Hyba Is Writing

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

Teaching Literature through Unwritten Dialect Literature is a big passion of mine, and where I come from, that's not very common. I don't think it's because people here don't truly enjoy literature; far from it. I do think it's because the school system forces students to choose between sciences, maths, and languages and literature. My suspicion is that most parents don't believe that completing your studies in languages and literature is as helpful to their child's future as the sciences and maths. Naturally, students are steered away from those studies and pursuits, and life takes over from there. There are some other factors, too. Like, for example, the drop-out rate for students living in rural areas who are needed at home. But all of it points to a missed opportunity to pursue an interest in literature, even if one enjoys it. And I feel that it's not just a young audience feeling this, but older members of society who may still wish they had the cha

Free, Free Freebies Long story short: everything on my shop is now free. 💸 And I mean everything . Some offer you the option of paying what you'd like, if you're in a place where you can be supportive, but apart from that, go forth and enjoy the creative writing resources, short stories, and books to be found there! And, since I've made this decision, I've updated the shop as well. Which means there's even more to be found there than you're used to. I've gone from offering 5 paid items to offering 11 free items, with dozens more on the way!   Check it out here. 🔗 The Rationale? The decision comes after a long, long time of considering what my goals with my writing career are. There are a couple of things that I'm most interested in doing: entertaining and educating. And because I believe that education in particular is something that you shouldn't really have to pay for, I began moving in the direction of offering free creative writing worksheets a