profile

I’m Kat! Professional Storyteller & Neurodivergent Creative

Here to help you vanquish those story construction obstacles, slay that imposter syndrome clawing at the back of your brain & stomp boredom flat with heart-pounding Boys Love fiction. Join the Saga and choose your inbox obsession, whether it’s helpful advice to get your writing unstuck or an episode of my weekly Boys Love Fantasy series to devour during your coffee break.

‘Whether we exist in real life—or merely on the page—we’re all a sum of our memories and the things we’ve experienced in our lives.’ — Kat Vancil, “Give me that tragic backstory baby”, The Storytellers Saga
Featured Post

Give me that tragic backstory baby

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 25 Well hello there, Reader! Today we’re talking about tragic backstories. Click to watch the full Reel You know those things that are common in D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) and pretty much every other role-playing game. I guess because happy well-adjusted people aren’t thrill-seeking adventurers? The backstory is usually some page-long saga the player hands over to the GM (game master) and then info dumps to the rest of the party at a tavern in the first...

11 months ago • 4 min read

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 54 I’m curious, Reader, do you write every day? I didn’t used to. I used to be like a lot of new, fresh-faced aspiring storytellers out there and would wait to put fingers to keys until inspiration struck me. I’d also carry around a pretty little notebook too, “just in case” the Goddess of Storytelling decided to bop me on the head while I was out and about. But… You want to know the awful truth, Reader? When you wait for the Muse of Inspiration, she...

7 days ago • 3 min read

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 53 She came up to me in the chaos of screaming children and said, “You right stories, right? She said you write stories.” “Yes…I do,” I answered cautiously. Because I didn’t know this woman at all. Cautiously. Because I was sitting in the middle of my nieces’ 3rd birthday party wearing velveteen mouse ears while a live-action version of Encanto played in the background. And I happen to write 16+ Boy + Boy Romance. Definitely not for pre-K. “Oh, awesome....

15 days ago • 3 min read

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 52 Well hello there, Reader, Just the other week it was National Fairytale Day, which got me thinking about my own WIP, This Fair City. But more so, how you can’t take a step in the Fiction section of any bookstore or library without your gaze landing on a fairy tale retelling. You’ve got Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses, Marissa Meyer’s Cinder, and who can forget Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted. I mean, it was a Newbery Honor book and a...

21 days ago • 3 min read

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 51 It was probably the worst week of my life, Reader. Just a simple mistake. One of my fellow dance classmates stepped backward out of our final formation and put her heel squarely onto my foot with all her weight. It hurt a lot, but I thought it would get better. Long story short, it didn’t. Just a little bump on the road. My husband wasn’t even going that fast. But my car was already 14 years old and had seen better days. Yep, totaled. Goodbye,...

28 days ago • 3 min read

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 50 Well hello there, Reader! Do you ever get to the end of the week and you’re just tired? So tired that all your bright and shiny plans for Sunday just go right out the window? So tired that you can’t even bring yourself to change out of your PJs despite the fact it’s long past noon? I was that kind of tired this past Sunday, Reader. It probably didn’t help that I was woken up way too early by our neighbor’s “valiant” attempt to train their dog not to...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read
‘Romance is about two people seeing the world their own way, with their own shards of glass wedged deep into their hearts, that by the last page end up completing one another.’ — Kat Vancil, “Looking to write that love story this Palentine’s Day?”, The St

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 49 Well hello there, Reader! Have you got a special someone on this 💝 filled day? Did they get you something sweet? In the days leading up to VDay, sales of chocolates and flowers have been massive. But what about… Books? Yep, you heard me correctly. Over 2.2 billion books are sold each year worldwide. And of those billions, 25% were Romance books. That number jumps to 40% if you’re just counting books within genre fiction. Crazy right? And that’s only...

about 1 month ago • 4 min read
‘That whole New Year. New You. And it MUST start exactly on JAN 1st or you’re a capital F Failure is complete bullshit.’ — Kat Vancil, “So…did your 2023 go exactly as planned?”, The Storytellers Saga

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 48 Well hello there, Reader, So…did your 2023 go exactly as planned? We’re 10 days into 2024 and has yours already gone off the rails? Yep, mine too. 😬 I completely feel you on that one. My 2023 ended with a rattling death cough of “Well, I guess I’m not going to be accomplishing that this year.” And the first week of 2024 was entirely a wash, because I’ve been sick for going on 3 weeks now. But am I ready to throw in the towel for 2024 and take up day...

3 months ago • 4 min read
‘Now if I could grant you anything this holiday… It’s the confidence to sing as boldly as a 5-year-old who is 100% certain that “broccoli” is a game reindeer play.’ — Kat Vancil, “…Join in any reindeer games. Like Broccoli!”, The Storytellers Saga

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 47 🎶 “They never let poor Rudolph Join in any reindeer games. Like Broccoli!” 🎶 When I was 5, Reader, I learned the extended edition of “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” by heart just from hearing it sung. I was so very proud of myself I performed it for my grandma for Christmas when I saw her. Look at me in my little holiday dress aren’t I adorbs? You see, in the lead-up to Christmas, they had been playing the stop-motion classic of Rudolph on TV and I...

3 months ago • 3 min read
‘When a task seems too overwhelming, just break it into a piece that seems achievable to you.’ — Kat Vancil, “50K in 30 days baby”, The Storytellers Saga

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 46 A month ago past, there was a valiant storyteller who set out on a quest to pen 50,000 words in a month. She knew it was an arduous and daunting task but she armed herself with the infinite knowledges of the digital tomes and the strength of her imagination. Her journey was grand and the words flowed like glittering threads, weaving a fine tapestry of people and places into existence. But soon the Chasm of Doubt opened up and she was mired in the...

4 months ago • 3 min read
‘We’re not climbing Everest. You don’t have to reach the summit to have accomplished something worth celebrating.’ — Kat Vancil, “50K words Maybe I’ll just try next year”, The Storytellers Saga

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 45 Over the last week, I’ve seen it more times than I can count, Reader. Dozens upon dozens of fellow Threaders saying mostly the same thing. "50K words 😬 I don’t know if I can do it. Maybe I’ll just try next year." Or "It’s already 3/5/7 days in… It’s too late. I’ll never catch up. 😭 " But really, when you get right down and think about it, isn’t that the same as saying: "Well if it’s not going to be a NY Times Best Seller, should I even bother writing...

5 months ago • 3 min read
Share this page