Hello all!!

Welcome to my first installment of Julian Daventry's 5-Part Writing Special (formally known as the Shared WIP Tag!!)

It was super fun to be part of developing and improving this blog collaboration, and I want to thank Julian for allowing me to participate, and thank all of the other collaborators (links are down below at the end, definitely check them out!!)

The WIP that I will be using for this tag is The White Rose.  I've teased about it in previous posts, but I haven't posted very much about it. Hence it was the perfect WIP for this tag!!!

So, how is this thing going to work exactly?

Well, each Friday this month, I'll be posting a new installment of this tag. This Friday will be introducing the WIP, the next one will be about the story world, then two will be on characters and the final one will be on story aesthetics and music.

This post is technically going to also double as my first installment of March Tag Madness here on The Rebelling Muse. Throughout the rest of the month (NOT on Fridays!), I'm going to be posting all of the other tag posts that I need to catch up on. More details about this will follow when I post the 7777 challenge next week (probably around Tuesday/Wednesday, it will be heavily dependent on how well the job interview goes on Monday.....).
  
Anyways, enough of me jabbering. Time for the main event!!!





Here is the official blurb from my WIP page here on the blog:



I "created" Ealdread and Janina as the parents of my main male character (Conlaoch) when I did my original character building for From the Cave. The only note about them was this:


Sometime later, I wrote the synopsis of their backstory and relationship (because, as most of you well know, I loooove a good backstory...), but never went any further.

A year or two later (which puts it about a month ago), I realized that there were parallels between Ealdread and Janina's story and my great-grandparents' story. And Pippa of Lauramore gave me several ideas too.

So I expanded it into a full WIP :).



I had wanted to work on From the Cave, but, as what happened with Fair Winds, I got fascinated with the backstory.

Backstories, I find, really help me develop the characters and the world building, before I move on to the actual "story".




I'm doing my prep on the fly, which is probably NOT the best way to go about it.

Before I really started writing scenes, I created a Pinterest aesthetic board, and a Spotify playlist, as I do for all of my WIPs. And the overall synopsis is fairly done....somewhat.

This is definitely my most "pantsed out" WIP ever....LOL.




There has a little bit of research - some names had to be looked up, and other stuff. LOL.

The most comical research story was looking for Viking style games. Seeing as this world is a blend between Viking/Germanic, Celtic and Elvish (a very typical fantasy world, you know), I wanted to see what kind of games and exercises each culture has. The Viking ones were interesting to say the least. Here is a video of such exercises, complete with shield-maiden :):






 Ahhh.....

Like all of mine, it's been rather hard to write. Especially as this is the most pantsed out WIP ever.

Honestly, if I don't have a clear idea or picture of how the scene is going to go, I have a lot of trouble writing it down. Sometimes, a specific song will trigger a specific scene - like in a movie. Sometimes an image is all that is needed. And other times it's listening or reading to books, conversations, etc.

Finding those story triggers is the hardest for me.



Well, most of the actual writing is done at my computer desk in my family's office/school room. Simply because I'm typing this story, and all of my aesthetics and other story aids are on my computer.

However, I have imagined some of the scenes in my bedroom and in the great outdoors. (if this was Fair Winds, I would have said the beach, but since it isn't....well, you get a rather boring answer. *shrugs*)



Well now, let's see...

There are not that many stories that deal with a large age difference between lovers (that end happy anyway). Some of the games are unique (I have horse taming as one :) ). And the seal/standard system I have implemented is a little different than most worlds.

Other than that, I'll let y'all judge after the rest of the tag is done.  



 You mean besides the fact that:

a. I have a personal connection to it via my great-grandparents story
b. It's a backstory....
c. It's fantasy
d. I get to spend time crafting my favorite story world of all time
e. it's a romance (Lent has gotten in the way slightly with this development, so I've been working on the world recently instead cause that needs work and all...)
f. both of my alphas are mad cause I'm being really stingy with my snippets (that must count for something....LOL)
g. I love all of my characters (even the ones that are half formed and naughty)

......I really have no idea.


Anyways, that's the end! Be sure to check out the other blogger's contributions! I know that I'm looking forward to seeing them!!


Scribblingly yours,

Catherine