Know the Novel Part 2: Writing Before the Flames

    Aaaaand we're back with the second part to Christine Smith's Know the Novel!!! As you all know, I participated in the first part of the linkup HERE and explained a wee bit about it, but if you wanna know more and join the second part of it (even though this is the last day *coughs*) go to THIS HERE!

    SO. For the last part, I gushed on and on with an introduction to the the novel I started writing this month (mind you, I'm not doing NaNoWriMo but still thought I'd do some of my own writerly fun along with everyone else) and for parte dos of Know the Novel we'll be diving into how the writing process for Before the Flames has been going! So in that case, LET US BEGIN.

    How’s the writing going on?

    WELL, as I breeeifly said in my last post, it’s not going as well as I dreamed it would be (that’s understandable though cuz this gal has HUGE dreams), BUT realistically it’s actually going waaaay better than I thought! ESPECIALLY after Sunday when I hit my month’s goal of 10,000 words! I actually didn't really start writing until the middle of the month (yeaaaah, I meant to start November 1 but that obviously didn't happen) and, due to a lot of Life's Busyness, I wasn't even sure if I'd be able make 10k (especially since I'm a very slow writer). 

Of course, since I started about halfway through November I'll probably keep writing into December (probably till the 6th or the 13th) and include those words for my month's word count as well! So, to sum it up, the writing's going pretty great and I'm content with what I've been able to get to all things considered! 😉

    What's been the most fun aspect about writing this novel so far? 

    *grinz* Zee maaaagic!!!! I just recently actually FiGuReD OuT my magic system and how it works ('cause it was more like "yaaay bling-y stuff here and bling-y stuff there but I have absolutely no idea how any of it is actually appeariiiing" before now). BUT I finally sorted it out aaand *cackles like the maniacal writer I am* we're having sparkly good times over here in Sunderheim right now.

    What do you think of your characters at this point? Who's your favorite to write about? 

    

    Let's just saaaay...

    Silas is a confusing smitten-eyed mess of IDon'tKnowWUT.

    Melina's a manipulative little liar who doesn't know what's good for her.

    Evander's just a jerk.

    Aaaand you know Silas and Evander's dad? Well, I finally gave him a name...Bentley. I was desperate y'all. Just sayin'. But he's about as flat and boring as they can get. (Which, to be fair, he's only briefly been in three scenes so far so I haven't really gotten my grips on him yet.)

    If I had to choose my favorite character to write about however, I'd say Jarrell Brenden. I haven't written much with him either, but due to some...*coughs* reasons I can already tell he's gonna be a fun one to dive into.

    

    Has your novel surprised you in any way?

    Oh, you better believe it has!!! One of my favorite things about pantsing (or plantsing) 😉is that you never know what your story is gonna throw at you next! And it myyyy case, this story has, well, *clears throat* may or may not turned into a super wacky Beauty and the Beast reimagining with not exactly a happy ending but definitely a hope inflicting one.

    If that makes sense.

    Which it probably doesn't.

    But that's okay! I don't really know what I'm doing either, so we're just gonna see what happens and roll with it! Don't worry, everything will be juuuust fine. 😅

    Of course, this whole B&B thing probably doesn't even sound possible considering what I shared about Before the Flames in the Know the Novel part 1, but needless to say, a few things in the plot have changed (more on that below *wiggles eyebrows*) which makes it a bit easier to go on the fairy tale retelling route. But honestly, I'm kinda just playing around with it and experimenting at the moment (kinda like what I was doing with Between the Lines being an Aladdin reimagining) so we'll see if it actually stays this way or if I end up scratching the fairy tale idea. *shrugs* But hey, that's the fun thing about writing! You can do/try whatever you want and see what happens! 😉

    Have you come across any problem areas?

    Hah! Well, I really wish I could say no, but that's not necessarily the case sooo, I present to you the...

1. The Lack of Setting and Cultural Description

          This is really giving me a hard time because, while I've been trying to make it clear that Sunderheim is a fictional city in the real life Middle Ages, I'm *coughs* pretty much failing at it. The only thing that would tell someone this is the tagline thing-a-ma-bob under the "Chapter 1" heading that says "The United Kingdom; Sunderheim, England 1479 A.D" (which, I'm not even 100% sure that it was officially called the United Kingdom back then, so I'll have to do some more research on that) and possibly the medievally phrases I've been trying to include (but not so much that they just sound weird, y'know?). So that's definitely the biggest problem and I'll really have to go back and work on that with the hopefully second draft if I'm able to actually finish the first one. XD

    2. The Character Dynamics

        I really don't know how this is going. I feel like the characters are pretty bland at this point (except for maybe Silas) and they just don't...have a lot of unique character voice. *Looks at Bentley* I usually don't struggle with this (for example, I personally thought I was nailing it with Between the Lines) but that's probably because the only other things I've written are set in present day, the future, or in totally different worlds. But this story is set about 500 years ago during a real time period when language was very different. So, I've really been trying to make the characters sound more realistic for their time (like including those medieval phrases) which means cutting out all slang, present day allusions, and really just any kind of laidback vocabulary you would hear today. Of course, let's just say that's been pretty hard for a gal who loves her "gonna's" and "wanna's". XD

    I'm pretty sure I've run into more problems, but I can't really remember them off the top of my head, so we'll just stick with those two. 😉

    What's been your biggest victory with writing this novel at this point? 

    The word count!!! Reach 10k in just a couple weeks has made me pretty happy especially since it usually takes me months to sit down and get that that many words on paper. Last Wednesday was an especially good day 'cause I was able to get 2,538 words in that morning which has been the most I've ever written in one day (I think). XD

    If you were transported into your novel and became any one of the characters, which one do you think you'd be? Would you take any different actions than they have?

    Really, guys. This is SOOOO HAAAARD. *headdesk* Especially since I've only written like five characters so far. Buuut, I suppose I'd most be like Jerrell. A female version that is. XD He hasn't really done enough for me to want to change though, so if I were to be another character whom I could take different actions from, I'd probably be Melina. *nods sagely* There are a lot of things I'd do different than her...

    Give us the first sentence or paragraph then 2 (or 3!) more favorite snippets!

    

    Eheh, don't expect anything amazing, y'all, (I am still in the first quarter-ish of the book after all), but let's just give it a shot! (Also, the second snippet is the continuation of the first one 'cause the first one technically ends in a cliff-hanger at the end of a chapter and...yeah, you get the point.) 

    WARNING: The following content is an un-edited mess of early morning writing and bleary jargon. Proceed at your own risk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    

    OPENING PARAGRAPH:

    Screams sliced the air. 

    Pain distorted reality.

    Someone was dying and Silas knew this, but it took a minute to realize that it was him.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    

    SNIPPET #1:

    A few minutes passed and after clearing his head, Silas finally decided he should call it a day. He wouldn’t even try risking any more work time only to be inflicted with more hallucinations and whatnot. But the vault. He stilled for a moment in thought. Did he lock it or did he just shut the door? Worry began to creep into his stomach. Great, now he would have to go back down there and check. But that was better than getting in trouble with his father if he didn’t lock it.
    With a heavy sigh, Silas trudged back into the building and down to the Treasury. He grabbed the door to the rose’s vault and pulled. It didn’t give. Relief washed over his shoulders and he turned to leave when a crash shattered his alleviation. 
    A crash...from within the vault.
    Silas’ stomach dropped and he slowly eased back around. Oh, please no. His hands began to shake once more and, as much as it bugged him, he let them. Silas wasn’t normally an easily scared person, but this combined with those illusions of talking, supernatural flowers and lack of food or rest all day made him too tired to fight the fear. So if he couldn’t do that, he’d just face the danger.
    Silas unlocked the door and hesitantly dragged it open. He peered inside letting his eyes adjust to the darkness and found the rose sitting where he had left it. 
    But what he hadn’t left was the tall, dark cloaked figure standing over it.

    *gasps from unseen audience* wOw, dark cloaked figuuuures what a new addition to the literary world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    SNIPPET #2 (i.e. The Continuation of Snippet #1)

    Silas’ first thought upon seeing this were a few curses followed by, My father’s going to kill me. His second thought was, It would probably be a good idea to get rid of this guy.

“You there!” He roared, advancing forward in the menacing manner he was definitely not feeling at the moment. “Get your hands away from that rose!”

The figure whirled around and, although it was dark under the hood, Silas stilled when he saw a pair of blazing blue eyes stare right through his soul. Half a second later, the figure’s hands began to light up with a matching azure glow and threw a blast of the light towards Silas. Silas ducked, but a second blast caught him in the chest and threw him out of the vault and against the far wall. He fell to the ground and gasped in more shock and breathlessness than pain. The figure rushed out of the vault and towards the stairs taking them two at a time.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Silas snarled. He leapt up and dashed after the figure, whispering an impediment spell at the same time. The closest way out of the building from here was a door through one more room and down two corridors. Fortunately...Silas smirked to himself. He knew a short-cut.

He diverted from his trail behind the figure, raced through a different room, and down another short hallway that led out into the corridor the intruder would be arriving in. Silas slid to a halt in his destination right as the figure rounded the corner and came to a standstill. The two faced each other silently—apart from their heavy breathing—and Silas hardened his gaze, once again attempting his best Evander Glare.

“If you want to get to that door,” Silas growled, motioning behind him, “then you’ll have to get through me.” At that moment, he drew up his spell with all the focus he could muster and threw a jagged bolt of energy, that would incapacitate the victim, at the figure.

But instead of it hitting his opponent, the figure stopped it, quite literally, in mid-air with another flash of his own light. Silas’ jaw dropped as the intruder wrapped his own magic around Silas’ bolt and, with the bolt writhing as if it was being strangled, destroyed it with a bright explosion. He stumbled back and crashed into a nearby table. Once the flare receded, Silas stared at the figure in astonishment who, in return, lifted his hands in a What can I say? manner. Then he spun his blue magic around his body and, in another flash, disappeared.

Silas slumped to the ground and leaned his head back against the table. He had no words. He didn’t even know what to think. Which was understandable, because Silas was pretty sure that no one, not even his father—the most powerful wizard alive—had ever been capable of using magic in the way this mysterious visitor just did.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Share and interesting tidbit about the writing process so far! (For example: Have you made any hilarious typos? Derailed from your outline? Killed off a character? Changed projects entirely? Anything you want to share!)

    Well, I already mentioned that Before the Flames has kinda turned into a B&B reimagining, but it threw a total curveball at me with the way it's become one and made me have to rethink my loose, mental outline. Let's just say, this new one involves a realm of nice fairies who isolated themselves from the human race centuries earlier, a group of rebellious/evil fairies (dubbed "witches" by humans) who everyone thinks are extinct but they're really not, and few other details that I won't give away due to spoilers. But they be good...trust me. *evil grin*

    I also made a couple amusing typos, which I thought I'd share! 😉

   ~ The fireplace's mouth, however, was eating a person at the moment. 

    Well, what do we have here? A cannibalistic Calcifer? (If you didn't get that, then you really need to read Howl's Moving Castle.) 😜Seriously though, I literally have no idea how that happened! I think I was trying to do some kind of metaphor with it, but ended up writing "person" instead of "log"??? Either way, it took a while to pull myself together after that one. XD

    ~ "Yes, you are quite the old man," he winked, evoking a laugh from the bailiff. "Where are you off to today my friend? And better yet, why did you want to see me last night?"

    Jerrell stretched his neck from side to side. "I'm off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz."

    This is what you write when you have no idea what your character is supposed to say next and the famous line of a multi-million dollar classic is the first thing that pops into your head. It felt pretty great being L. Frank Baum for a second there.

    ~ Evander groaned and rubbed his face. "This is all so confusing," he mumbled.

        Silas shifted in frustration. "Well, maybe it was a mutant," he grumbled.

        Their father rolled his eyes. "Don't be such younglings," he rumbled.

    That's it guys. I'm reverting to poetry now. 'Nuff said. *cackles*

    Take us on a tour of what a normal writing day for this novel looks like. Where do you write? What time of day? Alone or with others? Is a lot of coffee (or some other drink) consumed? Do you light candles? Play music? Get distracted by social media (*cough, cough)? Tell all!

    Well, I'm not always able to write everyday, but when I do, I try to get up around six in the morning and get a good hour of writing in before the rest of the house wakes up. 😉On weekdays sometimes I'll try to write more in the evening after school and dinner, and on the weekends I can usually get in time during the day to write! As for the place, I usually write downstairs on the sofa in the mornings and, at night or during the day, on my bed. Unfortunately, no coffee is consumed (as much as I probably need the caffeine) XD 'cause I'm not a coffee gal...or a tea gal...or a soda gal. Now we're really getting deep. So yeah. But, now that I think about it, I love hot chocolate so maybe I should try that... Oh, and I definitely like to listen music while I write when I can! (Instrumental though, I can't do lyrics while writing.)

    Sooo, there we go! The second part of Know the Novel on the last day of November! (I really gotta stop cutting it this close y'all...*sweats*) XD ANYWAY, I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope everyone had an AMAZING November (with even more amazing progress on your writing)!! Like I said last week, I'll definitely try to post more in December (this month just kinda slipped away), so I'll see y'all then!!!

Tally-ho!

Now it's YOUR turn! How has your writing been going this past month? What's your favorite part about writing your WIP? Any fun things you wanna share about it? Also, is anyone else freaking out that this is the LaSt dAy iN NoVeMbEr? Like, Christmas is less than a month away now, guys. O.o Pretty soon '22 will be just around the corner...

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