Navigating First-Person Narration and Character Authenticity | 3min snip from The Shit No One Tells You About Writing

La Pequaya is said to be a woman who appears to fishermen along the coast. She is described as young and beautiful, but her hair is covered in wet kelp. And the locals consider her to be an omen, although the outcome depends on the circumstances. If she appears facing the sea, your fishing nets will overflow. If she's facing you though, those nets will be empty. And in the rare instances when she appears right in front of a person, legend says it is best to close your eyes and run as fast as you can, lest she seduce you and lead you down into the sea. And one more legend is that of the Basilisk, a creature that appears elsewhere around the globe. In Chilouye though, the Basilisk is more than just an enormous snake. Here, it also has the head of a rooster, and hatches from an egg. Some stories tell of how the Basilisk will nest beneath a person's house. During the night, it will slither out and suck the air from the lungs of the people sleeping inside. For as frightening as some of these creatures and stories might be though, none of them compares to the legends of the Bruho they chilouye, the warlocks of the island. They have struck fear into the hearts of the locals for centuries. They have shaped many aspects of their culture. They have been blamed for tragedy, for loss, and even for illness and death. Most frightening of all is the simple fact that unlike all the other legends found on the island, the Bruho were real. We know the Bruho were real because they were brought to trial in 1880. Almost overnight, what was once little more than a whispered legend, a sort of Chilean boogie man, if you will, took on flesh and bone, then what the investigation uncovered was truly shocking.

Knowing the Shape of Your Story

The Shit No One Tells You About Writing

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts