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.
Wanna see my shelf of Floridian contraband? 🚫
A glamorous newscaster stands before the camera crew, microphone in hand. “Tonight we’re coming to you live from Yourtown, America, where it’s Banned Book Week, and the number one thing on everyone’s mind—is your book banned?” She holds the microphone out toward the camera which swings around to reveal a startled author. “Um…no.” The camera crew pans back to the newscaster. “But would it be, if they knew what was in it?” The author’s gaze darts nervously to the sides. “Oh definitely. For sure.” Maybe it seems comical and farfetched, Reader, but it’s happening in towns and cities all across the US today. More and more books are being banned each week for the dumbest of reasons. Which is shocking, given that I live in a country that prides itself on granting its citizens the freedom of speech above all things. Fortunately, I’m lucky enough to live in a state where the act of banning books is illegal. (Can I get a round of applause for California?) Sadly, most are not so lucky, Reader. ‘Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.’ — Voltaire But let’s be real here, it’s not that big a leap to go from the banning of books to the burning of them. Anyone who’s even skimmed history could tell you that. And as I sit here looking at my shelf of Floridian contraband, I begin to wonder, will my books be banned next? Will my books be ripped from the hands of a teen reader? Will they be called dirty? Erotic? A sex crime? Will they be thrown in a dumpster as a performative political stunt? Will they be burned? It might seem like a dystopian nightmare that only belongs in the pages of Fahrenheit 451, but the terrifying truth is we’re nearly there now. But there’s still time to fix things. To rise up and demand change. To say, I want to live in a world with diverse voices. Where representation matters. And where history isn’t rewritten with lies. And where books aren’t banned. Your cohort in storytelling, Kat Vancil 🐱 PS 👉 National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is right around the corner and so I’m going to be releasing an Outline in an Hour workshop in the next 2 weeks. This workshop will be exactly what you need to go from “What do I write?” to a flexible outline roadmap on November 1st.
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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.
KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 76 Oh boy, Reader, has NaNoWriMo really stepped in it this time. 😬 Maybe you heard what went down last week or maybe you didn’t. And maybe you know or maybe you don’t, but I started my writing career with NaNoWriMo. Yep. It was 14 years ago, back in 2010. When I started writing what would go on to become my first novel Daemons in the Mist. And since then, I’ve participated in more than a dozen NaNo events. However, despite the good they’ve done for the...
KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 75 Whether your project isn’t exactly going well. Or you’re not putting in 100% effort at work because your cat just died. Or you’ve spent the last 8 months living with an overwhelming sense of dread that this conversation with your mom might be the last you’ll ever have with her because she's just that sick. Know this, Reader, it's perfectly okay not to be perfect. In fact, we should take the whole concept of perfectionism, crumple it up into a ball,...
KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 74 “What’s this here?” my husband asks. He’s been editing one of my upcoming stories for me. “What’s what where?” “This asterisk next to a misspelling of ‘guard.’” “Oh, that. That’s a placeholder.” “A…placeholder?” “Yeah for a character that didn’t have a name yet. Of course, Find/Replace doesn’t work if you misspell shit.” I sigh. Guard/Guardian. One of those words I mistype like, half the time. But my use of placeholders is the much bigger story here...