ooh I love your current HA with the fluffy light clouds & the outfit matching :D

- Well, there's an update. It's snowing here! Washington DC is getting pounded and we're in the southern area of the storm. So, there's glorious snow on the ground. My youngest brought a bowl of it in for me to play with. I made a tiny snowman. 😆 Then my hubby took the bowl and dumped it down our son's shirt.I asked him why and all he said was, "retaliation." So you didn't have to wait long for the next installment. I have no idea what our son will do now. 😂

- I read an essay about writing a couple years back that showed how the writer inserted clues to the character's mood in the setting. He did theis after the skeleton of the chapter had been written. He'd revisit a character and see that they're contemplating death and so add some ravens into the setting to make that feeling more apparent. It was quite interesting. If I can find the link, I'll pass it along. :D

- I'm glad you had a good holiday. Mine was ok. Dealt with hand-gout the whole month of December so that threw a wrench in it but I've no complaints. :D

well I don't do that (usually - in a fantasy story I might) but I do ... let me give an example. These are all descriptions of the same setting, but different moods - on a snowy evening, Jay is beginning to set the table for supper:

• The snow glittered white under soft pink sunset clouds. The smell of roasting meat promised a tasty supper, but before that could happen, Jay had to set the table. The silverware lay neatly arranged in the drawer, ready to be laid out, and the clean china gleamed from the drying rack. Jay took a stack of plates and began the task, whistling a cheerful tune.

• The cold from outside permeated the house, the fire in the hearth nearly gone out from inattention. Supper must be served soon, and Jay needed to set the table before the hungry masses descended. With fingers trembling, Jay lifted the fragile china plates, hurrying as much as was safe carrying breakable and expensive dishes in shivering hands.

• Snow, everywhere, but Jay was stuck inside, first with a table to set and then a meal to eat. What a waste. After supper, it would be dark, and for all Jay knew, all the snow would melt by morning. Each china plate slammed down onto the polished oak table, not quite hard enough to break, but ringing bell-like with the impact.

- Thank you for sharing some of your writing with me! I think that's the first time I've ever read something you wrote (aside from forum posts, silly ;P ) and I like your writing style. Both examples are very well written and convey very different moods. One is clearly from a happy viewpoint and the other from a nervous, frightened viewpoint. I can definitly see how , with a few changes, mood can be conveyed very differently. :D

yeah it's quite boring without the mood light shining on the scenery :D (there was a third example with impatience/anger at the end too)

Thank you! I think the background is so beautiful. Great artwork. And your HA is great and I love the dress!

I love it!!!! But dang your son needs to step it up! He gave that one to your hubs by bringing the snow in. 🤣🤣🤣👏🏼

thank you, that dress was from Disasters on discord in a flash contest, it was so neat and looked ice skatey to me :D

Disasters always has great CW's! And it did look very much like an ice skating dress. I used to love ice skating and I took lessons for a short time but sadly realized I was too clumsy to spin circles. lol

Im so glad you enjoyed your partner and thank you for everything under my tree too <3 I can't wait for more events in the future I am excited :)

Loving your new ha! Did you have a good day?

- :O How did I miss the third one? My screen reader only read 2. I'm going to scroll back up and check it out. :) You're very right that the mood brush really does open up the scenes in very different ways. I'm going to try to incorporate more into my writing. :D

- I know he did. 😂 😂 😂 He's now trying to suck me into it by asking me what I would do. I haven't given him a straight answer yet because I know he's smart enough to think of something on his own. Plus, I must remain Swiss-like. 😆

- You're very welcome. I'm also looking forward to more TGC events. You and the rest of the TGC powers-that-be really do pull them off smoothly. :) How has your new year been so far? :D

Worked out every day so far gonna lose some weight xD

- That's awesome! I've been trying to lose weight for the past few months but I gave up during the holidays. Congrats for keeping your resolution for 9 days. I hope you keep going and lose as much weight as you want to. What's your goal? :D

Yesterday was good, today was good and probably my whole week was good!! 😊 Is it still snowing? And are you off today because of it?

You're very smart to remain neutral! And I can't wait to read the next chapter!🤣

so glad you're having a good week, wish I was 😆 it's not that bad just not good

that evil red screenreader, skipping a paragraph. what does it think it has, AI? I like how you expressed that, a mood brush. Super cool!

I'm sorry yours hasn't been good! I've had an extremely busy week and got put on statins (🙄bad genetics) but everything else went surprisingly well.

- I havve to remain neutral because if I take one side over another the one I didn't pick is going to get upset. Plus, I have too much knowledge about both of them and it just wouldn't be fair. I really don't want to turn this into a 3 way incident either. They would have the advantage since they can see. 😆

- 😂 No kidding. XD I scrolled up and think it was me that made the mistake. I think I tabbed when I should have arrowed down. No matter, I like all three versions you presented and feel they could all be very nice lead-ins to 3 very different stories. :) You can use the saying to your heart's desire. I'm glad you like it. I was wondering, have you ever had a one-shot short story that others have read and then asked you if there's more? If so, did you expand the story? How did you go about doing that, if you did? :D

You're very smart to realize you couldn't win and could only lose if you entered the fray. 🤣🤣🤣

that's good, sorry about the statins though, but busy and otherwise going well sounds excellent. Here's hoping my next week goes well, I have a 10k story to finish that I've done less than a quarter of so far.

That's a super interesting question and I can't answer it, exactly, but I'll do what I can. I've written a lot of things that people asked if there would be more, and I have to say that as far as I can remember, it does not influence me in the slightest as to whether or not I write more of that story. Pretty irrelevant, overall. Usually I do not return and write sequels or more of a story, but sometimes I do. (Note to the screenreader program: here's 4 more paragraphs of this, don't skip!)

Now, I write most of my stories for exchanges. Sometimes I write sequels to stories other people wrote, or companion pieces, these are called remixes. I'd say I write as many remixes as I do sequels to my own works. But most of the time my impetus to writing these or anything else is that someone has requested it in an exchange, because, that's usually my motivation source.

Whether I write a sequel or more of a given story depends on whether I finished it when I wrote it the first time (this makes it much more likely that I'll continue it, but still not exactly probable; I'd estimate 1 chance in 5 for me to continue a story where the original story ended before I got all the way through my original plan for it, versus if I finished the whole story I had in mind in the original, 1 chance in 20). But whether or not the original story finished the original idea I had in mind, the creation of further story or a sequel story or another story in the same setting/world/with the same characters depends on my having an idea for another story/more story, and also on my having the motivation to write it.

If I have both an idea and motivation, then, how do I go about it? Well, exactly the same way I go about writing anything. I think about the idea, I decide what the overall flow or point of the story is, who the characters are, what the viewpoint is to tell it from, or sometimes I just start writing with a vague idea of where I'm headed and hope to come out the other side LOL

The main difference if the thing is a followup to another thing I wrote is that I re-read the thing I wrote before with the new story idea in mind, to make sure the two link up properly. That's it, though, otherwise just the same as any writing I do. ❤

Good luck on your story writing!! Cute HA!

I'm up to a third of the story done now!