It's July's Camp NaNoWriMo, and I have a new project that I am working on. I am hoping to get a first draft done of this novel, sometime this summer.
Synopsis
Genre: Gothic | Historical Fiction
The Haunted Sketchbook is set in two time periods.
In the past, an artist by the name of Ferdinand Diggory is experiencing a haunting. He discovers that his sketchbook is cursed; whenever he draws in it, it will twist the sketch into something monstrous, and something he didn't draw.
In the present, Edith Porter is trying to discover whether the haunting was truly real-- she wants to discover the truth, but will her curiosity lead her into more danger than it's worth?
The Tellers of the Tale
There are other characters as well, including the ghost. However, for now I will introduce the two main characters. The other characters will be introduced later (though some, like Cecile, you have already met).
Ferdinand Diggory
Ferdinand Diggory is a (formerly) respected artist from the 18th century. He paints portraits and genre paintings. He is currently dealing with a haunting, one that resides in his sketchbook, and he wants to figure out why the ghost is haunting him.
Edith Porter
Edith is an art collector from the 19th century. She likes exploring mysteries of artists who died under mysterious circumstances and finds Ferdinand Diggory's story to be particularly fascinating. She wants to uncover if what happened to him was truly a haunting or something else entirely.
Playlist
Here's a playlist of songs that remind me of The Haunted Sketchbook. If you don't have a Spotify account, here is the YouTube version.
Goals For This Camp
My goal is to get a first draft done. I have the plot planned out for it, so I want to get the story written.
My goal for this camp is to write 17,000 words. I hope that I can get a first draft done, so I can then work on refining the story in the second draft.
I feel as if I know both main characters well, so I am looking forward to seeing where they take me on this journey through their story. So far, this project has caused me to research several things about the 18th century and the Victorian Era. In particular I did some research about different types of artwork and art collecting in those periods.
The Haunted Sketchbook (like Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass) came into being from a nightmare. A nightmare I had after my surgery inspired inspired key elements of the novel--the actual haunting and Cecile's being an actor.
Edith as a character came later. She has some interesting thoughts of her own which I hope she shares. She is figuring out the mystery of what happened to Ferdinand. But she also has goals outside of him, since she is an art collector and he isn't the only artist she is interested in. At the moment Ferdinand is an artist that she is extensively researching.
Anyway, those are my plans for camp. If you're doing Camp NaNoWriMo, I hope you have a good time too.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Are you doing anything fun this July? What do you like most about my novel?
This is the final part of the series about my adventures in Camp NaNoWriMo for April 2023. Next year, I may do something similar if I am working on a project that I've already talked a lot about. But in terms of posts relating to Camp NaNoWriMo, you can look forward to hearing about the project I am working on in July, sometime soon.
My Writing
On April 14th I got to my word count goal! The story is far from finished and I still have a lot of work I need to do in terms of writing it. But it feels good to have a better version of it written than my first attempt at the third draft. It still needs a lot of editing and rewriting, but I am getting closer
in terms of publishing.
However...I am going to have one of my standalone books be my debut novel, since this novel lands on a cliffhanger and is a part of a series.
In the meantime, I finally rewrote the summary. The original summary I had written was from 2018, so it was outdated. Here is the new summary:
“Arisias” is the only thing Horatio remembers after waking up from a coma. He doesn’t remember who he is or what happened to him before the accident.
At the same time in Dragons' Province, two detectives are working on solving the case of the murdered royalty. It’s unclear who the killer or killers are, for a different person is always seen leaving the scene of the crime. Will they be able to find out who or what is behind it all, before it is too late?
(Two pages from my writing notebook from 2016)
I feel the story is becoming clearer and clearer, though it is very different from the first draft. I found the first page of the notebook I had written about the characters, when I first created them. They were so different then. And it's interesting to see how it evolved. I don't know what younger me would have thought of the story as it is now, but the fact that I've been able to work on it for so long and have not given up is an accomplishment.
I do, however, have a to-do list of things for the story from writing this. I figured out some world-building elements, which I will now need to decide how to fit in. And I need to redesign one character's clothes--while I may end up using them somewhere else in a different project, they now seem out of place in this story. They were inspired by 18th century clothes, and most of the other characters' clothes are inspired by Ancient Greek and Irish culture.
However, I am not going to completely forget about the clothes: they will be reused somewhere else. I have done this before with other story elements. For example, Ophelia's former boyfriend, Austen, ended up getting a project of his own, which I hope to explore sometime. And a character who changed appearance wise, but is still in the story, had their appearance used by another character in a different story. (Admittedly if someone heard this out of context, a person using another person's face would sound incredibly weird.)
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_De_Morgan#/media/File:Cassandra1.jpeg)
In the writing group I am in, there was a fun exercise to "post artwork that reminds you of your project." It reminded me how much of my project-- character wise was inspired by Pre-Raphaelite art. Besides being inspired by Tauriel from The Hobbit (movies), Arisias took some inspiration from a painting when I first created her. And more recently, there are paintings that remind me of her, one of which is posted above.
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_William_Waterhouse#/media/File:Waterhouse,_JW_-_The_Sorceress_(1913).jpg)
I even found some paintings that remind me of Ophelia, in particular this one by John William Waterhouse.
The writing challenge I mentioned in the previous post has helped a lot with understanding my characters more. I not only figured out the relationship between Karleon and Salissah, but I also figured out the inner workings of other relationships that they have with other characters-- which is great.
What I've Been Reading and Watching
While in the past I have read fantasy and murder mystery books to get into the mood to write, now I am mostly reading classics. I'm currently rereading Jane Eyre. It's fun to delve back into it since it has been a year since I read it. (The last time I read it was for a book club.) It's nice to read about the characters again, and I also am appreciating the descriptions in the book, upon rereading it. I particularly enjoy the gothic elements spread throughout, with the red room, and Jane thinking she sees a figure in the mirror.
I've also been reading Middlemarch and watching the BBC adaptation. I love George Eliot's writing style, and it makes me want to read more books of hers. I will have more to say about it on a later date.
And I've been loving watching the Sleepy Hollow tv series. Istarted watching it recently and am on the second season.
(Fan art I did of Abbie).
I love Abbie's and Ichabod's friendship. While the main story is nothing like Irving's story, they sprinkle elements of the original story back into it.
I also love the aesthetic of the title sequence.
So, from reading Jane Eyre and watching Sleepy Hollow I may have gotten ideas for my gothic novels.
Anyway, that's the end of my posts about April 2023's Camp NaNoWriMo. I am looking forward to July's.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------How has been April been? Have you been reading or watching anything good recently?
Since I have talked about the story I am writing for April's camp multiple times, I think I will talk about my writing process in this post. If you want an (up-to-date) post about the details of my novel, The Mystery of the Body Thief, you can check it out here.
This Camp NaNoWriMo I am focusing on the third draft of my novel, The Mystery of the Body Thief. I had initially planned to write the second book, Becoming the Body Thief's second draft.But I realized I did not plot out the second draft's plot, which could cause me to fall into one of the pit-falls of the first draft--having the characters aimlessly wandering. (I usually plot out my stories, but in that case I made the mistake in forgetting to plot and improvised it most of the way.)
My plan instead then is to work on Becoming the Body Thief during NaNoWriMo in November, so as to give me time to re-plot it and create connections between episodes. And in July, I will be working on The Haunted Sketchbook.
My Writing-
There are two storylines going on at the same time, which I ignored in my first and second write through of the story. This time around, I am giving the characters equal attention. There is a mystery in both of the plots, and I need to give clues to the reader in both of these without revealing too much. So, I am using detective shows I've seen with plots like that for inspiration.
Since the first day of Camp NaNoWriMo was yesterday, here are some things I've been thinking about while writing this draft. My goal for this camp is to write 20,000 words worth of rewrites for this story, and so far I've written 3,218 words.
I have been looking at Greek and Irish castles as models for the castle that Arisias lives in. Greek and Irish culture were the inspirations for my elves in general, and their religion. I don't want it to look fully Irish or fully Greek but a hybrid. I don't want someone to react to it like "oh, the elves are Irish" or "oh, the elves are Greek" but instead for there to be a mixture of both cultures, so that it becomes its own thing. This is a challenge, but it's going to be a fun one.
(Fiáina the goddess of nature in festive clothes).
I've been also working on a holiday related to the goddess, Fiáina. I only have one holiday figured out for that world, and that is the Festival of Magic. I want to make another one. It's not simply there to show world-building; rather, it has a purpose to the plot as a whole (that I can't reveal because of spoilers). So, I want to pay attention to what rituals would happen during that festival and what mythological importance it has to the goddess. And, I should add, this song by Spiral Dance was an inspiration to me for the holiday:
Spiral Dance's music in general has reminded me of my fantasy world, so it is neat that it inspired a holiday for my world as well.
I have been continuing to improve the descriptions of my elves.(I mentioned last time that I was working on this.) I've been avoiding mentioning that they have pointy ears. While it may eventually be mentioned off hand, the part of my elves that is important is not that they have pointy ears, but instead that they are deeply connected to nature--even if their duties do not lie in the protection of or caring of nature. So far, it has been going well, but like the writing I have done with description for my other stories, I am going to make several revisions before I get a perfect draft.
This year, I am also doing a writing prompt challenge, which involves getting to know your characters better. The characters I am doing it for are: Karleon (The God of Mischief), Salissah (The Goddess of the Moon), and Ophelia.
Responding to the prompts has been helpful in understanding the characters more and also allowed me to get into Ophelia's backstory. I felt as if I had not thought a lot about it, which is strange, because I feel I should have given it more attention, since she has been alive for so long (being an elf). What I've found out about her backstory has added nuance to her character in the current story, and how her past affected her, since in hundreds of years a lot can happen. And if some humans aren't comfortable with events that happened in their past, elves are likely to have some past regrets too.
I am also exploring Karleon's and Salissah's friendship. When I first made them, I thought they'd be enemies, but they ended up becoming friends. (Karleon is not on good terms with Fiáina; however,when around their devotees, they act more as colleagues even if they're not on good terms.) In regards to Salissah's and Karleon's friendship, I guess they became friends because wit (what Karleon has) and wisdom (what Salissah has) work well together.
While I am not currently writing All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again, I am working on the characters and the world. I've been doing a ton of research for it, but I've been thinking about two characters: Veraly and Seth. The story has many main characters (as opposed to only one), so, it is going to be a good challenge to plot out the series. The world itself is still in its early stages in terms of world-building (unlike Arisias's world). I have an idea about what I want to do with it, but I have not figured out everything yet.
(Moodboard for Veraly. Images from Wiki commons, Pixabay, and Pexels. The template I used to make this mood-board was made by Ayzrules).
As for the characters, Veraly is a performer and Phoenix's (adoptive) sister. She has water magic and enjoys performing arts of different kinds. I've been thinking about what creative things she does and how those creative things affect how she views the world.
And Seth is a shapeshifter spy. He's also incredibly religious, and the reason why he is doing that is due to that world's religion. An object important to their religion was stolen, and he has to find it.
And I want to figure out how he feels about being a spy given that he is religious: how he handles it, whether there is guilt from it, and things like that.
Both these characters I am trying to develop more, so hopefully I will learn more about them too, along with their world. Even though I am not writing their story at the moment, I thought I would share.
Playlist for The Mystery of the Body Thief
And also since I shared the playlist I made last year's camp, here is the playlist for the novel I am currently working on.
Fun (Non-Writing Related) things-
* In March, I went to an online S.J. Tucker concert: it was so fun. And as a songwriter myself, it was fun to find out that she too was inspired by books in writing her music. Since the concert was collaboration with a library, there were a ton of book recommendations that came with the songs she sang.
I've previously never found a way to go to concerts for the singers I love (since they are either in a different country or don't do concerts at all), so finding out about this was so fun and I am glad I went. It was a fun way to celebrate spring equinox. She ended up playing "Rabbit's Song," which was a song that served as an inspiration for Karleon's myths in the myth collection and was one of my favorites of hers. And I was introduced to some new (and unreleased) songs that I had never heard before.
One of these was "Kashkash," which was inspired by a book, In the Cities of Coin and Spice.
*
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_You_Like_It#/media/File:Rosalind_-_Robert_Walker_Macbeth.jpg)
I attended and participated in a dramatic reading of As You Like It and read some parts in it (Rosalind, Celia, Orlando, and a few others). I had not read or seen the play in a long time, so that was fun. It was fun to perform with a group again and to play different roles. It makes me want to try to get Rosalind or Orlando as a part in a full production of As You Like It sometime.
And that's the end of part one!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------How was your March? Are you doing Camp NaNoWriMo or another fun activity this April?
I'm back with part 2! This will be more of a wrap-up post of my Camp NaNoWriMo experience compared to the first post-- which was talking about what was actively happening during it. Also, if you have not read it already, I recommend going back and reading part one for context.
Also, one quick blog update: if you want to check it out, I have made profile pages now for my characters: Cerawen here and Vonivera here, since they didn't have profile pages before.
Let's begin:
My Writing
And now I am going to talk more about of what I've been writing this month.
The first news I wanted to share is that I reached my word count goal! 🎉 🥳
(Just want to point this out--I love how the winner badge is making an allusion to Don Quixote)
Here's the winner certificate by the way, I really like how it looks Fantasy themed:
And if you're wondering what "BOTBT" is, it's the title of my book, Becoming the Body Thief in acronym form. For some reason NaNoWriMo's certificate wouldn't allow a long title. In the past it has allowed to put my other book title: All Is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again on the "author of" section. But I digress.
However, even though I got to my word count goal, I still had plans to work on my novel this month because it is far from finished. In other news, I did three guest prompts in a writing group I'm in (not running but in). One of them was a picture prompt I came up with:
The painting included in the post (though there are others not seen) is Ophelia by John William Waterhouse.
I'm currently running my own group and am trying to get it to be more active (believe me running a group is hard work, but worth it). It is fun to have a really active group using one of my prompts and to see people's responses. There is just something about seeing people respond to something you have written yourself. It was cool, because people shared so many beautiful excerpts from their novels-- one person even wrote a whole song in response to the prompt. And this honestly reminds me why I like teaching workshops. You get to see people's artwork, and knowing that you inspired them is always a good feeling.
In even more exciting news involving the same writing group:
(My character Annabelle (left) and A.J.'s version of Karen from D.C. Super Girls (right))
I was talking with a member of the writing group I am in, and we decided it would be fun to do a crossover between our stories. We have plans to publish it once we publish our novels. We have to wait until then, because it is set during the time of my novel, Becoming the Body Thief and two characters from A.J.'s novel, The Protector are involved in it.
Anyway, this has been fun to write because it allows me to explore my characters in an alternate universe. When Karen/Bumble Bee (A.J.'s character) appears some things that happen in the original story change a bit in the new universe. And our crossover is way more lighthearted than my novel is, which is fun because it gives my characters a break from all the torture I'm putting them through. My cowriter on this project, A.J. actually has a blog, so if you want to check it out, you can do so here.
And...world-building! (Switching back to talk to you about my current novel writing.) I came up with a monster that was inspired by Medusa. Like Medusa (depending on the version of the myth you hear) she was cursed to be in this form: A water snake/maid form, forever.
There hasn't yet been a hero that has defeated her, since her wounds in battle will be able to heal quicker than normal. As for her origin story, she was cursed by Nisis (the female side of the god, Nisis/Nyro) to be the trapped in this form forever, after defying the god/goddess by doing something unspeakable in their temple. I should also add, I was inspired by water snakes when creating this monster. Her snake tail and her hair are actually based on two real water snakes. I will be getting into her backstory more in the future.
Excerpts from Becoming the Body Thief
I realize I have not really shared excerpts for most of my novels recently except Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass. So, I thought I would share some excerpts from my novel. These excerpts feature the characters Venus and Ophelia; however, they are in different scenes, and the characters are from very different areas of the world's society. But I thought I would go for a common theme, which would be magic that comes from the gods:
When Venus (as she called herself) performed, she performed in a way that was so mesmerizing almost like the sirens, who would lure sailors to their deaths. She would perform songs of old to a rowdy crowd, one of: criminals, gamblers, and some rich people who seemed to get themselves involved in the mix, for hardly good reasons.
She would dance along the stage, her red loose fitting dress flowing along with her, she moved fluidly like water. And used her magic, which came in whenever she sang. For she had learned her magic from the god of music and in performing used it to bring people into the tavern. It was in the very least, as the owner of the tavern said, a way to attract customers. For everyone was soon enticed by her beauty, her singing, her dancing, and her magic that they would come in hoping to see that, and then stay for a drink or more.
* * * *
This was one of the very few spells that required one to have magic from both gods, usually spells required just one. For gods, like humans and elves, tended to get into arguments quite a bit, and it was rare to have them both work together. But in this case, the gods had a very neutral and generally friendly relationship with each other.
Ophelia had been working on the spell for months, and still had not managed to get it right. Every time she had tried it, it seemed to fissile out. Like it wasn’t strong enough.
Why this was happening she was not sure, for she was able to hold a wind storm and even make plants grow without them dying down suddenly or wilting. But perhaps, it was because this was her first time combining both earth and air magic together. Even the simplest spells she had done, the healing spells for example, she had only used one element at a time.
But now, she focused on it, she needed something to take her mind off of her wild thoughts. She opened her hand, and tried to envision the spell— it was a mixture of earth and air. She felt like she needed to think of what would combine those two things— the trees leafs blowing in the wind to and fro on a summer’s day, the...she stopped, the spell she had felt beginning to grow in her hands suddenly diminished.
* * * *
Books I've Been Reading
This is continued from part one of the blog post. I have a lot of updated thoughts on the books I've been reading, as well as thoughts about books that I didn't mention in part one.
This year I've noticed I've read a lot more poetry than before. This time, I'm actually seeking poetry out rather than reading a poem every once in a while. Recently I read "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (excuse the fact that the image has the title wrong) I love the allusions it makes to Greek mythology, and my favorite line from it has to be this one:
"In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy"
I will also say some of the lines from the poem were inspiring for my own writing. If you can't tell already, the world my series is set in is Greek mythology inspired (and Tolkien inspired as well). So, certain lines stood out to me. Also, here's the link to the poem. By the way it's in the public domain, so the Poetry Foundation is able to post it. Also, the site has a lot of Keats's poetry on it.
And, I am currently rereading Hamlet. I am doing this in a dramatic reading with a group and at the same time reading my own edition of the book (because the reading was abridged). So far, in the group reading I have read for/played a variety of roles, including Polonius, King Claudius, Ophelia, Horatio, and Player 1.
Hamlet has been inspiration for a lot of my writing and acting. In fact, the first monologue I memorized (and performed) was "To Be or Not To Be." It is always fun to revisit stories like this-- because I know the characters so well, and they are like old friends.
I have a lot of thoughts about Dracula, but I'm probably going to talk about these more in later posts.
I have a lot of thoughts about Where the Crawdads Sing. The plot-twist was really surprising. Even though I partly figured it out, it really made the story more intense. Also, I liked how the images of nature were used to foreshadow the murder.
The writing itself is very poetic, and the way that scenes are described in it is very well done.
I really enjoyed the book, and I want to reread it again in the future. I also love how poetry is weaved into the story, with Kya quoting poems throughout and relating them to certain events/emotions.
Lastly, I have just begun reading Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter. I had previously read Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales, so it is fun to read one of her other books. I like all the references to Greek and Roman mythology in this book. Fevvers refers to herself as a "Cockney Venus," and there are references comparing Fevvers's wings to Cupid and to Icarus.
Some Fun Things
I have three fun things to share this time around. 😃
The first is, I ended up dong two (one-shot) Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.
But I will discuss only one of them, since the storyline for that one has finished. It was basically a continuation of another one shot, so the same people from the prior campaign were in this one. Anyway, I role-played as my D&D character Jinx, who I talked about in this post. At the beginning of the campaign, Jinx did not have the best experience. He literately almost died because he was attacked by his what he decided to be his holy symbol (ravens) (The number of near death experiences Jinx seems to have is astounding.) Anyway, he may or may not be be scared of ravens now. Adding onto that, Jinx had the worst possible fate that could befall someone with his charisma level. He got a large amount of stinky mud dropped onto him....which was very unpleasant.
However, things got better later for Jinx and the others. The characters (Jinx and the others) started bugging one of the NPCs (None Player Characters) who was their close friend. They bugged by telling him that he was in love with the person they were trying to find. Actually, it turned out they were right. Because of this, at the end of the campaign, Jinx initiated the wedding for the NPCs as...kind of the priest. He's pretending to be a god, so it makes sense.
(Jinx and the Goblin)
And to make things even better for Jinx. Jinx made a friend with a goblin, who now throughly believes Jinx is a god (a god of mischief, that is), and wants to go adventuring with him. 💖 Anyway, it's really fun, and I love playing D&D and hanging out with the groups I'm in.
Continuing from part one, the second thing I've been doing is building rooms for my characters in virtual worlds. Webkinz actually had a challenge where you could win a stage.
And I ended up winning it. This helped complete the second part of the tavern from my novel. I'm going to make a third part that looks closer to the first part, since it is a pretty large tavern. But for now, I feel good because I finally have the stage where Venus performs laid out which really helps me envision the scenes. (Of course without the animals-- given that there are no anthropomorphic characters in my story).
Also, it is great that I was able to find a stage in Webkinz, one that even looked like the one from my story. Because a lot of the stages in Webkinz were either retired or something only Deluxe members could get. So, thank you, Webkinz, for creating that challenge so I could make that part of my tavern.
And lastly, I recently created a Soundcloud account, which you can check out here. On Bandlab, I usually show my songwriting process, so on SoundCloud I thought it made sense to upload the fully finished songs. I just thought I would let you know, given that I didn't want anyone to think that someone else was uploading my music.
And...that's it. That was my experience this month at Camp NaNoWriMo in July of 2022. And I'm now looking forward to November Novel Writing this year. 😃
So, I was not prepared for Camp NaNoWriMo this month. In fact, I didn't even think I was going to be doing July's Camp NaNoWriMo, but I then had a sudden change of plans and decided to do it anyway.
But this is why this post is not my usual "announcing my..." project post, like I did for April's Camp NaNoWriMo. Because while the project I am working on is a new one, I did not have the time to plan ahead for a description of what my story was or make drawings of my characters like last year. That is not to say that I won't make a post like this, but I don't have what I need to do it right now.
So, instead this post will be more like a journal entry about how Camp NaNoWriMo has been going for me this month.
My Writing
The project I am currently working on is called Becoming the Body Thief, and it is the project I mentioned in this post. Basically it is the second half of The Mystery of the Body Thief, but since I felt like this was a whole novel smashed together into another whole novel, I felt the need to separate them.
Without spoiling anything, I can say there will be a whole new view of the world. In the first book, I primarily focused on the upper class--royalty to be more specific--and on detectives. In the second book, however, there is a change of perspective, and I am now focusing on the criminal world. This is interesting, because the series as a whole focuses on crime in the Fantasy world, but crime from the perspective of a detective not a criminal. I feel is really helpful in world-building and understanding the characters, in seeing both sides of crime.
I will say, I have taken inspiration from a lot of TV shows in doing this. I feel the dynamic of characters in my story currently reminds me strongly right now of the characters from Leverage. In fact, a character whose stage name is Venus (I'lll talk more about her in later posts) started reminding me of the character of Sophie Devereaux. Venus like Sophie is a con-artist and an actor.
By the way, here is a small update on the renaming of my characters, which I talked about in a previous blog post:
My characters' names for this novel series are probably going to steadily change over time, as I am give them more fantastical names. So, I renamed Angela. Her name is now Cerawen (pronounced SERA-wen or SEERA-wen) which I think fits her better than Angela. (Even from the beginning, I thought it was a little weird to call her Angela given that the name meant "messenger of God" and given that the world has Greek mythology-inspired polytheistic religions, it felt really out of place).
However, I am still working to create a new name for Annabelle. I haven't yet, but I feel I am getting closer, and once I come up with one, I will update her character sheet.
But, I should say what helped me create the new name Cerawen was actually a technique that the YouTuber Ginny Di suggested which was "keyboard smash." If you can believe it, the name Cerawen actually came out of the gibberish, "Ceqw," from the keyboard smash.
As for songwriting, I made these not too long ago, and they are kind of a work in progress. However, since I am talking about my story which does involve world-building, I thought I would talk about some songs I've been working on that are for my story:
I am planning to make more songs of this type. Basically, these are songs that the priests/priestesses or devotees would use when doing healing in my Fantasy world. I also thought it would be neat if it had an atmospheric background instead of a musical one (that is sounds of fire cracking, forest noises, etc.). These are the musical versions of the chants I had written, here. Like the last song I made a music video for, I am thinking it would be neat to make a music video with all of these songs combined somehow (once I am finished of course).
I should say I am in three different cabins this year for Camp NaNoWriMo--two that are being run by other people, and one that I am running myself. It is fun, as usual. I love connecting with writers from all over the world and getting to discuss writing as we're doing it. I've had a lot of really thoughtful conversations that just happened over an element or a character from one of my stories, and I love it. And actually, two of the drawings I drew in a previous post came from prompts from one of the groups I am in. Anyway, these prompts are really inspiring my writing and motivating me, which is awesome. I love being in writing communities.
The two books I've been reading recently are Dracula by Bram Stoker, and Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. For Dracula, I am in fact following the now-very-famous Dracula Daily I love getting it, because I feel like the main character is emailing me, which is fun. However, I do admit that when I get shorter emails I tend to get impatient for the next response. Unlike when reading, I have to wait for the next part (well not really, I could read ahead but it would defeat the purpose of doing Dracula Daily). This is frustrating because I really want to know what happens next. I also love how beautiful the prose is. The prose in classic books are usually so beautiful, and I love taking my time reading it to just get lost in it.
I'm also really enjoying Where the Crawdads Sing.I love the descriptions and the characters. I am listening to an audiobook version of it, so it can be nice to just close my eyes and listen to the descriptions. I love how we get to see Kya's everyday life in the marsh. There is something nice about that, and I will say Owns's writing really reminds me of Shirley Jackson's writing style. Shirley Jackson is another author I love. I will say, though, for any younger readers of this blog, that there are two disturbing adult scenes in the book. They are done for the plot and have a purpose later on, but, I didn't want anyone who is young here to pick up the book and get traumatized. Other than that, I am loving the dual time-lines element of the story. It's always cool to read books that have that, because there are basically two storylines to follow, and it is fun to see how they intertwine.
And while I haven't seen the movie yet (I have plans to see it when I finish reading the book), I really love the song that Taylor Swift wrote for it:
I feel it captures the character of Kya so well. And it's also so relaxing to listen to.
Music that Inspires My Writing
I've included playlists for my stories in prior Camp NaNoWriMo posts, and while this post is very different than the usual structure, I thought I'd keep up the tradition.
Some Fun Things
Okay, so I would usually talk about Webkinz on my other blog. However, I just realized Webkinz is actually a really good place for designing rooms for your characters. I made three rooms that I want to share: one for my story, and two inspired by the classics (Gothic and Greek mythology).
I made one of the taverns that appears in my novel in Webkinz! I found that making it in game, was really helpful to figure out the layout. This is the tavern where the main characters meet Venus (character mentioned earlier). It is one of the most luxurious taverns that appears in the story. While some very shady things happen in it, outsiders who go to it are kind of unaware of that. Basically it appears to be safe, but it is a place where criminals often meet and shady things happen. It wants you to think it is safe, but isn't.
One of the reasons why the tavern is so luxurious is due to Venus's performances (at least one of the least shady reasons). Because of her, this tavern has many expensive things in it: an exquisite rug, a beautiful fireplace, and intricate tables. And my Webkinz room is only part of the tavern: the tavern in the book is pretty large, so I may create the second half in the future. (However, I will need to get the same wallpaper, which may take a while, since I had to win it from JumbleBerry Fields, a game within the virtual world).
And since you know I love Gothic literature, I of course made another room, based on one of my favorite Gothic books. This room is inspired by "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I tried to make the room seem cramped and uncomfortable, like it was in the book. Unfortunately, Webkinz did not have aging yellow wallpaper, so I had to improvise with yellow paint instead.
One of my Webkinzes is actually named Apollo, after the Greek god of the sun and music. So I made a room for him. I tried to give it musical references as well as light ones (with the fairy lights). So anyway, I thought I would share this room, because it was Greek mythology inspired.
Also, I thought I would show what kinds of things you can create in a game like Webkinz, because not everyone has the money to use a more expensive game like Sims 4 to create rooms for their stories. But some people do have Webkinz accounts they made when they were children, so it can be an affordable option for creating rooms for your characters.
And that's all I have to say for now, but I will say more later in part 2! There are a lot of adventures I'm going to have later in Camp NaNoWriMo, and I will update you on them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------How has Camp NaNoWriMo been going for you? And have you read any good books or played any fun games recently?
I have started rewriting and editing Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass for April's Camp NaNoWriMo. Since I do not plan to repeat myself, because not a lot of the story has drastically changed (partly because it didn't take me so long to finish the first draft), I will not be including the characters' bios again. So if you wish to learn more about the characters, I recommend checking out this post or looking at this page.
Let's begin:
Synopsis-
Genre: Gothic Horror | Historical Fiction
Maltida Moore was found dead at the castle, her brother, Felix, is missing. No trace of him was found except an eyeless wax doll made in his likeness. What happened at the castle is unknown, but it is as if something evil is lurking within it...something evil is causing these terrible events to happen.
How the editing is going so far-
At the moment, I am rewriting the part of the novel that is told from Felix's perspective, since in the first draft, I did not really focus on his that much. (I focused on Matilda's more.) By focusing on him I have managed to figure out details about him that I did not discover before.
I've also been working on figuring out his voice more. I have it somewhat figured out, but I want to get more into the details about him, because like Maltida he is a complex character.
I am in multiple "cabins" this Camp NaNoWriMo: one that I am running, and one I am just a member of. In one cabin there was a character development question prompt, which I answered for Felix. I discovered elements about him through doing the exercise. For example, some random things I discovered about him were that he wanted to visit France, and that he used to (long ago) tell stories to his sister, Maltida. Felix in the first draft mostly kept to himself, so I am so glad that he is finally speaking to me and revealing his secrets.
(Image from Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/312859505337819468/)
Other parts of my rewriting work taught me about Matilda.
I found this painting. It was a catalog cover. It took me a while to find the original painting, but when I did couldn't help but write a scene inspired by it told by Matilda. The castle in my story is surrounded by a forest and trees, and I could imagine Matilda choosing to walk through it and reading there, and having something mysterious or unexplainable happen while she was there.
I have also started expanding on scenes that didn't get much attention in the first draft. The first draft in a way acted as an outline for the novel. For example, I created a scene (which wasn't really a scene in the first draft since Matilda simply told the audience she stopped at a village), and added in details like what was going on in the village, who the people Maltida met were, and even what the village looked like (the general mood/atmosphere).
I've also been focusing on keeping the audience questioning whether what the narrators are saying is true or not, because I want the readers to be confused as to what is actually happening and have to decide on one of the many answers provided by Felix and Maltida. My goal is to create something similar to what happened in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, where there are several answers as to where Ichabod Crane went--whether the headless horseman actually kidnapped him or whether he left because Brom "Bones" scared him away.
So, that has been how Camp NaNoWriMo has been going for me so far.
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