Beautiful People: Favourites Edition

So I'm back with another Beautiful People linkup questionnaire. This one'll be the last one - at least for a while. So I thought I'd do it, just because of that.

I've got a couple of big assignments coming up next month, one at the beginning and one at the end, so I'm probably not going to be posting any posts really next month. I'm just too busy, so I'm pulling back a bit to hopefully start again once my degree is finished.

Anyway, enough of my wittering. On we go!

Favourite genre to write in?

Fantasy, a hundred percent. I love fantasy. Although I am developing a fondness for sci-fi and magical realism...which is still technically fantasy.

What book (a real actual published book!) do you think your character would benefit from reading?

Minerva (Asteria) - I think she'd benefit from reading The Hunger Games. The whole theme of recovering from trauma and violence and life being good again is one that I think is really important for her.

Favourite piece of dialogue you’ve written?

I love a lot of the dialogue I've written, but I suppose that I'm pretty partial to this bit:

It's from Ghosts, Doughnuts and Other Related Things, my weird novel that's somehow both the worst thing I've ever written and also the best. Somehow.

What did your character want to be when they grew up, and what did they actually become?

Because today calls for Sadness(tm), let's go with Minerva.

When she was very young - about six - Minerva wanted to be a historian like her mum. She used to spend hours pouring over books - even though she didn't really understand any of it. 

Now - at sixteen - she's a brainwashed assassin slave and her mum's been murdered. Fun times.

Favourite character name(s)?

I am never happy with my character names, but there are a few that I ended up being genuinely happy with. Some of my favourites are: Calahan Brazier (Asteria), Medea Nakamura (Medea) and Giovanni Lupo (Graylings).

What makes your character feel loved, and who was the last person to make them feel that way?

Minerva - People taking the time to talk to her and listen to her and be with her makes her feel loved. The last person to make her feel loved - even though she hadn't realised that was what it was - was her best friend, Layla. She also didn't know that Layla was her best friend, that that was what it was called, until after Layla had been murdered. Minerva's full of sadness, guys.

Favourite character you’ve ever written?

I can't choose! I love them all. I guess I'm going to have to go with Will Herrman (The Gatekeeper Chronicles). He's my soft boy book worm and I love him. He was the first character I created that I got really invested in, so I suppose I'm always going to come back to him.

Honourable mentions include: Reinette Bellerose (Ghosts, Doughnuts and Other Related Things), Vivi (my new fantasy series, Narafire),  Ellie Kendrick (The Kendricks),  Jeffrey Waldorf (X) and Ophelia (The Raven and The King). 

If your character were permanently leaving town, what would they easily throw out? What would they refuse to part with? (Why?)

Minerva - She doesn't own much, so she would have much to throw out. But she'd never throw away her leather jacket (which was a gift from someone she adores). Never ever.

Favourite tropes to write!

Found families! I love found families so much. And just generally friendship. I also love the brooding old/middle-aged man who's super grumpy accidentally adopts child trope. See: my favourite video game of all time, The Last of Us.

Which story has your heart and won’t let go?

Look, I adore all my stories. They're all my favourite. But my favourite favourite stories tend to be whatever I've been working on at the time. At the moment, my favourite is probably either Asteria which I've been working hard on or Narafire which I've been doing a bunch of worldbuilding for and falling more and more in love with.

Favourite relationship between characters you’ve written?

I love the relationship between Minerva and Calahan in Asteria. It's kind of romantic, kind of friendship, but it's all beautiful. My precious kids who are trying to figure out how to be free and fix each other. I mean, it starts with attempted murder, but I swear it gets better.

Toni Morrison once said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” What are the books that you want to see more of, and what “holes” do you think need filling in the literary world?

I should actually write a post about this - I've been planning to. But, in a quick answer, I really want to see more friendship in books. I adore friendship.

Favourite pinterest board / aesthetic for a book?

I really, really love The Raven and The King.



I've put a lot of effort into making it as Aesthetic(tm) as possible.

Favourite time periods & settings to work with?

I love history-based fantasy - particularly Victorian or 1900s era fantasy. I also love medieval fantasy, although I don't write that much of it. I also adore space! Space is so much fun to write!

When people are done reading your book, what feeling do you want them to come away with?

I want people to come away feeling hopeful. Feeling like maybe there's something good in the world and believing that people can be good. I write a lot about light in darkness and I suppose that's the attitude I want people to come away with.

And I want them to feel satisfied. And like they can't tear themselves away from my dorky characters.

And that's the last Beautiful People post. At least for now. Hopefully, it'll restart again at somepoint, but even if it didn't, I've really enjoyed it while it lasted. It's been fun! 

Genres Explained - Fantasy (And A Tiny Bit Of Sci-Fi...Tiny)

Hey guys!

Last week I talked about wanting to start a new series called Genres Explained. And that's this! Before we go any further, I know I said that I'd start with magical realism. But! I quickly realised that it'd make a ton more sense to start with the umbrella genres; fantasy, science fiction, contemporary and so on, and then talk about the smaller genres within those ones.

And today's genre is! Fantasy!

Yeah, you already knew that from the title but eh. Give me my moment, okay?

So what exactly is fantasy?

Fantasy -  as I mentioned above - is what I call an umbrella genre. That is to say that it's a big genre that a whole bunch of eeeny-bitty tiny genres come under. Let's say that it's the mother genre and all the others are its babies that it loves a lot, but honestly, sometimes they get a bit out of control.

It's the genre with magic, it's the genre without rules - unless you set them up yourself - it's kind of a giant mess, but we all love it anyway.

Fundamentally, to be a fantasy, you need one thing - something out-of-the-ordinary or unexplainable by real-world standards.

And that something can be anything. From the vague magic-tinted tips of magical realism to the vast fictional realms of epic fantasy, fantasy can be literally anything. It's like the ultimate version of play-dough.

But, I hear you asking, where does science fiction come into this? Wouldn't that come under that banner as well?

And...you're sort of right. See, this is why I often prefer to use 'speculative-fiction' as the umbrella genre term, but for the sake of this series, I decided to split fantasy and sci-fi.

Honestly, the difference isn't huge.

You can hear the horrified gasps from the nerds in the back.

Look, just let me explain. The truth is fantasy and science fiction are too interlinked to really separate them too much. I mean, there's so much crossover. You have science-fantasy - a fantasy that uses scientific elements. You have hard fantasy - fantasy that confines itself to rules not unlike hard science fiction. You have space operas, like Star Wars, that are clearly fantastical...but they're set in space, so what gives?

See?

But, personally, I would typically define the difference as this:

Sci-fi does its best to fit in with the world of established reality. If something couldn't happen in reality, they either don't let it happen or - in the world of softer sci-fi - they throw technobabble at you.

Fantasy takes the world of established reality...and crumples it up into a ball, lights it on fire and dances around it as its dying screams echo throughout the universe. Fantasy likes to be internally consistent. But that doesn't mean that it needs to fit in with reality.

For example, take a flying bus. Those two genres would have two different ways of explaining that. Our old buddy Fantasy - let's make her a cute twelve-year-old girl with a big sword twice her size on her back - would take one look at it and say 'Magic! Magic fuel makes it fly!' Then she'd probably come up with a whole magic system for that fuel and it'd become a big thing.

Meanwhile our other friend Science Fiction - let's make him a pretty cool guy with glasses and a mohawk - would take a look at that flying bus and then start spouting something about aerodynamics and trying to fit wings onto that thing. He'd throw all sorts of science at you and expect you to understand it.

See the difference? Both are dealing with something that - in the real world - is impossible, but they both handle explaining it in two different ways. One takes the rules and throws them out of the window, while the other does its darnedest to make that dang flying bus fit in with what could actually happen.

Got it? Good. Let's move on.

What comes under the umbrella of fantasy?

There are a lot of different genres under fantasy and I am not going to write them all down. Look it up, mate. But I'll give you a few.

• High/Epic fantasy
• Low fantasy 
• Urban fantasy
• Magical realism
• Fairy tales
• Steampunk fantasy
• Historical fantasy
• Sword and sorcery

See? There's a whole bunch and that's definitely not all of them. As mentioned at the start, I'm planning to go into more detail about these genres - or at least into my own understanding of them. But that's pretty much it for today. Just a brief overview of fantasy as a whole.

What are your thoughts on fantasy? Do you think I drew the line between sci-fi and fantasy fairly or not? Tell me in the comments below.

January Wrap-Up

In no way, shape or form is this post late. Shush.

Hey guys!

So this week I'm doing my January Wrapup - a week late. I'm sorry, okay! We've covered that I'm bad at deadlines and I need to get back into the rhythm of writing posts. But it's here now.

My plans for the next few months aren't completely set in stone, but next week, I'm going to start a new series dedicated to explaining genres and giving a few examples of each one. I'm planning to start with magical realism - which I myself had trouble fully understanding for ages!

I'm also considering starting a series called 'Writer's Reviews'. This would be reviewing books and films with the goal of seeing what we as writers can take from it, whether that be through what the author did right or through what they did wrong. Would anyone be interested in that? I'm going to try one and see how it goes, see if it works alright as a format.

But that's my current plans for the blog, so hopefully I won't miss any more weeks. Sorry again!

But onto the Wrap-Up we go!

Music

I got massively into Ruelle this month. She's similar to AURORA who I recommended back in November. More creepy, atmospheric songs. I've been compiling some playlists that require that sort of song so I've been listening to her a lot. 

I also started listening to Jonathan Young who does a lot of rock/pop punk covers of different songs - I particularly like his Disney covers. He did an amazing cover of The Bells of Notre Dame from The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Caleb Hyles which I adore. 

My song recommendations for this month are:

Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra: So cheerful and upbeat! I love it. 

On My Way Home by Pentatonix - Another happy one that I love. It's great for family playlists.

Hustler by Zayde Wolf - Zayde Wolf is another one I've gotten really into this month and Hustler is one of my favourites. I don't even know why, I just love it. 

And my artist's recommendation for this month is: Jonathan Young.

His covers are amazing. Seriously, go listen to them. My favourites are The Bells of Notre Dame (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), The Trail We Blaze (The Road to El Dorado) and Peace Sign (Boku No Hero Academia).

Films

I watched IT this month! And it was great. I loved it. And I cried, but that's not a surprise to anyone who knows me - since I cry incredibly easily. 

My film recommendation for this month is:

 The Prince Of Egypt - This is an adaption of the first part of Exodus, for those who didn't know. It's the story of Moses. But it has stunning animation and amazing songs. My favourite is Deliver Us.

So prettyyyyy.

TV

I watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine this month. It's a comedy about police officers in Brooklyn, New York. It's actually hilarious. I love it. I also watched some of The Shannara Chronicles which is a fantasy series. Another good one, at least so far. 

I also watched some Power Rangers. Because I enjoy cheesy superhero shows, okay? Don't judge me. 

My TV recommendation for this month is: 

White Collar - This is an US show about a con-man who gets caught and makes a deal to help the FBI catch other white collar criminals. It's nowhere near as serious as it sounds. It's ridiculous and funny and Neal Caffrey and Peter Burke are my ultimate BrOTP. 

Neal is really very polite.

Writing

I reached 70000 words on Asteria! I mean, I'm still only just two-thirds of the way through my outline, but still! Achievement. I'm slightly concerned about how long this story is going to end up, but eh. It'll be fine. 

I've been working a lot on world-building for my different stories, particularly Asteria but also my Narafire epic fantasy series and The Memory Weaver - an alternate-historical fantasy set in Victorian Britain. 

The only post I wrote on my blog this month was - Ten Types of Writers.

But! I did guest-post over on Deborah Kelty's blog, writing about editing here.

Reading

This month I started Game of Thrones by G.R.R. Martin finally! I've also been reading a few books for my module. I've been reading Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, The Country Wife and Arabian Nights' Entertainment. 

My recommendation for this month is:

The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock - I love this book so much. It's set in Alaska in 1970. It follows four different characters living different stories right until they meet at the climax. It was such a fascinating read, particularly since I don't know much about life in Alaska. The writing is so amazing and lyrical. Really sensory as well, the author does an incredible job of describing scents and sounds and so on. Definitely a good one to pick up. 

And that's it for January!

I didn't get as much done as I wish I had, but I was ill for all of it, so I think I did okay. As I mentioned at the top, next week I'm going to be talking about magical realism, so look out for that. 

What did you read or watch during January? Let me know, down in the comments.

Ten Types of Writers

Hi guys!

So yeah. I'm back. *ducks to avoid rotten tomatoes being thrown* Sorry for being so late! In my defence, I got sick about a day after Christmas and still haven't fully recovered. Also, I kept forgetting until it was too late. But I'm back now!

I know you all thought you were finally free from my inane rambling, but no! You'll never be free.

So happy new year everyone! Please ignore that we're a few weeks into the year already. I hope it's been going well for you all so far. Today we're going to be discussing the Ten Types of Writers.

Some might say that you can't tie down a group of people to ten types, but those people are wrong. And I am right. Because I know everything. Ha*.

On we go.

*Shush, and let me have my delusions, okay.

Ten Types of Writers

THE FIDDLY PLOTTER

This one is those nerds who plan every single detail. They do all their research ahead of time. They have shiny graphs and notebooks all neatly written. Unplanned stories give them anxiety. They probably colour-coordinate everything. Nerds.

THE COWBOY

This one is the pantser. Named because they treat their story like the Wild West. A mystery, where anything could happen and they're just along for the ride. It does have the downside of having characters randomly drop dead and honestly, the likelihood of finding gold is even lower than during the Gold Rush, but dang it, they're going to try!

THE 'OOOH, SHINY!' ONE

This is the one who starts on a story. And writes a chapter. Then starts thinking about mutant sharks. Then starts thinking about a story involving mutant sharks. Then starts thinking about how much more fun it would be to write about mutant sharks than whatever the heck they were just writing about. They might fight their urges for another chapter. Then they give in and write about mutant sharks.

But...a chapter into writing about mutant sharks...they get an idea for murderous ballerinas...and the cycle repeats.

THE NANOWRIMOER

This is the one who has November marked as busy all year around. They thrive off the challenge, off the Word Wars, off the caffeine-driven writing sprees, off the grey hairs they're getting. They probably completed NaNoWriMo once and now insist on upping the ante every time they do it. Fifty thousand words? Pfft, that's nothing. Try a hundred thousand words. And on it goes.

They're probably going to die young. But at least they'll have written a whole lot when they do.

THE ROAD RUNNER

This one is just....inhuman. They write faster than most people think. You blink and they have another book written. Those words might be ninety-percent nonsense, but they're words, dang it. We all dream of being them. We are not them.

Give us your wisdom, oh Road Runner. Please.

THE SNAIL

The opposite to the Road-Runner. They started a book when they were eight and now they're eighty. They're just reaching the midpoint. But those words are good words. Probably. They'll at least somewhat make sense. Maybe.

THE 'I CAN STILL BE A WRITER IF I DON'T WRITE ANYTHING, RIGHT?' ONE

Oh procrastination. We do love you so.

This one is the one who will literally do anything but sit down and write. They'll sit through Where The Wild Things Are. They'll badly breakdance in front of strangers. They'll break down and cry, hiding in a cupboard. Anything but actually writing.

They're a mess to be honest but at least they're trying, okay?

THE MASS-MURDERER

No one is safe. This writer takes a machete to their characters with gleeful laughter and/or broken sobs. Getting attached to one of their characters is a dangerous game. You are almost certainly going to get your heart broken.

But they're almost certainly destroying their own soul while doing it, so at least you can take comfort in that.

THE MULTI-TASKER

This one is a little like the 'Oooh, shiny' one, except they never abandon a project. They just add projects on. It's a point of pride, you see. They think wistfully back to the days when they were happy and free and only had ten projects on the go. 

But they'll never be free. Anytime they finish a project, they celebrate by letting themselves add another five projects onto their pile. They're crying. 

THE SUPER SECRET ONE

This one basically treats writing as if they're part of MI6. Nobody can know anything. If you hear any details, they'll have to kill you. They probably write at midnight just in case anyone looks over their shoulder and catches - le gasp - a character name. 

They've probably committed murder in real life. Avoid them at all costs. 

And that's the ten types of writers! I'd say I'm a mix of the multi-tasker and the mass murderer. 

What about you? Which type would you say you are? Tell me down in the comments.

My Favourite Tropes

Hey guys!

So a few weeks ago, several blogs I'm following all talked about their favourite tropes in books/films/tv and I thought. Hey. I'm a trope-loving human. I could talk for hours about that. I want to do it!

Quality content here, guys. Quality content.

This post has actually been planned since back in November - in fact, my initial draft talked about NaNoWriMo, which just tells you how long I left off finishing it. But it's a post I've been planning, so I'm doing it. Bear in mind that after this, I'm taking a brief break from posting for Christmas and I'll be back on the last Saturday of December with my Wrap-Up!

But that's in the future. Right now, let's talk tropes. On we go!

 Found Families

I just...I literally cannot describe to you how much I love this trope. I mean, it turns up in every one of my stories, it's in an awful lot of my favourite books/films/tv shows and I just...I love it. 

It's that friendship thing again, I'm just a total sucker for friendship and platonic relationships and this allows me to fully bask in it. I just. I love it guys. I love it. If you pop this one into your stories and it's well-written*. You've sucked me in. 

*eh, who am I kidding. I'll love it even if it isn't well-written.

Other tropes that I also love, but that are kind of too connected to this one to get their own category would be - the Ragtag Band of Misfits, the Magic of Friendship and True Companions.

Examples: the Leverage team (Leverage, obviously), the Straw-Hat Pirates (One Piece), the Batfamily (Batman comics, DC), the Guardians of the Galaxy (Marvel)

Quick, Act Natural!

Or as it's called on TV Tropes, Acting Unnatural. 

Pretty self-explanatory, really. You know that moment in a film/book/tv show where someone comes into the room and all the characters have to act natural. Naturally, they're all terrible at it and they strike ridiculous poses or do stupid stuff.

I just. It's brilliant. I'll never get tired of it. 

It's a trope that turns up all over the place, but it's a little harder to find a specific example of it anywhere. So, instead, to illustrate my point, I'll just show you a snippet from my NaNo novel, where I used it. 

Dorks, all of them.

Crazy-Prepared

Do you have a character who's somehow prepared for everything? Including, but not limited to, escaped sharks in the middle of London, killer ballet dancers and the invasion of giant snails that we all know is coming?

Then you probably have a Crazy Prepared character. And I will probably love them forever.

Examples: Batman. Do I need to say anything else?

Dysfunction Junction

That group that's completely messed up in every possible way? Who all definitely need therapy? They're this trope. 

There's something about a bunch of messed up kids coming together to heal their broken pieces and fix each other that I love and this trope is a predecessor to that.

And we're back to the Found Families trope. Literally everything comes back to that eventually, I swear.

Examples: the Batfamily, the main characters from Sherlock (BBC), anyone from A Series of Unfortunate Events (Lemony Snicket)

The Awesome Normal People

These are your Iron-Mans, your Batmans, your Black Widows, your Samwise Gamgees. 

These are the guys who don't have any special powers - except for sometimes being rich - but they're awesome anyway. They stand up there with titans and no one ever questions that they belong there. They're the ones that prove that you don't need powers to be awesome.

Examples: Other than the examples above, Beren (Tolkien, of the Tale of Beren and Luthien fame), Steve Trevor (Wonder Woman)

Team Dad/Mum

The one slightly more mature person on the team who just parents everybody. The Dads are the slightly more harsh version of this trope, the ones who discipline and tell people off. The Mums are the warm, nurturing version of this trope. Sometimes you'll have one of each, sometimes you'll just have either one.

Then you get the giant messes that are kind of both, but kind of neither and honestly, they've no clue what they're doing but they accidentally adopted a bunch of people and they're trying, okay!

*coughs* Sorry. Got a little carried away there.

Sometimes they're literally parents to the others in the group, other times they just take this role without that. 

Examples: Wendy Darling (Peter Pan), Effie Trinket - Team Mum to an extent (more so in the films, Hunger Games) along with Haymitch Abernathy as the Team Dad, Chiron (Heroes of Olympus), Bruce Wayne (Batman, DC), Jeff Tracy (Thunderbirds)

And that was a not-exhaustive list of just a few of my favourite tropes in literature/films/tv and honestly, if you write about them, I'll love you forever.

What about you? Do you have any favourite tropes? Tell me down in the comments.

The Writer's 'When You Learn More About Me' Questionnaire + Five Facts About My WIP

Hey guys!

So we're into December! And that means Christmas! Exciting stuff. For this month, I've got a couple of posts planned, but for the most part we'll kind of chill a bit, okay? I'm (obviously) posting this week and next week, but the week after that I'm going on break for two weeks for Christmas. And then I'll be back on the last week with my December Wrap-Up.

So I was wondering what I could do for this week and I decided that I'd *cough*finally*cough* get around to filling in a couple of tags that I was tagged in by Deborah Kelty

Me? Fail at everything? Why yes, thank you for noticing.

So we'll start with the 'Ten Questions About Me' questionnaire, then move on to the second one. Here we go.

Q1: What was the first story you remember writing?

I'm not sure, since this was way back when I was three, but I'm pretty sure it was about a king, a queen and a princess who all died in the end. Also, I'm pretty sure there was a ring involved. I hadn't even read Lord of the Rings at this point, for obvious reasons, but I was ripping it off anyway.

Q2: Where do you gain your inspiration? 

All sorts of places. Music is a major one, which is why I make playlists for all of my stories. I love music. Pinterest is also a big one. I can surf Pinterest for hours and I have a special Story Inspiration board on my account where I pin ideas. Taking in media is very helpful too, reading books and watching films and tv shows. I get so many ideas just watching an episode of Doctor Who. 10/10, would recommend. 

Q3: Who/What exactly encouraged you to become a writer?

My family's always been really encouraging, but other than that, just my favourite books and wanting to be able to write like that. I've always loved writing, so I really didn't need much encouragement to do it.

Q4: If you had a choice between past or present tense to use, which one would you pick?

It really depends on the story and on how I'm feeling. If I've been writing a story with present tense for a while, I'll instinctively write everything in present tense, but it works the other way round too. 

But, because this question calls for an actual answer, I'd probably say present tense. It's the one I prefer at the moment, because my main draft is written in present tense, so I'm overwhelmingly spending more time in it. 

Q5: Do you have some type of "kryptonite" weakness?

My physical disability stops me from writing as much as I'd like, but it's probably just making me write a normal amount, so I mean...

In terms of my actual writing...it's those dang villains. How do people not overwhelmingly sympathise with their villains?! I don't understand. I make a villain, then I wonder why they're doing what they're doing, then I over-develop them, then I feel bad for them. 

Dear fellow writers, how the heck do you write irredeemable villains. I seem to be incapable of it. Strange considering that my novels tend to be pretty dark and violent. 

Q6: On the flip side, do you have a type of "superman" strength?

....I mean, I've been told I'm pretty good at dialogue? But I don't know if that's actually true across the board or not. I'm an expert procrastinator, maybe that's mine. 

Q7: Are there any guilty pleasures of yours?

I don't tend to feel guilty over the things I enjoy. If I like something, then I like it. But I guess, maybe I like Disney XD shows and find them ridiculously enjoyable, even though they're actually rubbish.

Q8: Is there a genre of media/entertainment you've not seen but want to try out one day?

I'd love to try out horror at some point. I own Stephen King's IT in novel form, so hopefully I can get to reading that behemoth and then kind of get to grips with the genre. I do love a tinge of horror in my media - my favourite Batman comics are the ones that dip into horror territory. 

Q9: And finally, what is your favourite writing snack?

I'm not sure, probably tea? Because I am a true British stereotype, dang it!

Also, I like olives. And grapes. And coleslaw.

Me? Weird? Whatever would make you say something like that?

Q10: So, would you do more Q&A's like this?

I mean, I'm terrible at them, but sure. Tags are easy blogposts!

And that is that one done! Now onto the second. 

So for this, I have to give out five facts about my WIP. And for this, I'm going to waffle on about my novel Asteria, which...I have not talked much about on this blog for some reason.

I will eventually make a full post explaining this novel, but for now, you just need to know that it's science-fiction (kind of) and it's about a teenage mess of feelings called Minerva who's very stabby and doesn't understand emotions and friendship.

Here, see the Pinterest Board for it:


And on we go!

Fact 1

It's set in a fictional solar-system almost a thousand years after humans colonised it. The system is essentially run by the Valarian Republic, a supposedly-democratic government with elected representatives from each colony and group of people who meet in the Senate.

The Senate is kind of the most back-stabby place ever. Yes, that is poison in your cup, probably shouldn't drink it.

Fact 2

There's a crew of nerds who have no idea what they're doing, all have the most tragic backstories and who all kind of low-key adopt the teenage mess that is Minerva. 

Minerva has no idea how to cope with this.

Fact 3

There's a desert planet called Samoia that has a natural disaster native to it called the Samon. It's basically a planetary monsoon that covers the whole planet and refills the empty rivers and wells. 

The native Ryoans believe that it's sent by the water god, Ryoji.

Fact 4

Ten years before the novel begins, a species of people are slaughtered by the Republic. This has major ramifications on the system as a whole. It leaves the whole place politically unstable.

Fact 5

There's a floating country called Tirvah within the atmosphere of the ice planet, Everarin. It's a cool place, albeit under occupation since their king had no chill and yelled at the Republic leaders in the middle of the Senate meeting. As a result of Fact 4, to be specific. See, told you it had a big effect.


And that is the end of this week's post! A pretty big one, really, but there you go. Sorry, Deborah, for taking literally forever to catch up and do this. I fail.

When it comes to tagging, I have literally no blogging connections, so if you want to do these tags, go ahead and do them. I tag you all.

What did you think of this week's post? Do you have a WIP you're working on? Tell me a fact about your WIP in the comments below.

November Wrap-Up + Why I Quit NaNoWriMo This Year

Hey guys!

So I'm back, after a break last week. And today I'm going to explain that week. But first, I need to tell you something. I quit NaNoWriMo this year.

I didn't want to, but partway through November, I developed costochondritis. That - in case you don't know - is an inflammation in the chest cavity. In my case, it was generally agreed to have been brought on by too much typing and the doctor told me that I wasn't allowed to type for a few days. If I'd just stopped then gone back to it, I would've had too many words to write in a day and I would have just made the costochondritis worse. Which, since I have another assignment due in the beginning of December, I really don't want.

So I decided to stop doing NaNoWriMo this year. And that inability to type is also why I didn't post anything last week. I didn't have anything written beforehand and I wasn't allowed to type during that weekend. So that's that.

Now that I'm allowed to type a little bit again, I've gone back to my main drafts and left my NaNoWriMo story for a while. I'd like to finish Asteria by the end of the year, so I need to get cracking on that.

Since this is the last Saturday of November - here, have a wrap-up post.

Music

So I was mostly listening to my Ghosts, Doughnuts and Other Related Things playlist this month, but I did listen to some new stuff. I listened to AURORA this month and she's amazing. Really chilling, creepy music that's great for story playlists. Very atmospheric. 

I also listened to The Jungle Book 2016 soundtrack. A good soundtrack. And I listened to some stuff from TROLLS because why not?

My song recommendations for this month as follows:

Follow My Feet by The Unlikely Candidates: A song I've loved for a while, but still great. Great for character playlists.

Dreamers by Oh Gravity: A great song, super good for friendship playlists. Very good for space playlists. I love this one so much.

Isle of Flightless Birds by Twenty-One Pilots: A little bit darker than the others I've recommended, but great for sadder character playlists. I still love this one.

And my artist recommendation is: AURORA

I feel like you knew that was coming, since I mentioned her earlier. But she's just amazing and I completely recommend her, particularly her album: All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend. So creepy and atmospheric. I especially recommend Running With The Wolves, Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) and Nature Boy (Acoustic). 

Films

Once again, no films that I really got into this month, so straight onto the recommendations:

This month's film recommendation is How To Train Your Dragon - Still one of my favourite animated films ever. It has beautiful animation, stunning music and one of the most emotionally moving stories I've seen. I love it. Go watch it. Now. 

Cutie.

TV

This month I started watching The Good Place, a really odd, really funny comedy about a woman who dies and ends up in The Good Place, when she was supposed to end up in The Bad Place. It's really weird, but hilarious. I love it. 

I got back into watching Thunderbirds Are Go, which is a reboot of the old 60s Thunderbirds show. It's great. I also started rewatching The Musketeers, a BBC adaption of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. A brilliant show that I adore. 

My recommendation for this month is: 

Falling Skies: Falling Skies is a TV show about a family in the aftermath of an alien invasion. It's great, has good action, strong acting and enjoyable characters. I also loved the focus on family, it's an original take on the idea. It's also pretty funny as well, at times. It can be a little bit violent, but definitely nothing awful. 

All the father-son feelings. All of them.

Writing

So, obviously, I attempted NaNoWriMo this month. By the time I had to quit, I had over half of the 50,000 word-count, so I'm pretty happy. It's more than I would've written otherwise and I've been trying to force myself to get to work on Ghosts, Doughnuts and Other Related Things for so long now, it's nice to just get writing it. 

I've also started writing a timeline of the fictional solar system in Asteria, going back 800 years to when humans first colonised it. I've got the first 100 years down. 

The first part of it. This is going to take a while, but it'll be worth the work.

I also got back to the main draft of Asteria and added a little bit to it, not much since I can't type much, but a bit. I also got further with editing The Gatekeeper Chronicles. 

I wrote two blogposts this month:

NaNo Week 1

NaNo Week 2 + Beautiful Books

Reading

Sadly, not much got read this month. With writing and also working on my assignment for the first week, I didn't get much time. I'm partway through Hamlet by William Shakespeare for my module, which I've been focusing on getting to grips with since that's what my next assignment is about. I also read a bunch of One Piece volumes and I read And I Darken by Kiersten White. 

My recommendation for this month is: 

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick - Another of my favourite books, blending beautiful pictures with words in a really visual way, it's so easy to read and follow. I would definitely recommend it if you struggle with reading. It's also a genuinely beautiful and moving story. 

Blogs

I haven't read many blogposts this month, so this section is empty. Sadness.

This month's recommendation is: Paper Fury: Genuinely hilarious and weirdly helpful. Also, Cait's publishing a book next year, so you should all go and pre-order it. Now.

And that's it for November. How did your month go? Did you do NaNo? If so, how did you do? Tell me down in the comments.