Hyba Is Writing

The Falcon's Claw: On Outlining & Planning My Fantasy Story I'm not very big on planning stories. Usually, I start writing, then, as I write, I form an idea of where I want the story to go - a sort of vague vision. When I first seriously started approaching my writing, I tried planning things out. My biggest pet peeves with the process of planning and outlining my stories are that: It seeps all the motivation and desire to write the project right out of me. There's something about outlining that makes me feel like now that I've completed the outline, I don't want to continue and actually write the story. When I get writing, I usually end up straying for the outline I've just spend hours working on - often within the first chapter. And then it's back to the drawing board! Overall, outlining hasn't been the most pleasant experience for me. I'll admit that it might be because I've been doing it wrong, so I haven't completely given up on it.

101 Writing Prompts: A Digital Workbook - Launch Announcement 🎉 My latest non-fiction project, a digital workbook called 101 Writing Prompts , will be released April 1, 2021!  As the name suggests, the workbook centers around 101 writing prompts that writers can draw inspiration from and use to improve their writing skills. Features include: 100% paperless. The book is only available as a PDF, and writers can write their stories directly in the book itself - no need for notebooks or papers. All stories can be saved directly to your workbook, so don't worry about losing any of your work! Simple design with bright colours. The workbook is designed to keep you focused and engaged, so there are no distractions on the pages. The bright colours of the pages serve to keep your brain stimulated. Tracking prompts completed. Each prompt page also includes a Completed box, originally made for writing down the date that you completed that prompt. But you can also use it to enter whatever

The Pirates of Sissa - March 2021 Writing Update As some of you might know, my plan is to finish The Pirates of Sissa by the end of 2021. We're three months into this year, and I'll admit that I haven't been working on it as much as I should have. It's funny that it took me most of March to get back to writing, so that I only really started working on the book again about a week ago, if that. Still, I am proud of my progress so far, especially as I'm at a part of the story where I... didn't have much of a plan going into it. It just serves to connect two larger parts of the story. We'll see how that works out. When I started writing again this year - which didn't actually happen until February, since January was a busy month for me academically - I was at 82,278 words. Today, as I write this, I am at 97,108 words, and counting. That's over 10k words that I've written for it this year, but if I'm being honest with myself, I think I could hav

 Character Backstories Vol. 2 - Kutsila & Valorius   Today's character backstories volume is all about two very ambitious people - though perhaps ambitious to their own detriment. Out of my pencil case I have pulled two slips of paper. Scrawled upon them in my quick handwriting are the names: Kutsila Piso ( The Pirates of Sissa ) General Valorius ( The Return of the Exiled )   💬   💬   💬  Kutsila Piso ( The Pirates of Sissa ) Kutsila is a character who plays a very important role, especially towards the beginning of the book. It is her actions that set everything onto a very particular path. However, much of her story takes place off-page, and off-book, since the events that have shaped who she is have already happened by the time we meet her. Kutsila's father was a soldier in the Sissan army who had been dismissed several years before he was finally forced to flee the empire with his wife. The waves of forced (and often violent) expulsions that the Qorsan faced in the ha

Literary Commentary: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Chapter 1 In which I review the book, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, as I re-read it. Recently, I’ve been in a bit of a Rebecca mood. I don’t know – I just felt like watching the movies, reading the book, and having a satisfying chat with someone about it. I suppose I’ve already started – yesterday I shared a blog post where I wrote some thoughts that I had about the 1940 and 1997 screen adaptations. But today’s a book day, and I’m excited to get reading!   I’m going to start with Chapter One, and as I make any observations or notice interesting points, I’ll jot them down in bullet points below. I’ll probably end up having to go through and cutting out a great deal, but such is the life of a writer, in any case. Here we go.    🔖   “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” The iconic first line! For those who have read this book before, this line just completely sets the mood for t

Rebecca : 1940/1997 Movie Reviews I don't think it's any secret that I'm a big fan of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca . It's strange, because I'm not usually a fan of descriptive pieces, and Rebecca features a lot of description. Somehow, though, du Maurier manages to keep me hooked, page after page, knowing what will come but still wanting to relive the experience. I confess: were it not for YouTube, I don't know if I would have been able to watch either the 1940 or the 1997 versions of the movie adaptations all those years ago. Recently, I found a particularly interesting video that does a side-by-side comparison of the two adaptations, and really enjoyed seeing them held up to one another like that: Honestly, I enjoyed both versions, but while I was perusing the comments section of this video, as one does, I noticed the vast majority of people expressing their love for the 1940 Hitchcock film. The 1997 version, it seems, is quite unpopular. I'd read such

 the dentist 🔗

The Pirates of Sissa - Podcast Episode Reruns in Preparation for Season 2! 📻 As you probably know by now, the second season of my podcast is going to be all about my upcoming high fantasy novel The Pirates of Sissa . The entire season is going to be jam-packed with fun facts, creative content, and behind-the-scene looks at everything related to The Pirates of Sissa !  The all-new season launches on April 1, 2021, but if you just can't wait to get into the story and learn about it, you can take a look at these episodes from Season 1. (All the links will take you to Anchor, but the podcast is also available on various other podcasting platforms .) EP02: Introducing The Pirates of Sissa EP14: JTQ - A Walk Through The Black Desert EP18: JTQ - To The Karvansaray Happy listening, and I'll be speaking to you all again over on whichever platform you prefer to listen to podcasts on! To keep up with the latest updates and new, as well as get access to subscriber-exclusive content and de

 Character Backstories: Vol. 1 Today I wrote down a list of character names - all the characters that I could remember off the top of my head and that I was comfortable sharing information about publicly. Some of the characters' stories give away their importance in the books, and I don't want to ruin some pivotal revelations for readers. What did I do with that list? I grabbed a pair of scissors and cut out all the names, folded the pieces of paper, and threw them all into an old and empty pencil case. A little shaking ensued, after which I pulled out two random slips of folded papers and revealed the names of two characters whose character backstories I will be sharing with you today.  These two characters are: Governor* Ruda Orumweld ( The Pirates of Sissa ) Governor* Bor Rammal ( The Pirates of Sissa ) Both of these characters are, in fact, high-ranking government officials in the Sissan Empire, though the two of them are very different men with very different backgrounds.

 Hyba Is Writing: The Podcast - Season 2 Has Arrived! After a few months' break, the podcast is finally returning for Season 2! This time around, it's going to feature a new format and a new theme that will allow me to retain the original purpose of this podcast, which was to chronicle my journey and experiences as an author. Make sure to tune in April 1, 2021 for the first episode of Season 2! Remember that the HIW Podcast is available in 9 platforms, all linked here . Season 2 is going to focus on The Pirates of Sissa . You can learn more about this book in the following places: The Book's Website Page - read the book's blurb and check out some of the special content I've already made for it 'The Pirates of Sissa' Blog Label - check out all the posts that I've tagged with the book's label Season 1 of my podcast has a few episodes that are dedicated to or directly related to The Pirates of Sissa , so check those out as well!  I will continue rele

The Most Fulfilling Character to Write This post is a copy of a response I gave to an ask that I received on my Tumblr. The question was: Q: What character has been the most personally fulfilling to write for you and why? I think the most fulfilling character to write for me these days has been Vadra from The Pirates of Sissa . It’s a weird choice, I think, because he’s definitely not a Good Guy character, but I think that’s why I enjoy writing him so much.    Vadra has committed so many crimes in the name of justice and righteousness. He’s got a lot of blood on his hands, and he’s been so blinded by his hatred that he has allowed those emotions to rule him when it comes to the Qorsan in general. When he meets Sahra and is forced to work with her to carry out a peace process, he starts to learn more about them through her, and begins to understand that from their point of view, he’s as evil as they come -- and worse, they might not be wrong.  I don’t sugar-coat what he’s done to Sahra’

EP26: On Procrastination & New Projects - Our Last End-of-Year Lesson - TRANSCRIPT Hi! You're listening to Hyba is Writing, and I am your host, Hyba. Last episode, we discussed one of my lessons learned in 2020. In this episode, we'll be discussing another lesson learned, and this is actually going to be our last episode of the season, I think, which means that with this end-of-year lesson, we'll be wrapping up both 2020 and the first season of this podcast! It has been a great experience, and I'm glad that I've been able to share so much this year, not only with my podcast, but also with my blog and my writing that I have shared on my website. If you haven't seen them already, there are a few short stories on there that you can read for free, so please give them a read, and if you feel so inclined, leave me a comment or message telling me what you think. This episode is going to focus on yet another lesson that I learned this year, this time to do with pro

 Digital Twin Technology in Neon Vape - VR Applications Last time, I shared (quite randomly) a bit about gaming glasses and gaming addiction in the world of Neon Vape: A Vaporwave Odyssey. I then learned about the idea of digital twins, and my brain started firing away at all the different kinds of applications that can have in the world of Neon Vape!  Neon Vape: A Vaporwave Odyssey is a science-fiction novel about a woman who gets stuck inside a virtual reality game called Neon Vape and must escape before her body shuts down. First of all: what are digital twins?  I've done a bit of brief research on the topic, so I'm not an expert, but the gist that I'm getting is this. A digital twin is essentially when you model something digitally in order to run tests on it and see how changes can affect it.  For example, you could create a digital twin of a building and use that to run tests to show you how construction changes would affect the structural stability of the building a

 First Edit of French Translation for "The Legend of the Sleeping Massacre" is Complete! 👏   Just heard back from my talented French translation editor for The Legend of the Sleeping Massacre! 🥳Super thankful for their feedback & amazing editing suggestions - really making the story read so much better in French! 😄 Now, just one more check, then publication! 👍🏼 pic.twitter.com/aVo8l75cYQ — Hyba Is Writing (@HybaIsWriting) March 6, 2021 One GIANT step closer to having The Legend of the Sleeping Massacre out in its French translation!! What a way to end my week! A HUGE thanks to my good friend and French editor for taking the time to check my French skills! As you might already know from previous blog posts, my main goal is getting all my short stories translated into Arabic, Spanish, and French - and I just so happened to start with French on a whim one night, so here I am. This has been a great experience in preparation for tackling bigger projects, like trans

The Falcon's Claw - A Serialized Fantasy Book Side Project A while back I mentioned on social media that I was working on two new projects in addition to my already impossible backlog of over 30 projects. Why do I do this to myself? Because I have too many ideas buzzing around in my head, and I need to get them down on paper - and because I'm a perfectionist, so whatever I start, I have to make as good as it possibly can become. That sometimes means that I take an idea that's meant to be short and turn it into something much, much bigger.  For my February writing challenge, I wanted to write one story for every day of February - or at the very least, one snippet. It started out strong! I wrote three stories in 3 days. Then the fourth day... the story didn't turn out how I wanted it, so I scrapped it after taking a long time trying to figure out how to make it work. And that same story gave me a couple other ideas - a bit more long-form, granted, but both something that

My Goodreads blog is now up and running! I signed up as an author a while back on Goodreads in order to place my self-published magical realism novella, Apartment , on the platform.  Today, I created my blog on Goodreads , adding to it the feed from this blog, so that readers who prefer to follow me on Goodreads can find all the content of this blog cross-posted on my blog over there from now on. Hoping to see some of you over on Goodreads! If you haven't read Apartment yet, you can find it here !

Gaming Glasses to Eliminate Eye Strain - Buy Them Now! A small note for those of you who are new to Neon Vape: A Vaporwave Odyssey - The book features a lot of advertising-themed elements both within and in its promotional content. It's a comment on aggressive marketing, perhaps. I'm not actually telling you to go out and buy yourself gaming glasses right this moment. 😎   The world of Neon Vape: A Vaporwave Odyssey is all about virtual reality, but it's also all about gaming and virtual experiences in general. As one can tell right away in the story, games are a big deal in Ramona's society, and as a result, many tech companies have created solutions to handle or offset the negative impacts of gaming for too long. Gaming glasses are one such way.  Gaming glasses in Neon Vape aren't shiny new things (neither are they in our world), but rather gaming essentials. They come with gaming consoles and are included in the package you purchase. Of course, they vary great