How Camp NaNoWriMo Has Been Going For Me (Part 2)

                    

                   Click here to read part one                        

   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. 

(Images from Goodreads, here and here)

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. 

(images from Goodreads here and here) 

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. 😃

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How was Camp NaNoWriMo for you? Have you read any of the books I mentioned or had any fun D&D experiences? 

-Quinley 

How Camp NaNoWriMo Has Been Going for Me (Part 1)

 

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. 

                                    Books I've Been Reading 

(Images from Goodreads, here and here) 

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? 

-Quinley 

I Finished the Second Draft of The Mystery of the Body Thief

Greetings travelers, 

I wanted to let you know that I finished the second draft of the Mystery of the Body Thief on the 20th of May! The reason I didn't post this earlier was because I had a lot of other posts planned, and I wanted to take some time to write this post. (And not rush it). 

It feels so great to have the second draft done, because now I can move onto the third! And I have a lot of plans for the third draft. 

Here is a little bit of a behind-the-scenes for drafting. To keep myself organized I've been creating folders for the different drafts of my novel: 

I do this because I've written different scenes in different documents, and it is easy to lose them or confuse them because of that. I do not want to confuse the first draft with the second draft, nor the third draft with the second, or anything else along those lines. 

           But let's now move onto what is next for The Mystery of the Body Thief:

Synopsis-

Genres: Fantasy | Murder Mystery  Series: It is the first book in the Lady Annabelle Mystery Series. 

Horatio wakes up from being in a coma, but he doesn't remember anything that happened before he fell into unconsciousness. All that he remembers is a name, "Annabelle!" 

Also... Detective Inspector Time finds himself having to solve a case without Lady Annabelle.

Murders have been happening throughout many different kingdoms, and no one knows who exactly is behind it all.                

                  What's Next for The Mystery of the Body Thief? 

So as not to rush either story and to give more time to both, I have decided to divide the novel (which was originally 255,185 words) into two books. So as to be thoughtfully written rather than something that is just dashed off, this is going to be a book series. I suppose it is good that I already have three books planned out for it as opposed to just one. 

On another note, I have realized that the names are very inconsistent. I have characters whose names are common and others whose names are unusual (ones that I made up myself). I realized, after compiling a blog post as to what changed in my story, that the common names were left over from the novel originally being in the genre, Alternate History. To give it more of a High Fantasy feeling of another world, I decided I needed to rename some characters. 

I am in the middle of renaming Annabelle, Angela, and Marigold. Some names will stay the same like Horatio's. I realized, even though something like Lord of the Rings has fantastical names, they also have some real names (they are few and far between), but they are woven into the story enough that they don't sound strange. At the moment the naming for my story is all over the place, so I am going to try and fix that in the third draft. When I do change their names expect their profiles on this blog to be updated with their changed names. 

In the third draft I will also be continuing to world-build. I have more ideas for what the world is like, and the magic system has become much more clear to me, than it was before (before it was barely there). 

Also, since I was rewriting and reworking the story from 2018-2020, it meant that I had to give myself an outline for the third draft in this drafting. The scenes are much like Dolls of Wax Eyes of Glass's first draft, but that was because I was trying to make sense of stuff that I wrote years ago. And, I wanted this draft to give me an idea of how somethings will play out in the third draft. So I now have an outline that isn't my 2018 writing to work with. 

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What are your own approaches to editing? What are some of your favorite Fantasy names? 

-Quinley 

The Jolly Genre Jubilee Tag + The HonsTEA Tag

So, I decided to do another double tag post. Because both these tags involve writing or have questions about it, I thought it made sense to include them in the same post.

For the first tag: The Jolly Genre Jubilee Tag, I was tagged by McKayla at Tales of a Triple Threat. Thank you, McKayla. :D 

The Rules-

-Thank the person who tagged you

-Leave a link back to the creator 

-Answer the questions honestly, and include at least one gif of a pelican 

-Tag 3+ friends to do this tag on their blog 

(Gif from Giphy) 

I misread the rule at first and for some reason thought you wanted to find a gif of a seagull (and was going to reference "Seagulls Stop It Now"). Then I realized after I had found a really cute seagull gif that you actually wanted one of a pelican....

                                                       So, anyway let's begin: 

What is your favorite genre of fiction to write?

I have two genres I write in a lot: Fantasy and Gothic.

 

I have been writing Fantasy for a very long time. My first novels were in this genre. Specifically, the sub-genre of Fantasy I tend to write the most is High Fantasy. I love spending time creating different worlds, species, and magic systems. 

I started writing Gothic more recently, and I am enjoying it very much. I am writing my first Gothic novel right now, titled Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass. 

What genre would you NEVER get caught writing.....EVER?

(Felix is against the genre of Gothic (even though he is in a Gothic novel)...So, I felt this was fitting for this question)

I think YA fiction. Not that I have anything against it, but right now I can't imagine myself writing a story in that genre. Partly because I tend to write stories with older protagonists (or younger protagonists). However, one day I could write a story with young adult main characters, but at the moment I don't have plans to. 

I also don't want to write a book that is romance only. I usually like books that have a subplot of romance, but don't have the book centered completely on that.

What fictional genre feels most like home to you?

It's a mix of High Fantasy and Gothic for me. I like them both for different reasons, and I find them comforting for different reasons. 

I like High Fantasy because I can escape into different worlds of my own imagination, and I can imagine what it would be like to have magic or be another creature (that isn't human). 

What I find comforting about Gothic literature is that I can make myself scared in a fun way, and not scared or stressed in a real way. This is important to me with the world being so unpredictable right now.

If you could transform your life into any genre of your choosing, what would it be?

(Elm (left) and Oak (right) who are characters from a Fantasy story of mine)

High Fantasy for sure! I want to live in a world where I am a shapeshifter or an elf, where magic is everywhere, and where adventures await. It just seems super fun and something I would really like to do. (At this point, this answer probably isn't surprising to you.)

What genre does your real life resemble at the moment?

Interestingly, my life is like a Gothic novel at the moment. There is a lot of fear regarding the unknown, and everything is a little bit unpredictable, so of course it would fall into the gothic genre.  

(Image from Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/89724.We_Have_Always_Lived_in_the_Castle?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=3jautJsjTN&rank=1)

 I would say in terms of Gothic stories We Have Always Lived in the Castle is what it closely resembles.  I would have preferred it to be like The Picture of Dorian Gray or Frankenstein. But nope, my life happens to be like We Have Always Lived in the Castle. 

What's a genre you're interested in writing, even though you've never written it before?

Science fiction, I like Star Trek so I've always wanted to write a novel in that genre, however, I haven't gotten around to writing one yet. 

What genre is your most recent plot bunny and where did it come from?

I have two plot bunnies that have been hanging around. They are...

The third book in the Lady Annabelle Mystery Series. I had an idea for a third book in my head for a while, and now I finally know what is going to happen in it. It is a Fantasy/Murder Mystery. The novel was inspired by a mixture of different songs, though I had a bit of an idea in my head for what should happen before inspiration struck. 

The second is The Haunted Sketchbook, which is Gothic and Historical Fiction. It (like Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass) was inspired by a nightmare. And I plan to write it once I finish Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass. I also plan to delve more into the details of the story in later posts. 

How many genres have you written thus far in your writing journey?

Be prepared, the list is long...

Fantasy, murder mysteries/crime fiction, fan fiction (in comic form), super hero (also in comic form), gothic, historical fiction, romance (as a subplot), contemporary, humor/satire, retellings, poetry, a little bit of science fiction (if we count my numerous fanfics of star trek), ghost stories, spiritual (All Is Not Lost For All Begin Again is in that genre) and so many more. 

I tag... 

Elena 

Maya

Skye

Lanie  

And anyone who wants to do it. 

the questions (for copy and pasting purposes): 

1. What is your favorite genre of fiction to write?

2. What genre would you NEVER get caught writing.....EVER?

3. What fictional genre feels most like home to you?

4. If you could transform your life into any genre of your choosing, what would it be?

5. What genre does your real life resemble at the moment?

6. What's a genre you're interested in writing, even though you've never written it before?

7. What genre is your most recent plot bunny and where did it come from?

8. How many genres have you written thus far in your writing journey?

For the Second Tag: The HonsTEA Tag, I was tagged by McKayla at Tales From a Triple Threat and by Elizabeth from Autumn Ink. Thank you, McKayla and Elizabeth. :) The tag was created by Nie at From Nie.  

                                                                         The badge: 

                                                                     The rules- 

- no lies allowed. if an answer is too shameful to expose you may substitute the answer with a gif/image of someone drinking tea. 

- there are optional bonus additions to questions but these are not for the faint of heart. if you complete the tag having answered every question + the bonus additions (no gifs used), you are dubbed a certified tea chugger, and you deserve a badge to show the world that you are not afraid of a steaming hot cup of TRUTH. tag at least one other person (a tea party with just one is not very fun. trust me.) untagged persons are more than welcome to fill it out as well (nothing cooler than crashing a tea party). 

     what is a 'bad' (generally disliked) movie that you actually love?

(Image from Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Beasts%3A_The_Crimes_of_Grindelwald#/media/File:Fantastic_Beasts_-_The_Crimes_of_Grindelwald_Poster.png)

This is generally disliked movie because the lore of Harry Potter was altered and distorted. Since I had only read the first five books of Harry Potter, it didn't bother me or affect my enjoyment of the film.  In fact, I viewed the movies as a series unrelated to Harry Potter franchise. (I also enjoyed the first Fantastic Beasts film, which is why I wanted to see the second). 

In regards to the issues involving the characters and lore, I didn't even know who Nagini was until I looked the character up later, so  I was unaware of the controversy about what Rowling did to the character. My first thought was that she was a new character, who happened to be able to turn into a snake, not that she was going to be Voldemort's (evil) pet later...😬  But if you think about it hard, there are so many things wrong with Rowling's choice to do that with Nagini....

(Image from Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/the-niffler-is-back-as-you-saw-in-the-trailer-and-the-niffler-may-have-babies-eddie-redmayne--459719074460137904/)

But ignoring those elements, I honestly only watched (and rewatched) the movie for Newt Scamander (who is one of my favorite fictional characters), the (baby) Nifflers, and the other beasts. There were some things about the movie that did bother me, but it is very fun to watch nonetheless. But I should say, I don't agree with or support Rowling's recent controversial behavior. I just like the Fantastic Beast movie series.

                             what is your most shocking reading habit?

     Eating snacks while reading. However, I only do this with books I own, and I make sure to wipe off my hands before turning a page. Annotating could also be considered a shocking habit. In academic settings it is accepted, but not everyone approves of writing in a book. 

                              tell us the number one lie you write in your posts.

        I...don't have an answer for that. Not that it is too revealing to share what lie I could have had. But the only lie (which wasn't really a lie) I can think of, is me saying "it reminds me of something that happened to me last summer" in this post as opposed to saying "it reminds me of my surgery that happened last summer." So not really a lie. 🤷 Just me being overly ambiguous about what happened that summer. (I wonder if the readers who read that post when it first came out had wild ideas as to what actually happened when they read it because I was so ambiguous about it, just curious...) 

(Ophelia drinking tea to wake up in the morning)

                          So I shall have to post a drawing of someone drinking tea...

tell us the worst character name you've ever thought up. {bonus: share a character name you find ridiculous in a book/movie}

(Lauralas and George...Totally not Legolas and Gimli)

This isn't so much the worst name as a purposeful play on the name Legolas Greenleaf. But it still sounds silly. It's Lauralas Greenfield. The character, was a comic relief character within a group of comic relief characters in my first (finished) novel, Tess Short (book one). They were created both to be a parody of the Fellowship of the Ring and to be comic relief from the stressful action. 

And answer to the bonus question. This is not a bad name, but, I always (even though I hadn't read or watched Game of Thrones) found the name "Jon Snow" to be a little odd, because it's so ordinary. Every time I heard it (from people who liked the show) I always thought it was spelled "John Snow." So there is nothing wrong with the name, it just seems out of place in a Fantasy setting. 

                         what is the real reason you procrastinate writing your work in progress?

         Generally because I have schoolwork or an (academic) deadline I have to complete. It isn't really procrastination, just a need to get the stuff that is more important done first. 

Also sometimes I have other non-writing related projects I'm working on, like videos I film of myself acting (Shakespearian acting, improv, etc.), or animation projects (for example an animated short film), or even writing a song. So once again, it's not really procrastination when it comes to working on those, but, it is sometimes the reason why I am not writing my current novel at the moment. 

                                             what is a genre of music you secretly love?

(Elm (left) and Sebastian (right) performing a song together) 

Everyone on this blog knows I enjoy this music style, but I do not (usually) tell this people who aren't on my blog this. So, this isn't a secret or a surprise to you, but to the rest of the world it is... 

So I like a lot of folk music with Celtic and/or medieval influences. My favorite music tends to be inspired by mythology, folklore, or a fantasy story of some kind. Since it is hard to look up those exact words on a Google Search to find the music I am talking about, I am going to give you examples: 

And that is not to say that I am ashamed that I listen to it, I am happy that I found a music style that I love, but I have gotten some weird reactions from people when I tell them what music I listen to and that it isn't mainstream music. 

if you're a plotter, what do you really think of pansters? and if you're a panster, what do you really think of plotters?

Honestly, I tried pantsing before and failed at it, so I am very amazed and in awe of people who can do that because I cannot. I get really stuck if I do not plan ahead for what is to happen next. Though, I am usually very good at improvising on stage, on paper it's much, much harder. 

share at least three lines of dialogue from one of your first writing projects {bonus: give us the good stuff. your most gruesome butchering of the English language)

I will be sharing two for the first question, from my first ever novels:  One that was just called "my novel" and was never finished and another Tess Short (Book One), which was my first completed novel (first draft-wise not editing wise). Since I have really two first novels, I thought I'd share excerpts from both. Here is the opening (unedited prologue) for Tess Short (Book One): 

Mr.short was considered a normal Hobbit which means not going out on adventures with elves , fairies or dwarfs or any creatures of any sort. Until he did , which I may say is a story for anther day. 

“I don’t understand why he would want to go on a adventure” said Mr.Largefoot. 

“Adventures are a waste of time also” he added. 

“ and You miss a lot of meals…” added Ms.hairyfoot. folding her laundry into a pile. “But I can’t see why he would run away with that elf like that” 

I do actually want to rewrite this novel, given that I really like the characters from it and want to make it less of a...Hobbit rip off. I'm not sure when I will rewrite it, though. Sometime would be nice; maybe in the future. 

And then the novel which I simply called "My Novel" (which was unfinished). I stopped part of the way through (because I had writer's block), but it was the story Oak was originally from. Once again this is unedited: 

the mist was around the rocks of the beach you could hear the soft sound of a flute playing. but out of the peace and quite a dark looking ship came in. the flute playing stopped, the girl who was the holding the flute got up from were she was sitting, 

“What is that doing here?” Delphi said. 

she could hear voices inside, she climbed onto the ship, “Now were should I take over first??” a man who seemed to be wearing a crown, but she couldn’t make it out. 

...The king was not very stealthy in regards to taking over the kingdom...At all. 🤦 (I'm pretty sure he rolled a natural 1 on stealth).  Also question (to my younger writer self): "If Delphi is half siren and there are probably other sirens around, how did the king not get lured to his death?" I mean, if he did get lured to his death, all the characters' problems would be solved...easily. 

                                                            * * * * 

And for the bonus question, even though I shared two, I felt spelling-wise this was hilarious. This is from The Case of Confusion, the novel that didn't end up working but introduced me to the characters who ended up being in my current novel (The Mystery of the Body Thief):

"I thought we had solved it!!” said Phillip. 

“Well..How could I be sure, and it wasn’t me it was Time” said Annabelle. 

“Now your blaming the most famous dective in the world!!” said Phillip.

“Actually I think he is only famous in this kingdom not very much anywhere else” 

“Well still your blaming a famous Dective!!” protested Phillip.

I spelled "detective" wrong twice. So, anyway that is all the snippets I will be sharing from my past novels for now. 

                        tell us the title & artist of the last song you listened to. 

The last song I listened to was: "No One" by Miracle of Sound ft. Karliene . 

                   which beloved book/movie character do you dislike & why?

                   I have a few book characters I really dislike, but I will go with this one...

(Image from Twitter, https://twitter.com/HorstPhoto/status/540959859043500032)

  Anna Karenina. I really wanted to like the book, because I liked other classic Russian books like Crime and Punishment. But I could not enjoy Anna Karenina, because I loathed the title character (and her adulterous-horse-racing boyfriend, Vronsky) with a burning passion. And I just couldn't sympathize with her at all...I somehow could sympathize with Raskolnikov, who is a murderer, but not her. 

                       tell us the title & topic of a post you have left in draft. 

                                                 "There is no 'correct' way to be creative" 

   This was me basically writing a rant about "set down rules" for creativity, and how there is no one way to do something creative. I may actually revise that post and post it sometime in the future, though in its current state, I can't really post it.  

what is a book you pretend you've read/would like to read but know you never will? {bonus: share a time when claiming you've read a classic/well known book didn't end well}

I do not have an answer for this one because...I tend to read a lot of classic books and I know I am going to eventually read one in the future. I didn't think I would ever read Dracula (when I was younger) and I am currently reading it, so...I can't really make plans for what I won't ever read in the future....

Also I've never really claimed to read a book I hadn't, I've had strong opinions about books even if I hadn't read them (but had read a summary), but never pretended to have read them. 

(Matilda drinking tea)

So I guess, I'll have to post an image of someone drinking tea....Since I didn't quite exactly answer the question. 

tell us the title & topic of the most embarrassing post you've ever written. {bonus: include. the. link.}

I don't really find my old posts embarrassing so much as funny (sometimes). I do look back at my older posts just to see how I viewed different things when I was younger.

(A drawing of a nameless evil villainess which was included in the post) 

 I wrote a post the first year I ever did NaNoWriMo called November Novel writing!! (and other fall things). Not only did I talk about the writing I was doing in it (though never talking about what I was writing, just that I was writing), but I posted a drawing and I also included a short book review in it. In that post I say (I highlighted the repetition): 

"Inkheart by cornelia funke it's very good so far. the story is very interesting and complex. The characters are very interesting and have very interesting characteristics. I also love that the characters talk about books."

I didn't really describe why the characters were interesting, I just repeated that they and the story were interesting over and over again. Also,  I find this line to be so funny (once again, I highlighted the repetition): 

"mostly I have been writing and writing, and more writing." 

I for some reason find this funny. I mean it's not wrong: I was doing a lot of writing. I just wish I had told people what I was writing. Though, I suppose to say it now. I was writing the first attempt at The Lady Annabelle Mystery Series, which I called The Case of Confusion. That attempt didn't really end up working, but in the end I created The Mystery of the Body Thief, which did end up working. 

(The drawing of the nameless villain has nothing to do with the story I was writing. I should add, I just included it in the original post...because).  

I tag: 

Mary Kate

Gauri 

Maith

Annika 

And anyone who wants to do it. 

the questions (for copy and pasting purposes): 

1. what is a 'bad' (generally disliked) movie that you actually love?

2. what is your most shocking reading habit?

3. tell us the number one lie you write in your posts.

4. tell us the worst character name you've ever thought up. {bonus: share a character name you find ridiculous in a book/movie}

5. what is the real reason you procrastinate writing your work in progress?

6. what is a genre of music you secretly love?

7. if you're a plotter, what do you really think of pansters? and if you're a panster, what do you really think of plotters?

8. share at least three lines of dialogue from one of your first writing projects {bonus: give us the good stuff. your most gruesome butchering of the English language)

9.  tell us the title & artist of the last song you listened to. 

10.  which beloved book/movie character do you dislike & why?

11. tell us the title & topic of a post you have left in draft. 

12. what is a book you pretend you've read/would like to read but know you never will? {bonus: share a time when claiming you've read a classic/well known book didn't end well}

13. tell us the title & topic of the most embarrassing post you've ever written. {bonus: include. the. link.}

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What is your favorite genre to write (or read)? And do you have a genre of music you secretly love? 

-Quinley