Tired Feet Before Big Feelings
October 22, 2026
When I write a scene, I start with the body. Not the plot, not the mood. The body.
Where does it hurt? What's it been eating? Is the boot wet? I ask these things before I ask what the character wants, because a person who's walked nine hours doesn't want what a rested person wants. She wants a chair. Everything else waits in line behind the chair.
It took me a while to notice I did this. A draft would stall, and I'd go hunting for the problem in the dialogue. Then I'd add one line, a swordsman rolling a stiff shoulder before he reaches for a blade, and the whole page would loosen. The feeling had somewhere to live.
It's also a cheat, and I'll admit it. Readers trust a sore hip faster than they trust a declaration. You can tell me a bard is lonely and I'll nod politely. Show me her thumb working a crack in a lute peg because her hands need something to do, and I'll believe it before the sentence is over.
So Dhaelen's old steel has nicks along the edge, and the leather on the grip is dark from years of the same palm. Hadna's fingertips are rough. Inns smell of wet wool. The bread is either wonderful or a punishment, and nobody apologizes for either. None of that is decoration. It's how I know who these people are when nobody's talking.
The big feelings still arrive. I just make them wait their turn. A grief lands harder on someone who's already tired, and a laugh lands harder on someone who's cold. I've never once regretted letting a character eat first.
There's a practical side, too. When I'm stuck, I sit down and list what the scene smells like. Smoke, tallow, horse. Usually by the third smell the next line has turned up, wanting to be written.
I've been living in this habit for a long while now, and it carries into Book 2, The Ember and the Thread, which is coming soon. The road is still long. The boots are still wet.
What detail makes you believe a character? A scar, a limp, a way of holding a cup? I'd love to hear yours.
Whispers of the Wyrm, Book One of The Bard and the Blade Saga.