Wednesday Words

Guess who's doing Camp Nano again this month? It's me! And hopefully I can do better this time than I did in March. I am working on the same novel I was for NanoWriMo last November. It needs a lot of work and I have made some setting and plot changes, as well as switched the POV again. My goal for the end of July is 30k, but we'll see how it goes. I also am taking another class this month so I don't know how much that will interfere as it will be a reading and writing heavy course.

Anyways, here's some of my writing from the past week or so.

from The Necromancer's Daughter (original novel/campnano project)...

Somewhere in the dark, between one world and the next, a demon dreams but does not sleep. Behind closed eyelids he plays a stream of nightmares, a collection of fear and sickly sweet despair. He opens his jaws with sharp teeth and bites into the terror and swallows it down. It sits in his stomach like a warm meal, fueling him for what is to come. 

There is a woman he looks for. He knows her dark hair and keen eyes as he knows his own. And he knows what her power tastes like. She is blood and death and rage, and she has taken what does not belong to her. She has broken a contract and now she is to belong to him. 

But she hides somewhere, in a different darkness than his own. She is clever that one, his future pet, but she is human at her core. And humans can only hide for so long.

from a Teen Wolf fanfic (wip)...

“Nice vest,” Lydia said, taking in the studded and patched denim she wore over her t-shirt. She’d done it herself, the studs pried carefully from an old belt and the patches made by a friend of hers back in New York. 

“Nice boots,” she replied, not knowing if Lydia had actually complimented her or was making a jab at her fashion choice. The fact that Cora wasn’t sure which category her response fell into either was something she was going to ignore.   

Lydia smirked, a small tilt of lips, as if to let Cora know she wasn’t affected and could play the game just as well as she could. It was a rare person who didn’t back down from her; it was almost admirable. Almost.

x

Wednesday Words

It's a little late in the day, but it's been awhile since I did one of these so here we go...

from The Night Coven (an original novel)...

"Look at you, coming out of your little turtle shell," Fiona joked, pulling me towards the living room where most of the party seemed to be at. Now that we were inside I could feel the music thumping through the floorboards, punctuated by loud conversation and laughing. There had to be twenty people there, all dancing on top of each other and sprawled over the plush couches. 

"There's so many people here," I said to Fiona, looking around. Piper had dragged me to bigger parties, sure, but Dorian had said this was going to be relatively small. I had a feeling we had different ideas of what "small" was. Which Fiona only confirmed. 

"Oh this is nothing, it's still early."

from The Wolf Cycle (a Raven Cycle/Teen Wolf fanfic)...

Stiles Stilinski was not a psychic. He was tbd -to be determined. He had always been pretty determined he was a normal human with no special superpowers, but try telling the residents of 300 Moon Way that. 

Scott wasn’t psychic either, despite his impressive lineage. He wasn’t nothing though. Melissa called him an amplifier, heightening the powers of those around him. Stiles called him a battery and liked to put his cell phone on the other boys head and complain that it wasn’t working. This usually landed him a pillow in the face or a body thrown on top of him, catapulting them both onto the floor in a wrestling match.

from a Teen Wolf road-trip fic I am writing for a friend of mine...

 “Roswell? Really?” Isaac demanded, looking down at the list of places Stiles thought they should visit. It brought them as far as Texas and then looped back around to California, and was peppered with as many weird tourist attractions as he could find. 

“What, you don’t want to try to see some aliens?” 

“I’m looking at you right now, doesn’t that count?" 

Stiles shoved him into the side of the jeep, not exactly gently, but he was a werewolf, he could deal. 

“Fucking hell!” he swore, moving like he was going to push Stiles back, but Scott stepped between them. 

“I swear to god, if you cannot get along for five minutes we are going home.” 

“We can’t go home!” Stiles cried. “It’s my birthday month!” 

Scott rolled his eyes. “You don’t get a whole month for your birthday Stiles.” 

“What!? Don’t you love me?” 

“Unfortunately,” Isaac snorted. 

x

Wednesday Words

I forgot to share words last week, which was silly because I actually have been writing a decent amount. Not as much as I would like to be (I ought to give myself a daily word count minimum) but I have put words to paper! Or, err, to a word document on my computer.

from The Night Coven...

Every time I'd been to Dorian's before the house had been quiet -a large peaceful sanctuary filled with soft light and the smell of incense and baked goods. 

It was nothing like that now. With his mothers gone it was loud and Dorian had strobe lights that flashed through the windows like lightning. The music wasn't anything I had ever heard before. Piper listened to a lot of club-style music, electronic stuff with pop lyrics and dubstep. This was darker -the kind of music that made you shiver and moved under your skin.

from Drunk Dial (a teen wolf fanfic)...

"You're not, you're not... who are you? No, you're Derek, I knew that. Right. Yeah, okay. How'r you? Did you want somethin?"  

Derek blinked. "Stiles you called me." 

"I did? Oh look at that, I did. Wait, no, I called Scott. Are you sure you're not Scott?" 

Derek rolled his eyes even though Stiles couldn’t see it. Stiles had that effect on him. "How much have you had to drink?" 

"Not... not, I mean some... a lot. A whole bag" he replied. 

Derek blinked. “I… a bag of what?” 

“Dicks.”  

“A bag of dicks?” 

“What the fuck are you talking about dicks for Derek?” Stiles asked, which was followed by a bout of drunken giggling. Derek huffed. 

“Was there a reason for this call?”

And there you have it, things I have been writing. I have been writing a lot of fanfic. And as you can see from that excerpt above, some of it is fairly ridiculous. No shame.

x

Wednesday Words

It's been awhile since I did one of these posts. My blog is general has been pretty quiet, and for that I apologize. I'm in kind of weird place in my life and I never know what to post about. But for now, have some of my words...

from The Night Coven...

"Piper has enough style for a small army. She's always trying to dress me."
Fiona quirked a brow. "Is she the one that picked out that blouse?"
I nodded. "It was a gift."
"You like her a lot, don't you?"
I froze. "Well, yeah, she's my best friend," I said carefully, not looking at the other girl. That's not what she meant and I knew it, but I hadn't thought I was being so obvious. I usually wasn't, had spent most of my short life being careful about revealing any feelings for Piper that weren't strictly platonic.
To her credit, Fiona didn't say anything in response to that. I felt her eyes on me for a few more seconds before she pushed herself off the bed, extending a hand to me, smiling again. There was something about that smile tha was infectious and I quickly shoved my thoughts of Piper and secrets out of my head. I'd deal with that later. For now, I had a party to attend.

from Moon Fever (a tw fanfic)...

When Tanya finally pulled the stencil paper away Derek could finally see what it was, the temporary purple ink forming a bouquet of flowers, the name "Claudia" emblazoned on a banner over it. He understood why Tanya had hesitated, probably afraid that Claudia was some girl he liked. Stiles wasn't that stupid though (Derek wasn't about to analyze why he thought that seeing as he barely knew the kid) and he was guessing she was a family member of some sort, possibly someone who had passed away.He felt a ball of emotions roll through his stomach, threatening to rise up, and he clamped them back down, gritting his teeth. He was absolutely not going to think about it.It didn't matter anyways, a few seconds later he was distracted by the fresh wave of anxiety that Stiles put off the second that the gun started buzzing."Scott," he croaked, looking desperately at his friend who was across the room in a second, clutching his hand. There was no embarrassment between the two, no shame in Stiles being petrified."I think," Stiles started, looking between Scott and Tanya who was waiting patiently, "you might need to hold me down." 

x 

Wednesday Words

I hope it says a lot about my dedication to writing that even though these posts get the least amount of views than anything, I still insist on doing them. I plan on doing Camp Nano this year, too, so the writing posts will probably (hopefully) just increase. Anyways!

from The Necromancer's Daughter...

“Tell me about your bike,” I said once the others had headed off to bed. Nikandros and I were the only ones from the group that slept outside, although he usually stayed up later than me and on the other side of the wagons.

 “What about it?” he asked, poking the fire with a stick so that the flames flared up brighter. I held my hands out to warm them.

 “How does it work? I’ve never seen a bike like that before.”

 He leaned forward, the fire illuminating his face. “It’s a motorcycle actually. They’re bike versions of the cars people used to have before the Shift.”

 “But that kind of stuff doesn’t work anymore, how did you get it to run?”

 “Magic,” he said, looking pleased with himself when he saw my shock. I’d never known any humans to use magic; most of them were scared of it. Although, I couldn’t quite imagine Nik being scared of anything.

 “Magic?” I repeated, also leaning forward, my gaze focused on him. I didn’t think I could have hid my interest if I wanted to.

 “You aren’t quaking in your boots, I’m impressed,” he said, grinning. He was always grinning at me.

 “Why would I?” I knew why I should, but the idea of magic wasn’t as frightening to me in the way that it was to so many others. I did have a fear of my own magic of course, but seeing as mine responded to dead things, I figured that was perfectly reasonable.

from Moon Fever (a Teen Wolf fanfic)...

"Incoming," he said to the tattoo artist. "My betas are on their way and they brought friends. Human friends." 

She nodded, wiping away excess ink and admiring her handiwork. "I know, Isaac called in earlier for a group appointment. I have David coming in to help out with it." 

"You didn't say anything," Derek said, unable to help the accusing tone in his voice.  

She quirked an amused brow at him. "I thought you knew. I also didn't think it was a big deal?"

He huffed. "It's not."

She didn't say anything but Derek could tell she knew he was lying. It had been a pretty weak lie.  

Also, like I said, I'm going to be participating in Camp Nanowrimo, so if anyone else is also planning on doing it, let me know! We should totally be in the same cabin. So far it's just me and Sue! I will be working on my YA witch book, The Night Coven.

x

Wednesday Words

I forgot to do one of these last week, whoops. Oh well, I remembered this time, that's all that matters right?

from The Necromancer's Daughter...

“And what exactly is it you want me to teach you?” she asked sharply. “How to raise the dead, make zombie armies, to use the power of death to choke the life from your enemies?”

I felt the colour drain from my face as she spoke. Was she insane? Why would I want to do any of that. I was too shocked to speak, staring at her serious face with wide eyes, and Nik spoke up for me.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he answered, “why would she want to do any of that psycho stuff? She just wants to learn how to control her magic.”

“And who are you?” Sydra snapped, moving her intense gaze from me to him and allowing me to breath slightly easier. Nik didn’t back down.

“Nikandros, professional bounty hunter. And friend.” He squeezed my hand again and I gave it a squeeze back, his words sending a bit of warmth through me. Even if this woman turned us away or decided to turn us into toads or whatever angry witches did, at least I had Nik with me. It was more than I could have ever hoped for.

Sydra scrutinized him for a moment more but didn’t say anything else to him. Instead she turned back to me.

“Do you wear salt on you to ground the power when you’re not using it?” I had honestly thought she was going to berate me some more so the question came as a bit of a surprise.

I nodded. “Yes, I never take it off. But it doesn’t always work, sometimes it’s just too much.”

She stared at me. “I see.” I got the sense that she saw a lot more than just what I was saying.

“I can teach you what I know, but be warned, I am no necromancer and am not as skilled in death magic as another of your kind would be. Do you have your family book?”

I nodded, relief washing over me at her acceptance to take me on as a student. “Yes, but I can’t read most of it.”

“Good,” said Sydra, “I can help you translate what you need to know. The rest you needn’t worry about.”

I wanted to argue that I had the right to know what all of it said, but I decided that was another battle best left for a different time. The last thing I wanted to do was have her revoke her teacher status.

“Thank you so much,” I said, “I really appreciate this.”

Sydra turned away from me to look into the fire that was crackling behind her. “Don’t make me regret my decision Maitland Cross.”

from a Teen Wolf punk ficlet (wip)... 

They paid for their respective booze, Scott using what Derek thought might be a fake id but the cashier didn't look twice at it. He remembered his own days of using a fake id and he had to admit he was impressed with how casually Scott had handed it over, like it was the real deal.
Derek followed the younger boy into the parking lot, listening to him chatter about his friends and how awesome they were and how much they would love Derek. Derek just nodded and grinned until they reached their respective vehicles. Scott had a blue jeep that was only a few spaces away from his own dark Camaro and Scott let out a low whistle when he saw Derek's car.
"Nice ride dude, you're putting the jeep to shame over here."
Derek gave a small smile. "It's a nice jeep, " he said, mostly just trying to be nice to the kid who had invited him over.
Scott dumped his booze into the passenger seat laughing. "You don't have to compliment it, it's not mine. It's kind of a piece of junk."
Junk was probably too strong a word but he didn't argue the fact, instead just unlocking his own door and depositing his whiskey on the floor.
"I'm not far from here, five minutes tops!" Scott called from out his window. Derek nodded and slid into the driver's seat. He hadn't gone to a party in ages. He used to go out a lot with Laura but he'd never meshed well with her friends. He was too rough around the edges, not sophisticated enough. He wasn't sure where they had gotten the impression that Laura was sophisticated (she drank milk from the carton and wasn't against talking loudly about her sex life) but she wore blazer so that apparently made her classy.
Whatever, Derek liked his leather jacket and ripped jeans.

x

Wednesday Words

from Moon Fever (a Teen Wolf fanfic)...

"He doesn't know you well enough to hate you," she said, picking through the curtain display.
"Which makes it even worse. Am I that revolting of a person? You'd tell me if I was, wouldn't you?"
"Take this," she said, handing him a package of gauzy curtains.
"Lydiaaaaa," he whined. Even he couldn't call it anything other than whining. All he could think about was Derek fucking Hale and why the guy seemed to despise him so much and Lydia was seriously not helping with her perfect hair and complete indifference.
"You're being a child and I'm not answering stupid questions."
"You're supposed to be my friend and comfort me and tell me how wonderful I am and how lucky any guy would be to have me," Stiles pointed out, shooting her an insincere glare from over the mound of stuff in his arms.
"No, that's what Scott is for. So whine to him over your pizza and video games, or whatever it is the two of you do all the time."
"Actually we paint our nails and talk about guys."
"Well, I'd believe it of you anyways."

from The Necromancer's Daughter...

When I woke up again it was alone, the blankets wrapped around me like a cocoon as sunlight streamed through the curtain-less window. Sleep clung to my eyelids and I had to sit up and blink several times to keep myself from burying my head back in the pillow and ignoring the world. If I had been in my own house and in my own bed I would have. I’d have lain in bed for days. But if I’d been at home, none of this ever would have happened.

The reality of the day before hit me and I reached for the vial of salt around my neck. It was still tucked under my shirt and I clutched it, taking a deep breath. There was no death in this room, nothing to make my insides twist and writhe against the salt’s constraint. 

I stood and stretched. My body still ached but not nearly as bad as the night before. I didn’t know how long I had slept but it had clearly done me some good –not that sleeping for several hours whenever my magic decided to act up was practical. I was contemplating way to carry more salt on me when Nikandros opened the door carrying a tray.  

“I brought you breakfast,” he said, setting the tray down on the nightstand. On it was a bowl of oatmeal and a mug of black coffee, both still steaming. My stomach growled at the smell and Nik laughed. 

“Well I’m glad you can eat,” he said while I shoveled the oatmeal into my mouth. I was starving, which probably had something to do with the fact that I had wretched up everything that had been in my stomach hours before. I took a sip of the coffee as he continued.  

“You slept a long time, and thrashed a lot at first, but you calmed down sometime around midnight. How do you feel?”  

I swallowed my food and took a breath, flicking my gaze to his and then around the room. “Better.”  

He nodded, leaning against the wall a few feet away.  

“Thank you,” I said, looking more at my feet than at him. “For taking care of me.” 

Thanks for reading lovelies.

x

Wednesday Words

from The Necromancer's Daughter...

The roads leading to the city were like a grid, crossing one another at several intervals, and littered with crumbling buildings, flourishing plant life, and tons of debris. The more rural areas had seen a lot of clean up after the Shift, but suburbs and urban spaces were mostly left to decay. They were stretches of ruins, once a testament to human advancements, now just a wasteland for our history, left to the mercy of nature. There was something incredibly eerie about seeing the crumbling remains of what used to be, abandoned and forgotten by most humans. Nik said that there were people living within the city, taking refuge in the old buildings, desperate to cling to what the city used to be, but it was dangerous. The streets were also crawling with vampires looking for meals, fae who peddled faery dust to humans, fake psychics looking to take advantage of anyone who would let them, and people who'd kill you for a piece of bread. The cities were centers of anarchy and hunger, desperation and violence.

I often resented how sheltered my life had been, but I was grateful not to have been raised in a place like this. I couldn’t even begin to imagine why anyone chose to stay here, not when there were so many established communities where people made it a point to help each other and keep everyone safe and well taken care of.

My eyes widened when the city finally came into view. The suburbs leading up to it were bad, but this was like nothing I had ever seen, nothing I could have even imagined. Before us were towers of gray covered in vines, windows shattered, the roads littered with pieces of cars and rusted signs. And even though nature had been creeping in, everything was drab and crumbling. So this was what the death of human achievement looked like –a decaying, mournful ghost town.

from Moon Fever (a Teen Wolf fanfic)...

"I say we have another party!" Eric proclaimed, "now that everything in the loft is turned back on."
Derek raised a brow at her. "You can't just decide to have a party where I live."
"Isaac lives there too," she said, pointing to the doe-eyed beta who was grinning up at Scott while the band packed up their equipment. Derek continued to stare at her without saying anything.
She huffed. "Fine, you're such a killjoy. Why am I in a band with you again?"
"I believe the words you used once were because of my underwear model physique and broody eyebrows," he said dryly.
"Someone's full of himself," came a voice from the other side of the table and Derek tried to suppress a groan. It was Stiles. Of course it was Stiles. 

x

Wednesday Words

Your weekly look into what I have been writing.

from The Necromancer's Daughter...

I met Sydra’s gaze and she nodded. I took a deep breath to try to center myself and then lifted the salt vial over my head and depositing it on the floor next to me. My magic immediately rushed forward, let loose from the rolling knot in my stomach. But now there was no salt to keep it contained and instead of feeling like the inside of my skin was being needled at, the power burst forth. My body felt electrified, the magic coming in waves off of me. I tried to do what Sydra had said, tried to condense it so that I could control it. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get it to behave. I attempted to picture it coalescing into a ball in my palms but the energy was wild, ecstatic to be free of its cage, and it wasn’t listening to me. I was a thousand times grateful for the thick circle of salt that Sydra had drawn around me, scared to know what might happen if I was completely unbound.
“Focus!” Sydra said forcefully.“I’m trying to,” I ground out, annoyed that she didn’t seem to realize how much effort I was putting in. It wasn’t exactly like this was easy. 

from a Teen Wolf punk AU I just wrote...

Lydia Martin was in charge at Beacon Hills High, with her high heels and red lips, so it was her job to keep tabs on any and all new students that found their way into her halls. Especially when they were girls with slim waists and legs that went on for miles. So her interest in the stunning brunette with dark eyes when she walked through the school’s front doors was strictly business.
And really the girl shouldn’t have been so attractive, not with lip ring and the dark eyeliner, the studded vest and combat boots that clearly indicated she could fuck you up and wouldn’t feel bad about it. Usually that kind of thing was supposed to make you less attractive, or so Lydia had always thought, seeing as the local punk clique (three kids with greasy hair and only owned clothes from Hot Topic) certainly wasn’t made of lookers. [click for full]

If you actually read the snippets that I post then I love you.

x

Fiction Writing: Tips That Might Help or Be Completely Useless

Okay, so I have been writing a lot lately and I wanted to post some of these writing-related posts back in November for Nanowrimo but I never got around to it. But now is a better time than never so I figured I'd post a few tips for anyone else out there who has an interest in writing fiction.

Keep in mind, this is just advice. The same things don't work for everyone, these are just things that work for me. Also, I'm (obviously) not a published novelist or anything, so you know, there is that to consider.

So here, we go, some maybe useful tips for you to consider while writing.

• Don't wait until you're inspired. I mean, yeah, you definitely want to write when you are hit with inspiration, but don't just wait for it to come around. The thing about writing is that it's really easy to put off and blame on "writer's block." Trust me, I would know, I have done it so many times and will do it more in the future without a doubt. But writing gets done because you sit down and commit to it. You work through the writer's block and even if your words are crap for the day at least you have words to work with later on when you edit.
• Listen to music. I have playlists set up for each of my projects with songs that remind me of what I'm writing or that just put me in the mood for a particular scene I'm working on. I also use Zen Writer and will sometimes listen to the music options it offers which are soothing and unobtrusive. I have also found that SoundDrown has some great relaxing options including the sound of rainfall, a crackling fire, a coffee shop, and white noise.
• Don't always write in the same place. I try to switch up where I do my writing on a regular basis. There's something about new surroundings that I find mentally refreshing. It's easy if you have a laptop, but even if you use a desktop that you can't move around, take a notebook and pen somewhere new and try handwriting a few things. People always poke fun at the writer-in-a-coffee shop cliche, but there's a reason we end up there. It's nice to be out of the house and in a place with good coffee, low music, and new faces to look at.
• Try not to edit yourself while writing the first draft of anything. I am guilty of this but it's a habit I am trying to kick. It's so easy to go back and reread and try to fix what you've already written before you finish the first draft, but seriously, try not to do it. Editing is a problem for future-you. Just keep moving forward so that you can get the story done, then worry about fixing it.
• Find someone you can bounce ideas off of. I always find myself more inspired to write after I have been talking to my best friend about our respective stories. We are both very passionate about what we write as well as what each other is writing. She hasn't even finished a novel and I am already emotionally attached to her characters. And she's always giving me great ideas or recommending me songs that she thinks fits what I'm working on.

So that's it, that's all I've got. This is what works for me and maybe it will work for you. Maybe it won't. It's worth a shot though. And I'd love to hear any tips you have for writing, so leave them in the comments if you've got any!

x

Wednesday Words

Okay, so I know I haven't really been doing any kind of weekly features lately, but I think trying to make a habit of posting bits of my writing every week (Wednesday because of alliteration purposes of course) will be another thing to help me make sure that I am actually doing my writing. Not that I have been procrastinating on working on my novels as much as I have in the past, but I also enjoy getting feedback and putting myself out there a little bit.

So anyways, here's a look at what I have been working on lately.

from The Night Coven...

The morning of my first day at the new school was probably like every new girl in school movie -scrambling to turn off my alarm, a half-asleep shower, and my mom making a breakfast that was too big for me to possibly eat before I had to leave. The only thing the whole ordeal was missing was a scene where I pulled all the clothes out of my closet and tried to pick out just the right blouse. Instead I just pulled on the uniform I had gotten the day before, adding tights to the ensemble to try to cover up the way my legs looked in the skirt (which wasn't even that short, I was just used to jeans) and throwing on my slightly worn out jean jacket. The dress code hadn't said anything about outwear which was I was happy about. I owned a few blazers but I always felt like a secretary when I wore one. 

"You look lovely Ellie," my mom said as I sat down at the table where she had laid out eggs, toast, pancakes, and coffee. I was hoping most of it was for her and her pregnancy induced eating habits because there was no way I would be able to make any kind of significant dent in all that food.  

"Did you put on makeup this morning?" she asked, a smile tugging at her lips and she poured me a mug of coffee. I took it gratefully and scooped sugar into it. 

"It's just eyeliner," I said with a shrug, like it was no big deal. I stabbed at a pancake and avoided looking up at her, knowing exactly the satisfied grin she was wearing. Mom took it as a personal victory every time I used even a little bit of the makeup that she bought for me. Typically it only happened when Piper wanted to go out and forced me to sit still while she attacked me with eye shadow and a mascara brush. But the first day of a new school seemed like a good time to at least put a little bit of effort into how I looked.  

"It's no big deal," I said again around a bite of food. She didn't say anything but her look was enough. I debated going back upstairs and taking it off, but that seemed a bit childish, even for me.

from Moon Fever (a Teen Wolf fanfiction)...

"So," he said, nudging Scott with his elbow as they stepped away from the stage. "That guitarist seemed pretty into you." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Allison laughed, wrapping her arm around her boyfriend's waist, and Scott groaned. "That was so weird dude. So weird."

"At least he's attractive," Stiles continued, smiling wide, and Allison hummed an agreement against Scott's chest. Scott flicked his gaze from his best friend to the petite brunette wrapped around him.

"Aren't you suppose to defend my honour or something?" has asked indignantly.

Allison grinned. "I'm pretty sure your honour is intact. Well, maybe not after that thing we did in the back of my car yesterday."

Stiles clapped his hands over is ears. "That's enough of that!" he declared loudly, turning on his heel to make his way towards the bar for some water. He didn't care that his friend was getting sexy times when he wasn't (that was a lie, he did, but he wasn't bitter about it), but he in no way wanted to hear about it.

x

 

Writing Snippet

So today I thought I'd share a snippet from the novel I have been working. It's the same one I was writing for Nanowrimo and have been trying to organize and flesh out more since. I am nowhere near to done but I have made quite a bit of headway.

You can learn about this novel and the other stuff I'm writing by going here.

x

Writing away...

I am actually managing to keep up pretty well with Nanowrimo. I thought for sure I'd fall behind, and although I did briefly I caught up quickly and have been staying on track since. The month is still young of course, but I'm choosing to stay positive about it. The scenes are getting easier to write as I get further away from the beginning which is nice. The first few chapters will be a nightmare to edit later but that is a problem for my future self.

If you are interested in my Nanowrimo writing venture...

• My Nanowrimo account.
• My tumblr blog dedicated to the novel I am working on.
• A collection of 8tracks playlists I am listening to while writing.

cover designed for the nanowrimo site

excerpt:

Maitland wasn’t the kind of girl who got doe-eyed over boys with nice hair and charming smiles. Maybe it was because she had never properly socialized with anyone her own age growing up, but she could never make sense of being infatuated with someone based on their looks. It wasn’t that she was closed to the idea of love –her parents had nursed her with a healthy idea of the concept. She believed in love and that it could be a very powerful force between two people. She didn’t believe that love spawned between two people just because one of them had cute dimples. Looks had never meant much to her. 

It was because of this, and partly because of his own insufferableness, that she found Nikandros’ steely blue eyes and devil-may-care smile so unnerving. And annoying. Who even had eyes that colour anyways?

Hope everyone is having a good weekend so far! I am spending mine writing and catching up on my reading -my usual activities.

Manda Rave

p.s. Oh yeah! I saw Thor: The Dark World last night and loooved it. The Thor movies are my favourite of the Marvel films. The second was just as good as the first, plus is was so funny. I am always much more into movies if they can make me laugh, and this one definitely delivered on that front.

Nanowrimo

It's November, which means it's Nanowrimo time -National Novel Writing Month. I know a few of my readers are also participating this year, so good luck to you my dears! I am already a bit behind as I didn't write at all on Sunday because I had a hangover and didn't want to do anything except for watch Netflix and eat. Which is exactly what I did.

The night before said hangover -went to a party as Zoe Benson.

The novel I am working on is unique because of the way the ideas for it have come to me. Usually I get characters first and a general plot idea which I can then write a good first few chapters for. Then as I continue to write more characters develop, as does the story line and everyone's background. For this I got the setting first and ideas for minor characters. My main character and plot were some of the last things to come to me. And because everything came to me so backwards, I am also having a hard time with the beginning. Right now the scenes are kind of a mess and there isn't enough dialogue. Although this is in the beginning and it's not too bad...

Maitland grew up knowing two things for sure. One, she was a perfectly ordinary human girl. Two, her parents were perfectly ordinary human parents. It wasn’t until after her mother and father got sick and died when she started accidentally raising small rodents from the dead. It was then that she realized she might not actually know anything at all.

Right now I am just powering through it, writing what comes to me even though I'm not particularly satisfied with it. The first few chapters are going to need a lot of work. But editing comes later, and in the mean time I am just going to keep going until I get to the stuff I actually want to be writing -witty banter, accidental zombie raising, monster hunting, that kind of stuff.

I know I have been on-and-off with this blog lately. That will probably continue to be the case throughout November as I am focusing most of my attention on writing this novel, catching up on my reading, and dealing with my personal life. his space is very important to me, but I can't afford to put it first right now.

As always, thank you so much to my loyal readers, you guys are great and never fail to put a smile on my face.

Manda Rave

Fiction Writing: Begin at the Beginning

So you want to write a novel? Okay. Let's begin.

When it comes to fiction writing, the beginning can be anywhere really. It can be the first sentence, the last chapter, a fight scene in the middle, or a random piece of dialogue to be said by a character whose name you haven't even decided on yet. There are no rules on how to start writing a story. Well, I mean, people make "rules" all the time for themselves, but it's nothing enforced upon the whole of the writer population. That would be silly.

A lot of people start to write because they are seized by an idea -whether for a plot, a setting, a person, or a just a genre in general. It's different for everyone. Usually when I get inspired to write something new it's because a character walks into my head and then makes themselves comfortable. Typically my story goes from there as I weave their world and put them into a series of situations. In my latest endeavour though (the one I will be working on during Nanowrimo) the setting came first. That's never happened to me before so it was exciting to explore. The characters didn't come until I had fleshed out the workings of the world and even then my main character only came out of the woodwork a month or so ago. Keep in mind, I've had all this in my head for almost a year now.

Once you're overtaken with an idea, it's a good idea to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and start brainstorming. Things you want to address pretty immediately are characters, setting, and story line. These are the backbone of your novel and should be given a lot of attention. Coming up with a rough outline of what you want to write can be helpful in this beginning stage, but it depends really. Sometimes when I write I don't have an outline at all and I just let the story go as it wants. Other times I meticulously plan out all the major events and jot down all the minor in between stuff with notes on how the characters should be feeling along with potential dialogue. Do whatever feels right.

When it actually comes time to sit down and start letting the words pour out of you, though, you want to make sure you're prepared. You should research your setting thoroughly and have a good handle on who your characters are and how they act. You will also need to decide on are a point of view to write from.

Points of View

• First Person: Writing as the main character of the story -"I, me, mine, my." Some people find this difficult but personally it's my favourite POV to use. It's a great way to really get into your main character's head and experience the story through them.
• Second Person: This POV is weird and not very popular mostly because it's kind of awkward to write and read. It uses "you" and "your" as if the narrator is saying that the story is happening to you as the reader. "You look into the cave to find it dark, but you go in anyways. Your heart is beating loudly in your chest."
• Third Person Limited: Written as an outsider looking in, allowing the reader to only know what's going on inside the head of one character. Harry Potter is written in third person limited.
• Third Person Omniscient: Also written as an outsider looking in, but allowing the reader to get into the heads of multiple characters.

Piece of advice: try to make sure you choose the right POV from the beginning. Deciding you want to change it and then going back and editing everything you've written is such a pain in the ass.

Coming up next in my fiction writing post series: Talking to the Voices in Your Head (Character Development)

Manda Rave

Some Stuff to Look at in the Meantime:

• Creative Writing Prompts
• My Writing Tumblr
• Prompts & Pointers (a tumblr blog)

Fiction Writing (& Reading): My "Why"

So I mentioned not too long ago that I was going to start writing more about fiction writing here on my blog in the months leading up to Nanowrimo. I also shared a post on Megan's blog about writing creatively as a form of artistic expression. Today I want to address the reason why I read and write the type of fiction that I do so that you can understand where I am coming from in the posts to come.

I have no delusions of becoming some great, world-renowned novelist. I am not interested in making my way into what is considered literary canon. I don't hope to be taught in schools or have have critical essays written about my work. My hopes are that I can get my novels in paperback and sitting on the "scifi and fantasy" section of the Barnes and Noble shelves.

I read mostly urban fantasy, and that is all that I write. I love it. For me there are never too many vampire novels, stories of ancient witchcraft or tales of normal people thrown into supernatural worlds. Demon summonings, blood sucking, werewolves running under the moon, fairy pranks -bring it on. Seriously, I will read it. I will immerse myself in it completely and get lost. That's what I do.

I am an escapist reader. Books can give us so much. From them we gain insight, learn new facts, and can be made to face dark truths. But books can also just be there to entertain us. That's what I'm looking for in a book: the entertainment value. I want to leave reality and enter a new one. I want characters that make me laugh and get upset and make me want to throw the book across the room because how could they possible be so stupid and dense? Within all that there is of course an innumerable amount of things to think about and take to heart. There always is in writing. But that's not why I read. And it's not why I write.

Of course my thoughts on things leak into my writing. Writing is always, in some way, a reflection of the author. But when I write, I do it because I want to help my readers escape their lives and go into someone else's. I want to give them a world filled with magic and danger. I don't do long, philosophical monologues. My characters are not "average" people living "normal" lives. I'm not interested in exploring the inner workings of relationships in this world -I'm interested in exploring them while there are demons on the loose and an evil bastard to contend with. 

So there it is. That's why I read and that's why I write. All the posts about fiction writing that I'll be putting up should be read with this in mind. When I talk about characters and plot development and all that jazz, I am doing so in the context of writing for entertainment. 

So, fellow writers and readers, why do you write/read what you do?

Manda Rave

So Let's Talk About Fiction Writing...

Some of the lovely ladies I follow have mentioned things about writing novels, wanting to write novels, or undertaking various creative writing endeavours in general. Hearing that people want to get into creative writing is music to my ears. Writing is probably my nearest and dearest passion (well, maybe tied with reading) and I have been doing it since I was about 6 when I wrote my first short story for school. We were really only supposed to write a paragraph but I brought in a page and a half. I think it was about two girls uncovering who knocked down their snowman. It was some pretty advanced storytelling for a 6 year old I think. Anyways...

I have decided to try Nanowrimo for the first time this year -which is, during the month of November, writing a novel in a month. The site defines a novel as 50k words, which is a decent chunk of writing, but probably not a whole novel for me. Regardless, I want to give it a try. My boyfriend is also thinking of doing this so our apartment will probably become a writing cave for 30 days.

To prepare for this challenge I thought I would share a few posts about writing fiction throughout the time leading up to November. By no means am I a writing expert (I don't really think such a thing exists) -my work has only ever been published in my school's literary journal- but it's something that I am passionate about and would like to share with anyone who is interested.

For post topics I am thinking of concentrating on these areas: plot development, character development, various tips, music while writing, and editing. Not only will this hopefully be helpful for some of you, it will help me think about my story for November and flesh out all the details. What I want to write has been floating in my head for awhile and recently it has started to become more and more clear. The goal is to get it mostly planned out before November 1.

Tell me your thoughts! Are you interested in fiction writing? Anything you'd like to see me talk about? I would really love to know.

Manda Rave

P.S. You guys should totally check out Angie's latest post -an interview with yours truly!

Explore

I want to run off into the unknown woods and feel the ground beneath my feet and the wind against my skin. I want to roam in fields of wildflowers and climb old trees that are filled with so many stories if only they could speak. I want to take my shoes off and walk through streams and collect smooth pebbles and put dandelions in my hair. I want to lay in tall grass and get lost looking at the clouds. I want to hear twigs crack under me as I run through the raw wild. I want to discover and explore.

Lady Unlaced

The Distant Stars // A Poem

I wrote this yesterday and though I would share. I think it still needs some editing though. Thoughts? 

Buy print here.

The Distant Stars

There are stars so far away

That you need to unfold your soul

And shoot it off into the sky

Just to get a look at them

But those stars are the most beautiful of them all

And they are waiting patiently

For you to unfurl yourself

And come seek them in the infinite ether

They are the stars with the most stories to tell

And wisdom that will shake your bones

They burn with truths

Holding together the universe simply by existing

Lady Unlaced

Wordy Wednesday // Inspiration

No lovely words this week, just some writing inspiration/motivation I thought I would share with you all.

 Every story, every incident, every bit of conversation is raw material for me. I would like to be everyone; a cripple, a dying man, a whore, and then come back to write about my thoughts, my emotions, as that person. But I am not omniscient. I have to live my life, and it is the only one I’ll ever have.

— Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, August 1950

When you spend time with your friends, what do you talk about? Those things which made an impression on you that day, that week … I write stories the same way. Events at home, in school, at work, in the street, these are the bases for a story. Some experiences leave such a deep impression that instead of talking about them at the club I work them into a novel.

— Naguib Mahfouz 

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If you have a tumblr account and want a writing bog to follow for stuff like this all the time then you should check out mine, altarofwords.tumblr.com.

Lady Unlaced