IS YOUR MC HAVING TROUBLE WITH SPELLING?

MAY IS HOSTED BY WRITING TIPS BY WRITERS, Hand in Hand, DONALD MAASS'  TWEETS ON CREATING THE PERFECT NOVEL ;)  and SECTIONS INSPIRED BY THESE:

Ekaterina Sedia
So, of course, today's post turned out to be long ;)

DONALD MAASS WRITE TIP #95

Who in your story has been cast under a spell?  What locks that spell in place, never to be broken?  Break it.

“Don’t be foolish, my beautiful girl. I am magic. Magic doesn’t shoot out of the end of my fingers. I can't help myself," Tauran said with a shrug. “The more surface I show – the less I have to wonder if my magic is working. I am my will.”

“So, that’s your answer? Getting naked is the answer?”

“I am all power,” he said. He raised an eyebrow as he rolled up his sleeve. “I’m thinking dull thoughts like road kills and supermarket queues. Can you see the power shimmer? I’m really trying to slow things down.”

Incredibly, she could see. Like heat on a road, the rising power charged the air around him – it played havoc with the light. “Oh!”

“I can’t help it,” he said with a grin. “Some people have to work at their talents. But, the goddess surely gifted me.”

Lyna shook her head, something she wasn’t listening to, or looking at, was important.

“Lyna? What is it? Focus. Am I too turned up full for you?”

            “No. You’re not. This is crazy. Evil.”

He stiffened. “Nothing about magic is evil.”

“How you use it is,” she said, gasping as she realised how many times she’d witnessed Tauran going to work. He pushed up his sleeves to get down to business. Her stomach twisted. He opened a button at the neck of his shirt every time she entered a room. She’d thought it was because her presence disturbed his fastidious, buttoned-down nature. How wrong could she have been? He manipulated her, and he thought nothing of it. Hell, he might not even be aware he was doing it.

“Come on,” Tauran said. “It’s no worry. I love you. If I keep loving you, I know you’ll learn to love me too.”

She smiled, but it was a sad cold thing. “I won’t. Can’t.”

“Lyna,” he crooned as he closed the distance between them. “I know you’ll learn to love me.”

She shook her head. It was true she’d thought she liked him. Now she realised she’d liked how he made her feel. But, he was more magic that man so how could she know what was real and what was manipulation?

As if he sensed her hesitation – which he probably did - Tauran laughed.

It could have been magically enhanced, but he sounded so happy. Probably not for much longer. Her heart ached. It hurt her to think about hurting him.  What was that about? A shudder ran through her. Really, surrendering to this glorious kind of love would be too easy.

“I can’t trust myself,” she admitted aloud, but she really hoped she could. Hope. That was a kind of magic too. She had to find a way to resist his formidable power. After a life-time of neglect, it was time to knock the dust off a little faith. Somewhere inside, alongside the belief that she had the ability to be heard, were the words her NannaJan had told her she was going to need, one day.

But Tauran’s hands were on her neck, running up into her short-cropped hair. He cradled her head. With only the slightest of pressure he angled her ready for his kiss.

Lyna shuddered. The eyes that filled the sky above her were bright. His smile was triumphant, as he lowered his head towards her.

Teeth and tongue, his mouth was open. The scent of him made her head swim. Oh, no. If Tauran opened his mouth on hers, if she tasted him, she knew she would be lost. Forever.

“Lyna?” he whispered. “Say, Yes.”

She pulled her head back, her neck aching, her head full of sound. His voice rang with a bell-like tone.

“No.”

“No?” The fingers on the back of her head became a cage. “Don’t say, No. You can’t mean, No.”

The words filled her mouth. They echoed back from her aching heart. “Rush like wind. Flow like water. Burn like fire. Settle like earth. Elemental Being, I say be gone.” And then, as she blinked, he vanished.

DO YOU HAVE A CHARACTER WHO HAS TROUBLE WITH SPELLING?

 CAN IT BE BROKEN?