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I’m Kat! Professional Storyteller & Neurodivergent Creative

Here to help you vanquish those story construction obstacles, slay that imposter syndrome clawing at the back of your brain & stomp boredom flat with heart-pounding Boys Love fiction. Join the Saga and choose your inbox obsession, whether it’s helpful advice to get your writing unstuck or an episode of my weekly Boys Love Fantasy series to devour during your coffee break.

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‘Let’s face it, we all want to be that writer speedily banging out words like they’re possessed by a muse. But sometimes we’re like, “Words. Words would be nice.”’ — Kat Vancil, “The dreaded Blank Page Syndrome”, The Storytellers Saga
Featured Post

The dreaded Blank Page Syndrome 😱

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 64 Well hello there, Reader! Right before we kicked off our bi-monthly D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) game this past Saturday, our friend asked me for some storytelling advice. “You’ve had writer’s block before, right? So how did you handle it?” She looked beyond frustrated and a bit defeated. But she’s far from alone in that regard. Because if you type “writer’s block” into Google you’ll get about 18,500,000 results. No joke. So clearly a huge amount of...

10 months ago • 3 min read
‘Sometimes your story idea is too advanced for the skills you currently have. And that’s okay. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer. Or that you should give up.’ — Kat Vancil, “The most embarrassing thing ever!”, The Storytellers Saga

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 97 If you’ve ever been to the SF Bay Area, Reader, you know we have this thing called False Summer in March and April. The temp jumps up to the mid-80s, and we all have to break out the tank tops and fans for a few days. All of mine are generally from the Men's section of Target (or were). Mainly because they’re long and go up to my collar bone. And now that I think about it, they sorta remind me of the very first “big girl” swimsuit I ever had when I...

5 days ago • 4 min read
‘All of these situations parallel very human ones—feathers aside. Which is probably why these celestial maiden stories are so prevalent that nearly every culture on earth has one in its fairytales and lore.’ — Kat Vancil, “What do shapeshifting waterfowl

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 96 Beautiful and graceful-limbed dancers balancing on the point of a toe as they spin in feathered, moon-pale costumes. Timeless and tragically evocative music you’ve definitely heard in a commercial or two. A maiden transformed into a bird by a dastardly sorcerer. An enchantment that can only be broken by an oath sworn by one who has never loved before. I’m of course talking about Swan Lake, 🦢 my second favorite ballet. My first, of course, being The...

12 days ago • 4 min read
‘Hats off to Rebecca Yarros for her choice to make Violet Sorrengail a waif with Ehlers–Danlos syndrome. Because as someone with chronic illnesses I can in NO WAY relate to a character that’s the equivalent of an Olympic marathon runner, scaling mountains

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 95 Well hello there, Reader! After returning home from our nieces’ 5th birthday this past weekend, me and my husband were flipping through the streaming networks looking for a movie to watch. Crime Dramas... Chinese TV SciFi & Fantasy… Epic Worlds… Period Dramas… Strong Female Characters… What’s this…? Among the various shows and movies you’d expect to see was Damsel (2024). And if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s well worth the watch. Damsel’s plot is...

20 days ago • 4 min read
‘What’s to be done when you’re beyond tired, you’ve just dragged yourself home from a 10-hour shift, had to feed your whole menagerie of kids/cats/capybaras & tackle Mount Laundry?’ — Kat Vancil, “Too tired to write?”, The Storytellers Saga

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 94 Well hello there, Reader, Do you ever get to the end of the week and you’re just tired? So tired that all your bright and shiny plans for Sunday just go right out the window? So tired that you can’t even bring yourself to change out of your PJs despite the fact it’s long past noon? I was that kind of tired this past Sunday, Reader. It probably didn’t help that I was woken up way too early by our neighbor’s “valiant” attempt to train their dogs not to...

27 days ago • 2 min read
‘Don’t let someone tell you that your fanfic writing isn’t “REAL” writing. Or that you’re wasting your time. Because those skills you’ve developed writing side quest adventures for your favorite characters might just turn into a career.’ — Kat Vancil, “‘T

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 93 Well hello there, Reader! A few weeks back I saw a post on Reddit where a guy asked: “AITA for making fun of my girlfriend for writing Fanfiction and claiming it’s actual writing?” He seemed to think he wasn’t (the asshole). Oh boy, did the community have news for him. 😬 Now this dude is far from the only one out there who thinks this way, but he couldn’t be more wrong. And I’ll prove it with 5 ways that writing fanfic not only makes you a better...

about 1 month ago • 4 min read
‘One important thing to consider when brewing your love story is how high you intend to set the burner on that tame to explicit scale with your story’s intimate content. In Romance, this rating is called the Spice Level.’ — Kat Vancil, “You can’t brew a l

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 92 Well hello there, Reader! It’s that special 💝 filled day, you know the one. I’m talking about Valentine’s Day. And in the week leading up to the day of love, sales of chocolates and flowers have been massive. But what about… Books? Yep, you heard me correctly. Over 2.2 billion books are sold each year worldwide. And of those billions, 25% were Romance books. That number jumps to 40% if you’re just counting books within genre fiction. Crazy right? 🙀...

about 2 months ago • 4 min read
‘In the 3 decades since the release of the beloved American cult classic of the same title, the plot of Groundhog’s Day has also become a storytelling device used in numerous books, TV shows, and movies.’ — Kat Vancil, “Let’s do the time loop again”, The

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 91 It was Groundhog’s Day 🦫 again this past Sunday, Reader. Yes, that weird holiday based on a German tradition using a…badger? 🤷🏻♀️ However, in the 3 decades since the release of the beloved American cult classic of the same title, the plot of Groundhog’s Day has also become a storytelling device used in numerous books, TV shows, and movies. So what is this famous plot device? Basically: Your Legendary Character is stuck in a time loop repeating a...

about 2 months ago • 4 min read
‘In our real day-to-day lives we may not always be in a position to take a stand against the corrupt, oppressive system. However, as storytellers it is within our power to create characters who can.’ — Kat Vancil, “That one time I lead a revolt”, The Sto

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 90 It was a blisteringly hot late spring day back in 2001, Reader. The sorta day where the cheap plastic of your desk chair sticks to the back of your thighs. It was 2001 in California so absolutely NONE of the classrooms had air-conditioning. And it was over a 100 degrees out. But what made EVERYTHING worse was the fact that they were tarring the roof. Of the classroom I was in. WHILE I was in it. And yes, I was perfectly aware that it was a code...

2 months ago • 3 min read
‘In a moment of cosmic WTFery dozens of worlds would have been snuffed out of existence by a factory defect.’ — Kat Vancil, “The death of a thousand worlds”, The Storytellers Saga

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 89 “What do you mean it won’t boot up? The thing’s only a month old!” I demanded 2 years ago. You see, Reader, I had just gotten my very first MacBook Pro that wasn’t a hand-me-down and the thing had effectively killed itself the first time it updated. Oh, and did I mention it took all my data along with it? Months of story work, edits, and design assets gone just like that. Poof. Worst day ever. 😭 I had thought me and the Universe were buddies. Or at...

2 months ago • 3 min read
‘Though serialized illustrated novels may be flooding the shelves now, it might surprise you to know this new hot craze sweeping book store shelves isn’t actually new. In fact, it’s actually as old as Dickens. Yes, that Dickens.’ — Kat Vancil, “The newest

KAT VANCIL THE STORYTELLER'S SAGA QUEST 88 They’re everywhere, Reader. Filling up Bookstagram, Pinterest, and bookshop shelves. Pulled from the 4 corners of the world and translated into every major language and media. “Now in English for the first time!” “A Barnes & Noble Exclusive!” “The novel series that inspired the live-action show!” What could it be? 🤔 I’m talking about serialized novels of course. More specifically, the illustrated kind. No, I’m not talking about graphic novels. I mean...

2 months ago • 4 min read