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Update: 5000 Words

I have officially written 5,000 words.

Ok, if you've followed me at all, you might already know that I had written way more than that, especially when I was participating in last years NaNo. What I really mean is that I have successfully rewritten my first chapter in a way where I am completely satisfied, and from starting from scratch, I have finally written 5,000 words. I feel very proud of myself.

I am making progress you guys, my love for Grims Blood continues to grow, and I am just besotted by my characters. There's a lot of description going on in the first chapter, but I hope to get it Beta read by my friends so I can figure out if there are things that I need to cut, add, or even just completely change.

All I can really say though is that I'm proud of what I accomplished tonight. (Also, I found my favorite writing spot at home, and wish I had figured it out sooner. I could type there, with all of the distractions in the world, forever).

[bibbitdarling]

Please be gentle with your first drafts; they are the way they are because this is the first time you’ve ever written those scenes, chapters, etc. Some concepts you thought of literally moments ago. Of course they’re not going to be perfect or come out exactly the way you wanted. There will always be more time to perfect them, though, so just keep writing and have as much fun as you can!

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I love these ❤️❤️

Joining in on that ship dynamics meme hehe

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Messing around with character quotes

I just started to make some possible quotes for my minor characters, because I love my minor characters, and this came up. I guess I’m in an angry mood:

“I am going to take great joy from freezing the person who did this to me. Freezing them until their skin turns blue, then purple. I’ll have Aggy defrost them a bit, and just when they start moving, only when they get that breeze of fresh air, I’ll freeze them again, and over, and over, until I decide to end them. When I’m done, I’ll freeze them till their veins become ice and with just one tap of the finger, they’ll dissolve into crystals, which I’ll put into a little gem and hang from my neck.”

[bibbitdarling]

Reblogging because I really want to read his works. 

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe: A Novel (2010)

Minor Universe 31 is a vast story-space on the outskirts of fiction, where paradox fluctuates like the stock market, lonely sexbots beckon failed protagonists, and time travel is serious business. Every day, people get into time machines and try to do the one thing they should never do: change the past. That’s where Charles Yu, time travel technician—part counselor, part gadget repair man—steps in. He helps save people from themselves. Literally. When he’s not taking client calls or consoling his boss, Phil, who could really use an upgrade, Yu visits his mother (stuck in a one-hour cycle of time, she makes dinner over and over and over) and searches for his father, who invented time travel and then vanished. Accompanied by TAMMY, an operating system with low self-esteem, and Ed, a nonexistent but ontologically valid dog, Yu sets out, and back, and beyond, in order to find the one day where he and his father can meet in memory. He learns that the key may be found in a book he got from his future self. It’s called How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, and he’s the author. And somewhere inside it is the information that could help him—in fact it may even save his life. 

 Wildly new and adventurous, Yu’s debut is certain to send shock waves of wonder through literary space–time.

by Charles Yu

Get it now here

Charles Yu, born in 1976 in Los Angeles) is a Taiwanese American writer. He is the author of the novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and the short-story collections Third Class Superhero and Sorry Please Thank You. In 2007 he was named a “5 under 35” honoree by the National Book Foundation.

[Follow SuperheroesInColor faceb / instag / twitter / tumblr / pinterest]

[bibbitdarling]

Camp NaNo 2019- 3rd Update

Well, Camp isn't going how I intended.

What I'm struggling with (so much that I need to express it with bullet points):

The headaches

Busy schedule

Writing Slump

1st POV or 3rd POV (the fight is always on)

Outlining

So, I guess my goal for this month is still 30,000 words, I'm just not making it about completing my first draft of Grims Blood, rather that I want to get something done, I want the outline to be finally finished, and I want to be on the right track (which means that I really need to figure out which POV I want to write in).

With that, I've ended my first week of Camp with 2,100 words (that I'll probably end up rewriting), and different goals. I'm a bit down, but I think I still got this.

[bibbitdarling]

Good to know!

Fantasy Wardrobe: Fabrics

We often call clothes silk when they are satin, velvet where they are velveteen or we have no clue what we’re on about. So today let’s look at fabrics.

Laying down the law

Many renaissance/mediaeval societies governed over who could wear what. By adding these laws you had a layer of depth to your world.

Women and men could only be dressed n clothes benefiting their position

Female servants or their daughters could not wear veils costing more than twelve pence

Knightly families could not wear cloth of gold or sable fur or velvets

The wife or daughter of a labourer were not to wear clothes beyond a certain price or a girdle garnished with silver

Cloth of gold and purple silk only worn by the royal family. This goes for ermine.

The importation of silk and lace foreigners was prohibited when the kingdom produced those textiles.

Peasant Clothing (Beggars to Merchant classes)

Wool: This was the staple of much of the clothes owned by peasants. It was in supply and it wasn’t as costly as most fabrics when undyed. It was also warm.

Linen: Forget about softness. Peasant linen was made of coarser weaves and flax. It was heavier than noble linen.

Cotton: A lightweight fabric used in hotter climates. It was softer than the linen and airier.

Fustian: heavy cloth woven from cotton, for menswear.

Leather: Leather was used for boots and shoes rather than killer jackets.

Nobility & Royalty

Cloth of Gold: Cloth made from woven threads of gold (very expensive)

Cloth of silver: cloth made from woven silver strands (very expensive)

Samite: a rich silk fabric woven with gold and silver threads

Tulle: A netting sort of material

Brocade: rich silk fabric with raised patterns sewn on it.

Cambresine: fine, lightweight linen

Cambric: thin white cotton or linen

Cypress: gauze made of cotton or silk

Damask: like brocade but the patterns are flat

Delaine : light wool/mixed wool and cotton

Lawn: sheer plain-woven cotton or linen

Sarsenet: fine and soft silk

Sateen: glossy cotton or wool

Satin: closely woven silk, shiny

Taffeta: Thickly woven silk

Velvet : piled fabric of silk, cotton or synthetic material

Velvetine: cotton with silk pile

Saxony: fine, delicate woollen fabric

Alençon Lace: intricate floral lace with three-dimensional corded detail sewn onto a fine tulle backing

Chantilly Lace: lightest of lace

Charmeuse: smooth, flowing, silk, cotton,

Chiffon: sheer and lightweight fabric

Crepe de Chine: thicker, lightly textured silk

Dupioni: crisp lusturous silk

Organza: sheer and lightweight fabric of very fine weave silk

Georgette: sheer fabric of silk

Guipure Lace: heavier lace

Designs

Embroidery: Patterns sewn on the fabric by thread

Appliqué: decorative fabric, often lace or floral motifs, sewn onto the main material

Embellishment: details such as beads, crystals, sequins, pearls

Trim: a line of material or fur that finishes off a hem or cuff.

Piping: a cord lining the fabric creating a ribbed look.

Colours

Here are the colours that you will catch your people wearing. Keep in mind that dyes had to be sourced and could be very expensive.

Peasant: brown, red or gray.

Nobility: Gold, silver, crimson or scarlet, deep indigo blue, violet colors and even deep black and pure white colors

Royalty: Purple

Furs

Mink: Soft and lightweight, silkly and glossy furs

Fox: Long, lustrous, colourful and easy to dye.

Ermine: White fur streaked with black (ONLY FOR ROYALTY)

Sable: long, luxurious, dense but light.

Wolf: thick, tough, warm but has a bad smell

Vair: fur from a red squirrel really only used for trimming.

[bibbitdarling]

Finally, after 4 days,  I've finally done some writing. I didn't get anything done that last couple of days, sadly. I got approximately 2,100 words done today  of Chapter 1. I was a little uninspired, since I seem to be on writing funk right now. I even had to go and read my inspiration, Kate Daniels, to see how to tell a story from a first person perspective (this is the first time I've written in first POV in a long time, and it's urban fantasy so I think I was reading the right book). I just hope that while doing Camp NaNo this month, I can finally get somewhere and figure out exactly how my book is going to be written. On a side note, I also started writing a FanFic. It's going to be  a Harry Potter FanFic featuring my OCs (my Grims Blood OCs), and some cute lookin Weasleys. It's going to be sooooo out of character, it's ridiculous, but I'm loving the fluff. Especially because I always thought I could never write fluff. Anyways, I'm doing great, I hope everyone is doing great, and I love life. Happy writings everyone.

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Alice Oseman being adorable [x] and giving fabulous writing advice.

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Ronnie: Why do you have that?

Daniel: Because I knew you would say yes, and I wanted to get some samples.

Ronnie and Iris: ...

Daniel: I wonder if I could talk Gabe into testing them for me.

Ronnie: For what?

Daniel: For my magic manual.

Ronnie: I'm not even surprised.

[bibbitdarling]

First day of Camp NaNo was kind of a fail, I ended up changing my world goal, and worked more on my outline than actually writing. However, I refuse to feel too down about this, I still wrote, just not what I thought I was going to write.

Anybody else have their brain go blank when they try to outline their novel?

[bibbitdarling]

March Challenge: Ending Results

As the list only goes up to the 30th (and because I didn't think it all the way through), I don't have a journal post today. However, I thought I would go over what I liked best about this challenge or more like what I've learned. I learned that I have a secret love for my character: Daniel. Ronnie may be my favorite character, but overall, I connect more so with Daniel and his ideals. I'm not as brainy, but I think I share in his dedication (and I really do like to research, so there's that). He has more drive than I do though, so in a way, I admire and aspire to be more like him. Ronnie is tough. I remember when I first was writing her out (as a 24-year-old character, with a grumpy uncle, and no name), I didn't imagine her as so bold, confident, fearless. In 2018 I had a revelation, I didn't want her to be in her mid-twenties, I wanted her to be a high school student, still focused on her mission, but figuring herself and her magic out. I initially wanted her to be calm, collected, down-to-earth, but in the end, that just didn't fit. I wanted her to be something that she's not. I get frustrated with her at times, and sometimes she gets out of controlled, and she reminds me of a few lost friendships over the years, but I also love her more for it. I love her faults. This challenge has helped me to figure out her aspirations, everything she wants in life, her flaws, etc. I think this challenge gave me more insight into my character than I expected it to. Iris, man, Iris. I just love her. I love how she can be so carefree, loving, and just live every day as if she's a unicorn crossing her rainbow bridge every day (I definitely have her personality based off a close friend of mine). I also love how she has faults, in so that she may forgive and forget to a fault, that she is capable of putting her trust in someone that might not deserve it (her mother), that she is capable of getting into trouble (her secrets). I've loved writing her journal entries, mainly because I had initially written her out as this super angry character (I mean, wouldn't it be funny to have her be all pink and rainbow but with a considerable temperament? Am I the only one who would find that funny?). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With that, the March challenge has ended. I'm not entirely done though! I expect to do another challenge in June, but for now, I need to focus on the NaNo Camp next month (starting tomorrow)! I'll be working on Grims Blood, so if you'd like to follow my updates, you can find them on my NaNoWriMo Updates page.

​If you would like to look at the previous posts, by date, you can go down the list here:

Challenge Day 1

Challenge Day 2

Challenge Day 3

Challenge Day 4

Challenge Day 5

Challenge Day 6

Challenge Day 7

Challenge Day 8

Challenge Day 9

Challenge Day 10

Challenge Day 11

Challenge Day 12

Challenge Day 13

Challenge Day 14

Challenge Day 15

Challenge Day 16

Challenge Day 17

Challenge Day 18

Challenge Day 19

Challenge Day 20

Challenge Day 21

Challenge Day 22

Challenge Day 23

Challenge Day 24

Challenge Day 25

Challenge Day 26

Challenge Day 27

Challenge Day 28

Challenge Day 29

Challenge Day 30

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Day 30: One Last Moment - Daniel

March challenge: Grims Blood Journals. Journal entries that coincide with this picture (I found this on Pinterest, it is not my own original idea, I take zero credit for this). Each day I will post journal entries with my 3 main characters: Ronnie, Iris, and Daniel. If you’d like me to do a journal entry of some of my other characters (which you may find under #grims blood or #incorrect scenes) just say which character and which journal number. The goal is to have fun and get to know my characters a little bit better (for you, and for me).

Don't ever, ever, let anyone read this moment... But Iris got me to audition for one of her stupid plays when I was younger. I was 10, Ronnie was gone for most of the summer, and Iris was practically begging me, saying that they needed more members for their group. Mamma also overheard and signed me up against my will... So there I was, in green tights, my curly hair dampened down by this weird hat, and calling myself Peter Pan for a whole summer. My mom has the photos hanging up in the living room wall (the reason why I never invite them over).

[bibbitdarling]

Day 30: One Last Moment - Iris

March challenge: Grims Blood Journals. Journal entries that coincide with this picture (I found this on Pinterest, it is not my own original idea, I take zero credit for this). Each day I will post journal entries with my 3 main characters: Ronnie, Iris, and Daniel. If you’d like me to do a journal entry of some of my other characters (which you may find under #grims blood or #incorrect scenes) just say which character and which journal number. The goal is to have fun and get to know my characters a little bit better (for you, and for me).

For my last moment, I present to you *drum roll please* ... The day we moved to town! Unlike Ronnie and Daniel, I didn't grow up here. We moved to Everton right in the middle of my kindergarten years. I remember driving through the town, being blown away by its pure beauty, the ground was white with snow (it was the first time I ever saw snow), I saw groups of ladies walking around in their big coats, with coffee (or hot cocoa) in their hands, just chatting away. I remember leaning far back in my seat, ducking whenever I thought someone was looking at our car. Ha, I was so shy back then. We eventually pulled up onto Macouver Lane, parking in front of our little cottage. My mom always said it was a simple cottage, but to me, it was a fairytale. The outside walls were covered in vines, although no flowers were in bloom, the brown brick beautiful mixed with the snow, a roof that seemed to go on forever (even though it was only one floor, with a basement). It was a blur after that, mom spent most of the day unpacking as many boxes as she could, handing me clothes that would potentially last me a week, and setting up sleeping bags for us to sleep on (our beds wouldn't arrive till the next day). It may not have been the best day, but it was the beginning of my life, and I wouldn't take it back for anything in the world. Xoxo - Iris

[bibbitdarling]

Day 30: One Last Moment - Ronnie

March challenge: Grims Blood Journals. Journal entries that coincide with this picture (I found this on Pinterest, it is not my own original idea, I take zero credit for this). Each day I will post journal entries with my 3 main characters: Ronnie, Iris, and Daniel. If you’d like me to do a journal entry of some of my other characters (which you may find under #grims blood or #incorrect scenes) just say which character and which journal number. The goal is to have fun and get to know my characters a little bit better (for you, and for me).

Another big moment in my life was the first time I ever went to Baveil, I was about 7 years old, one year before I was eligible to start training, three years before I could apply to be an apprentice. My aunt (begrudgingly) took me, my Uncle couldn't, he was humans (humans aren't allowed in Baveil, no matter what). I was introduced to a lot of her friends growing up, all of them wouldn't quit pinching my cheeks. That's when I met my favorite witch and warlock, Mira and Luca, both Creation Witch/Warlocks. I was filled to the brim with magic, the warmth I felt there was next to none, and I was never uncomfortable. I did get a few dirty looks, I guess it wasn't hard to tell back then that I was a Blood Witch, but for the most part, everyone was kind to me then.

[bibbitdarling]

Day 29: Your Aspirations - Daniel

I missed a day. For that, I apologize. That means you guys get double posts today!

March challenge: Grims Blood Journals. Journal entries that coincide with this picture (I found this on Pinterest, it is not my own original idea, I take zero credit for this). Each day I will post journal entries with my 3 main characters: Ronnie, Iris, and Daniel. If you’d like me to do a journal entry of some of my other characters (which you may find under #grims blood or #incorrect scenes) just say which character and which journal number. The goal is to have fun and get to know my characters a little bit better (for you, and for me).

This question is very similar to the question about our dreams. Either way, they are the same for me. I want to create a local newspaper, not that we don't already have one, I want to create a digital one, maybe even a podcast once or twice a week. I also want to graduate as the class valedictorian and be a key player in the college paper.