Mary Catelli's Erraticly Updated and Exceedingly Ill-Organized Journal

Who Are You, And What Have You Done With The Villainess?

2025-12-22T19:43:02Z

I essayed

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Justice, The Cardinal Virtue

2025-11-07T22:41:48Z

I essayed

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Fortitude, The Cardinal Virtue

2025-11-06T22:47:50Z

I essayed

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Temperance, The Cardinal Virtue

2025-11-05T23:30:21Z

I essayed

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Why Do You Feel That Way?

2025-09-08T20:58:16Z

I essayed

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Hobbies On The Side

2025-08-12T17:11:29Z

I essayed

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Opinions

2025-06-11T14:51:18Z

Today, I memed

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Alignment vs. Metaphysics

2025-06-06T18:05:51Z

I essayed

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The Much Maligned Blue Curtains

2025-05-06T17:05:12Z

I essay'ed

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juggling two stories

2025-03-08T04:59:49Z

Oh you plot bunnies!

Two very different stories about a character who finds herself in another world. The means by which they are moved differ, the situations they find themselves in differ, their powersets differ, and the reasons they have powers differ. Their enemies differ, and so does the conflict.

This probably means they should have different reactions to arrival, perhaps all the more in that they do not glide over it as a machine that the readers will simply accept as not relevant to the plot. (It is relevant in both cases, though -- the reasons differ.)

Both are going to have metaphysical questions, though. No matter how different I make them.

(And I don't even know if either one is a full story yet.)

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big, little, big, little

2025-02-15T04:39:54Z

Was plugging along on a story.

Knew there was a character, a servant, who knew about a cursed prince. Needed him as a plot device to keep the prince alive, and also he gave me a way to keep the prince busy. Made him a big solid guy, a huntsman.

So writing along on the outline and realized that I had to name this servant. I dug up a name, decided it looked good, and if it's a diminutive, it's ironic he has it.

Put it down on the character list. Character started to wonder whether he could be a lean and wiry huntsman instead.

Ah, the game of names.

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problems and panic

2025-02-11T05:36:13Z

Heroine started to wonder what would happen to her at night.

Problem is that things will happen to her at night. Panic may not be the wisest reaction on her part. So perhaps she should not work herself up into a frenzy.

Decisions, decisions

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The Youth Of Heroes

2024-12-19T21:32:53Z

essayed again

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Tell Me A Story

2024-12-15T22:31:54Z

essayed again

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essayed again

2024-10-13T00:34:46Z

You Start With What You Start With

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exit, stage left

2024-08-26T03:16:42Z

Ah, ending the draft -- and realizing that you had completely forgot to remove some characters from the scene, or give them somewhere to be.

Ended up searching backwards to find the last time they had appeared, and then having them leaving. Good thing they were mysterious folks who could do that.

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back and forth goes the plot shuttle

2024-07-12T03:08:57Z

A character is being a pill.

He might even hail the main character before the manor court through some chicanery. Oh, wonderful, the idea runs off because the main character could do things and learn things through the manor court.

Then a cold gimlet thought looks at the way the character is being a pill and is not happy with it.

Do I have to invent a different reason to get her there? Ah, plotting.

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ah the killjoy

2024-07-03T04:07:13Z

Adults being killjoys can be quite useful for children's tales. It means you have to go around them. (Just like other authorities for adults.)

But -- one character is being a killjoy when it doesn't move the story forward. The problem is that it's annoying.

You're a supporting character, dear. You don't get to do that. . . .

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ah, realization

2024-05-16T04:01:36Z

There I was, stymied in the tale.

Then I realized that the venture out into the woods should be bright and wonderful until the complications hit. The woman teaching them should not be strict.

Now all I have to do is recast several pages to fit that. . . .

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consistency and character

2024-04-07T01:05:39Z

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what would happen to a wizard?

2023-12-15T05:05:57Z

Ah, complications. Sometimes it is clear what sort of powers suit a personality. Flight for those who want to get away from things, or fire for a fiery temper.

But what sort of superpower suits someone who is studious? Except, perhaps, more knowledge.

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the game world

2023-09-21T03:53:24Z

One thing I note about "reborn in the game world" trope.

It's not really possible to spend too long a time treating your life as if it were a game. There's the mundane details of ordinary life, the body won't sustain the emotion too long, and all the stuff that makes it clear that it's life and not a game. No cut scenes to elide the time, for instance.

The quicker the story moves (and the graver the danger) the more likely the heroine is to think of it as a game with possibly disastrous consequences. Still, I would expect, sooner or later, the game villainess/book heroine of a romance game to contemplate which of the targets she might actually want to marry.

Some works do make the characters veering off the plot line for personal reasons part of the story. But even those who remain on it for whatever reason should consider what it will mean for their real life in this world.

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juggling and memory in world-building

2023-08-04T03:42:14Z

Was pondering what personality-based powers to give two rather nasty characters --

When I remembered that only very strong-willed characters (and those born with their powers) exactly fit their powers. Wizards can impress a different set of powers, if not too incongruous.

Fortunately these two are merely extremely spiteful and potential bad influences. Plus potential sources of misinformation. Not that the hero and heroine are any slouches in their own misunderstandings -- culture clashes are involved.

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showing one's self

2023-08-02T02:56:40Z

The thing about personality powers is that it does impose limitations on the villains of the piece.

( Read more... )

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hints and insanity

2023-07-26T03:42:02Z

Ah the ramifications of the magic system. . . .

( Read more... )

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