Heart Full of Ink: October 2016

Beautiful Books: Introducing My 2016 #NaNoWriMo Novel

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From a Spark to a Fire: A Look at My NaNoWriMo Preparations

8:16 AM

There are officially only ten days until November, which means there's only a little over a week until NaNoWriMo starts! Today, I started to plan out what I'll be writing for NaNoWriMo and feel in no way prepared.

For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month in which writers are challenged to write 50,000 words of a first draft of a novel by the end of November. I participated last year and managed to write 50,006 words of the first draft of my novel, but I think a large part of my success was due to the fact that I started plotting out that novel three months before NaNoWriMo began. Yep, that's right, I plotted the novel August-October and wrote the first 50,000 words of it last November.

Even though it makes my November hectic and stressful, I've decided to participate in NaNoWriMo again with a new story this November because my eyes are always bigger than my stomach when it comes to both writing and desserts. I thought some of you might be interested in my writing process, so I've decided to share a bit of the planning I do before I sit down to write the first sentence of my novel on November 1st.

Step 1: The Spark

Ideas come to writers in different ways, but I usually get my writing ideas from the books I read and my life. Sometimes, it's an idea of a character or a small plot point that the sparks my imagination. Other times, it's a piece of a conversation I overheard. Below are two different examples of writing ideas that have sparked my imagination. They're both ideas I have for novels I might write for this year's NaNoWriMo, and I'm hoping writing this blog post will help me settle on which one to write this November.

Story Idea A: Some of my favorite books have been about characters who learn how to do magic. I thought it would be fun to write a story which takes place at a magic school, but I didn't want it to be the typical magic school story. I began to think about what I could do make my story different. I sorted through various "What if?" scenarios before landing on "What if the main character hides the fact that she doesn't have any magical powers in order to attend magic school?" This idea struck my fancy, so I decided to explore it a bit more.

Story Idea B: I love to bake and wanted to write about a character who wants to open up her own bakery. Because I love fantasy, I wanted to give the story some sort of supernatural twist. I began thinking, "What if the main character is a demon and has to juggle working at a bakery with her nightly duties of collecting souls for the Devil?" Or, "What if the main character made a deal with the Devil? What if it wasn't the Devil she made a deal with? What if she made a deal with The Prince of Darkness, one of many princes of Hell, because the Devil is too busy to make deals with every sad soul looking to make a deal?"

I didn't get both of these ideas at the same time. I wrote the first two chapters of Story Idea B about two years ago but the story never got off the ground due to lack of planning before I started writing, and I came up with Story Idea A about a year ago but never went any further with it. In order to build both of these story sparks into a flame, they need to be fleshed out with each main character's external and internal goals and motivations.

Step 2: Adding Fuel for the Fire

A spark of fire will burn out quickly without fuel to sustain it, and the same is true of a story idea. In order for a spark to become a roaring fire, it needs wood (or something flammable) and oxygen. I'm going to continue with this fire metaphor so bear with me. Once you have the spark of an idea, you need to decide what the protagonist's goal is as well as what motivates him/her. In other words, you need to feed your idea with some wood (goal) and oxygen (motivation).

People in real life and characters in books have both external and internal goals and motivations (though people and characters usually don't think about or even know what their internal goals and motivations are unless they are incredibly reflective and self-aware).

Goal=What does the character want?

Motivation=What gets this character to act?

When I sat down today to try to figure out which story idea I should write for NaNoWriMo, I decided to develop the external and internal goals and motivations of the main characters of both stories.

Story Idea A:

External Goal: The main character (MC) wants to hide the fact that she doesn't have any magical powers so she can attend and graduate from magic school.

External Motivation: If people find out the MC doesn't have magic, she'll be expelled from magic school, shunned by her magical family, and barred from the magical community.

Internal Goal: The MC wants to be accepted and loved by her family for who she is.

Internal Motivation: The MC feels she doesn't fit in, and she doesn't like being different.

Story Idea B:

External Goal: The MC wants to open up her own bakery.

External Motivation: Owning her own bakery has been the MC's dream job since childhood.

Internal Goal: The MC wants to be happy (and have something of her own of she can be proud of).

Internal Motivation: The MC is not content and feels like she hasn't accomplished anything with her life.

Step 3: Do Your Best to Put Out the Fire aka Creating Conflict

Now that you've built up a nice fire, it's time to pour some water on that fire because life isn't fair. No matter how much you try to plan for and avoid problems in life, they still come up and get in the way of you attaining your goals. In books, as in life, triumphs and victories are made all the sweeter if they are not easy to obtain. Stories need conflict. Something or someone needs to stand in the way between the protagonist and his/her goal. Good stories often have more than one conflict, but at this planning stage it's important to think of the big external and internal conflicts the protagonist faces. Below are the conflicts I came up with for my two story ideas.

Story Idea A:

External Conflict: In order to graduate from magic school, the MC must demonstrate magical powers she doesn't have during her final examination.

Internal Conflict The MC sees herself as too ordinary and thinks her magical family and friends wouldn't stick by her if they found out she has no magical powers.

Story Idea B:

External Conflict: The MC doesn't have enough money to open up her own bakery and unknowingly signs a deal with with a prince of Hell. If her bakery isn't a success by the end of the year, he'll own her soul for all eternity.

Internal Conflict: The MC doesn't know if she can be happy with all of the morally gray decisions she's made in pursuit of her dream job.

Step 4: Let the Story Simmer

The last step in this stage of my planning process is to let my story idea simmer. I focus on other things going on in my life, but the story idea is still floating around in my head. It's percolating. How long I let a story idea simmer varies; however, since November is right around the corner, I'm going to let my two story ideas simmer for one day before I choose which story I'm going to write and then start planning out the plot.

That, in a nutshell, is how I take an idea for a story and build it up into something a bit more. Next week, I'll share a bit more of my plotting process with you (I'll briefly touch on character development, setting, and plot).

Let's connect! Which of my story ideas sounds more intriguing to you? Story Idea A or Story Idea B? Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? How do you prepare? Comment below!

Mostly Thorns With a Few Roses: The Bookie Monsters September Review of A Court of Thorns and Roses

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Summary

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

*Summary from goodreads

Review

There is a finite amount of time in the world, and I've reluctantly accepted the fact that I will not be able to read all of the books on my never ending TBR list. Because I have so little time to read for fun, I find myself less willing to read books which don't interest me; however, I also don't want to judge a book too quickly and not finish it because maybe it could get better. While reading A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, I forced myself to keep reading in hopes that the story would become more engaging. Everyone else had been raving about Sarah J. Maas, and I wanted to share in their adoration. Unfortunately, slow pacing, frustrating characters, and an unsatisfying romance keep me from jumping on the Sarah J. Maas obsession train the internet seems to be riding.

Until page 280 (yes, I wrote down the exact page number while I was reading and thought "finally!), I was a bit bored. The plot moves at a glacial pace for more than half of the book with the characters not doing much of anything except talking and eating. The conversations between characters isn't stimulating, doesn't move the plot forward, and is intentionally, frustratingly vague at times. I had to force myself to keep reading. Then, finally, on page 280 the plot kicks in, and the antagonist is finally introduced. From page 280, the storyline improves. I'm glad I decided to stick with the book, but not every reader is patient enough to read 280 pages before anything interesting happens.

The slow moving plot was exacerbated by the fact that I didn't connect with the main character Feyre. I didn't agree with most of the decisions she made, and I didn't like her. A Court of Thorns and Roses is supposed to be a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and the Irish ballad Tam Lin. I understand that retellings change characters, settings, and plot points in order to put forth a new interpretation of the original story. I've read and enjoyed lots of retellings that have updated or changed different aspects of the story. The character of Belle from Beauty and the Beast is one of my all time favorite characters. In A Court of Thorns and Roses, the character of Feyre is supposed to be Belle. Perhaps Maas intentionally made Feyre the exact opposite of Belle, but I don't like the changes. A big part of Belle's character is that she is kind, forgiving, compassionate, and loves to read books. Feyre isn't particularly kind (in fact, she can be quite abrasive) and doesn't know how to read. Feyre's personality and her interactions with other characters reads much more like Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games than Belle, which is not what I expect or want in a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

Because I struggled to connect with the main character, I didn't buy into the romance between Feyre and her "beast." With such a slow moving plot, one would think that the romance would slowly but surely build between the characters. Instead, the exact opposite happens. Suddenly, they're in love with each other (despite the fact that Feyre doesn't have many lovable qualities, at least not in my opinion). I found myself unsatisfied with the entire romantic storyline.

This book is not all thorns though. There are a few beautiful roses sprinkled throughout which redeem some of the book's faults. The writing style is good. The plot drew me in once the antagonist was introduced, and I did like the character Rhys as well. As I said earlier, I'm glad I finished reading the book. I ended up giving A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas a 3 out of 5 stars on goodreads (though really it's more like a 3.5 out of 5 stars). I bought the second book in this series, A Court of Mist and Fury, before I'd read A Court of Thorns and Roses because I'd heard some friends say they liked the first book but loved the second book. While I do plan to read the next book in the series, I'm going in with lowered expectations.

The Wrath and the Dawn

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Summary of The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all.

Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It's an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid's life as retribution for the many lives he's stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?

Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn is a sumptuous and enthralling read from beginning to end.

Summary from goodreads

Review

I sat down to write this review several different times but always found some way of putting it off. It wasn't because I disliked The Wrath and the Dawn. On the contrary, I think it's well written and plan on reading the next book. No, I think the reason why I'm having a hard time writing a proper review of this book is because it was good, but didn't blow my socks off if you know what I mean.

The Wrath and the Dawn is a retelling of A Thousand and One Nights, which is one of my favorite stories. I've read many other retellings of the story because I love the idea of stories being so powerful they can help make people more tolerant and better people. What sets The Wrath and the Dawn apart from other retellings of A Thousand and One Nights that I've read, is the fact that the character of Shahrzad agrees to marry the Sultan because she plans to avenge her best friend's death whose murder was ordered by the Sultan. While this was a refreshing twist on the original story, I found myself reluctant to believe Shahrzad could fall in love with the man who ordered her best friend be killed. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the second book.

As I mentioned before, I liked The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh. I gave it a 4 out of 5 on goodreads.