#campprepapril23

[maskedemerald]

Thank you to @lola-theshowgrl for making this Camp NaNo Prep Meme. I too am doing Camp NaNo in April, I'm a day late with the time of night I found this so I'll be posting twice today!

Day 1: Introduce yourself and your WIP

Hi I'm Emmy (They/Them) and my WIP is currently called Magic Act.

Magic Act is a mix of mystery and romance set in a magical hidden world. Its a story about a trans kid who sees something they shouldn't have seen and while escaping they end up falling into the hidden away magical pocket dimension home to fae and other folklore beings. Unfortunately the being they were running from is also there, they have to fake magic to keep up the act of belonging in the city and the magical academy. Its a hard job to trick the fae but they have help… but can they trust that help?

[words-after-midnight]

Camp prep - April - Day 1

I'm hoping to do Camp in April, so I thought I'd take part in this Camp prep meme brought to us by the lovely @lola-theshowgrl! Posting twice both today & tomorrow as I'm two days late. :)

1. Introduce yourself and your WIP

About me: Nico (he/him), 32, Montreal. I'm a writer of adult contemporary fiction exploring dark themes such as the gray zones of morality, messy relationships, obsession, the psychology of crime, fraught humanity, grief and trauma, mental illness, and life on the fringes of society. My primary genres are crime fiction, horror, and psychological fiction.

About The Dotted Line: I'll hopefully be using Camp to write the next 50K words of my prison horror story, The Dotted Line. Fitting, since I actually started the draft for Camp NaNo in July 2013 (one of two reasons for the title of the first chapter being "Camp"). It was shelved for many years. Currently about 12K words in, and my draft goal is 75-90K.

Genres: Experimental horror, psychological horror, dark comedy, crime.

WIP intro post Playlist Moodboard (cw for some gore and general horroresque content)

[arionawrites]

9. who do you least like to write?

i haven’t written much yet other than a few concept scenes while outlining, but based on how each chapter outline has gone so far, probably elena—or at least elena early on in the book. her whole premise is that she has a really good life, a good boyfriend, a good relationship with her parents, lives with her twin sister who she gets along with, has a job she enjoys, etc etc etc. the whole point is that the rug gets pulled out from under her when she develops powers based in darkness and the cold, the polar opposite of her personality, but until that happens, her chapters are very light and happy. which isn’t bad!! but i really love to write hard hitting emotions and tend to thrive under angsty writing so it’ll be hard not having that angsty-ness at first.

[catchingbigfish]

10 - free friday + 11 - what are the themes for this wip?

for free friday (saturday), i'm going to share a bit about how my stories tend to develop and how that's happening with So It Goes specifically. i wrote the first draft during nano last year and after rereading it, i noticed a lot of issues that i wasn't sure how to resolve. i tried multiple times to re-plot it, but at some point the current overarching story -- Amelia's disappearance and its aftermath -- just sort of popped into my brain. the thing is, as i go back and reread the initial draft, i'm also seeing a lot of things i discarded that are actually very good! now, i'm working on making a complete outline which is much more of a convergence between the two, and a lot of the first draft is going to be re-incorporated between the framing story of the disappearance.

for themes, this sounds so pretentious, but So It Goes is heavily influenced by the notion of the Absurd in Camus' philosophy, the tension between seeking purpose while knowing there is none. it's really a story about agency and free will and choice in the face of uncertainty, and how everyone is the determinant of their own story. it's also about relinquishing the fear of chaos and embracing the unknown. the love story is about vulnerability, being willing to let down your guard, and being open to caretaking.

[writeintrees]

day 6: what music do you listen to when writing?

lofi beats. boring answer, i know. i do collect songs that remind me of my major wips

[meganburrows]

6. What music do you listen to when writing?

About a year ago, some friends of mine put together a playlist to help me get the vibes for the book. I often listen to that when I’m looking for inspiration or don’t have a movie or something going on in the background.

Highly recommend. Some of these same friends also organised it into a “chronological” order where the vibes suit each other? It’s magical.

[maskedemerald]

Find the original calendar post from lola-theshowgrl here

Day 3: Tell us about your MC

My MC is currently unnamed, but that's not a problem in this plot. There are going to be name based shenanigans anyway, after all in a land of fae names are sure to have some caution to being handed out. So let me introduce you to the MC:

Magic Act's MC and POV character is a teen trans boy, he has an interest in science and has been practicing magic tricks for fun after getting a kit 2 years ago for a birthday present from his favourite (only) aunt. He's never performed for anyone more than a cluster of friends in the school yard so he's a bit out of his depth with fooling Fae but he has to try. He's a little in over his head with only vague memories of stories about the fae and other bits of folklore from his grandfather to guide him and his risky ally.

[words-after-midnight]

Camp prep - April - Day 2

2. Tell us about your writing style.

For my stories told in first person, my writing style is quite narrator-dependent, and The Dotted Line's narrative style is my personal favorite of my projects so far. I would describe it as fairly emotionally distant/neutral, yet evocative and atmospheric. Also fairly stylistic, sometimes bordering on flowery and lyrical (my narrator is a drama queen). I use some experimental devices, styles and formatting, which have been really fun to play around with.

I'm including a snippet below as an example - I've posted it before, but I think it really illustrates the style I'm going for.

Mama liked to bake on the weekends. She always said it was “her time.” As a young child, I thought that was bizarre, because was not all time my time? Why did adults always seem to spend nearly every waking moment doing things they didn’t want to do? It seemed, to that innocent young iteration of me, that if Mama spent her days being pulled in twenty different unpleasant directions, it had to be a result of her own lack of assertion, to the lack of the word “no” in her vocabulary. I felt sorry for her, surely - or, at the very least, a childlike version of amused contempt - but of course, these thoughts were fleshed out in hindsight. At the time, I wasn’t so much concerned with anything beyond my own irritation, my own confusion, my own burgeoning sense of injustice. Why doesn’t Mama want to play? I’m bored. Why doesn’t Mama bring me to the park? I’m bored. Why does she never want to go anywhere? I’m bored. I’m bored. I’m bored. I’m bored. I’m bored. Little me had so much time to think. So much time to ask the real questions. Nothing in our house existed but endless, empty, flat, dull time. I feel now as though I barely existed there. I was a blank slate begging to be scribbled on; a portrait of innocence yet to be disrupted, and first from within.

[words-after-midnight]

Camp Prep '23 - Days 15 & 16

15. Do you have a writing routine?

Not really, other than just the fact that I write (or revise) daily or near-daily these days. I like to put something on in the background while I write, either

16. Where do you go to write?

Anywhere. I used to write in cafés a lot, but since the pandemic, I mostly write at home, on my breaks at work or on my commute.

[maskedemerald]

Okay so I just missed a few days of this, not going to worry catching up but I'm making something cool to show later in the month (Teaser: I'm doing some character art)

Day 11: What are the themes for the WIP?

For Magic Act I'm planning to have:

LGBTQIA+ Themes, Self Discovery, Identity, Trust and Lies, Creeping Horror and Body Horror but more existential than graphic, most importantly for the romance genre there will also be a slow build romance with questionable trust. Not quite Enemies to Lovers more Distrusting Allies to Lovers.

[catchingbigfish]

[image ID: a grid of seven photos. the top row is a black and white photo of a tree on fire followed by a color photo of red and pink rose petals over pink-tinged bubbles. the third row is Kate Siegel as Theo Crain in The Haunting of Hill House, a black and white photo of a tall white woman with long dark hair wearing all black with elbow-length black gloves, followed by a color photo of a wilting pink flower, and finally a black and white photo of a waterfall under a bright cloudy sky. the third row is a color photo of an herb garden with red clover prominently featured and followed by a black and white photo of brutalist architecture with geometric lines.]

day 7 - share a mood board [from @lola-theshowgrl's CampPrepApril23 calendar!]

i have never in my life made an actual mood board, but this is what came to mind as i worked on it!

[catchingbigfish]

i’m going to be doing camp nano this year and i’m so excited by this calendar @lola-theshowgrl created!!

hi, i’m elle! 👋 my wip for camp nano is So It Goes, my magical realism/horror romance novel about a group of friends navigating the aftermath of a disappearance while the main character, Marisa, deals with the intrusion of Death herself in her life.

[words-after-midnight]

Camp prep '23 - Days 4 & 5

Lol I forgot about this again yesterday because I'm terrible. 💀 I'm gonna skip the free Friday this week (Day 3) and do Days 4 & 5 in one post while I'm thinking of it.

4. Tell us about your MC.

cw: some non-detailed discussion of violence in a prison context.

So I want to preface this by saying that in The Dotted Line, everyone goes exclusively by their prison nicknames. The only time you learn someone's real name is either if it gets revealed in an administrative context, through paperwork, the protagonist's flashback/recollection scenes where his real name is occasionally used, or conversation between inmates who know each other well. This is because virtually everyone goes by nicknames in American state prisons, and it's actually common for inmates not to know each other's real names. Nicknames are typically given based on an attribute or characteristic of the person - eg. someone from Detroit being nicknamed "Detroit," a quiet inmate being nicknamed "Mouse," a person in prison for murder being called "Killer," etc.

Now that that's out of the way, our protagonist is nicknamed "Scarface" - obviously after the 1983 Al Pacino movie, but it's because he has a visible facial scar. Another inmate (a supporting character) gave him the nickname. He actually likes it because it "sounds cool," despite his cellmate thinking it's in such poor taste that he refuses to use it (read: the cellmate knows how Scarface got the scar - our protagonist basically told the cellmate his entire pre-prison life story because he is literally incapable of shutting up - and is a decent person).

I'd consider Scarface a villain protagonist, but I won't go into why because spoilers! He was incarcerated on a life sentence without parole for first degree murder and, following classification, was placed in a Level 3 (medium security) state prison. Once "plan A" for getting out of prison fails (read: it was fucking ridiculous and it's practically inconceivable that he actually thought it would work unless you know him), his objective becomes to escape, à la Shawshank Redemption except he's way too impatient to actually dig into a wall for 20+ years. He's also absolutely convinced his escape plot will work for some reason (again: once you get to know him this becomes more understandable, albeit still ridiculous).

In terms of his personality - on the surface, he tends to be laid back and get along with anyone, but has a superiority complex and harbors a musing contempt for most people. Will be nice, endearing, polite, and charming to your face, but won't hesitate to stab you in the back if you fuck with him or get in his way. He's disadvantaged in multiple ways in a prison setting (he's a young, relatively small-built guy), which he makes up for by knowing how to get on the right people's good side (with some crucial help early on) and, when all else fails, bribery. Despite this, he tends to pretty vigilant, but he'll also put himself into an absolutely brainlessly risky situation for no reason if it sounds even mildly like it could be a good time. He can be playful and fun to be around, but make no mistake: he'll tell you he doesn't bite, and he's lying.

Another interesting thing about him is his almost superhuman ability to retain his cool and respond neutrally in situations that would traumatize most people. I feel like most people in prison get desensitized to random acts of violence and whatnot, but this man will literally witness, like, a gruesome murder and internally be like "anyways when's lunch" lmao. Personally I feel like it's a combination of just his natural disposition (my dude's baseline affect is flatter than a cutting board) and the fact that he's Seen Shit. I find his internal world pretty fascinating.

5. What genre is your WIP?

Primarily psychological horror, but there's a dark comedy element because that's how the narrator rolls. Also elements of crime (it's set in a prison) and I play around with some slasher tropes.

[maskedemerald]

Almost forgot to post this today!

Day 5: What genre is you WIP

Magic Act is a mystery romance with a touch of spooky unnerving style horror. The Fae are going to be spooky in this. I'm targeting a teen or YA audience with the story but that might shift as I write.

[words-after-midnight]

Camp Prep '23 - Days 26-30

26. Which author inspires you?

Currently Micah Nemerever & Catriona Ward.

27. Have you joined a writing group, or do you prefer writing alone?

I have a writing group irl! We're just a group of friends who all write, support each other, and occasionally do write-ins. Nothing more formal than that rn, but I used to be part of an all-ages critique group for a few years in my early twenties, something that, for the record, I cannot recommend enough to younger and/or more beginner writers.

This being said, writing tends to be a pretty solitary activity for me and part of my "me time," so I often do prefer writing alone!

28. What program do you use to write in?

Mostly Google Docs. I have Scrivener as well, but until I can switch back and forth from laptop to mobile as effectively as I can on Google Docs, retaining the same sharing/commenting abilities, it's unfortunately gonna continue being mostly Google Docs.

29. What's your writing snack and/or beverage of choice?

Black drip coffee, lol.

30. Are you ready to go?

*straps in* Let's do this!

[maskedemerald]

Day 28: What program do you write in?

When I can I like to write the first draft of a story by hand, I've bought lots of pretty notebooks over the years that honestly don't get used if I don't use them for a project. Sometimes the notebook cover helps to inspire the story. I was planning to track down a new one specifically for Magic Act but then I was going through my older unused notebooks and now I'm trying to decide between these two.

I'm now leaning towards the larger one because the light blue roses match the mood board aesthetic but it has no lines so I'll have to do that myself.

Once I'm done with the first draft I use Scrivener for my second draft and any editing I do.