Pinterest Inspiration

Nanowrimo has been harder this year, I keep struggling to write after I killed that one character I loved so much.  So with my attempts to murder writers block, I have collected some awesome Pinterest boards. Hope you enjoy!

Follow Katy's board A Story: Inspiration on Pinterest.

Follow Maddie Morrow's board Story ideas. on Pinterest.

Follow Iris's board Characters/Ideas on Pinterest.

Follow Kelsey Hamersley's board Story Inspiration on Pinterest. 

Follow Hanne-col's board they have a story of their own on Pinterest.

Any Pinterest board recommendation? I could really use some inspiration. Hope everyones writing is going well this Nanowrimo! 

-Melody

Nanowrimo, Here We Come!

It's nearly here. This Saturday, tons of writers around the globe will start their long journey of writing 50,000 words in one month. Preparing for the all nighters, arranging schedules, stocking up on junk food, and clearing their brains for the overload of information they are about to inflict upon it. 

Will you be one of them? 

I'm pleased to say that both me and Amy will be participating in this years Nanowrimo! 

This challenge has it all. The ups and downs. Those beautiful days that you write 8,000 words easily, and those detestable nights that you cough out 500. Those awesome collaborative times with writing buddies, and those wretched days that you wrack your brain alone. This is the month of total awesome writing time. No mater how discouraged you may be with your project, you can't stop. You keep going. Some end with so much joy to be done with the story that they would almost burn it by the end. Others end and find out that first draft wasn't so bad and they truly fell in love with a character. All around they are both good. Accept your mistakes and accept your accomplishments.

So, who is up for the challenge? 

Who will join us in finishing something that many call insanity? Who is willing to be a little crazy and make a work of art on a word document? Who is ready to loose a lot of sleep but love it?


I am totally in, and there for you. Be my buddy on Nanowrimo so that we can collaborate and cheer each other on: Melody.Faithy98

Amy would love for you to buddy with her as well! Check out her profile here: amyb93


Looking forward to this month! My favorite month for multiple reasons. My birthday is on the 4th, my friends birthday is on the 14th. Thanksgiving is this month, and along with it comes Black Friday resulting in the official day we begin Christmas decorations! Topping it off with Nanowrimo makes it totally awesome.

Are you doing going to participate? If so, leave your username in the comments and share what you

have been working on! I love collaborating and cheering others on! Keep on writing everyone! For the next month, we are going to be focusing on writers block and inspiration on the blog, to help keep
you all running smoothly!

                                  Happy writing!

                                                   -Melody

Fiction Friday, Worlds Collide Novel Excerpt

Today I decided to include a little blast form the past, for Fiction Friday. I wrote this novel called, Worlds Collide, exactly a year ago. I thought it would be fun to read over it, so I also included a little excerpt here for you all to read. This was my first family to create in a novel. While writing the father character, he reminded me a lot of the father in the Cooper Kid's Series, by Frank Peretti. Those books were a great inspiration to my writing, Escape from the Island of Aquarius being my favorite. Alright, read the excerpt and tell me what you think. Enjoy!

Excerpt from, Worlds Collide

Plane Crash

Victor struggled to contain the panic that rose in his chest. Water began to pour into the plane. Through the windows he could see them sinking quickly into the ocean. He still had a sobbing Linus strapped to him, and a parachute. His eldest son, Nathan, lay on the plane's floor, blood covering his face. Jenny shook him screaming, his wife Elaine held his head in her hands, struggling to pull him back to consciousness. 

“Elaine!” Victor screamed across the noise.

She looked up, horror in her eyes.

“Take Linus,” He unstrapped the screaming boy, “I will take Nathan. Jenny, grab all the life vests you can find, you will need them!”

Elaine took Linus in her arms, as she threw the parachute off her back. Jenny had an arm full of life jackets before Victor had time to think. He stooped over Nathan's still form. He didn't have time to check if he was alive or not, they had to get them all out. Victor grasped Nathan's parachute and stripped it off him.

“Elaine! Get Jenny and Linus out now!” He called, as water began to completely fill the plane.

The water covered Nathan quickly, Victor struggled to drag the boy out. He glanced behind him to see his wife and children gone, the exit door torn open. He prayed they were safer than he was. He dragged Nathan through the water now, trying to keep both of their heads above water. He threw Nathan's arms over his shoulder, and began to swim out of the opened door, that was now fully submerged in water. He searched for the surface, trying to keep Nathan in his grasp. Cool air struck him in the face as he came to the surface. He gasped in precious oxygen, and pulled Nathan up. He looked around the wrecked plane and the ocean for signs of his wife. None. 

He saw in the distance, something different. It took his brain a few seconds to finally register what it was. Land, of some sort. Perhaps it was close enough to swim to. He thanked God for the life vests, as he pulled Nathan behind him holding his head up as he swam. He looked back at the wrecked plane. It was almost completely covered by the crashing waves. A thought struck him, the pilots had not gotten out. He looked frantically around the wreck. Then he looked at his son's bloodied face. He would come back and find the pilots. He had to.

The land was very close, in fact it took little time for Victor to make it to the sandy beach. He dragged Nathan up onto it and laid him down on the wet sand. He heard a yell and looked up to see Elaine and Jenny come running, Linus ran behind. Elaine collapsed at Nathan's side.

“Take care of him. I need to go back for the pilots!” Victor said, as he ran back into the the water.

~

Hoep you all enjoyed it!  Rereading this makes me relieved to realize I have improved. No mater how terrible you first couple novels may have been, remember that the more you write you are sure to improve, even if you can't see it.

Do you have any of those first novels you wrote that make you cringe to read?

Killing Your Beloved Characters

Killing characters. Some people treat is as a hobby. I find it as the hardest thing I have ever had to do in a first draft. I end up putting myself in torment for days trying to decide if they should die. When I have made the decision that they should die, I drag it out for days because I can't bring myself to officially ending their lives in the fictional world. My family goes crazy when I am in the process of killing one.
Every morning they are like, "Did you do it yet?"
I just sit there with my head in my hands groaning, "No."

I finished my first draft for my sequel to the Realm of Graphice on Monday. <cheers> I was so happy to have finished it, but the joy and excitement of finishing was stifled by the death of a beloved character. Yes, I had to kill someone. This was no little death. I had to kill the main character. I tried everything so that I wouldn't have to. There was no getting around it, he had to die. The plot called for it. The theme called for it. The other characters called for it. So, since I went through such torture having to kill him, I thought I should write a post on killing your dear to heart characters.

Reasons to Kill a Character
Before we go into the actual process, you need to make sure you should even do it. The last thing you want to do is force it and the reader be angry. So, lets go over reasons why you should kill your beloved character.

-Advances plot.
-Motivates fellow characters.
-Shows theme.

Some reasons not to kill over:

-Making your reader sad or angry just because.
-Removing unneeded characters.

Alright, now that you have your reasons for your action, lets move into how you shall do the deed.

Killing that Character

-Foreshadow: If you don't add this in somewhere, the death may seem unnatural and take the reader out of the book for a moment. You never want the reader to be so surprised that it pulls them out of the fictional world of the novel.

-New character to take his/her place: You need someone to pick up where the character left off. If you have to kill the main character, don't leave your readers hanging with no main character to pick up the pieces of the story.

-Let them care: Make your reader really care for and love this character. Create some emotional attachment to them before they disappear. If your other characters are mourning, the reader should be as well.

-Make it worth it: Don't let them die in vain. Let there be a good powerful reason this character died. Sacrificing themselves for another, giving their life for their country, or dying for a cause.


Killing my character was no easy task. I was pretty hurt and upset over the fact. I wrote two books with him and it hurt to be done with him. I would really miss writing with him.




Are you planning the death of a character? If so, is it a main or side character? Have you killed a character in the past? Hope the post was helpful. Don't forget to join us on Friday for Fiction Friday!

-Melody

photo credit: peteSwede via photopin cc

Fiction Friday, Excerpt from, Garden Fairy Tales

Super excited about sharing this excerpt! I took up writing for children this time. My Mommy had recommended it for awhile, I finally decided to try it after I finished my recent first draft. I have been doing Biology for science this year of school, while studying Kingdom Fungi I got this totally weird burst of inspiration to write a story around the mushroom fairy rings. Not many people get story ideas while reading science, but I do, yes I know... weird. Anyway, here is an excerpt from my first draft at the moment. If you have not guessed yet, it is about fairies.  

My little siblings over heard me talking about the fairy story apparently, they all decided to take up the task of illustrating it. 

Fairies: by, James and Abigail

Excerpt from, Garden Fairy Tales

Beauty Sleep

The golden light of the sunrise crept up the clover’s stalk. Scarlet brushed a delicate hand over her eyes, wiping the sleepiness away. She lay among the freshly turned earth under the clover’s blooming top, her wings draped over her shoulders as a soft blanket, protecting her from the cold dew. She sat up slowly, looking around for a friend in sight. The garden forest seemed empty. The large stalks of grass towering over her, sending shadows striped across the earth. The sun's light splashed through the green, lighting up her brilliant red dress. She stood clumsily, her wings setting her off balance at first as they tried to straighten. 

  “Well,” she squeaked with a sigh, spinning around hastily as she awoke her sleepy wings. “I wonder, where could Ivy be?” she questioned herself, placing a small finger to her lips in thought. 

She unfurled her wings with a shake of her small shoulders, she spread her hands outward as she pulled herself off the ground with her wings. She came above the clovers pluming top. The suns dew covered the grass stalks and clover heads, the flowers were closed still, nearly ready to blossom. She fluttered over a few of the flowers, inspecting to be sure they were preparing to bud. The birds had begun their song above, their notes fluttering through the garden, awakening the fairies still at rest under their blossoms. 

Ivy’s purple curly head popped up above the bud Scarlet inspected. Her upturned nose freckled from the sun scrunched up as she yawned, she pulled her tiny legs up onto the bud as though it was a stool, “Morning, Scarlet.” She squeaked with much chipper, as she fluttered up from the bud with her thin wings to glide by Scarlet’s side.

“Good morning, dear Ivy.” Scarlet replied, smiling at her friend, “Sleep well? I woke before you, meaning you must have slept pretty well.” She chuckled. 

Ivy yawned, stretching her thin arms up while giving her wings a little shake. “Oh, I slept beautifully.” She sighed out as she pulled her arms back down, “Am I anymore beautiful, Scarlet?” she pressed, buzzing around in front of Scarlet, the flower between the two.

Scarlet laughed a little waving a hand at Ivy’s head, “Now you can’t believe every myth you hear. Sleep does not really make you more beautiful, you do know?” 

Ivy slouched, “Oh, but, Scarlet, Autumn and Mayberry are so very beautiful and pretty, they sleep in everyday. The say that’s why they are so beautiful.” She crossed her arms while shaking her curly head.

“Ivy, both Autumn and Mayberry help with the leaf sewing, which takes place in the afternoon, they have no need to rise early.” Scarlet objected, while reaching out a hand towards her friend. 

Ivy uncrossed her arms slowly and reached to hold Scarlet’s hand. “Come,” Scarlet explained, “Rowan was going to show me something this morning. Once we have finished our assignments, we can both go see. Would you like that, Ivy?” she looked to her friends pouting face to see her full lips turn up slightly as she nodded.

Scarlet smiled as she pulled them up into the air away from the bud she had been inspecting. “I’ll care for the yellow ones.” Ivy explained, breaking from Scarlet’s grip. “You take the pink.” She called up, as she soared down towards the group of yellow buds just reaching the sun.

Scarlet twirled up a few yards in the air, letting out a bubbling laugh as she changed directions and fluttered down from the sky, her wings steadily causing her to float down to a patch of baby pink buds reaching out of the folds of bright green leaves.

~

Hope you all enjoyed it! Have any little sisters? Let them read it, or read it to them. I really want some kid's opinions on it. 

Any tips on writing children's fiction?

-Melody