Writing With: balani

balani is a lovely writer who can easily be considered the queen of drabbles around here. Kimi’s work mainly consists of drabbles dealing with a variety of topics, though all contain her wonderful descriptions. Two examples of this are her stories Yugto and Half Past Four.

Yugto

“I got inspired by manga and Filipino movies and decided to make a short story [which was] originally a singular drabble. I love [the main character] Aba, because she's real. A lot of female characters are outspoken but she tends to stay in the sidelines. She knows a losing battle when she sees one but it doesn't stop her admiring from afar. She's, in a way, a lot like me but at the same time, vastly different. We're both observers, but I can't keep my mouth shut like she does.”

This drabble, turned into short story, speaks about Aba and a nameless guy who she loves everything about—his hands, advice, smile, laugh, misgivings and face (cleverly, those are the titles of the chapters thus far).

“I love the fact that it's snippets of their everyday lives but you can still see the chronological order if you read it again and again. The story transitions from when Aba and the unnamed male character met, to how the male character confessed to their mutual friend Sabine, to how they began dating until (for now) they're starting to plan for their futures.”

When asked about the future of this story, Kimi says, “I planned for them to be in high-school but I think I'll just leave it up for the reader to interpret what age they are. In the future, I'm writing about the different point of views of the three characters but set in different times. It's a companion piece to Yugto, also following its timeline, but it's told from three perspectives.”

Half Past Four

“I got into a huge slump that started when my grandmother died in 2013 until mid-2015. I couldn't write anything that I liked but I felt like I needed to let all of the emotional turmoil that I was feeling in between these years. Half Past Four came to mind when I started sleeping late while I was staying with my father in the US. When I finished the piece after, more or less, 2 weeks, I finally felt the courage to write again because in that story, I got to release whatever issues I had and continue writing.”

This drabble is longer than most of Kimi’s ones, which often have a perfect word count of 100. The story depicts a situation that most can relate to: those dreadful sleepless nights when you think about existence and your life.

“I've tried to describe what a sleepless night was, based on my experiences. While writing the story, I envisioned the main character as myself (hence the usage of "she") during my rough times. After finishing the story and re-reading it once or twice (maybe a couple of hundred times) though, I realized that the main character is anyone who has felt the same thing as I have felt before.”

Regarding writing, Kimi has multiple different approaches to go about it. “I tend to write better when I'm writing bittersweet romantic stories because I am completely shy and tend to have many unrequited crushes [nervous laugh]. Also, I'm really serious about repeated editing because no one can understand your story better than yourself. Other people can help with proofreading, etc. but they can't help with how you can convey your emotions through writing. Lastly, taking a break between writing is great. You can watch TV or a movie and get ideas from there.”

Kimi has five years of Mibba experience under her belt. “I'm the kind that disappears sometimes, [but] you can never truly let it go. Just take a look at the influx of old members coming back! It's such a great community. I usually go on Mibba to do staffly duties. But there are times when I drop by the blog section and stalk Mibbians there.”

She may have stalked you many times before through your blog entries and a suggestion to balance both sides of the scales is to stalk her back, starting with the two lovely stories discussed. Kimi’s unique writing style and elaborate, vivid descriptions will not disappoint you. From then onward, you’ll begin doing a lot more stalking on her stories than originally planned.

Special thanks to cleopatra. and silent hearts. for editing!