Hyba Is Writing

Here's a little exercise I decided to do today. While perusing open calls for submission and game jams, I found myself thinking, if I was in a perfect state right now, I'd go for this, and this, and this one, and this...  Well, alright then. Sure, if I was functioning at 100%, I'd do all of the cool things I found. Given my health issues and other obstacles, it's all way too much. Still, it kept nagging at my brain: In a perfect world, I could... I could...  I decided I can make a list of all the things I'm interested in going for, and just seeing how much of them I get to do. If it's none of them, then that's that. It's ambitious to even get one of them done. If I can, by some miracle, do more than one? Amazing! (But I'm not gonna hold my breath!) Go ahead and give it a try. Do this exercise: In a perfect world, if you were in perfect condition and there was nothing else getting in the way, what would you try to go for this month, or in the next few

At some point he grew up, and realized that the love he had become so accustomed to receiving from the people in his life had become measured, restricted to short hugs on celebrations and little kisses after time apart. Affection was rationed, and he'd become hungry - greedy - for it. When he became ill, there was no comforting presence in his life, no Mom to bring him hot tea and take his temperature and boost his morale with chocolates. No Dad to lean his head against while they watched cartoons. Just him, alone, in an apartment that was too small for living, but enough, he guessed, for surviving. He lay there in his bed, burning up with a fever that would, at some point, break, and wondered what might happen if he didn't call anyone. If he didn't tell them. Would anyone notice? Would there be someone to say, "Hey, we haven't heard from Luke in a while. Maybe we should check in on him..."? Probably not. It's only been a day, after all. The ceiling above

How About We Don't Fake A Death? and other fun editing questions The second third round of edits for Murder in Heliopolis is well on its way to being finished, and with it, I find myself honing in on a set of decisions that are transforming the book for the better.  (By the way - you can read the original first draft right here . Enjoy! ...Sorry about that ending. I'm fixing it!)  After months away from both the book and writing, I came back to the manuscript with a fresh pair of eyes. I tried to be brutal in my edits. I wasn't pulling any punches. At the end of the day, I want the best for my story, and that means getting over the fact that editing is hard work on a number of levels. Sure, there's the whole emotional element - I love what I wrote, but it's just not working, etc., etc. - but there's also the actual mechanics and stages of editing. When you're editing a book and you're changing up scenes, plot points, and even worldbuilding elements, th

Using Characters to Create Mood and Atmosphere in Your Story Usually, when we talk about setting the mood or atmosphere in a scene, we tend to focus on description and adjectives. However, there is a different way to go about this. You can also use your character's reactions, dialogue, and internal monologue to help you set the mood or atmosphere of a certain setting or scene in your story. I should note that this works very well when used in addition to description and adjectives. That being said, this creates another layer of atmosphere to your storytelling that will ensure that your reader is immersed in the world you have created.   What this essentially means is leaning into the character's senses: what they're feeling when they enter a space or a situation. For example, imagine you've just come home after a long day at work. How do you feel entering your space? You probably feel relieved, relaxed, and calm. You feel safe. Now, imagine you come home and there are v

Character Development: Conflict Avoidance to Confrontation Upon observing some ( highly ) conflict-avoidant people in recent months, I realized a few things, the most important of which is the toll that it takes on a person when they simply cannot confront others for fear of conflict.  There's an emotional toll: the anger is bottled up inside, grows, and is let out in ways it shouldn't be (most of the time at targets that had nothing to do with the original issue). This alone is unhealthy for your mind and mood - bottled up emotions can and will emerge in the most unexpected ways. There's a psychological toll: there's this internalized idea that "I can't do anything right - I can't even stand up for myself", which leads to self-loathing, and there's the other, external-facing idea that probably goes something like: "People are rotten, and they're terrible, and I'm doomed to share a world with these careless, destructive, ill-mannered p

Horror Storytelling Course Slated for March 2025 Release I'm excited to announce that the publication date for the horror storytelling course that I have been working on for a couple of years now has been decided!  You can expect to find this course on my Payhip in March 2025.    If you're interested in learning more about horror literature, horror story writing, and horror storytelling in general (and in depth), this is the course for you.    Keep an eye out over the coming weeks to learn more about the content, structure, and resources that you will find in the course.  💭 One a more personal note (which is related, I promise): I'm coming off from a months-long case of what has - this time around - been diagnosed as ulnar neuropathy. Thankfully, it's not as bad as last year's, but it still has me pretty much out from the count when it comes to writing. Even as I write this, I pause and spread out my fingers and watch the ulnar drift in action, moving my fingers wi