Hello all!

Blessings for a good Holy Week, and happy Easter to everyone! I cannot believe that it is almost the end of March (and Lent to boot!).

Neither can I believe that this is my last 5-Part Writing special post....

This last post marks also the last of my preparations for Camp NaNoWriMo. Now that the world is somewhat set, and the plot is sketched out, the writing can begin in earnest after April 2nd (for you know I'm not going to write on Easter Sunday).

I have a LOT of goodies for you dear readers today, so let us begin!

First things first:
One thing that I got introduced to in July Camp NaNo was the art of creating avatars. A tradition that my cabin (The Fellowship of the Keyboards) has is to have a drawing or avatar of the MC of the WIP as the author's profile picture.

Janina and Ealdread

Well, I can't "draw". I can trace really well, and if I have about a week, a photo and a ruler, I can transpose a photo into a nice drawing. But picking up a piece of paper and drawing something out of thin air from my head without it looking very cartoonish....forget it.

Queen Carina and King Reijo

So last July, I went hunting for a really nice avatar building site, and that's when I found Azalea/Dolls Divine. My first ever avatar was Eirwen from my July NaNo WIP "Seeds of an Orchard Invisible" and because I found avatar building so addictive, I created avatars for my other SOI characters. You can view those avatars on this post HERE.

Alvilda and Karsten

For the most part I use the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit Scene Maker to make my avatars, which you can find HERE. Recently, I've found two other scene makers that are really similar to the LOTR one that I plan to use in the future (even though I don't like the shows that they are based off of): Game of Thrones and The Tudors.

Magda and Arnor

By far, making the avatars is the most fun and unique way that I can visualize my characters. What's even better - it's my creation, so I can share them as I wish, not bound by copyright!




I like collages a lot. My header would be a case in point.

However...I never do collages for my WIPs. Mainly because of copyright issues. I'm very scrupulous about using uncopyrighted images in my headers and my posts, so the idea of taking other people's photos and sticking them in collages doesn't appeal to me.

However, Pinterest is a HUGE inspiration for me when it comes to writing. So, I'm going to share some screenshots of the secret Pinterest board that I have for this WIP. Because I did avatars for the main/side characters, I'm going to share some aesthetics for my foreign sovereigns/nobles, as well as aesthetics for Castle Sidabras and Duventoliel.


As you can see, there isn't that much there yet...as I develop the world and the foreign kingdoms/states, I plan on adding more to these boards. 


I mainly use Spotify for my music needs, for both writing and life purposes. My Spotify playlist for this WIP is over 8 hrs long, and it consists of tracks from:


1. Peter Crowley
2. Antti Martikainen
3. Selected tracks from Brunuhville and Adrian von Ziegler
4. Medieval/Celtic artists such as Erutan, Arlene Faith, and David Davidson
5. How to Train Your Dragon soundtracks (Ivie...you have no idea how much of a lightbulb move this was...it changed the entire trajectory of my soundtrack.) 
6. Scandivian artists, including Cantus (who did the Norse pieces from Frozen) and Danish String Quartet.
7. Random cinematic/video game pieces that fit, including two songs from Brave.

So, the music vibe I was going for was a mix between Medieval, Celtic, and Scandinavian.While I won't share the entire playlist, I'll most definitely share some of the songs that helped me the most.





This song was the genesis of the original plot bunny for this WIP. I was, in fact, directly inspired by one of the lyrics in the song ("My White Rose"), and that motif just stayed throughout the process of development. Now, its in the title, it's Janina's nickname and seal, and even around my castle grounds! 





I swear, if this WIP is ever made into a movie, I want this song in there towards the end. Can't say much else otherwise I'll spoil it (even though it'll be totally obvious when you listen to the song).


What was your favorite aesthetic/art/music? Is anyone participating in Camp NaNo - and is it really only 2 days until writing starts??? 

 
Scribbingly yours,

Catherine


P.S. In lieu of the fact that several of you commented with this hashtag on my 17 Facts about Me post, here's the button: