Home Articles posted by Kit Campbell (Page 7)

Help, This is Too Introverted Even for Me

I am introvert. I think many, if not most, writers are introverts. After all, most of us are perfectly happy spending an afternoon with our writing instruments of choice or a nice book, not being interrupted by other people. But, that being said, I do occasionally like to talk to other people. Hang out at a coffee shop. Go for a nice hike. Discuss writing with other writers (or get sidetracked on the latest scifi/fantasy books/movies/TV shows instead). But alas, we are all trapped. Except I am trapped with my family, which means I’m not actually getting any alone time, because if I go off on my own, someone will invariably set something on fire. (They haven’t yet, but you never know.) It’s a weird mix, isn’t it? Alone yet not, yet not in a combination that is generally helpful for anything. I’ve started having virtual coffee dates with my friends. They’re working okay, until one of our children arrive (or, in some awful cases, both of our children). Except I keep watching myself on the screen, or taking note of the fact that the pictures on the wall in the office continue to be crooked, no matter how many times I straighten them, or I somehow forget how to drink coffee and make a mess. But it is good to see people, even from afar, and even in weird circumstances. Even if half the time someone’s Internet glitches and then the whole thing crashes. (I made the mistake on…

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Continuing to Create When Life is Trying to Eat You

It has been a time period, friends. My husband has a major, ongoing medical issue that is potentially fatal. My father was chased by a crazy guy with a machete. My cousin died of a drug overdose. The coronavirus might cancel a much needed and much anticipated vacation. That’s on top of the normal, day-to-day issues (I am forgetting to do something for the small, mobile ones, I can almost guarantee it). As one might imagine, my mental state varies widely at the moment, and sometimes it’s a struggle to get out of the house, let alone sit down and write a couple thousand words. (Daylight savings is helping nothing, but it does give me a convenient excuse.) But I am still writing, and I am still drawing, and I think it all comes down to being gentle with myself. Should I have written yesterday, or the day before? Oh, yes, absolutely. Have I? No. Should I feel bad because there was a writing challenge in one of my writing groups that I completely failed at? No. It’s fine. (And also, if I do end up completing it today, I will count it as a win.) If it gets done, fantastic. If it doesn’t, there is always tomorrow. In the great scheme of things, a few missed days isn’t the end of the world. And, like I said, things are still getting done. Not as many, not as quickly, but it’s happening. So giving myself a break isn’t the end…

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They Say Most People Give Up on Their Resolutions by Jan 19

Which would be funny, really, since I was talking about my yearly theme on the 14th. But hey, my year of education continues apace. At least for the first month. I finished both my writing book and my sketch journaling class. I did my two prompts just to write. (I also put out a nonfiction book and wrote the midpoint reversal and dark moment on a scifi horror novella I’m working on.) So! Month 2! Doing okay. This month I’m taking a figure drawing class (though not, like, one where I sit and draw naked people somewhere. More cartoon-like, like anime or Don Bluth-style wise). It’s going fine, though my shortcomings as an artist are really coming out. But hey! This is why we practice. I’ve done the first of my prompts and have picked the Pinterest pins for the next one. I haven’t started my writing book. Whoops. I did pick one out–Fixing Your Plot & Story Structure Problems by Janice Hardy–but I’ve got library books out and you know how THAT goes. (If you don’t, I’ve got to read them before they’re due or I shall lose them, because they’re newer books and other people have holds.) (We went to the library yesterday and I sat in the car to avoid the temptation.) (I have a nonfiction book called What to Eat When that I read about in National Geographic, and a YA scifi novel called The Light at the Bottom of the World.) But all in all,…

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Connection by Kit Campbell

ConnectionKit Campbell Ciel slid to a stop, mere inches from the edge. Below him, below the jutting rocks, was water, dark and cold. Hells. Another dead end. There was shouting behind him. Close. Too close. Ciel rubbed his left forearm, his fingers tracing the glowing blue design that encircled it. It’d been there as long as he could remember. His mother had always made sure he’d kept it covered, but he’d never understood why. But now his mother was dead, and now he understood. “Over there! By the ruins!” It had all happened so fast. His mother had known she was dying, had begged him to leave, to head to the city, where he would blend in better. But how could he leave her, when she was in such pain? And then she was gone, and in the act of comfort, a well-meaning neighbor had taken off Ciel’s coat. And comfort had turned so fast. He could hear their footsteps now. Neighbors, friends, people he had lived among for his entire life. Intent on seeing him gone, or worse. Ciel looked around for an alternate route, but the forest was thick on one side, and full of things one did not want to encounter. Behind him was his past, bent on his destruction. There was nothing for it. Taking a deep breath, Ciel gathered his fear around him, and jumped. The water was colder than it looked, driving his breath from him. The glow from his forearm was brighter, here…

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A Theme for the Year

Happy 2020, friends. I hope the new year (I’m one of those no-year-zero people, so I won’t say new decade yet) is treating you well, and you’re making lovely progress on all your goals and resolutions. I got a bit of a late start, but I’m off and running now. I’ve written two short stories and am in the final edits on a nonfiction book in the last week, so hooray! Themes seem to be the trend this year, and I picked mine back in December: education. What does that mean? It means focusing on learning new things and practicing things I’m less confident of, mostly in terms of writing and drawing. To that end I’m taking an illustration class a month over at SkillShare and reading through my stash of writing books which have been collecting dust. And it means focusing on writing/drawing for the sake of writing/drawing, not always being so focused on marketing and publishing and submitting and all that jazz. Even just making that decision has been freeing. I’m feeling really good about everything. So, for this month, I’m reading The Kick-Ass Writer by Chuck Wendig (man, some of the analogies he comes up with…) and taking a class on sketch journaling. I did a practice page last night, using my drawing pens and watercolor, and I’m really pleased with how it came out. On the writing just for writing front, I decided I’m going to use up some of the pins I’ve been pinning for…

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December: The Creativity Sink

So, as I mentioned last month, like Siri, I too attempted Nano for the first time in many years. And I did it! It took some finessing (I wrote 7K in the course of a night to catch up at one point), but it got done, and without any fudging on my part. Every year that I am successful at Nano, I swear I’m going to keep going. Sure, not another 50K month in a row, but a significant amount, and the draft will be done in a few months, hooray! Every year it doesn’t happen. (Perhaps the worst offender of this was Shards, actually. I hit 50K at a rather privotal moment and stopped there, not even bothering to wrap up the scene. And every time I tried to go back to it, for months, I couldn’t figure out where to go and it got absolutely nowhere.) (I mean obviously it did eventually, but you’d think I’d learn.) (But apparently I haven’t.) And this is true every winning November. Despite my best intentions, I can’t seem to keep going on my Nano novel, and it doesn’t seem to matter whether things were flowing well during November or not. I’ve come up with some theories: Burnout. Maybe I’m just tried of that particular project. That doesn’t read particularly true, since I often spend several months to a year of consistent work on revisions or rewrites, but maybe! Or maybe I’m burned out on the pace and I need a break…

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Is it Nano if There are not Dinosaurs?

Happy November, friends! ‘Round these here parts, it’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which I am doing for the first time in five years. The goal is to write 50,000 words in a month. (I’m at 19,000 as of yesterday.) The idea behind Nano is that, instead of letting yourself get bogged down in worries about the quality of your writing, you focus on quantity, and, in theory, unleash your inner creativity that would never come out under normal circumstances. I love Nano, but Nano is not always the right solution for where I currently am in my writing career. But when they do line up–why not go in, feet first, with all the reckless abandon I can manage? The story I’m working on this year is one that I had a vague idea for that never gelled. So I stole it and stuck it in Hidden Worlds. Then, of course, after Hidden Worlds was published and released into the wild, the story gelled. About five years ago, I did a ton of research for the story and wrote the first chapter. And then I put it away, to be worked on when I got around to it. Well, I’ve gotten around to it. The story is a kind-of Odyssey-ish voyage across an ocean, focusing on themes of redemption, knowing and trusting yourself, and discovering your worth. Which is all lovely. Sounds like I know what I’m doing, doesn’t it? But it also gives me leave to make a bunch…

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Heigh Ho, My Costume’s Ready to Go

Hiya, friends! My convention that I’m cosplaying at is this weekend, and I’m happy to report that, at least costume-wise, I’m ready to go! I did a dry-run of it for a few hours today, which went decently well. I highly recommend dry-running any complicated costume you might be thinking of doing. Saves you problems later on. (I learned this the hard way when I did my most complicated costume to date, Titania from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. This costume included me making boots, armor, fake belts, a lined coat, etc. and involved wig styling. But I didn’t try it out before the con, and ended up only lasting about three hours. I was too hot, my wig was too heavy and wouldn’t stay on even with it being pinned in place, I couldn’t wear a bag because of the chest/back/shoulder armor, I could barely sit comfortably…) (And hence I have never done an armored costume again.) I wore my boots for about eight hours. They hurt a bit near the end, but not too bad. I almost spent a lot more time on my feet than I typically do at the con, so not too worried. I wore my FX contacts for about an hour and a half. I have issues with contacts–my eyes started rejecting them when I was 24–but they felt okay. A little dry, though, so probably worth it to invest in some re-hydrating drops before the con. The biggest issue is that they don’t stay…

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Superstition’s Night by Kit Campbell

“…and they reached the safety of the light, and all was well.” Amara turned off her comp-pad’s screen and placed the device on the side of Braedon’s berth. She stood, straightening his blankets, before bending to press a kiss to his forehead. “Good night. I’ll see you in the morning.” She retrieved the comp-pad and headed toward the corridor.  “Mom?” Braedon called. There was a little tremor to his voice that gave her immediate pause.  She returned to his berth, sinking onto the blankets beside him. “What is it?” “The story–why were they so afraid of the dark? What was in it?” Amara chuckled lightly, tucking the blankets tighter around her child. “Oh, dearest, there’s nothing in the dark. There never was. But this is an old story, one your grandfather used to tell me his grandfather told him, back when they were still on Earth. They didn’t know any better, back then. The dark was scary merely because they couldn’t see what was there, not because anything was.” She paused, gazing out the porthole at the stars beyond, the edges of the asteroid they inhabited just barely visible from this angle. “Besides, it’s never dark here. Not when the light of the universe surrounds us.” Braedon nodded slightly, smiling up at her. “Thanks, Mom.” He rolled onto his side, and Amara took her leave. Poor child. Maybe the story had been too scary for him. But it was good to look at older stories, to see what humanity had…

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Trying Out Cosplay Again

I know I’ve talked about cosplay here before, friends, but here we are. Actively doing it. Again. It feels a little weird, honestly. It’s been years. 2014 was the last time, to be exact, when I put together an Amy Pond cosplay out of clothes I owned and a red wig I first wore for my Joshua cosplay back in 2009 (but has been ever so useful since then for a number of different characters). And before that was 2011, when I made a steampunk outfit for AnomalyCon, and then 2010 was Agatha Heterodyne for WonderCon… This year I’m doing Crowley from Good Omens. (If you haven’t watched the miniseries yet, I highly recommend it if you have access to it. I’m also re-reading the book, and the series is pretty much spot on, except it’s expanded the emotional arcs for Crowley and Aziraphale.) I used to be a very dedicated cosplayer. I made my own patterns, started costumes months before they were needed so I had time to design and sew. I made armor and shoes from scratch. I (badly) styled wigs. I tried for screen accuracy when appropriate and was not against adding my own flourishes when not. It took a lot of time and money, though, and generally was bad news for writing (I find it hard to spend a lot of time on two different creative endeavors at the same time). I do miss it, though, especially the design aspect, and the problem-solving of taking something…

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