Featured Story of the Week: The Key Chased the Blade

The Key Chased the Blade, rated PG-13, is an excellent original fiction by Human Shapeshifter. In this story, best friends Noah and Simon struggle to find the culprit behind a series of murders in their town. This story's interesting plot and compelling air of mystery make it this week's featured story. When I asked Human Shapeshifter questions about this unique story, she was more than happy to answer them!

How did you choose the title 'The Key Chased the Blade'?

I'm actually terrible with titles, so I used a random title generator I found on Google to help me with this. This was during the beginning process of writing this story before I posted it so I didn't write too much of the story before I found the title. "The Key Chased the Blade" originally had nothing to do with the subject at all. Now, I have a whole plan to ease the title in with it (which has been written, just not posted fully yet), and it kind has been foreshadowed a bit in earlier chapters.

What inspired you to write this story?

I decided to join this contest a while back and it spurred some ideas with me. A few months before, I'd attempted to join a different contest, but I was so busy I had to drop out before I got a single chapter written. When I joined the Paranormal/Fantasy/Supernatural contest when I had more time, I just started off with the barely written beginning from the old one. I hadn't gotten far into it; I just introduced my main characters Simon and Noah.

Anyway, the topic of the contest was to write a story with a paranormal creature in it, so I chose a banshee. I'd never written a story about one and I took a shot and gave it a try. I bounced a few ideas off of my brother to help me out (he suggest some psychological thriller/murder mystery and gave me a ton of ideas; some of which I rejected and others I kept. He gave me the name Simon) and that spawned off a lot of what is written now.

How long have you been working on it?

Four months, actually. I'd go through periods of writer's block and periods where I focused entirely on marching band season, and sometimes I'd go back and rewrite scenes and edit small little blurbs. I feel like I should've written a lot more in that time, ha ha.

On average, how much time do you spend writing it each week?

Two or three days out of the week. At times I get stuck at a certain part and I have to look away from it for a while. Sometimes I went for weeks without touching it. I'm always writing though, just not always this story. When I do write it, however, I just go on a mass dump of ideas that I sort out later. I have many more chapters written that I haven't even posted yet that I need to look over before putting it up. They're very rough and I usually like to tidy them up before showing them to people.

What kind of planning did you do before hand?

I researched a lot of banshee myths. I also researched a lot on the law (to help me with writing animal abuse crime), stab wounds and what people would do, and I also drew from a lot of my own experiences, but these were mainly during the writing the story. I didn't actually do a lot of planning beforehand besides some brief brainstorming.

What is your favorite thing about writing The Key Chased the Blade?

Trying out the new style. I hadn't ever written like this before, and the tone and language that Noah uses I haven't previously used in another story. My brother challenged me to write about things that make me uncomfortable, so I did use the slur "Jesus Christ" and "God" a lot in the story (humorously and seriously). I'm a Christian, so I don't use those words often. (Except when I burn my hand on a stove or drop a hundred pound weight on the ground.)

What is the most challenging thing about writing it?

Keeping up with it. I'm kind of scatterbrained and I can't focus on one object at one time, and I get blocked often. With the tough classes I have now in school, I'm often swamped with homework, section leader duties in marching band, and other responsibilities. And usually when I have time I have a writing block on this story.

Have you ever experienced writer's block with The Key Chased the Blade? If so, how did you overcome it?

Yes! So many times. I usually get over it by not looking at it for a while and writing in a different story. After a couple days I just look at it again and I usually get an idea to start off of. Sometimes I just busy myself with editing the previous chapters some more to get the tone back in my head and to make sure everything makes sense.

Actually, at one point when I had a block after going on a writing splurge I just had to get up and do some exercises. I'd been sitting on the computer for hours on end and my mind was shutting down, so I got up and grabbed some weights and did some bicep curls and other things to jog my mind.

Do you write with an outline, or just wing it?

Wing it, baby. My best ideas (and worst ideas) come out by improvising. Most of the time I hardly even know what's going to happen next. Usually when Noah finds something out it's at the exact same time I find it out as well.

Do you have any pre/post writing rituals?

Nah, not really. I mean, I guess I could say that I have to write on a certain implement for a particular story. When I'm writing "The Key Chased the Blade", I have to write it on a laptop using Mibba's drafts, and other stories I have to write on paper or on my iPod notes. It bothers me way too much to have half a story on one thing and half of it on another.

Is there anything you would like to say to your readers?

I guess I have to say to try to read with an open mind. Not just my story, but others as well. Some people are beginning writers and some aren't, and each of us has our own different styles and levels of experience. Oh, and be aware of bias, whether it's the character's or the author's.

But the big thing is to not give up writing! I have to say there has been so many times where I want to curl up in a ball and rip up/delete all that I have written because it burns my eyes to look at it. You're your own worst critic. Half the time people don't even notice the mistakes you've made. (At least that's how it goes for me. Sometimes I find typos that no one pointed out to me before. Or maybe it's because they just didn't want to take the time to tell me, but whatever.)

Special thanks to whomping willow. and bella heart shawnee for editing!