October Wrap-Up

Hey look guys! It’s a New Thing™.

I’m actually pretty excited about this. So from now on, hopefully, I’m going to be doing wrap-up posts at the end of each month.

The basic layout for this is as follows: I’ll talk about different topics (e.g. music, books, tv) and my experiences in that topic over the month in question, then offer you a recommendation in that topic. I’ll also update you on my writing!

Is this just an excuse to flail about tv shows/music/books? Maybe.

And on we go!

Music

Honestly, this first one could count as either film or music, but it’s a musical so I’m putting it in music.

So back during September, I was sucked into the hole that is Newsies: The Broadway Musical and I have not yet escaped. I watched the Newsies film a few years ago and really enjoyed it. When I discovered via Tumblr that the stage adaption had been filmed and put on Amazon Video, well, I couldn’t just ignore that.

So I shot over to Amazon and bought it. I have no regrets.

I forgot just how much I loved this musical. It just makes me feel so warm and tingly inside. I feel so happy when I’m watching it.

Here. Watch the thing. You’ll get it: Carrying the Banner. 

My song recommendations for this month are as follows:

Red Hands by Walk Off the Earth: It’s such a perfect song for a bunch of my characters? Morally complex characters. That’s what it fits.

Battle Scars (acoustic) by Paradise Fears: This is such a beautiful song. It’s perfect for the abundance of Found Families in my stories.

The Broken Ones by Dia Frampton: Once again, perfect found families song. I’ve been looking at these ones a lot for the Hezekiah crew playlist I’ve been compiling, so they’re heavily featured. Once again, a really beautiful song that I get really emotional about. I love it.

My artist commendation for this month is: Sleeping at Last

Very instrumental and calming, with lyrics in most of the songs but not all (also, I’m pretty sure there’s pure instrumental versions of even those). The most chill. Listen to Slow and Steady, Mars and Uneven Odds. They’re three of my favourites by him.

Films

I didn’t get massively into any films this month, so straight onto the recommendations!

This month’s is: Mad Max: Fury Road – which is a beautiful, powerful film that I adore. I watched it in April for the first time and I just love it. Be warned though, it is quite dark and violent and it is a 15. It’s not normally really graphic, but still, if you’re sensitive to that, it might not be a good idea.

It is very pretty.

TV

I mean, the obvious thing to talk about is The Great British Bake-off which came back on last month. And it’s amazing and way too intense for a show about baking.

I also watched Hetalia: Axis Powers for the first time this month and it’s pretty good. All the history jokes!

Other shows I watched this month include:

Voltron: Legendary Defender: I finally got onto Season 2! I know, I’m behind, shush. I love this. It’s funny and suspenseful and I love the characters so, so much.

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot: The one from way back in the fifties. It’s a mix of black-and-white and colour, but I love it either way. I love Arthurian legend and this is a great adaption. In some ways. Little lighter than most Arthurian legends.

And my monthly recommendation is:

Leverage: Leverage is this incredible, beautiful show about a group of criminals who form a team to help people and bring down corrupt corporations. It kind of starts out a bit dark and goes upwards into cheery comedy. They filmed an entire episode in the style of The Office, people. And it was hilarious.

And it centres around a found family and I am a total sucker for that particular trope.

I love these nerds.

Writing

I did a whole bunch of work on world-building for Asteria, which took a fair amount of time. And I’m not far off finishing the first draft. So that’s good!

I also came up with a new idea! It’s called Searcher currently, and it’s about a pair of brothers who are searching for their dead mother’s final heist. It’s nowhere near ready to write, still early in the planning/brewing process. I have characters, but even the plot’s not really figured out yet. Still, I’m excited.

I’ve been writing a collection of short stories for the backstories of the secondary main characters of Asteria – the rest of the Hezekiah crew specifically.  I started work on the last of them (out of ten stories, so I’ve already written nine) and I currently have four hundred words on it (out of an aimed two-thousand) and I’m pretty happy with how it’s turning out so far.

I chose my NaNoWriMo novel, Ghosts, Doughnuts and Other Related Things and planned out what I needed.

I posted three different posts this month:

The Problem with Christian Fiction

Beautiful Books: Ghosts, Doughnuts and Other Related Things

Prepping for NaNoWriMo

Reading

I read As You Like It by Shakespeare, The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen as well as a few of the One Piece manga volumes this month.

I haven’t had too much time to read, since my last OU module started this month and I’ve been prioritising writing when I’m not working on that.

My recommendation for this month is:

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor: I read this back in July and it blew me away. Beautifully written and just…amazing. One of my favourite books that I’ve ever read. Read it. Now.

Blogs

Paper Fury wrote 10 Reasons YA Books Should Mention Food. It’s really funny and actually pretty smart. I officially want to mention food more in my books now (which considering I mention food every other chapter basically might not be a good thing) I highly recommend any of her posts. Just go read her blog, people. She's also publishing a book next year! Which I am very excited for.

My blog recommendation this month is:

Feels Like Hope (Aimee Meester): Beautiful, often raw and pretty much always what I need to read at the time.

And that's all for this month! What did you think of this type of post? Do you want me to carry on doing it or is it completely stupid? Tell me down in the comments.

Prepping for NaNoWriMo

Hey guys!

So this week's post is all about preparing for NaNoWriMo. And we're still only part way through Preptober, so I'm not late! Good start.

Gifs are back! Exciting stuff.

Prepping for NaNo is a bit different, in my opinion, to prepping for a normal first draft. I made a post awhile ago about planning vs not-planning, here: On Planning (Or Rather A Lack of Planning). And I still stand by it. However, for NaNo I think it's a bit different.

NaNo is about sitting and writing, nothing else. You really can't afford to be taking time out of writing to research or develop a character or develop your world. When I write without planning (which, as you can see from that link above, is my preferred way of writing), I find myself pausing to think about my plot or my characters. It works for me, but it does mean my first drafts tend to be relatively slow in coming. That doesn't work for NaNo.

While an accurate depiction of me writing most of the time, do not do this during NaNoWriMo.

You need to pound out 50,000 words in one month and ideally those words should probably make sense. I've done NaNoWriMo six times (not including this year) and I've won the last three years running. So I feel that I have enough experience by this point to talk about what does and doesn't work. Having done this and having edited things that I wrote during NaNo, I think I'm justified in saying that I have some advice.

Plan Your Characters

This might seem like a dumb point, but you'd be surprised. Last year, I made the mistake of not really planning out the characters who were going to appear and this resulted in....issues. An example would be my good friend, Useph. Useph was a character in my story 'X'. He turned up and then just sort of...disappeared somewhere. I still have no idea where he went. 

So my advice would be make a list of the characters who are going to appear. And if you do introduce new characters, add them to the list so that you can see who's in the story and who you need to remember. It's a useful reminder and you could use it to list stuff like hair colour and eye colour and such things that we all tend to forget.

Research the Heck out of It

Nobody wants to start writing then have to pause to research whether or not badgers like cheese*. 

Think about your story and research anything that you think you're really going to need before you start November. Seriously.

During November itself, if you do come across something you need to research, make a note of it. Come back later when you're not under time-restraints and research it then. How you take these notes depends on how you're writing. Since I generally tend to use a mix of Scrivener and Microsoft Word, I make comments on the text in Word. You can also do that when you come up with worldbuilding or character issues. 

See exhibit A, a comment I made on my first draft of Asteria about worldbuilding. 

But do not, do not stop to research during NaNo. Not unless you are very much ahead. Because it's wasting valuable time and research is very easy to get sucked into.

*As it turns out, badgers do in fact eat cheese. There you go, random fact of the week. 

Think about Where You're Going

So as a confirmed pantser, I don't plan my stories. But I do think about where I'm going with it. Typically, I'll have an idea of my beginning and my end. I know where I'm starting and where I'm ending up. I understand Point A and Point B. Then when I'm writing, I just need to fill in the gaps between Point A and Point B.

For me, this is a really helpful way of guiding my writing without having to outline. I know what I'm trying to get to, so I know if something that I'm writing is going to send me too far off the beaten path. 

How much you figure out depends on how much you like to plan. Whether you meticulously plan every step or just have a vague idea where how your story ends, try and figure it out. Because it really will make keeping your story on track easier and it'll keep you from getting confused.

Do not be Bilbo Baggins here. But do be Bilbo Baggins in general. Because he's awesome.

Gather Supplies

a) Snacks/Drinks

Snacks and drinks are the lifeblood of NaNoWriMo. You can use them as rewards or as something just to snack on as you write. Either way, they're essential. It's often helpful to get something before November starts, because then you're not wasting time getting more.

I like drinking tea (just to live up to my aspiration of being a pure British stereotype) and my favourite snacks for writing are olives, grapes, maybe a bit of ice cream and a whole lot of coleslaw. But I have really, really weird tastes, so just find what works for you.

b) Notebooks/Pens

Super helpful for making the priorly mentioned notes. It's also an easy way of keeping track of where your characters are. 

For example, you might have three characters called Tim, Bertie and Alice - just go with the names. Now say you write a scene in which they separate and head off in different directions. That notebook of yours will make it a whole lot easier to remember where they are and what they're doing. It means you don't end up with tragic losses such as my old friend Useph. 

Truly, that was a tragedy.

Real footage of me writing X.

c) Anything Else You Think You Might Need

The old generic last category. I just couldn't think of what else to call it. And besides, this one is very changeable based on what you use to write. 

I write to music, so I'd use this time to build up my playlists for the story.

Here you see my main playlist for Ghosts, Doughnuts and Other Related Things. As you can see, I like to make a playlist for the main story itself and then one for each character. Then I'll sometimes make one for any relationships/friendships in the story. 

Preparing these ahead of time is essential for me, since I am entirely capable of spending hours making them and that's not a very good idea in NaNoWriMo. 

And that's the end of my advice for NaNo Prep. Obviously, not all of this will work for you, but it's just a few things to consider. And this post is only about prepping, actually doing it is an entirely different experience. 

Do any of you have any particular things you do to prep for NaNoWriMo? Write them down in the comments below, I'm always looking for new advice. 

Beautiful Books: Ghosts, Doughnuts and Other Related Things

So my last blogpost was a serious one where I was kind of just ranting about Feelings™ and I had no chill. But this week we’re back to me being an idiot with gifs, so I’m happy! I say with gifs, but Blogger won't insert them, so we're gifless for this week, sadly. So just me being an idiot. I'm sure that's exactly the same.

I haven’t posted since January (except for last week and I didn’t feel like I could ramble about this in that post) and that’s because I’m the worst. But I did have my reasons and originally I didn’t intend to start back at blogging until I had quite a few posts written and ready. That didn’t happen ‘cause of the last post which my mum made me post.

But anyway, I am back now, so hopefully everything should go sort of smoothly. Once again, I shall aim at getting a post out every week, though it’ll be Saturdays from now on, but I am not making promises, because that basically dares me to forget. So you can expect regular posts, but don’t expect too hard.

Moving on from my absolute failures as a blogger, today we’re talking about my NaNoWriMo novel, called Ghosts, Doughnuts and Other Related Things. I'm linking up with Beautiful Books over on Paper Fury and Further Up and Further In for this post.

What inspired the idea for your novel, and how long have you had the idea?

I first got the idea from a pin on Pinterest, I'm pretty sure. I can't remember which one though. I've had the idea for years, which accounts for not remembering. Either way, I remember wanting to write a kind of Ghostbustery story which involved friendly ghosts, so that's what I'm doing!

Describe what your novel is about!

My novel is a contemporary paranormal fantasy about a girl called Reinette who discovers there's a ghost in her home. As any of us would, she responds by befriending him then setting out on an adventure to help or hunt ghosts, along with said ghost and her best friend, the highly skeptical Barnabas. Think kind of Gravity Falls-esque in terms of humour and ridiculous things happening with no explanation.

What is your book’s aesthetic? Use words or photos or whatever you like!

echoing houses, loud laughter, running feet, puns, bright lights, long drives, loud music, the smell of pizza, tight hugs, pink hair, camera flashes, slamming doors.

Introduce us to each of your characters!

• Reinette: The pink-haired, cloud-cuckoolander main character. She's a little too energetic, but her heart's always in the right place.
• Barnabas: Reinette's best friend. Barnabas really doesn't want to be here. He's highly skeptical of the whole thing because it doesn't fit in with SCIENCE! 
• Jem: The ghost boy. Gentle and good-natured, Jem was murdered fifty years before the story starts. The search for his murderer forms one of the main plot threads of the story.

How do you prepare to write? (Outline, research, stocking up on chocolate, howling, etc.?)

Howling, mostly.
But in all seriousness, I tend to put more effort than normal into planning out a NaNo story. Mostly because it avoids me having to slow down to think about my plot or to research things. I'm planning on making a post next week about preparing for NaNoWriMo, so you'll get more explanation then.

What are you most looking forward to about this novel?

I'm so excited to write this story in general, I've been planning it for ages. But I think the thing I'm most excited for is the characters. I love these three characters so much.

List 3 things about your novel’s setting.

• It's set in modern-day Britain.
• There are mermaids in the River Mersey.
• There are minotaurs in Sherwood Forest.

What’s your character’s goal and who (or what) stands in the way?

Their main goal is to help Jem find his murderer and help/defeat ghosts and other miscellaneous monsters along the way. The particularly evil ghosts/monsters are standing in the way of the second goal. And the first goal is prevented by Jem himself, who won't tell them who killed him - he does know though.

How does your protagonist change by the end of the novel?

*whispers* I don't know...

Look, this is kind of planned out, but it's not that planned out. I'm just going to kind of let the characters do what they do and refine it in editing.

What are your book’s themes? How do you want readers to feel when the story is over?

Once again, I'm not really sure. I want my readers to feel happy and satisfied, but beyond that, I don't know. I'll figure it out while I'm writing.

And that's today's post done! After this month is finished, during November, I'm going to be posting snippets from this story and updates on my progress, so watch out for that if you're interested.

The Pinterest Board for this story is here: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/starjesterlower/storyboard-ghosts-doughnuts-and-other-related-thin/, so check it out if you want to.

Also! I have a new theme! I really like this one so I'll stick with it, at least for a while.

Are you planning on doing NaNoWriMo? If so, what are you writing? Tell me down in the comments.

The Problem with Christian Fiction

So I have a secret to spill.

I really don’t like most so-called ‘Christian’ fiction.

There. I said it. In fact, I outright hate a lot of it. Not all, there are quite a few hidden gems. In fact, I’d be happy to recommend some, if you want. **coughcough**cslewis**coughcough**

But as a general rule, I do not like books marketed as Christian fiction. In fact, I don’t like the idea of a ‘Christian’ genre, period.

I used to like them, when I was younger. But, as I got older, I started feeling more and more…dissatisfied, I guess you could say. I finished them and I ended up feeling…meh. Not strongly at all.

And I wasn’t sure why.

After all, they were the sort of books that, as a Christian, I should enjoy. I should finish them and feel strengthened as a believer, come out feeling more ready to live for Christ.

But I didn’t.

And it was actually kind of upsetting to realise. I felt like I was a bad Christian because I came out of them feeling empty, instead of emotional and excited.

And I started exploring.

I looked at the books I did enjoy, the books that I came out feeling something about. I thought about what made them different. And I came up with a few differences.

I found that those stories that I disliked? They were just so…blank. Perfect, cookie-cutter characters walking about in their perfect world, where nothing too bad – anything that could be construed as unclean for the book – can happen.

Not always, but frequently they limit themselves to telling stories where there is blatant Good and blatant Bad and no in between. The Bad gets punished, the Good win and everything is happy. The Good is, inevitably, Christian and they are perfect little saints who sometimes ‘struggle’ but always come out on top. The Bad are non-Christians and they aren’t given any leeway. At all.

There is so often this feeling of self-righteousness in these books, this feeling of ‘aren’t we so much better than them’.

And…there is so little love in them. Real love. Love that kneels down with the murderer and helps them to their feet, love that forgives anything so long as the person is repentant.

And I miss that love.

I’m not saying it’s even always there in non-Christian books. But it should be in Christian books. It’s in some, but it should be in all of them.

In my opinion, that should be what makes a reader look at a book and say, this is a Christian book. Not how little swearing there is or how little violence or how much the book congratulates itself on being a ‘Christian’ book.

Christian books should be distinguishable by their love, by the fact that they dare to say that you should love the unlovable. That you should turn to the monster and hold out your hand, saying I forgive you, come back, be saved.

To me the Christian genre so often entails just hiding ourselves away in a bubble and refusing to let anything bad touch us. Reading stories set in worlds with perfectly good Christians and evil atheists, patting ourselves on the back and saying ‘Look how good we are?’

But that isn’t reality!

The truth is atheists can be kind and Muslims can be loving and Christians can be cruel and monstrous and that is the world we live in. Because we are all imperfect humans and the world can’t be divided in half, between the perfectly ‘good’ half and the awful ‘bad’ half.

And the truth is, we are no better than anyone else, okay? We are not these perfect saints that walk among sinners. We are sinners.

Being a Christian isn’t sealing ourselves away from the world and refusing to acknowledge it. It’s difficult and it’s painful and it’s acknowledging that, Christian or not, we are sinners and we can be awful people, just as much as anyone else.

Sometimes following Christ isn’t easy, in fact it shouldn’t be. Following Christ is hard and it’s terrifying and it isn’t always big, sweeping motions of belief. It’s not all about Moses parting the Red Sea or dying for what you believe.

Sometimes, being a Christian is that moment in the middle of the night when everything is dark and terrifying and you hate yourself and something is telling you that you don’t deserve to be saved.
In that moment, you are the monster in the story. And you just need someone to hold out their hand and say you can be saved.

And that reality, that painful reality should be reflected in our books.

Guys, we’re not the heroes. We’re the monsters. The monsters that don’t believe we can be saved. And if we don’t tell our monsters that they can be saved, then what are we saying about ourselves?
And I’m not saying that every story has to be about saving the monsters. I’m not saying that you can’t have bad guys getting their comeuppance and the good guys winning.

But I’m saying that that feeling, that love should be present throughout. That I want to finish a book – even a silly one about a boy and a girl who fall in love – and not be thinking about how much the novel preached that This Thing is Bad and everyone who does it/believes it is Bad.

I want books that show love, instead of perfection and in my opinion, Christian fiction doesn't do enough of that. And that's what I want more of.

Feel free to comment below and say your thoughts on this topic, I'd welcome anything you have to say.