Beautiful Books Linkup #2: How's the Writing Going?

I'm doing the second Beautiful Books linkup with The Notebook Sisters! 

1. Be honest: how is your writing going? 

It's going really well! I've surprised myself: I didn't think I would be able to maintain hand-writing six pages a day, but so far I have been able to. Today I wrote ten pages. The first week was hard because my hand would get really sore. Now, however, the muscles are used to the strenuous workout they are receiving, and don't hurt so much at the end of the day anymore.

2. What’s your first sentence/paragraph? 
(This is from chapter 36, by the way, since I didn't start at the beginning.)

"This is how this torture will work," the man said to Mr. F, "I will start with your toes, then move on to your feet, and then your legs, and I will continue up your body until you are so burned you will be unrecognizable."

Mr. F's brain wasn't working. Burn...? He was still trying to figure out what that meant when he felt warmth on his big toe. It slowly permeated his calluses and then his toe started to burn.

Fire! Of course! Mr. F grit his teeth and prepared for the pain.

3. Do you have a book cover, and/or pictures that reflect your book?
I don't even have a name yet... so definitely no cover... Here are some pictures, though:

This picture cracks me up. :P

 

4. Do you have pictures of each of your characters? If not, describe them for us! (Be as descriptive as you can.)

Rozella, the Princess

Mangle, the Bard

Alonzo, the Cat

Inspiration for Mr. F.

Hag is my other main character and she is a warty, ugly old woman. But I couldn't find any pictures of ugly old women online, so you'll just have to do with that description. =)

5. What scene are you most excited to write?
The scene where one of the main characters is shot with an arrow. Heh heh...

6. Share a snippet or a scene that you really enjoyed writing. 

Uhh...

"This is how this torture will work..." 

Just kidding. I'm not sure. And I'm watching The Scarlet Pimpernel so I don't want to go searching through my notebook for a good scene.

7. Now that you're writing, have any of the plot details, or the process itself, turned out different from what you planned or imagined?
Hahahahahahaa... yes. I've been writing this story for the whole year and you'd think that by now I'd have all the characters figured out. Nope, a new character showed up a few days ago and demanded to join my main characters on their quest. This rarely happens to me and it threw me for a loop. I had no clue what to do! For now I'm letting him tag along.

8. Is there a character or aspect of your plot that's difficult to write?
Well, this surprise character is making himself difficult. He's toying with me. He won't tell me whether he's twenty-two or nineteen. He's condescended to let me know that he comes from a large family.

9. What’s your favorite aspect of this novel so far? Favorite character?
My favorite aspect is the potential for this novel to become something great; that through copious edits I can craft something with only words that will be a masterpiece, even if I'm the only one who knows all its secrets.

10. Have you drawn off of any life experiences or people you know to create your novel and your characters?
Mangle the Bard is based on my piano teacher and his wife, my choir director. Sometimes I catch glimpses of myself or my friends and family in my characters.

11. Do you have a playlist or certain song for your novel and/or characters?

Not really. To inspire the fantasy setting I listen to the Peer Gynt Suites by Edvard Grieg and The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas. Otherwise, I've been mostly listening to Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, and Vince Guaraldi. Strangely, A Horse with No Name by America is strangely fitting right now. Haha.

12. Let’s have some fun for a moment: imagine you are somehow transported into your book’s world. Which character are you most likely to be found hanging out with?

We haven't been having fun already? :P

I'd probably be found hanging out with Draegond because he's epic, or Mangle the Bard because he's epic too.

13. How do you keep yourself motivated to finish your daily wordcount? (Pinterest? Internet breaks? Chocolate?)

My story is actually keeping me pretty motivated right now! I really want to finish it before year's end!

14. What your favourite writing quote or piece of writing advice?

Not only young authors, ANY author.

15. How does this book make you feel so far? Are you laughing? Crying? Frustrated?
This book is making me feel excited about writing. Today, while researching Iambic Pentameter for my book, excitement thrilled through my heart; not an excitement I commonly feel. Actually, I can only remember feeling this excitement once before, when I was reading about outlining. Is this how you know that you're meant to do something, when you get a deep excitement through the core of your heart? That, or I'm weirder than I thought... do you know anyone else who gets excited about outlining essays with sub-sub-sub-sub points? I don't.
It's the little parts of writing that make me excited... Knowing the "rules" and utilizing them to my advantage. There are so many more than you'd think... I didn't fully know how much there is to writing until I started my writing class. It's fascinating and exciting and it makes me want to spend eight hours a day just molding sentences!

Well, we're just coming to the climax of The Scarlet Pimpernel so I shall end now.

Sink meh! 'Tis the end!  

NaNoWriMo: Day 1

My Saturday was empty... and then I found out we had hair appointments... and then a wedding came out of no where (not mine)... and suddenly my Perfect NaNoWriMo-ing day went out the window! Oh well, I will still manage. The wedding isn't for another hour, so let's see how many works I can wrack up before then!

11:50: I'm beginning to think writing this book out by hand was not the right idea...

12:16: I got three of my daily six pages done and now I need to take a shower! Perchance you will not hear from me again until this afternoon or evening.

3:34: Back from the wedding and it's time to write again! I'm going to try get ahead today because it's always good to get ahead.
Listening to: Pandora radio on a shuffle mix of Elton John, Paul McCartney, Vince Guaraldi, and Antonio Vivaldi.
Last sentence: "I'll tell you about it later tonight, but just let me rest first."

3:48: I just finished my fourth page!
Listening to: Blackbird, sung by Paul McCartney.
Last sentence: "I think we're safe to talk freely down here."

4:07: Onto page six!
Listening to: Another One Bites the Dust-ah! Dun dun dun dun dun dun. By Queen.
Last Sentence: "The leaders with a particular vision and the ability to inspire others."

4:41: Nearly finished with page seven. I've made my word count for today! Huzzah! I will keep writing until 5:00 and then take a break to watch a Doctor Who episode.
Listening to: Another Queen song. Can anybody, find meee... somebody to looove...
Last sentence: "You're welcome. Well, I couldn't let you die!"
Word count: 1,700ish words.

5:25: So much for a Doctor Who break... I'm on a role and am now at nine pages. I really want to finish this chapter. One or two more pages... Maybe I'll just keep writing until I get to the end of the chapter. Hee hee.

5:53: All right, I'm done for the day. Ten and a half pages! Not too shabby. And I wrote one whole chapter. That doesn't often happen in one sitting/day.
Listening to: The end of a Star Trek episode in the background.
Last sentence: Draegond didn't like that look.
Final word count for day 1: About 2,900 words! Huzzah!

For those of you doing NaNoWriMo, how many words have YOU gotten on this first day?

Live long and prosper.

Beautiful Books Linkup #1

Once upon a time there was a linkup called Beautiful People which asked questions about writer's characters. I discovered it just as it was winding dying... but lately, the Notebook Sisters have revived it! Only, during the next few months, in honor of NaNoWriMo*, they are doing a book-version of Beautiful People called Beautiful Books. You can read all about it HERE.

What better way to prepare for NaNoWriMo, than to answer fifteen questions about my project?

1. What came first: characters or plot idea? Are you a plotter or a pantser? 
If I remember correctly, a snippet of plot came first (they usually do). We were in the Midwest visiting my grandparents last December and I went for a walk in the snow in blue jeans and by the time I got back inside, I couldn't feel my thighs. I thought, "Frozen thighs—that sounds like a good description! I should make that happen to a character in the snow. And what if that character was an elf who could walk on top of the snow? And he had to help a princess struggle through the drifts?" 
I've since nixed the elf-walking-on-snow idea, but the princess and the snow stayed, and that simple scene morphed into a book.

I tend to be more of a plotter, though with this book I've challenged myself not to write an outline. While writing without an outline is fun and allows the plot to change and develop as I go along, I dread having to wade through the shifting storyline when I go back to edit. 

2. Do you have a title and/or a “back-cover-blurb”? 
*groan* Don't make me even THINK about a title yet; I have no clue. Here's the blurb I put on the NaNoWriMo website: "The hag has been kidnapped and the misfit and the princess—along with their merry band of tag-alongs—must rescue her."

3. What word count are you aiming for when your novel is finished?
Somewhere around 100,000 words. At least half of that has already been written. The other half will be written during NaNoWriMo.

4. Sum up your novel in 3 sentences.
Uhhh... (Does that count as one of my sentences? Does that one?) There, I'm done! Just kidding, I'll do a serious one...
A book about a princess who must learn about civilization after being trapped, all alone, her whole life. A book about a misunderstood, mistrusted man who would rather hide away and ignore his problems than accept who he is. A book about a world that is so much bigger than anyone realizes (including the author).

5. Sum up your characters in one word each.
Rozella: Clueless.
[Spoilers-if-I-were-to-reveal-his-name-let's-call-him-Mr.F]: Misguided.
Draegond: Mysterious. (Even though he's not supposed to be.)
Lynnie: Sweet. 
King John: Manipulative.
Hag: Grumpy.
Mangle: Naive.
King Francis: Cocky.

6. Which character are you most excited to write? Tell us about them! 
I'm really looking forwards to introducing Mangle. He's a bard who speaks only in poetry or song, so I'm excited to delve into that! 

Mangle the Bard? Possibly, though he needs brown hair.

7. What about your villain? Who is he, what is his goal?
King John is my villain. He wants to rule over the whole Kingdom and depose the other four kings.

8. What is your protagonist’s goal? And what stands in the way?
Mr. F's goal is to get out of prison, somehow survive, and live his own life far away from people and responsibility. Prison bars stand in his way, obviously, and also the person who put him there in the first place: King John. Later on, his goal becomes to rescue various damsels in distress (such as the kidnapped Hag) and reunite with his family.

9. What inciting incident begins your protagonist’s journey?
King John orders Mr. F to rescue Princess Rozella, who has been trapped in a tower since she was a baby. 

Inspiration for Rozella. I believe this is Barbara Kent, but I'm not sure because I didn't write it down.

10. Where is your novel set?
A made-up land with no name (yet).

11. What are three big scenes in your novel that change the game completely?
When Hag is kidnapped, when Mr. F escapes, and when Rozella is shot. (A theme with my books seems to be that the hero needs to escape from behind bars... hmmm...)

12. What is the most dynamic relationship your character has? Who else do they come in contact with or become close to during the story?
Mr. F's most dynamic relationship is with Draegond, his best friend. Draegond is the only one he trusts completely and who knows all his secrets. He also has a bond with Hag, because they are both outcasts and because they are both different. 

Draegond looks like a mix between Patrick Dempsey and Patrick Jane (whose real name I can't remember).

Strangely, Rozella's most dynamic relationship is probably with her cat, Alonzo. He was her sole companion while she was growing up and even though he can't talk back, Rozella told him all her secrets. Rozella's also has a dynamic relationship with Mr. F, whom she longs to get to know better, but can't—because he won't let her in, though mostly because she's engaged to King John. She also has a special bond with her mother and brother.

"Allons-y Alonzo!" You don't know how happy looking up cat pictures made me... I used to search for cat pictures all the time when I did Warrior Cats roleplays. I found this picture on a Warriors roleplay site... his name is Redstorm.

13. How does your protagonist change by the end of the novel?
Mr. F embraces who is and shrugs off the robe of laziness and cowardice that he has been wearing.

14. Do you have an ending in mind, or do you plan to see what happens? 
I know exactly what is going to happen. *evil grin*

What? No, I'm not going to tell you. Well, I can tell you that there is a battle (because what good fantasy novel doesn't end with a huge battle?) Actually, that's about all there is to the ending... of course there is the little matter of what happens after the battle, but I haven't got that completely figured out yet.

15. What are your hopes and dreams for your book? What impressions are you hoping this novel will leave on your readers and yourself?
Eventually I would like to have it published, or publish it myself. Next year I plan to do extensive plotting (both in character, plot, and theme) and then rewrite the book numerous times. I don't expect it will be finished any time soon, as it is such a massive project. 
I hope this novel shows readers that even though it's hard to be human being sometimes, the solution isn't running away and hiding; responsibility can't be hid from. Hey, this sounds like the story of Jonah!

Live long and prosper.

*NaNoWriMo- National Novel Writing Month. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people write 50,000 word novels during the month of November. Find out more on NaNoWriMo's website.

NaNoWriMo Approacheth

Only 24 days, 4 hours, 26 minutes, and 45 seconds until NaNoWriMo! 40 seconds 39, 38, 37...
I'm not starting a new novel which, technically, is against the rules... but since I know the rules, I'm allowed to break them, right? Oh, that only has to do with writing conventions and correct grammar?
Anyway, I'm going to be (hopefully!) finishing the fantasy story that I started writing at the beginning of the year. For a long time I thought I was very far from being halfway finished but now, I think I'm closer than I thought! I'd estimate there is about 30,000-50,000 words of story left. And I'm hoping to get those 30,000-50,000 written during NaNoWriMo. It will be tough, however, since I am writing this story out by hand in notebooks. I'm only eight pages away from finishing the Beatles notebook. I'm going to finish those eight pages and then write in a new, blue, 5-subject notebook bought especially for NaNoWriMo. It's pretty thick and I don't anticipate having to use the whole thing; the rest of the notebook will be used for world building, character building, and a very, very detailed outline in the future.
I can't wait! November is my favorite month.

Are any of you doing NaNoWriMo? Are you writing by hand or typing on the computer? What will you be writing?

Live long and prosper!

Day 1 (or 1.5?): London.

Friday, April 18, we packed up the car and drove up to Canada to pick up my grandma and then go to the Vancouver Airport where our flight to London was taking off. (Wow, what a cool airport. The international section has a fish tank and a "river" in it!)

Our plane:

On the long, ten hour flight, I mostly slept. But I did sample the wide variety of movies and TV shows (they had Sherlock season 3. Isn't that crazy?) the airplane supplied for free... I watched Frozen! What a gorgeous movie. I did, however, think that it had a lot of unused potential plot and character wise.
Amazingly, I woke up right as we were passing over the final corner of Greenland! I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures of the ice. How beautiful!

It doesn't look green to me...

We landed 2:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, London time, which, for us, was about 5 AM. But you don't want to waste an entire afternoon sleeping, so, after checking into our hotel, St. David's, my mom and dad and I went to hit a few shops.
First on our list was... THE TINTIN SHOP!!!!!!! =D On Floral Street. This is one of the major reasons we made this side trip to London.
If you ever go to London, and are a fan of Tintin, GO HERE! It's a teeny tiny little shop, about the size of two hallways side by side. It's got tons of Tintin books and merchandise everywhere. Behind the counter hang Tintin t-shirts and in the counter's glass display case, there are ton of miniatures from the books. Mostly cars and XFLR-6's. The whole time we were in there it was packed.

 (Me, my dad, and Tintin. Am I short, or is he just tall? Either way, Tintin's the smallest.)

After the Tintin shop, we walked through the packed streets to Forbidden Planet, which is a huge sci-fi/fantasy store (with a basement full of sci-fi/fantasy books!). 

Along the way we saw many beautiful buildings (I think the architecture of London is going to have to be a separate post). We also saw some picture-worthy sights...

 

This is a street in Covent Garden where seven roads converge. In the middle of the circular area is this monument, unveiled by Queen Beatrix (who abdicated her throne to her son last year) of the Netherlands!

We also found a cool stature honoring Agatha Christie:

And we saw the funniest - if you are a fan of the show Sherlock and/or Elementary - sign on the side of a car. (There are hardly any billboards in London - all the advertisements are either on the sides of cabs, buses, or in shop windows. Strangely, this was how it was over 100 years ago too! In the 1900's, 'omnibuses,' which were double-decker carriages pulled by horses, would have advertisements on their sides as well!)

Anyway, on the side of this van we saw this picture:

An advertisement for Elementary, America's modernized Sherlock Holmes, which says "believe in better." This is ironically funny because England was the first to have the idea of modernizing Sherlock Holmes (with their show "Sherlock") and when America announced their intention to do one as well, there was some tension, and a lot of uproar from the fans of Sherlock (myself included... though now I'm not really into either show).

Forbidden Planet was a pretty cool store. It had a huge window display with this epic statue of Sauron (not the Eye; the one who had his finger chopped off), an equally cool statue of Chewbacca, and a giant paper cutout of the Fourth Doctor, with a reproduction of the Fourth Doctor's scarf draped around it's thin neck. 

Inside was chaos. Lots of people looked here and there and dashing about. When you first walk in you are wowed by a huge glass case filled with figurines. The shop also boasted many t-shirts, a giant section of Doctor Who stuff, some pretty neat Star Trek and Lord of the Rings stuff, and merchandise from other fan bases as well. My mom wasn't too interested, so she sat and read her quilt magazine underneath a giant model of the Enterprise-D.

Downstairs, as I mentioned, there was a bookstore. I don't read a tremendous amount of modern fantasy and sci-fi, which is what they had a lot of, so we went pretty quick through that corner. Another section was devoted to comics and manga. They had a huge section for DVDs and an equally huge section dedicated to guides about certain TV shows and movies. I bought a Tolkien journal to take notes of our trip in.

Fun fact: 30 years ago, when my dad went traveling around Europe for a year, he had the same journal! Of course, they've given it a new cover, but the inside drawings are all the same!

Our final stop Friday night was Foyles Bookstore, one of the hugest bookstores in the world, I believe! (Though Powell's in Portland, Oregon could definitely rival it. Plus, Powell's has better prices. If London is too far away, go to Powell's! And give me a call. I'll meet you there and we can spend the day riffling through shelves and shelves and shelves and shelves [and shelves and shelves] of books and ignoring each other because of all the books!). 

I wanted to go to Foyles because, well, it's a giant bookstore! But also because I knew they would have The World of Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (all his Jeeves and Wooster short stories, save one, in one volume). I could have ordered it from Half Price Books.com, and probably saved some money, but I thought it would be fun to buy a book in London! I ended up getting three (all Jeeves and Wooster, because they are harder to find in the USA... or, at least where I live. I'm determined to read the novels in the right order and our silly library system has the first one, but not the second! For another of Wodehouse's series, the library has the second book, but not the first! ARGH!)

 

 

Four stories of bookish bliss. Since it was getting late, however, and we wanted to turn in a bit early, we didn't stay too long, and soon meandered back to our hotel, after nabbing some dinner. 

Thus ended our first day in London!

P.S. I do believe this marks my 100th post with the tagline "books"! *confetti*