Has 8 months of the year really gone already?

It seems so.

The heat of the summer, and the craziness that went along with it, has pretty much ended on my end. Things have settled back into a more of a routine, much to my relief.

By the way....what has happened this month?




1. We had a huge alpha session in the beginning of the month, in which MK and I shared our current drafts with each other and Lia. Which we then proceeded to tear apart and flail over.

2. The White Rose gained a few more thousand words, it's now up to 47k words. I'm right about 17k words away from the beta call, which is super exciting!

3. I rescued Jane Eyre from the donate pile. As we were cleaning out some of the books, some of the school reads got relegated to the Purple Heart bag. While I didn't care for Animal Farm or Tuck Everlasting, Jane Eyre didn't deserve that fate. So, it's now sitting on my shelves. Oh and I did also rescue my copy of The Secret Garden, which my mother snitched for school and never gave back.

4. During our vacation downtime, we watched Perry Mason re-runs on the TV. I mean, there really wasn't much better on (except for Alaska State Troopers and Phillies Baseball).

5. I have a new fandom: Phillies Baseball. We never really followed baseball closely before this season, other than the occasional check in. This season, we're actually doing pretty decent! And so, we're now checking game recaps nearly every single day, LOL.




For Working by Candlelight, I wrote 2 posts: In the Kitchen: Scallopy Crisp Apple Pie, and Operation Vintage Makeover: Setting to the Room to Rights.

For The Rebelling Muse, I wrote 2 posts: End of Camp NaNoWriMo, July 2019, and It's So Classic Blog Tag.

For Rebellious Writing, I participated in the It's So Classic Blog Tag for the anniversary blog party we're hosting.

I'm still on hiatus for Maidens for Mary, and I'm holding off until September before getting back into it. It really depends on the employment situation.




1. Work towards the 30K goal of additions for The White Rose.

I'm now gotten about 13k of those 30k words written, so it's a pretty decent chunk!

2. Update TWR's section of Project Blueprint

Now that some of the additions have been added, there are now new characters and some new info about various aspects of the novel. And, there is a lot of world-building that needs to be filled in. Unfortunately, this didn't really happen this month.

Now to check the yearly goals....

1. Finish The White Rose - and have it ready for betas by May at the earliest.

The White Rose gained a few more thousand words, it's now up to 47k words. I'm right about 17k words away from the beta call, which is super exciting!

At the same time, I've been editing some of the old chapters to account for some of the new material. So even though I'm pretty sure that not all the scenes will be written before the 65k threshold, it will not be a totally raw draft. 

3. Get more print books.

I got 2 more print books from my parent's collection, and I bought another non-fiction book for research purposes. I've already had to rearrange the bookshelves at least twice since I got them *sigh* 

Well now that August is over (almost), what is on the docket for September?

September Goals:

1. Finish the additions for TWR.

I am so SO motivated to get this thing finished finally!!!

2. Start researching building the author platform.

Now that TWR is growing up and I've gotten more comfortable with sharing stuff, I'm now starting to think about possibly getting a good "author photo" taken. And while I'm doing that, I want to see how to really establish my "identity" (i.e. researching legal uses of the pen name in contracts and post office, etc.).

3. Record more vlogs with Lia, and edit them. 

Because we've enjoyed our last vlog so much, Lia and I are planning to record another set of vlogs while I visit her in a few days. Don't worry, these will be shortened to about 15 minutes each instead of the 2 hour monster we recorded the last time.



Even though I am not going back to school, I look forward to fall. We were blessed with a spring this year, and to have a fall along with it will be wonderful :)

How about you, dear readers? What has been going on in your corner of the world? 

Scribbingly yours,

Catherine

Hi everybody!!!

Today I've brought to you a really exciting tag from Rebellious Writing, which is celebrating it's second year anniversary!

*eyes pop out*

Seriously, I can't believe it's been two years since I joined a group of fellow bloggers to promote clean literature. I was just out of college then....*dramatic sigh*

I already had planned to do this tag since I'm one of the founders of Rebellious Writing, but Nicole Dust also tagged me for this before I published it. So thank you, Nicole!!

Rules:

1. Link back to Rebellious Writing (www.rebelliouswriting.com)
2. Answer the questions
3. Tag at least 5 bloggers.


What is one classic that hasn’t been made into a movie yet, but really needs to?

Love Among the Chickens by P.G. Wodehouse

I've been recently re-listening to an audiobook version of this book and I love it so much. There is so much hilarity in this that I could see it being a really really popular rom-com film. I would love to see Garnet and Ukridge be personified...especially Ukridge.

What draws you to classics?

In most cases, I don't have to deal with as much "content issues" with classics than I do with modern literature. If such issues such as language or lust do occur, they are handled with much more taste than the modern literature does.




What is an underrated classic?

I must admit, that Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott is the first thing that comes to mind. I first found this by Librivox and was charmed by the story. Sure, the plot really could use some work, but the characters!


What is one classic that you didn’t expect to love, but ended up loving anyway?

A Tale of Two Cities and Jane Eyre are tied for this title. Both of these were school readings, and the first read or two for both was tedious. The second or third time, though? Interest spiked.

So much so, that when Jane Eyre was discovered in the donate box, I snitched it. #noregrets.


What is your most favorite and least favorite classics?

Favorite classic is, without a doubt, is Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. (sorry Nicole). Close seconds are other Jane Austen novels (Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion), Little Women, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Chronicles of Avonlea, A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Eyre.....okay, I'll stop now.

Least favorite classic: The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas. I hate this book with a passion - it is so anti-Catholic (both author and book!), and the plot is terrible.



What is your favorite character from a classic? Or if that is too hard, one is your favorite classic character trope (e.g. strong and silent, quiet sidekick, etc.)

Seeing as how I wrote that cop-out, I'm taking it.

I really like spunky female main characters. Maybe because I'm sort of a spunky female character???


What’s a popular classic that you felt wasn’t actually that great?

Tuck Everlasting. I'm sorry to those fans of that story and the musical, but that story was just plain weird.



Who is your favorite classic author? 

I have several favorites, but the absolute favorite? That honor goes to.....

Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Ha! You thought it was Jane Austen, didn't you?

I chose LMM because I haven't really read a story that I didn't like from her. I can't stand Jane Austen's Mansfield Park or Lady Susan, so that disqualifies her from the top spot.




In your opinion, what makes a classic a classic? 

I'm taking a more mechanical approach to this question, as I'm sure that most people know the philosophical answer to this.

In terms of prose, it tends to be more flowery and descriptive. It has the power to capture a person. The world-building must be spot on and unique. The characters have a realistic feel to them, as if the reader knows them in person.


Relating to newer books, what attributes does a book need to have in order to be worthy of the title “classic”?

It needs to be uplifting, and help to mold character. It must transcend at least a couple of generations, and not enjoy popularity in just one. It needs to either reaffirm a human truth or teach a valuable lesson.




I tag:

Megan Chappie @ The Pen and the Cross
Belle Anne @ Worlds of Ink and Paper
Ceci E. @ Ceci Creates
MiddleEarthMuscian @ Music, Mystery, Middle Earth and Mitochondria
Sarah @ Sarah, Plain and Average


Hope you guys enjoy the tag!

Scribblingly yours,

Catherine

I seriously considered skipping this recap. I hinted at it being a rather boring camp, and so I thought that I really had nothing to....say really.

However, being of a melancholy temperament....that reflective streak of mine would not shut up. And I'm a sucker for tradition. And this is one tradition that just shouldn't be broken, I suppose.

Before I get started, however, I want to thank Jane Maree for allowing me to be part of the Fellowship of the Keyboards again ;).

I also want to give a shoutout to all of my cabin mates: Jane Maree, J.A. Penrose, Clare of the Reliquished, Tesariel (Quinley), MiddleEarthMusician, Swlalos (Nicole), Florid Sword (Faith), Nicki Chapelway, Jes Drew, KattheHorseNerd, Bria Snow, Kendra Lynne, MaryKate42 (MK), Glitter Queen (Mary Horton), Becca414, Anne Rhys, and MusicIsMyMuse!!


Best Parts of Camp:

- Getting MK roped into the Fellowship. The poor girl was wandering between public and solo cabins for years and so I finally convinced her to try the Fellowship.

- Drafting in a notebook, lying on the beach, imagining the crabbing vessels in the far distance were large galleons. #writerslife.

- Our rogue orc made a few minor appearances *glares*

- Creating a map of Verden, as well as other aesthetics. You can check out the "finished" map HERE.


What I Learned: 

- The point of writing without "inspiration" only comes after immersing yourself in your story world for long periods of time. You have to have practically everything (plot, characters, etc.) cemented in the fibers of your being in order to trip out words without the use of visual or musical aids. I've just now reached this point. 

- Sometimes, you just need to break the writing in order to tackle major developmental problems. Like, actually figuring out how the tournament works and what happens during it *facepalm*.

- Creating aesthetics such as maps and coats of arms are a great way to boost your time goals.

- For heavens sake, have a timer if you're doing a time goal. I actually guesstimated a lot of my times, and I have a feeling that I grossly exaggerated a few day's worth of contribution.

- Check the dark chocolate stash levels before Camp begins. I ran out in the last days of Camp and it was a travesty to behold.

- As I was spell-checking my manuscript before sending it to the alpha readers that I have a tendency to use British spellings. I mean, I know a quarter of my family ancestors came from the UK, but I didn't think it was THAT embedded!



That being said, how did writing go? 

Okay, this July was among the craziest of all the months that I have done a NaNo event....not counting all those months when I was working full time.

In the beginning of the month, I was down in the South moving my grandparents into their new condo. And so, I was working in notebooks for the first two weeks of Camp.

While I did some work on The White Rose during this time, my main focus on Fair Winds. We were right nearby our family vacation spot, and so there were at least three afternoons in which I was sprawled out on a beach blanket scribbling like mad.

I'm not 100% sure the exact word count of new material for Fair Winds, but I'm guesstimating that it was around 1500 words.

There were, of course, some breaks for travel. When I got home, though, is when the work really began. 

Besides transcribing everything from the notebooks into Shaxpir and the consequent Word backups, I managed to transcribe another few scenes from the original draft of Fair Winds into the new one. I left that draft standing at around 28K, a very respectable number.

From then on, Fair Winds was set aside and The White Rose took center stage.

I attempted to get started in writing, but I ran into some huge development issues. I had never really developed how the Karala Games worked and what exactly happened during the events and so....that was biting me in the tail.

So how did I deal with this?

Conversations with my alphas and throwing hours into making a map. And filling out lots and lots of Melissa Gravitis's "Questions To Ask When...." sheets. 

Granted, that world-building needed to happen at some point, so the days weren't wasted at all. It was great for boosting my hours too. But, I had an unofficial goal of having an additional 30k added onto The White Rose and this wasn't increasing my word count at all. Or it was, just rather passively.

After about five days of diddling around, I started from the beginning of the draft and started to fill in holes. I managed to settle in some family conflict and how Janina became the Blue Star especially. Still no scenes really relating to the Games though....

I achieved my goal of 60 hours on July 24, but didn't stop there!

The last few days of Camp were probably my most productive out of the entire month. In the last three days of Camp, I managed to write almost 4k words, which is pretty impressive.

Since I knew that 30k was impossible to get at that point, I decided to for a 10k goal. According to the pre-Camp totals that I kept on Goodreads, I got to that. However, I must have either missed a day of recording or something because the daily word logs I was keeping says I missed it by 400 words. Oh well, I still maintain that I got it. 

Having about 12k of new material, with about 5k worth of additions, seems a pretty respectable word expansion from before. It's certainly not my strongest showing, but that doesn't matter.

The important thing is, The White Rose is back on top with 43K words and I won Camp NaNo with a whopping total of 75 hours. 




So, what's the plan now? 

The plan is to continue the steady march onwards with The White Rose.

I have set myself a goal of reaching 65K words, and then the beta call will go out. By that point, most of the "important" scenes will be drafted and I'll have a better idea on where the story is actually going to look like.

Right now, I'm sitting at around 43K, so I have about 22K to go. I've given the most recent draft to my alphas and am now awaiting their feedback.

And that wraps up my adventures!

How did your Camp NaNo go (if you participated)? What was one of your "best moments" or "lessons learned"? Feel free to share! 

Scribbingly yours,

Catherine