NaNo Eve

Its Friday! Again I'm not going to youth! (This is getting depressing) No, I'm just sitting here, listening to music and blogging, with a touch of Pintrest! But there is something different about this night. Yes, it is the day before NaNoWriMo! The last day of October.

I've been raving about this NaNoWriMo thing all month, and now its here, I'm starting to feel slightly nervous about it. I will start at 12:00 am this morning (Just for the kick off) 

I made a character quote/picture of Alice. 

Am I ready? Well with it being NaNoWriMo eve, yes I am prepared! I have got a nice stash of good old coffee, and snacks. As ready as I could ever be. All I can think of is 'How am I going to introduce the opening scene?' What is the opening scene going to be? Well this I will have to find out when the time comes! 

I'm looking forward to the pep talks this year. I got the first one from Kami Garcia, author of Beautiful creatures. Her pep talk is Here! The other ones will be from Jim Butcher, Tamora Pierce, Veronica Roth, Brandon Sanderson, and Chuck Wendig. 

These pep talks are really helpful letters written by well-known authors during the month of November. 

I just wanted to share the blog Ravens and Writing Desks. They are an amazing read. Lots of really good inspiration and wisdom from some wonderful girls. (I do lots of promotions of blogs on here). They are doing NaNoPlaMo. Planning posts for Camp/NaNoWriMo. Giving advice on subjects such as, Plot, Characters and Setting. So head on to them for some broad writing advice. 

Don't forget that there is also GoTeenWriters for the writing experience for teens writers! 

I'll be back tomorrow with my first NoNoProgress post, where I will keep you updated with my word count, writing progress, and other random things I have to talk about. I will also throw in a daily author quote about writing. Looking forward to it! 

-Rachel    

First character Quote

Its only two days to NaNoWriMo. If you have yet to sign up, I suggest you do it now! The time is running up on us! Under 60 days to Christmas, Then the New Year!!!

One thing I've noticed in writers groups is the Character quotes! I love reading other peoples character quotes. And there tends to be an abundance of them. I've never really had a quote to share, or the program to make one. 

The inspiration sprung up on me last night. I had just gotten myself a notebook for writing down anything that came to mind (while my laptop was not running) So I started filling the page with random things that Iris, my MC had to say. That was when some words came to me. The words of how Iris described her uniqueness. So I made a character quote to day (my first one!) -Rachel 

   

Beautiful Books: NaNoWriMo Plotting Questionare

So with all this NaNo stuff swinging into action, there is a lot of help out there. I am so grateful to all the bloggers and YouTubers that made this so much easier!
What I am going to do on this post, is answering some questions regarding my novel planning! That the amazing blog Notebook Sisters have set up. They have set up a challenge, or something like that; for bloggers doing NaNoWriMo, or just writing in general. The description about it is on their blog here. The thing is that they will post a series of questions once a month for three months. (October: Planning (November: Writing (December: Editing! 15 questions about ones work in progress. Here is my October one (seeing that November is only 4 days away)

Question one: What came first: characters or plot idea? Are you a plotter or a pantser?

I am most definitely a plotter! I like to have my ideas mostly ready before starting something. Well to be fair, my characters came first. After signing up, I went straight into the planning. I didn't really know what I wanted. All I knew, was that it had to be a beautiful tale. But my character came to mind first thing. A girl with white hair. And it all started from there!

Question two: Do you have a title and/or a "back-cover-blurb"?

Yes I have a title. It took me a while to come up with one. But after a decent amount of planning, and outlining, I stumbled over a word that became my title. It works in every aspect to the story than I could ever imagine. Blurb is yet to be properly written out. Doing that seems like less of a priority at the moment, and would proffer to do it at the end. (Title: Clandestine)

Question three: What word count are you aiming for when your novel is finished?

The goal of NaNoWriMo is to hit the 50,000 mark. But after all the editing is done, I hope to have over 80,000 words. I can see that after going over everything, there will be a lot to fill in.

Question four: Sum up your novel in three sentences.

Iris finds out the dirty secrets of her past, the secrets her father has vouched to hide for so long. Iris and her sister set out to find the evidence of what really happened. Iris founds out who she really is, and has to understand that as dark as the secrets may be, they make her who she is!

Question five: Sum up your characters in one word each.

Levi: Cold
Alice: Broken
Jolene: Stunning
Jack: Straight forward
Iris: Concealed
Priss: Extrovert
Loy: Humorous
Fray: Protective

Question six: which character are you most exited to write? Tell us about them!

To be honest I would have to says its Alice. Its weird, cause she's dead. But her letters and Journal tell the situation from how she saw it. I really grieve for her! Even in her death, she holds so much.

Question seven: What about your villain? Who is he, and what is his goal?

Hard one! I don't really have a "Villain"! Levi is the closest I have to a villain/bad guy! The thing that makes him bad is what he did in the past. And keeping Iris from her true self. He his not overly nice to Iris (hard on her). But what makes him really bad, is his pride. I watch men fall from their pride all to often.

Questions eight: What is your Protagonist's goal? And what stands in the way?

I don't really know for sure. I think the main goal Iris has is to find out who she really is. And the thing keeping her from having it is her Father.

Question nine: What inciting incident begins your protagonist's journey?

Meeting her mother!  (screams internally)

Question ten: Where is your novel set?

A fictional city (am yet to name) I am going to have to say (if I have to name a country) Europe!
Future time unknown. But much later on...

Question eleven: What are three big sense in your novel that change the game completely?

1. Jack seeing Iris in a shadow Jacket!
2. Seeing her mother
And I'm unsure of what else at the moment!

Question twelve: What is the most dynamic relationship your character has? Who else to they come into contact with or become close to during the story?

I would have to say Iris and Priss. Their relationship is the one that goes through the most. She becomes very close to Jack, the shadow boy. Their relationship starts to take a romantic turn later on in the story.

Question thirteen:  How does your protagonist change by the end of the novel?

I don't know for sure! I don't know her well enough, to know how she will change along with the truth. Though I think she becomes stronger.

Question fourteen: Do you have a ending in mind? Or do you plan to see what happens?

For a matter of fact, I do have an ending in mind! But I am flexible enough to change it if needs be!

Question Fifteen: What are your hopes and dreams for your book? What impression are you hoping this novel will leave on your readers and yourself?

Excellent question! I want to have it published one day... I feel like it has a great potential! It will not just finish with the one book. I have already organized the general idea for the second and third book. Impression: I want it to move people. But the main dream is to get it finished! And for it to be amazing! And for people to love it!


-Rachel

Out of the Woods

Its here! I'm not much of a Taylor Swift fan, but I still love some of the songs she puts out. And her new song Out of the Woods is finally ready to listen to on YouTube. I don't know what I like about it, I think its just they way she say "are we out of the woods yet? are we in the clear yet, good!" The song makes me think about a story I am trying to work on, (The ones that Got away)

Or maybe I just have a thing about woods (which I do! trust me, every story I write has a woods in it...)

What am I going to do tonight? Well since I'm not going to youth group tonight, I'm going to stay home, eat pizza, listen to music, and maybe even watch In Time (the best movie ever! Just saying)
Oh and its my friends birthday tomorrow, so I should probably make her something.

Other crazy goals: Well other than eating pizza, I also want to make chocolate, chocolate chip muffins. They are amazing to eat hot with a hot chocolate (enjoy the rest of the cold days!)

NaNoWriMo: Yes this thing that I keep talking about, and will continue to talk about. NaNoWriMo is only 7 days way... just less than a week away!
At the moments I'm just chugging along. I have most of my story planned out, and will just end up going with the flow for the rest of it . I don't think there is any way you can force your characters to do exactly what you want... sometimes you just have to let them take the lead for a while.

Any way! I am all prepared. Calendar and all. As you can probably tell I'm a planner. I enjoy order.
I'm exited to find out other people who are doing it this year. I found out the other day that my friend is doing it (check her blog out here) And a group of other people from Palmy. I'm happy to say, that the Youth Space is hosting it this year!!!! *Happiness*

November forewarning: So in the 30 days of November, I will update my day and word count, on this blog everyday.

-Rachel      

Sleeping Flowers

Dreams: I read a while ago about how we dream. Apparently in the early hours of the morning we have something called "Rapid eye moment" this causes us to have dreams. I do know that some people don't even dream... its sounds crazy for me, cause I dream every night whether I remember them or not.
I think that even though the way we dream can be explained though science, that the reasons of the things we see are some what of a mystery... (we could go deeper into this, but I wont)

I don't think I've had a nightmare in a while. Though that does not mean that when I dream I have perfect visions to spend the early hours of the morning in! No, most of my dreams are in recurring places full of things I cant understand, and I'm always in trouble.

I keep going to these same places, such as my Grandparents house, hiding in their walking in wardrobes (I know! They have walk in wardrobes!) The wardrobes seem to be a safe place for me in those dreams. As a child, we (my cousins and sibling) were never aloud to go into them. (But we did the quick look anyway) I think we always thought we would find Narnia or something like that!
Another place that seems to come is the square in Palmerston North. Its funny how much it changes from reality. Watching streets morph, long hallways, and destruction.
Sometimes I wonder if I will ever find what I'm looking for. The consultation is never revealed... and in the end I will have to keep on running to find out whats going on.
(Odd I know)

I saw a flower sleeping last night. We have small pot plants on our bathroom windowsill. And in one of them has a clover. I was looking at it earlier in the day, thinking about how cool it would be to find a 4 leafed clover. But I guess its not the clovers fault its only got 3. The real question is, what would you do if you found a clover with 4 leaves? The luck of finding it? I think its just that. 4 leaves meaning nothing really. I just means its different to the others of its kind... if only we could think of different people like 4 leafed clovers!
Watching it sleep was amazing. The thought that it was not just a plant that sat there. But that it went with the cycle of the day, just like we do. Waking in the morning, sleeping at night. Folding its self in to sleep, like we do with our covers at night.

-Rachel

Yup Its New York

Has the flu got you? Sadly for me its been hitting on and off for about six weeks. And now my mouth is sore and half swollen just under my tongue. But lets just say, I'm fighting it the best I can... 

Books: Today I got five books out of the library. Three of them are for a history essay. And the others are Dystopian novels. And on top of that I have Insurgent to read as well, oh and the tale of two cities. *cough* lots of books to read!  

The picture of the City: Ummm, yeah! I am yet to look into what city it is (so dumb). Kidding!(Not really...) Its New York!                                               Any way, I seem to have a collection of these photos. Originally cause I wanted them as a background for this blog. But they were to small, so I just had to go with the backgrounds that they provided.                                                                     The background I have now is a nice one though. I like pictures of stained glass. If I was to design my own house, I would have a round window with stained glass.                                                               Plus there would be a lot of fairy lights... (off the subject of New York in every way)                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Admiring the amazing sounds of New Zealand music! This is one of my favorite tunes to write to at the moment. I'm sure every body has a favorite music genre to write to... Mine is the lulling type. 

Another cover

Here is another cover! Sorry just had to! This is the Iris cover... 

-Rachel

Clandestine Book Cover Design

Today I did some tinkering round with some photos, and came up with a temporary cover for my NaNo novel 'Clandestine,' and looking at it now, I think its pretty good! Getting one step closer everyday... 10 days till NaNoWriMo.

I still have a bit of world building to do, and names to find. But other wise, I feel I have most of it sorted out. #So-fancy

Just have to share this cover Ellie Goulding did of Kodaline's song "All I Want" love it!

-Rachel

A Brief on Clandestine

Good things come in all shapes and sizes. And at the moment I'm trying really hard to count my blessings. Yesterday Insurgent finally was waiting for me at the library. I had been waiting a long time for it, (but I will forgive the fact, that many people 'just like myself' are wanting to read it) so I'm happy I've got it. Only sad thing about this series is that I mistakenly read a spoiler for the 3rd book, and just about died!

I found a picture of my main character Iris! It was very hard to find any pictures of girls with white

hair. So white blonde was the closest I could get. Any way, back to Iris and the story. I will explain a bit about my NaNoWriMo story, Clandestine's culture: I will run over a brief explanation of the world. I have already explained in my other post Story Building about the city that I had come up with, and a small bit about the setting and such.

The city is all the people know. The world beyond is never mentioned. And besides they are never to go beyond the Neverland, and even then the Neverland forbidden ground... and only used for the use of burying the dead.

The people are split up into the Four Races: Luminosity, Inferno, Shadow, and Iciest. All living in the same city. Life is some what a peaceful and collective way of living. Although you keep to your people groups, and don't go beyond. They live together, work together, yet they can't ''be together."

So I guess you could say the city I built to be like Utopia, but the world underneath is really Dystopia.
And one thing I've noticed with a lot of novels that have this Utopian society going on, really have a deep Dystopia, that goes unknown or thought of by the people. I would say that to be the situation of this city (I really need to find a name!)

Iris is an Iciest... she lives with her twin sister (Priss), Father (Levi) and Grandmother (Silvia). Life is not always what you think. The title of the novel "Clandestine"meaning 'secrets' or to keep something hidden, is the perfect word for the story! Iris discovers the truths to her existence, the secrets kept by so many people. We see her world unravel in dramatic ways. The whole story is all about secrets. And in the end they make up who we are, whether we like it or not.
I'm getting so exited to write this. I've never had an idea so strong like this before!

NaNoWriMo is in 16 days!!!:)

And yes, over the last two weeks, I have already briefly planned out the second and third book. I knew it was going to be more than the one book. (I'm just like that)

-Rachel            
 

Sky full of Stars

School holidays are over! I know, and its sad. Mum got me up early this morning, and I actually ended up eating a proper breakfast. (Eating's good for you!) 

Being Homeschooled, I actually for a fact don't need to go to school! I know right! But that does not mean that I don't do school stuff. This morning I read a bit in my ww2 history book, about guns that they used during the war. Then I read some of my language arts book, and it turns out I'm supposed to start reading the 'Tale of Two City's' by Charles Dickens. I don't mind so much about reading this one. I really like the period of the French Revolution! So it shouldn't be to hard to get into. 

I also do math! Its not my favorite. But it turns out I can do it. So I use Khan Academy  https://www.khanacademy.org/, this website is open for students of all ages, any school, and I think any country!?

 There is something I love when I look up to the stars! They are the visions beautiful dreams... they show us that there is world beyond, we look at them and see how great our creator is. There is so much more than meets than meets the eye. And the one thing that I love more than anything, its that when we see the greatness of the heavens, I understand that any dream is possible!

-Rachel

 

  

Story Building

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is coming up in only 19 days!
I'm feeling comfortable with my plot, and world building. Going steady with outlining. For me its the trick of having the idea all planed out (cause I cant start writing till November the 1st) I like to have that order.

World building: The moment I began the thinking process I decided that I was going to write a dystopian novel. I could already see the world in its entirety. For me setting is important. To keep things simple I created a city (Name in progress) And to be honest, I like this city.
My world is not dying, or in the middle of an apocalypses. The word I would like to describe it as is Fallen. The story is based in the future. I have no date on it or anything, its just the future, not past, not present.

Title: The other day I typed down some titles that I thought might work for the novel. Usually I don't bother with finding a good title till the very end. But Today I found the perfect one. I looked up the synonym for 'secret,' (a key word to the story)
A word pounced at me as I looked at the list "Clandestine" (to do something secretively)
So that is going to be my Story Title. I feel it fits the plot so perfectly. Plus its one of those words you don't use every day.

-Rachel

Writers Quotes

"Your voice is important, and your story matter."

"Don't forget - no one else sees the world the way you do, 

So no one else can tell the stories that you 

have to tell."

"Whether or not you write well, Write Bravely"

"If a writer falls in love with you, you can never die."

"The Writer is by nature a dreamer - a conscious dreamer."

I am a Writer. And i love it!

The Civil Wars - The One That Got Away

"The One That Got Away"

I never meant to get us in this deep
I never meant for this to mean a thing
Oh, I wish you were the one
Wish you were the one that got away

I got caught up by the chase
And you got high on every little game
I wish you were the one
Wish you were the one that got away

Oh, if I could go back in time
When you only held me in my mind
Just a longing gone without a trace
Oh, I wish I'd never ever seen your face
I wish you were the one
Wish you were the one that got away

I miss the way you wanted me
When I was staying just out of your reach
Begging for the slightest touch
Ooh, you couldn't get enough, mmm

Oh, if I could go back in time
When you only held me in my mind
Just a longing gone without a trace
Oh, I wish I'd never ever seen your face
I wish you were the one
Wish you were the one that got away

Got away from me
Got away from me
Before anybody has to bleed

Oh, if I could go back in time
When you only held me in my mind
Just a longing gone without a trace
Oh, I wish I'd never ever seen your face
I wish you were the one
I wish you were the one
Oh, I wish you were the one
I wish you were the one that got away

Utopia/Dystopia

Book genres, I don't think I will every get board learn the names of the many genres. A month or two ago I came across a genre name I had never heard of before. Dystopia, nope never heard of it.

Although there was something about it that made me want to know the meaning, so naturally I put the word into Google. 

A society Characterized, by human misery as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding. The opposite of a Utopian society. (world at its end basically)

If you have ever watched movies such as, The Matrix, Terminator, etc, you would have noticed the destruction of the world as week know it. Ones like that is Dystopia at its purest. Though there are others such as, The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Giver, and The Maze Runner, which have a Dystopian, Uptopian feel to it. Everything has its levels. 

Utopia is the image of a perfect society. Paradise, heaven...

Some of the most popular YA fiction has a dystopian element to it. And to be honest I oddly enjoy it... (More on the subject to come) 

-Rachel 

    

A Long Day of Time-lining/Outlining

Fine in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon. I think the weather service did a pretty good job this time. The clouds are out, the wind is up.
But I never said I was outside today. I observed the weather from out dinning room window. And may have spent about 10 minutes out in the garden talking to Mum. But at that point the wind had picked up, and my cardigan wasn't doing a very good job keeping me warm, so I went back inside.

I am still in the process of remembering its actually Sunday. That's what happens when you don't attend church... (I do go to church. we just didn't go today)
I played the piano a bit... Amazing myself at how much I remembereed how to play. I only know the occasional song. I'm self taught, so I will just learn what ever I want. At the moment I can play, All of me, Downton Abbey, Fur Elise... I'm trying to learn how to play "Stay" by Rihanna, (getting there ever so slightly)

The main thing I did today was write out my second timeline for my NaNoWriMo story. I am still unsure of the title... But at the moment that is not first priority. I have, as I may have mentioned been keeping a journal type of thing on my NaNoWriMo novel. Basically typing every idea I have on the story down on the document.
The other day I had written my first timeline/outline on the story. There are many different ways of doing this. The way I do it is writing key sentences of the plot after bullet points. Today I finished with 31 bullet points, after breaking down my first timeline, that only had 20.
Though after writing out my second timeline, I felt like I need to explain them to myself. So I wrote a description for each one. In the end I ended up writing a complete overview of my entire story. I have high confidence that I have established my plot.
(Soon I will start sharing parts of my plot)

Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D is back on TV... Season two. I love this TV series more than any other. So I look forward to Sunday nights!

-Rachel

             

October Outlining

NaNoWriMo: After stumbling across NaNoWriMo, I just had to do it. The month of November is National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. I had heard about it maybe once before, but that was before I was really ever interested in looking into things.
I read the site and found out the interesting part of this month (that I usually drift through) On finding that it was more than just acknowledging novels, but to write them. The goal of the month is to write a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November.

For some this sounds like an impossible task. But really all it is is 1667 words a day. I did a small estimation, and it turns out that if your story is going to be 50,000 words, then your could have 25 chapters with about 2000 words in each one. That means reaching the goal of writing a chapter a day. At first I thought I wouldn't do it. Cause I was already in the midst of writing another novel, although it was very on and off, struggling to express ideas. I was trying to give myself time to think about, time to take a break from the stress of it. But I find it hard to leave these types of projects, I like to finish things.

So the thing with NaNoWriMo is to start with a clean slate. Just start a new story, its just for a month. So I started to think on a new story idea. I wanted to write something I would enjoy writing, something that I would read myself. It had to be appealing to me.
It took a bit of thinking. I needed mental pictures to move me on. Finally I came up with a slight story idea. And over the days I have built it up into a plot, characters, genre, etc... I'm loving it. I always get so exited when I create something... and to me its perfect! (almost)

Outlining October: So I'm going to take October to outline my whole story. I need to have the whole thing thought out, on paper/laptop. I cant start writing the story till November the 1st. But I need to know my story before I start.
I'm journaling every day on the story. Putting down thoughts, ideas, books I've read that inspire ideas. I feel as if I need the proof of my thoughts down, so that I can go back when I'm writing the story, and see where I was going with it. Even the begging ideas are important. I try never to shrug off an idea I had in the past of a story process. Those ideas are what built what you have now.

Over the month you will be writing, a novel. But what I know is that when you finish, it will NOT be publishing material. It will be that lovely first step called a "First Draft."
The first draft is the first step in away. When you are done you can start editing it, to create your second.... and so on!

I'm really exited for this. I think the one thing that's motivating me, is that I might actually come to the end of the month with a finished first draft. And for me that will be enough!
http://nanowrimo.org/

-Rachel

 
     

Beginning Blog: Journaling

I do a lot of journaling in my spare time, about lots of different things (as you do). I feel like letting my emotions out on to something. Its a type of therapy, and I see feelings have to go somewhere, I mean we cant just keep them locked up inside of ourselves forever, it just ends up killing me if I do that for to long. Plus my laptop is good at keeping secrets.
I like to do my private journal, but I thought it would be good to share some of what I do in my life. I know I can be a real locked up person, just the girl that stays quietly in the corner, not saying much. But there is life and a story in every person.

What will I be blogging about? I will be blog journaling on my Art, Writing, Reading, Design Course. All that jazz and more. But mostly my writing.
So stay tuned for my posts. I will be trying to do them every day if not more. Really all depends on how I'm feeling on that day.

-Rachel