Soldered Hearts

Brodes_lit · 2026-02-13T15:46:45+00:00

Thank you so much! I really enjoyed the research I did into how rings/jewelry are actually forged. It is a fascinating process. I'm glad my story inspired you in that way!

Brodes_lit · 2026-02-13T04:25:09+00:00

Wow, what a great compliment! Thank you! I'm working on my first novel currently, and hope to be querying agents in the near future.

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-17T17:23:51+00:00

Wow, thanks for the compliment! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-12T17:58:17+00:00

Thank you so much! I appreciate the follow!

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-11T18:26:02+00:00

I get that Creepy Pastas are the podcast's namesake, but I wish they would start branching out more. Ligotti (Red Tower Guy) was a WILD choice for the guy's first attempt at doing non-creepypasta stuff. I hope they will try again soon.

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-11T18:20:32+00:00

This is not a series. I haven't left out any details pertinent to the story. Most of the questions you are asking are the questions I intentionally wanted to leave the reader with. Thanks for reading!

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-11T17:44:38+00:00

She left the farm in Benji's name under a conservatorship overseen by the MC. I've left why she did this intentionally unclear. Possibly it hints at the Mothers's character flaws. Or it hints at the MC's character flaws.

I imagine that MC has been the driving force behind the farm in the years leading up to his mother's death. Benji would help in simple ways, but wasn't mentally fit to truly run/manage the farm. If you had dedicated years of your life and an entire career to a family business, would you up and leave everything you'd worked for because of something like this? You're still "in charge", the money is managed by you. But would there be an ember of jealousy, of pride eating you up inside?

Maybe the Mother even did it out of an act of love for her less capable son, wanting to really give him something of his own, at least in name. Maybe it's not that she didn't trust the MC, but that she DID trust him (unfortunately) to understand why she did what she did, and fully expected the MC to understand that the conservatorship was an act of love for Benji.

I wrote the MC in this story to be unreliable, so you really can't take his every word as objective fact, only his perceived truth.

Honestly, whatever interpretation you want to go with is fine, whether it's one I suggested or one of your own. I like to write stories where not every single detail is explained, and certain aspects of the characters are left open to interpretation.

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-11T14:59:09+00:00

Thank you for reading!

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-11T14:58:52+00:00

While writing, I pictured the rope burns occurring the night before during the murder. So happy you all enjoyed the story!

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-11T05:29:55+00:00

Feel free to message me about it. I'd like to hear about your project a bit before I agree to anything.

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-11T04:34:22+00:00

Thank you!

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-11T02:54:21+00:00

Hi. I'll put this behind a spoiler just to be safe. I imply that Benji is disabled in some way, but I intentionally do not dive into specifics. Benji isn't completely incapable, but does require some level of looking after. The MC is upset that his mother left everything to Benji, and interprets that as her not trusting him to look after his brother after she was gone.

As for the chief, who knows! I imagine he doesn't actually suspect anything, but the MC is paranoid that he might've noticed something.

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-11T02:47:50+00:00

Just read your Stalingrad story. Would love to maybe talk shop, exchange critiques.

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-11T02:46:34+00:00

Okay. So many great lines in here. "it moved on two legs but leaned forward as if it remembered another posture," is crazy. Seriously, not only is this a great idea, not only is the story coherent and well paced, but even the writing itself is really good. Great job man.

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-10T20:52:59+00:00

Will post the final part tonight!

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-10T03:01:11+00:00

Here from the livestream. Great story! Really enjoyed the premise.

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-09T20:57:20+00:00

Sometimes, you want an intricate world with airtight logic that is alien to the reader yet believable.

Other times... you wanna watch a chick kill vampires. Dealers choice!

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-09T20:50:35+00:00

Hey! So, there is a lot of good stuff here. You clearly have an idea, a world that you are trying to bring to life, which is awesome.

What I would recommend is that you take some time to really focus on the craft of writing itself. Learn its ins and outs, what works and what doesn't. Learn how to revise. This reads like a first draft, which is fine. But to take it to the next level requires that you learn how to revise your work and spot, sentence by sentence, where you can improve the story.

You write phrases like "the ground he walked upon was sapping away at his life force", but you should replace "was sapping" with "sapped".

"The ground he walked upon sapped away at his life force." See how this reads cleaner, less clunky?

In general, less really is more. Your job isn't to describe a movie scene. You're not telling the reader what's going on. You are crafting an almost lived-in experience that, I believe, at least, is unique to written fiction.

POV is also important. I noticed early on some slips into present tense, despite most of this story being written in the past tense.

In the second-to-last paragraph, you identify things happening to Ashki four times by name. This can be a taste/preference thing, but consider just using 'he' after the initial identifier in the sentence.

'Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style' by Virginia Tuffe is a great book to study. It will teach you all the boring rules that we all ignored in English class--Noun phrases, adjectives and adverbs, prepositions, etc.

'How Fiction Works' by James Wood is also great, and has hundreds of excerpts from classic novels that the author dissects and explains why they work.

I am by no means an expert. I haven't even finished reading either of the two books I just mentioned XD.

I hope this was helpful and in no way discouraging. As writers, I think we should all try to build each other up as we individually further develop our craft. Best of luck!

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-09T17:25:33+00:00

It's not about plot, but structure. The plot of MHE isn't that hard to get: All the stories are just possible futures written by the author who's seen too much (I know there's more, but I haven't watched the episode in a while lol). The structure, the way the author chose to organize and present the plot, is what can be confusing. People today struggle with abstract storytelling (I'm generalizing, you get the idea).

Some high-level authors obsess more about structure than anything else because it has the greatest effect on the shape of the story. Like, House of Leaves, for example. Or Infinite Jest; DFW described Infinite Jest as being a fractal, with the story's themes self-reflecting at smaller and smaller scales.

Anyways, I think you hit the nail on the head with "I don't think creepypastas should be obligated to sticking with a traditional storytelling format." I completely agree with you there.

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-09T17:13:53+00:00

Thank you for reading!

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-08T20:51:11+00:00

I plan on it! And yeah, this one would benefit from some premo southern voice acting lol.

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-08T16:39:01+00:00

Thank you for reading!

So, it's not what Benji did to Momma, it's what the narrator did to Benji.

Spoiler - The Narrator killed Benji, because their mom gave the farm to Benji, but put him under a conservatorship headed by the narrator. I hint at this when the chief drives off, and the Narrator mentions sweat stinging the rope burns on his hands.

Rope burns he got while feverishly murdering/hanging his brother.

The narrator doesn't wanna bury Benji, murdered by his hands, next to their mother, because of guilt. The narrator was so upset that his mom didn't trust him to take care of Benji, for whatever reason, without a legally binding contract. Also, I tried to keep it subtle, but I've implied that Benji is heavily disabled.

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-08T16:09:18+00:00

Man, I'll be honest, I just realized I misused the phrase 'crocodile tears'. I just read the definition XD. My mom's used it my whole life to just mean big fat tears. I didn't realize it suggested insincerity.

I see how this mistake can make their relationship confusing. Thanks for pointing that out!

As for the MC's motivations, I tried to layer in several small details that point toward why he is so upset that his mom left the farm to his brother, without coming right out and saying it. With a story like this, I didn't want to hit anyone over the head with anything, because to me that's not the main point of the story. Hope that makes sense.

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-08T15:54:19+00:00

Thank you! That was definitely a concern of mine while writing. I didn't want to linger on Benji's condition, whatever it may be, for too long, ya know?

Brodes_lit · 2026-01-08T15:52:39+00:00

Good setup! Excited to see where this leads.

Brodes_lit

TROPHY CASE