how to use them and which ones to use for each platform.

You think you just need to post every once in a while? Hell no. You need to post on every one of those apps I listed above! Work your way up to 25 post’s a day and make sure to spread out your content. Learn quick ways to take a screen shot of your screen and use your phones photo editing app and crop it. Then you can share it between all of your apps.

Make videos of your food and how much you like it. Be yourself and talk about the things you love! Look, there’s some pretty weird things people like out there but I can almost guarantee that you’re not the only one with the twisted brain that likes that subject.

Maybe you’re a writer like me and you’re doing those #writerslift’s. You’re getting tons and tons of writers following you. A lot of writers are actually readers too. Wouldn’t it be better to go after the readers though?

Do a search for or . Look at the posts there and start responding to people. Be nice and compliment their review or whatever they are writing about and then slip in a little message about your work in progress.

It’s a LOT of hard work and I mean a lot. I’m still skidding along the surface myself but if you take this seriously posting 50 or even 100 pieces of content a day. Taking that time to talk to others and hustling you’ll get those readers that like what you like and they’ll check out what you’re doing.

This works for all businesses. Maybe you’re trying to sell car parts or trying to show off your music. There’s several music hashtags and car hashtags out there where you can slip in a little ad for your business.

If you have a physical business there’s also hashtags for that specific town too. Use that to your advantage and send messages to people who are posting about that town.

If you’re not doing this and you’re just sitting around waiting for people to come to you, I have some bad news for you. Your business isn’t going to go anywhere.

You have to be hyped! Every time you post something about yourself or your business you’re touching someones brain and planting a seed.

Look I know that I’m giving away my secrets but you need to do this especially if you want your product to sell.

Truth is those people who sell millions of books they won the jackpot. How many people in their lives win the jackpot? A very small amount,

If you’re just an average person you’re going to have to take your destiny into your own hands and seize the day. No one else is going to advertise for you. Even if you have the money to throw at advertisements it’s only going to take you so far.

I hope this helps someone and if you want to learn more I suggest taking a look at Gary Vaynerchuk. He’s super successful and it’s where I learned most of this stuff.

Have a busy weekend!
Katherine

Ghoul Excerpt

Hello out there,

I’ve been pretty busy today messing with my favicon and several other things so I didn’t have a chance to write a blog. I figured today is as good as any for an excerpt!

This ones from the book I’m writing “Ghoul.” I talked a little about the world in this post a few weeks ago. It’s not written in the same style as Adrian but it’s really interesting.

This is the very beginning of the story. Enjoy!

Neil snapped at me, his teeth clenching in front of his decaying tongue. Maggots fell from his neck landing on the floor. Several parts of his body were decomposing. All of our bodies were. We needed to eat.

Neil turned back to the wall and scraped his claws into the hardened dirt. He towered over everyone in our pack. His arms were perfect for digging and his claws easily pulverized the hard dirt into something more easily scoopable.

We’d been digging for food for the last week and hadn’t found anything. I plunged my hands into the midnight black dirt, pulled it back, and packed it into the back of the tunnel.

Lewis blocked my way as I tried to pass him. He was slender with small tufts of hair left on his head. He was our wayfinder and usually was pretty good at finding us food, but I was beginning to doubt his senses.

As I pushed my way past him he shoved me into the tunnel wall. Got in my face, made a series of clicks, and snarled. I cowered away from him, lowered my head, and thrummed. 

He’d won whatever it was he was trying to prove. When he was satisfied with my terror he walked back over to Neil and clawed at the dirt with him. 

I looked at Heather for sympathy, but her gaze was cold. Her decay was even worse than mine. Most of her breasts were gone—eaten by the maggots that plagued us. We could never seem to be rid of them.

We tunneled underground; it was the best way for us to find food without being detected.

Neil suddenly screeched, then Lewis started clicking, and Heather started up after him. It was contagious. I resisted the urge, though, and just thrummed to myself.

Neil, Lewis, and Heather darted forward, leaving me behind. I cautiously crept at first and then used my hands to launch myself to match their pace. 

They had broken into a rather large crypt. I drew in a deep breath through my nose, and the aroma of a freshly dead corpse hit me. It was food. My teeth chattered in anticipation.

Neil, Lewis, and Heather were already hovering over it. They were much faster than I was. I tried to shove my way in to get a bite, but they pushed me back when I got close. I slammed my claws into the ground, stood tall from my normally hunched position, and clicked at Heather. As the dainty one, I regularly got pushed around. Brute force ran our hierarchy.

Lewis swiped at me with a clawed hand and caught me on the shoulder. It sent me flying back, crashing into the crypt’s wall. Lewis was above me in an instant. I cowered, covering my face. The hit I was expecting never came, I cautiously peeked through my arms. He was back over by the corpse, stuffing parts of it into his mouth. He stared at me while chewing, which made my hunger worse.

Using the wall as leverage, I was able to push myself back to my feet. I lowered my body and backed away from them. Lewis’s gaze lingered on me as I went. Once I got far enough away, I resumed my normal hunched-over position and wandered the crypt. It was rather large, but there were no other fresh bodies around.

Closing my eyes, I sniffed at the air, and something faint hit my nose. I sniffed again and finally recognized the aroma. Alive, something around here was alive. Because it was faint, it probably meant that it was a small animal. I clacked my teeth in anticipation.

I followed the scent to a large opening where the crypt widened out into a cave. I crept along, willing myself forward. Open spaces were dangerous. The cave led to a smaller chamber where a large metallic box was hidden under some vines. I pulled it out and sniffed at it; this was definitely where the smell was coming from.

The metal was no match for my claws. It gave way easily, and a cloth-wrapped human body was revealed. I eagerly tore the cloth from it. It looked intact, its skin was somewhere between taut and shriveled. It smelled alive, which confused me.

I ripped off its head and drew my tongue along its gray shriveled cheek. It tasted dead, not regular dead, but undead like us. I snarled a half-bark and kicked the box. The body came flying out and rolled away. Something around the neck of the body fell off. It was a strand of interlinking metal.

The head in my hands vibrated. The dried leather skin reversed its appearance, becoming more and more alive. Hair spurted from the top of the head. I dropped it, startled. It made a thunk as it struck the ground and rolled itself back to the body. It found its way to the neck and stuck itself in place.

My curiosity was piqued, so I crept forward next to it and watched the body plump up. Its skin went from gray to brown to pink. The body turned until it was flat on its back. Its chest began to rise and fall. When it turned and looked at me, I tilted my head.

The human reached for me and showed its teeth.

It muttered something at me, and I was captivated. I cautiously crept over to it and ran my clawed hand over its now pink skin. It twitched at my touch. When I made contact with it, dark energy was revealed around it. It pulsated along its skin. The darkness near my hand spread out as if trying to escape my touch. It made me tilt my head again.

Slowly but deliberately, I nuzzled my head next to its arm and licked it. It was delicious, no longer tasting undead. I thrummed at it.

It showed its teeth again, sat up, and put its hand against my face. I mimicked the thing it was doing with its teeth. It looked confused for a moment, gestured a hand at me, and suddenly, the energy surrounded me again. There was so much of it, it blinded me. I tasted the air, and I could faintly taste the energy. It was also delicious.

Rocks and pebbles on the cave floor from behind me crunched, and I spun around to see what it was. While I couldn’t see her, I could tell it was Heather. The disturbance was too small to be one of the males.

The human’s hand fell, and the dark energy blinding me disappeared. I heard the human stand, but I didn’t dare look back. This human, food, whatever it was— it was mine. It grabbed my arm from behind, and the dark energy returned, blinding me again.

I heard a hissing from where Heather was.

I extended myself up to try and escape the energy. It moved with me, and I still couldn’t see. I felt Heather launch herself forward. It was strange because she was at least twenty feet away, but I felt her movements somehow.

Before she could get to us, the energy rushed from my face to Heather. When it hit her, she instantly stopped. I saw the energy not just surround her but sink into her, leaving her with a dark aura. I shook off the human’s hand and the aura around Heather disappeared. Heather was frozen in place. Her eyes darted around and she looked panicked.

I crept over to her and pushed her a few times. She rocked back and forth as if she were in a daze. I turned to look at the human, and it looked back at me. It motioned for me to come to it, and I did. When it touched me, energy surrounded me, not enough to blind me this time. I quickly glanced at Heather and the dark aura was around her again. I clicked at her.

When I turned back to look at the human, it felt so small. Instincts took over, and I breathed, even though I didn’t need to. I could see a small funnel of the dark energy enter my mouth. It satiated my hunger slightly. Liking what I tasted, I inhaled deeply, sucking the rest of the energy into me. It made me feel… warm. An odd sensation.

I showed my teeth to the human, this time while closing my eyes. When I opened them, the human’s eyes were wide open. It took a step back from me.

I thrummed at it and tilted my head.

Fear emanated from it. Delicious, delicious fear. When it darted toward the opening of the cave, I easily caught up to it and threw it to the ground. I pinned it down, and it threw more energy at me, which I absorbed again.

I’m cutting it off there but as you can see, if you’re into Grimdark stories this is definitely something you might like!

Most of everything I post here is still in the first draft stages. Let me know what you like about it or let me know what you think should be changed.

Thanks for reading!
Katherine

What is Slice of Life?

Hello out there,

Have you ever heard of the “Slice of Life” genre?

Slice of Life, is an old term first coined by the French playwright Jean Jullien in the 1890’s. French people always come up with the coolest stuff.

“Tranche de Vie”

Slice of Life, in French!

It gained popularity in Japan in Anime, which is where I first heard the term.

Maybe you’ve seen it a few times but never actually looked it up.

So, what is it?

Slice of Life, is all about focusing on a single character’s life. Know that when you’re reading SoL you’re not exactly going to be getting a normal story. You’re going to see the mundane parts of their life and most importantly see how the character reacts to each situation.

You’re not always going to get insights into the character. In fact, the end of the story might be the character simply continuing on with their day.

This in itself can invoke emotion. You know that they are continuing with their life but you don’t know what happens because you’re not with them anymore.

A SoL book will be ground in reality and probably won’t be action packed, dramatic, or even  funny. It’ll likely have some or all of those aspects to it but not as a main part of the story.

I’d like to give you a small example of a scene from my book. 

The main character Adrian is feeling a bit adventurous and decides to try her hand at making pancakes for the first time. Enjoy!

07:15 Nov 20

As I stared at the instant pancake mix instructions, they seemed to make less and less sense to me. It probably didn’t help that I was distracted by my phone. I wonder if there’s a video on how to make instant pancakes? There was.

***

07:21 Nov 20

One video down, one mind prepped to add water and or milk and mix.

***

07:37 Nov 20

I had the oil, the skillet, and five burnt pancakes. About that time, Gyro came sashaying in. She plopped down on her butt and stared at me. I grabbed a bit of burnt pancake and tossed it at her. She delicately sniffed at it. After a few seconds, she jumped up about two feet in the air, landed, and promptly ran in place for about three seconds till she fell over. I somehow ended up on the ground too, but laughing.

***

07:45 Nov 20

The charge for laughing on the floor was three burnt pancakes. I felt it was worth it. I did, however, end up with five partially burnt pancakes, which I felt were probably good enough to eat. What do you do with the rest of this mix, though? You’re supposed to use a whole box, right?

***

07:51 Nov 20

When Mom came downstairs, the look on her face was… unique. I didn’t know what to make of it.

***

08:05 Nov 20

About ten minutes of clean-up later, I unwillingly observed as Mom made a fresh batch of pancakes.

“See, you wait till they start bubbling up and the sides are brown.”

She jiggled the spatula under it and flipped it over. It looked perfectly brown and had a sweet smell, unlike the burnt ones.

***

This is one of my more comedic scenes. Instead of being some huge comedic event with a big build up it’s just one of those little things that happen in life.

Right after this scene the next one jumps right into something completely different. Have a look.

08:12 Nov 20

Mom and I were eating breakfast when Dad came downstairs with his keys in his hand. “Mmmmm,” he said as he sniffed at the air.

He grabbed a pancake, ruffled my hair, and kissed mom on the cheek before he headed out the back door.

Mom put her head down.

I cautiously asked, “Mom?”

“We’ve been fighting…” her voice quivered.

I stopped eating, got up from my chair, and hugged her. Tears streamed down her face. I hated it when she cried—she always had this look on her face that made me hurt inside. I held on so I didn’t have to see it.

***

Immediate shift to sad. There are so many parts of the story that do this.

My aim is for people to get to see how a transgender kid lives their life. 

I sprinkled a lot of intrigue into the book. What’s it like losing “eidetic memory”? You’ll see how Adrian reacts to losing hers. What happens when your uncle is a crazy architect and puts a ton of secret rooms into the house? You’ll find out here. What are these weird visions that the main character is seeing? You’ll find out!

All of this is intriguing but the book runs at a slow pace so you won’t find all the answers in this book. The secret room is more of a metaphor in this case as parts of it will be revealed as the main character makes milestones in her gender transition.

The losing of her eidetic memory is taking a character from spectacular to something more normal and seeing how she reacts.

The visions are my own little special thing where you’ll only get one maybe two per book. They are out of order but will tell their own story. It’ll all connect at the end of the series.

I suppose SoL sort of follows the whole “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” theme.

Are there any examples of successful Slice of Life stories? Yes! Remember that series “Breaking Bad”? I’m having a hard time not calling that Slice of Life.

The story follows Mr. White, who after deciding to start selling meth works at building an empire. Its SoL in in that it showcases almost every aspect of his life. Breakfasts with family even when it didn’t advance the story much. Scenes where Mr. White and Jessie are just hanging out. While the scenes didn’t do much with all of them together they showed the comradery of the two. 

Vince Gilligan, the Writer/Director of the show, in an interview explained how he wanted to show the aspects of people’s lives that you don’t normally see in a series. Sounds like a SoL to me!

An example of a movie I think is SoL, is John Wick. It’s definitely an action movie but there is so much of the story that’s SoL. You are seeing every aspect of the character’s life as the story progresses. Losing his dog, digging up those hidden guns, getting a new dog, and even buying new clothes. The action is a big portion of the film but even in those scenes there’s a lot of instances between action where you see John do a bunch of mundane things. Sure those mundane things help him later on but they are there.

Maybe I’m stretching a bit with John Wick but Breaking bad is definitely a Slice of Life story. 

My first introduction into the “Slice of Life” style was Ellen Hayes The Saga of Tuck which I talked a bit about before. 

Her writing heavily influenced how I write. She disappeared and hasn’t written anything since 2013. When I searched deeper for her, I found out that the person maintaining her website said that they are doing it to keep her work alive, as a sort of memorial. They didn’t say she was dead but it was heavily implied. When I found that out last year I was a mess.

I hope you learned at least a little about this fascinating genre. It’s my absolute favorite and I think everyone should read at least one Slice of Life story.

I have a story teller meeting coming up so I’m going to do some review on that before I start.

I hope you have a wonderful day!
Katherine