Persistent-Practice

Red knocked on the door of the chapel. The grass had been mowed that morning, the scent of the cuttings rested along the stones and hung in the air. Flowers had been planted along the fence and the little dirt pathway. Bright rainbow faces smiled up at her. Reassuring her that everything would be fine. That Martialis M. Lane would soon be under similar bright, happy petals and leaves. She breathed in and out in a sigh. Nothing would be fine. Nothing had been fine for fifteen years and it wouldn't start now. Red wasn't stupid enough to believe in omens and gut feelings or to believe that leaves could predict storms. Everything was awful and e

"Oh, my god." No. "Oh...My god. Jackie?" No. No. No. If there is a god in this world who still gives a damn about mortals...Please, please let this be a dream. Jackson knew that voice. He had long ago come to terms with the fact that he could never again hear it in good conscience. The pitch was different, lower. It had had twenty years to mature, after all. But he could still recognize it. The voice of his half-sister. On a crowded street, in the city a day's drive from where they'd spent most of their childhood was the last place he expected to have a family reunion. He hadn't expected to have a family reunion at all - or at least not

Yelhsa looked over the guards standing next to the door and examined their firearms. He knew they were military police and remembered the times he'd crossed paths with them. He smiled and looked to his interviewer then said “From there, my life went completely military. But not even Scain could escape joining me. I don't think he wanted to. He wanted an officer position like me. Everyone liked him more than me though.” ******************************************** Location: Military Training Academy No.95, Olympus Date: 62-21-2802_E9 Relative Earth Date: 24/09/2294 Seth and Scain stood next to each other at attention, their chest p

Yelhsa chuckled and teased his beard in deep thought. He inhaled through his nose and spat on the ground beside him and asked himself “The next significant milestone in my life? Well that day my mother died; is also the same day I made my first kill. I was 13.” ******************************************** Location: Trex, Royal Summer house Date: 15-19-2801_E9 Relative Earth Date: 20/11/2094 Seth and Scain were sparring again, like they always were, their muscular bodies glistening in the sunlight, Scain connected with an uppercut as Seth connected with a right jab and they both stumbled back. "Let’s go and get something

In every writing community, terms like "plot" and "development" and "arc" are constantly thrown around, and everyone expects everyone else to know what they mean without ever clearly defining them. Sure, vague advice about the importance of character development and story structure are great and all, but how do you actually do it? Aside from style and grammar, what are the mechanics behind a well-told story? What does a good story look like? The answer is surprisingly simple. Not easy, but simple. Every good story does one thing well: it asks a question, deliberates it, then answers it. This provides a framework of three acts that create w

Yelhsa sat down in his chair and the man opposite him raised his eyebrow. Yelhsa’s white scruffy hair and beard reflected the dim small cell’s dim light; his eyes were blood shot and a vibrant, luminous green, he looked old and tired, but was still only in his first of ten centuries. Yelhsa ran his hands through his hair, the gauntlet on his left wrist chirped and bleeped, the lights pulsed and died, and he coughed then said “Where do I begin? The choices are endless. Well let me tell you my favourite parts. But know this most heroes, of most tales have a modest beginning; however, I was born to the Overlord and his wife, L

Location: Delight Of Song Earth Date: 02/02/2554 This morning I awoke on board the DoS, he'd sent a drone to pick me up. When I awoke however I was less than relieved. We'd been boarded by PEDL members. They'd taken the ship, and the research on board. Fortunately DoS was blocking any outgoing signals so no secrets were leaked. Much to my surprise 529 attacked the invaders when it realised I was present aboard the ship. This caused a worthy distraction and I seized the moment to fightback our captors. There was a great loss of life today, I killed five Earthans. The ship has taken their biomass and is recycling it into repairing its hull br

Location: HMSV Langford-Harvey Date: ??-??-2810_E9 Relative Earth Date: ??/??/2303 A slender, young woman sat in the conference room. Her heavy, slightly battle worn, black breacher’s armour glistened in the light emitted from the holo-screen, displaying the Dragon Corps Logo; a black dragon wielding a sword and hammer; in the centre of the table. The rotation of the logo illuminated her barely regulation, shoulder-length, red hair. She sat in the corner of the room; her chin rested on her folded arms positioned on the back of the swivel chair she sat on. Her light blue eyes focussed on the rotating logo until the doors on her right sli

Location: Orbiting earth Earth Date: Incalculable I awoke orbiting the Earth, with quite some velocity. I remember coating myself with my chitinous combat armour to check the exterior hull of DoS as we'd taken some damage from unknown sources, I had to evaluate the damage to the ship. I climbed out through the airlock and waked along the hull, I was just coming up to the POI when, when. [falls unconscious for approx. 2.6 seconds] Something hit me, something very powerful hit me. Knocked me off the hull. I'm memorising this down in the armour's memory storage. At my current velocity I calculate that I've made about 9 orbits since waking up