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by iKïyå§ama

Rated: ASR · Message Forum · Activity · #1188310

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Feb 20, 2026 at 2:37pm

#3789308

Re: Earn the Badge - Style - Open from 15-20 FEB 26

by Amethyst Angel ♡

Wow, am I the only person who entered

STATIC

Tools of the Trade (13+)

A young woman, a broken down minivan, and two guys working at a gas station…

#2309725 by Amethyst Angel ♡

I picked this story as being the best representative of my personal writing style because it was written entirely without an external prompt, with no intentions of entering it into a contest. It took me between two and three months to get the original written, and another six to eight months of polishing, editing, refining, deepening, and throwing it at people for advice before I considered it finished. I even spent 25k GPs on an exclusive review from Gaby

She tells everyone “you should make a novel out of this!” It's the longest single work in my portfolio at present, close to 6k words, and one of my favorites.

Tools of the Trade features some themes which have become common in my writing: a focus on humble, scruffy characters, “kitchen sink drama,” interpersonal dilemmas, close dialogue, social issues, and a thread of symbolic music running in the background, either overtly or subconsciously. I have particularly found myself writing from the first person PoV of young women in dangerous or deprived real-world situations, though I'm flexible and willing to take on any PoV at all. (Once I wrote a story from the perspective of a Dodge Charger!)

I like to spread things out, describing situations moment by moment, play-by-play, with an emphasis on action, dialogue and expression to develop character. I can slow down to describe the surroundings, atmosphere or weather, but I rarely take the time to describe the appearances of my characters unless that plays a major role in the way the story plays out (in Tools, I carefully described exactly how the three main characters look because I was working with, or hopefully subverting, stereotypes of “pale, innocent kids” and “swarthy, streetwise gangsta…”)

I've learned from longtime mentor Max Griffin how crucial openings are in stories, so I try my best to launch the action, name the protagonist, set the stage, and line up goals, stakes and obstacles within the first few paragraphs of any work. I also avoid flashbacks, as they're something he frowns on, but the one time recently I did so, people expressed admiration for the technique. He later accepted that story ("The Box" ) for publication in CrossTimbers magazine, but not until I rearranged the timeline