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Hey you! I haven't heard from you in a while, and this is old, so I was wondering how you...Jenn on #WriteMotivation Continues!
haha thanks!K.T. Hanna on #WriteMotivation Continues!
Oh I definitely agree. I think something writing related is still writing. Outlinging, Writing, Revising, Editing, Drafting out ways to improve...Jenn on #WriteMotivation Continues!
Thanks, you too! Oh...realized maybe I should have used my recommendation link for How To Revise...Ceridwen on #WriteMotivation Continues!
Good luck with your revision! And thanks for sharing the link. The site seems really interesting! :)
Minstrel Song
Filed Under Poetry | Leave a Comment
Grad school starts today! So here’s a poem I wrote fall of third year.
It’s a very important part of a character for my Shadows, Echoes, and Reflections book. You can learn more about this story in a few months, when I start gearing up for NaNoWriMo ’10.
Minstrel Song
Between the harvest moon and withered field
The blackbird sits upon the hawthorn tree.
From passing gracious kin he is concealed,
But when I stop he does not hide from me.
Oh sing once more your haunting melody
Of whispers, rustlings, and your tail of woe
Which borrows thorns from off the tree. The key
To flight is neither drop nor fall below,
Yet watch the ground for shadows of the crow.
He’ll gladly steal your life, your wing, your home;
Your song the one defense against this foe –
Now you have earned the right to freely roam.
Take heart, small bird, against the pulls of earth –
It shall not always rob you of your worth.
Writer’s Workshop: Weaknesses
Filed Under Writer's Workshop | Leave a Comment
I know we like to head off criticism and talk about our strengths as writers, and that’s important, but we also need to acknowledge our weaknesses. If we don’t, how are we supposed to improve?
First, discover what exactly your weaknesses are. If you have no idea, ask another writer to look over some of your work and see if they can spot them.
Second, figure out how to improve. Read blogs or books, talk with other writers, etc. Do what you have to so you know where to start.
Third, practice. I find it works best to go by scene or chapter, and focus on improving one weakness at a time.
For me, it’s description. So every time I have to describe a character or location, I slow down and make sure to write in a way that will help the reader see what I’m envisioning.
How do you deal with your weaknesses?
Spirited Away Music
Filed Under Music | Leave a Comment
Spirited Away is a gorgeous movie with gorgeous music. I could write to this soundtrack all day long if I owned it. I love Haku’s theme song:
And for those of you wanting something less exciting and more moving, check out Chihiro’s Waltz (also beautiful in piano version):
Why Conclusions Are So Darn Hard
Filed Under Tools of the Trade | 3 Comments
Beginnings are easy. Conclusions are hard. Simple, yet true.
At the beginning of a story, anything and everything can happen. Time travel, the apocalypse, start of school, you name it.
The end of a story is a bit more restrictive. You have to wrap up loose ends and write an ending that makes sense.
One of my fiction writing professors likes to say, “Conclusions should be inevitable, but surprising.” If that sounds like an easy thing to write, more power to you.
The Narrator could go ten different ways at this point. I’m not sure which one is both inevitable and surprising. Hopefully my critique group can help point me in the right direction if they don’t like Option B (Option A being the end from the November draft).
Too many novels end disappointingly. And not all of them are obvious cop outs like “it was all a dream” or “the bad guy redeems himself and the world rejoices forever.” I don’t want The Narrator to be one of them.
Do you have trouble writing endings to your novels? How do you deal with the difficulties?
Mini Update 5
Filed Under Updates | Leave a Comment
Okay, so I didn’t get much writing done, but I have the rewrite planned almost all the way to the end, which is excellent progress considering last week I had only a vague idea how to end this new version.
Goal: Reach the story’s climax (final Narrator vs. Gang battle) by the end of August.
The Other Riddle House
Filed Under RPG | Leave a Comment
The first Harry Potter RPG campaign was a success! There are still a few kinks to work out, like the logistics of combat, but overall, a positive experience.
We had two each of Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw, and one Hufflepuff, first years all. The story was they were serving detention with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest when they ran across a unicorn whose foal had been stolen. So off the ickle firsties went, trying to rescue it.
My favorite part, aside from watching them figure out the riddles I set for them, was the Nightmare Grass (stolen shamelessly from Pamela Dean’s Secret Country). Anyone who steps in the grass faces their worst nightmare, whether it be snakes, the death of a loved one….or butterflies. (That was a fun one. We had the boy running away from a snake and the girl running away from butterflies running in a giant circle.) Some of our players didn’t take the Boggart section of their character sheet seriously, so we also had people chased by chickens or falling into banana pits.
Now I’m trying to think of a longer campaign for second years. I have an underwater campaign planned, but I need to wait for the characters to learn a certain charm that will let them breathe underwater…that would be a big problem otherwise.
Group Countdown
Filed Under Countdown | 5 Comments
If you’ve read a fantasy story, and I mean any, chances are you’ve run into The Group – a splattering of main characters who team up to defeat evil. Authors can pick how many characters to have in The Group based on the story’s needs, but in my experience, some group numbers are more prevalent than others.
5. The lone hero.
The favorite of old tales, but the lone hero model has gone out of style. Even Frodo had good ol’ Sam to depend on. Stories today like to emphasize the need for friendship, rather than the power of one individual.
4. Dynamic duos.
Also not very popular, since it can be a bit flat character development-wise. An example would be, as mentioned above, Frodo and Sam as they trek toward Mordor.
3. Adventurers, party of five.
Used more in sword and sorcery novels, where quests reign supreme. Each character in The Group fills a vital role in adventuring: fighter, mage, rogue, priest, girl. Yes. “Girl” is usually the fifth role in a Five Man Band.
2. The symbolism of four.
Used in fantasy when you want each character to represent a balanced set, usually the classic elements. Think of Aang (air), Katara (water), Sokka (non-bending, fire is the enemy here), and Toph (earth) from Avatar: The Last Airbender, or Sandry (non-element), Daja (fire), Tris (air and water), and Briar (earth) from Tamora Pierce’s Circle of Magic books.
And the most common grouping?
1. The power of three.
Harry Potter‘s Harry, Ron, and Hermione are a [new] classic example. Three main characters provides a good dynamic, and has a lot of room to play around with conflict.
The Secret Country
Filed Under Book Reviews | 1 Comment
“‘A speaketh as one in thy books, eh, lad?’
Ted grinned. That much was true.”
Cousins Ted, Laura, Ruth, Ellen, and Patrick spend their summers playing the “Secret,” an invented game of kings and sorcery. Then they stumble into the real Secret Country, and are mistaken for the royal children. Now they must decide whether to play the game as written, or try to prevent regicide and war.
This is a fantastic start to the Secret Country trilogy, but I’m a sucker for hidden identities, political intrigue, and strange magic. It’s very easy to become attached to the characters, both the children and the inhabitants of the Secret Country.
The world is well-built, with layers of history and magic, far beyond the expectations of the main characters’ imaginings. You really get a sense that this world does exist, not just within the children’s fantasies. Strangely enough, perhaps because the children liked the plays and poems, the Secret Country inhabitants like to quote Shakespeare and poets, even though the literature doesn’t exist in their world.
The writing is well layered; each reading reveals something new. And there is a good blend of action and intrigue. One slight hiccup is that the main characters’ lengthy discussions on whether or not to stay can be a bit trying on re-reads.
If you enjoy unusual fantasies, check this out!
My Rating (out of five stars)
★★★★
I am writing so many riddles in preparation for Harry Potter Weekend (a birthday party for Harry, and then the first game of the HP Role Playing Game).
I need clues for a scavenger hunt we’re doing for the party, and I need riddles little firsties can solve, since they’re not skilled enough to take on much else.
Riddles are both frustrating and fun, to come up with clues that are both challenging and possible to solve. I like to make them rhyme, so that’s another difficulty. So it’s like poetry, but designed to stump.
For obvious reasons, I won’t post what I have now. I’ll update this post with my Harry Potter riddles after Harry Potter Weekend is over. Stay tuned!
EDIT: Here are some of the riddles I made. Short ones are from the scavenger hunt, longer ones are sphinx riddles for the RPG. If you like, post your guesses to the sphinx riddle in the comments!
“On the threshold of a magical portal
Lies power too great for a mortal.
Look past the bone and Mungo’s sign,
To find this, the fourth clue of mine.”
Answer: the Elder Wand, hidden in the St. Mungo’s sign of a crossed wand and bone.
“When you get in trouble with the Marauder’s Map,
You go to Dumbledore, but not for a nightcap!
He’s in the dungeons playing a game,
And knowing Dumbledore, it’s probably lame.”
Answer: the invisibility cloak, hidden in a Dumbledore’s Office lego box
“First think of getting a drink off the cuff,
Or when someone doesn’t have nearly enough.
Next, tell me what’s always the first thing to steep
Dark in the morning when you want to sleep.
And finally give me the thing often found
Within a front door or lost on the ground.
Now string them together, and answer me this,
Which item would you be unwilling to miss?”
“My first never are and never will be;
It’s trapped in the past, but Man is the key.
My second is hunted by Man in the wood;
But it owns the night, as well it should.
United you’ll find these opponents are bound;
Though their tensions remain, changes abound.”
A Novel Experiment
Filed Under Books vs. Movies | 6 Comments
VS. 
When I say Howl’s Moving Castle, do you think of Diana Wynne Jones’ book or Hayao Miyazaki’s movie?
Even though the latter was based on the former, they are completely different. Pretty much the only things that are the same are the names (mostly) and Sophie’s curse.
I saw the movie and fell in love. I just had to read the book now. I asked one of my friends if he’d seen the movie or read the book. He hadn’t, but he was interested. And I was far enough into the book to realize there were major differences.
Thus was born the Novel Experiment.
I thought, faced with two similar-yet-different tellings, would people favor one over the other, or would it depend on which you had encountered first? Since my order had been movie -> book, I told him to read the book first, then we’d watch the movie after.
The book was good. It was quirky and charming. But my favorite scenes from the movie were all missing. I decided I liked the movie better.
After watching the movie, my friend decided he liked the book better.
Any science-minded person would tell you this isn’t nearly enough data to prove my hypothesis. But I think it’s a good start.
Have you done any similar experiments?
Welcome
Official Progress
4/21 segments
A narrator hijacks a cliche fantasy story, much to the chagrin of its characters.Status: Second revision
A young noblewoman with strange powers must choose: her king or her soul.1,639/70,000 wordsStatus: First draft
When a girl's heart is stolen, she's plunged into a world of magic and shadows - but can she get her heart back before she loses it completely?1,087/70,000 wordsStatus: First draft
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