Three Books and a Movie

Welcome to the blog of an aspiring writer! My name is Gabrielle and I'll be your dream-chaser today.

[rarmaster]

Remember that post going around a while ago that was “you are not defined by numbers like test scores” and things like that?

Well, you aren’t defined by the amount of words you wrote this month, or this year, either. Your worth is not—and never will be—determined by whether or not you finished NaNoWriMo. Just remember that, okay?

[truebluemeandyou]

DIY Guide to Dress Necklines from Paper Blog here. For other popular guides go here:

Fashion Pattern Vocabulary Part 2 here. 

Fashion Pattern Vocabulary Part 1 here.

Know Your Sunglasses here. 29,000 notes

Know Your Shoes Part 1 61,000 notes (Lobster Claws anyone? Hilarious)

Know Your Shoes Part 2 here.

[threebooksandamovie]

Hello all!

Just a quick FYI that I switched my URL (used to be reformedwoolgatherer).  threebooksandamovie is my Gmail address and my blog's title but it wasn't my URL and that bugged me endlessly so I figured it would be better to make the switch sooner rather than later. ;)

[sonder-and-vellichor]

I don’t think I can fully explain to you the epic and total suckiness of being a woman until you can grasp the concept of knowing that you only have 24 hours left in nanowrimo and a viable 5 hours left to write and more than 3000 words left to be written and all you can do is lie in the dark and cry because of fucking pms and how not okay that is.

[threebooksandamovie]

Have this! (Hope you’re not allergic!)

You can do it!

[sonder-and-vellichor]

THAT ACTUALLY HELPED

THANK YOU KIND PERSON

[threebooksandamovie]

Glad to hear it! :D

[sadprosciutto]

2489 words left!!

Have I slacked this week? Yes.

Can I do this tomorrow with little reason to leave the house? I hope so!

Motivate me please!!!

[threebooksandamovie]

You in 2489 words:

[threebooksandamovie]

Posting this because I've just seen a few beautiful stats pages posted where the authors have met, nearly met or surpassed the average every single day and I'm here with my last week jump.  You guys are warriors!

[4cgarnet-deactivated20160530]

Noooo last day for nano and I need 3k words. It would be very like me to give up last minute blahhhhh Why not a month with 31 days.

[threebooksandamovie]

You can do it!

[sonder-and-vellichor]

I don’t think I can fully explain to you the epic and total suckiness of being a woman until you can grasp the concept of knowing that you only have 24 hours left in nanowrimo and a viable 5 hours left to write and more than 3000 words left to be written and all you can do is lie in the dark and cry because of fucking pms and how not okay that is.

[threebooksandamovie]

Have this! (Hope you're not allergic!)

You can do it!

[xxred-five-standing-byxx-deacti]

Winning NaNoWriMo:

How it looks on the outside:

How it feels on the inside:

Realizing you’re still nowhere close to finishing the first draft of the book:

[threebooksandamovie]

3:33am in Edmonton. I'm pretty psyched, mostly exhausted.  I actually validated my novel almost an hour ago and it was somehow 600+ words short.  Turns out I'd accidentally left one of my pre-November bits of a chapter in the Compile so had to uncheck that and make up the difference but it is done and I think it's mostly okay!

I decided not to order the winner's shirt because honestly I never wear my cool shirt anywhere.  But I did order the giant Editing mug for when I get there!  Hopefully, if I can continue the momentum NaNo2013 has gotten me going on, I could potentially have this first draft completely in another month, and I could start editing something halfway decent out of that in February!  Here's hoping.

Good luck to everyone entering their last day.  If you're in North America, you've still got PLENTY of hours left in the day so don't worry about it and if you're elsewhere...I'm too tired for math when I'm wide awake but I hope you're not stressing too much!

Happy end of NaNo2013, everyone!

[threebooksandamovie]

Happy Thanksgiving, celebrants!

I woke up to my second day of what's supposed to be a 1-day stomach virus, but hey.  I also learned that if I have any faith in the world, I should have faith in Advil.  Gravol couldn't cure my debilitating nausea but Advil, despite not supposed to be able to help, is now aggressively tackling the issue.  Enough that I'm keeping down broth, so booyah!

I'm also three days away from the end of NaNoWriMo with 36,277 written! It sounds like I'm pretty far behind but about three days ago, I was at 14,515!

I'm absolutely loving this week (sickness aside) because I've been able to springlaunch myself away from the rocky start of my novel and just dive into brand new scenes that I'd only ever thought about in passing. I'm no longer worrying that things aren't living up to how they were in my head because they were pre-fabricated up there anymore.  They're just following the natural flow of the story, and the characters are making it up for me as they go.

So I'm pretty sick, and have 3 days to write ~15k but I'm completely psyched about doing it.

Good luck to everyone else out there in the home stretch! Especially those celebrating Thanksgiving who may be torn between socializing and writing.  My advice? Do both ;) Let your friends and family feed you and then quickly get back to your desk.  Just try to stay away from too much turkey, the tryptophan will kill the rest of your day.

[taviarenae-deactivated20111109]

[threebooksandamovie]

Eysenck is especially well-known for his classification of personality-types. He divided people into four broad types: Extrovert-Stable, Extrovert-Unstable, Introvert-Stable and Introvert-Unstable. These types are fairly self-apparent in our daily lives, so no surprises there. However, he found that certain types are drawn to particular subjects of study, works of art and political affiliations in markedly predictable ways - and that is where things become really interesting.

Extrovert-Unstable  people are, according to Eysenck, more prone to insanity, extremism and authoritarianism than other personality types. Again, this is pretty much what we would expect. However, Eysenck soon found that his intellectual opponents in British universities were typically sociology students, many of whom resorted to threats of violence against him. Further research confirmed his hunch that students drawn to sociology were overwhelmingly Unstable-Extroverts, very seldom Stable-Introverts.

[writing-questions-answered]

Advice: Multi-POV Imbalance

Anonymous asked: Hi! My book is in third-person. I have 3 MCs. I was writing my book in my FMC’s pov (as much as you can do so in third person) but I had a couple of chapters that I wrote in the other two characters’ pov. However, it was only 1-2 each to my FMC’s 15. I feel like I should give them more chapters but I go based on who’s pov gives the best info. I can’t decide whether I should try to rewrite my chapters to spread it out, or just write them all in my FMC’s, but then I feel like I’m missing info. :/

I don’t really see a problem with not having an equal number of POV chapters for each character. As long as it isn’t just one or two chapters, I think it makes sense to use the POV that will give the best information. Take a look at all of your chapters and see if there are any that you could easily switch to one of the other MC POVs without losing information. If so, I’d try to give them each 2 or 3 of their own chapters just to balance things out a bit, but if you can’t, don’t sweat it. As long as you’re clear about whose POV you’re switching to each time, it should be fine. :)

[writeworld-blog]

So I know there's the internet and I could have just asked someone for help, but it's kind of embarrassing when you're 20 and never learned how to use it's and its. I usually left it up to spellcheck to fix it... Thank you for helping me understand the difference. I sincerely appreciate it, really I was sick of making this mistake and feeling terrible because i was too embarrassed to admit I never learned the right way to use the different forms.

Dude, don’t be embarrassed. English is hard, and this sort of thing happens to me all the time. Case in point:

The Its vs. It’s post went up and as I was rereading it, I noticed that I’d written awhile instead of a while. I sat here staring at it and thinking, “Which is it supposed to be? Is it awhile or a while? I. DON’T. KNOW.”

I sure didn’t.

So I tottered on over to the Google machine and looked that sucker up. Here’s what I learned:

"A while" is a time, a noun. The article "a" before "while" is a sure sign that you’re dealing with a noun. Notice in the following sentence that you could replace "a while" with another article-noun combination such as "a year":

It’s been a while since Squiggly tried marmite.

"Awhile" means "for a time" and it’s an adverb. Notice in the following sentence that you could replace “awhile” with another adverb such as “quietly”:

Go play awhile.

Finally, just to make it confusing, if you rephrase the previous sentence and replace the adverb with a prepositional phrase, you need the noun again because an adverb can’t be the object of the preposition.

Go play for a while.

(Source: GrammarGirl)

My sentence, “After awhile, they simply blend into the background…” didn’t make sense. I had to change it to read “After a while, they simply blend into the background…” Imagine my blushing cheeks! I’d allowed the post to be published with this GLARING GRAMMATICAL ERROR! (Oh Lawdy!)

No, no. It wasn’t the first time, and, no matter how confident I am in my grasp of the English language, it certainly won’t be the last.

The important part is to learn, always. Correct your mistakes and learn from them. I changed the It’s/Its post and logged that information about awhile and a while away for later use. I’m even sharing it with you in an effort to rescue you from potential future discomfort.

Now we both know a little more about English grammar. That’s pretty great, isn’t it?

It sure is.

-C

[inkmistress]

14 Character Development Questions That Will Answer (Almost) Absolutely Everything!

There are thousands of guides and questionnaires floating around the internet that claim they have the answer to your character development needs- ways to make well-rounded characters that you can practically reach in and grab right off the page. The downside to that is that these questionnaires are usually over 100 questions long. Keeping this in mind, I’ve formed a condensed list that should help you develop your M.C. (and supporting characters!) in a shorter amount of time.

What is your character’s name? (Obvious question, right? Expand. Who gave them that name? What’s their whole name? Do they have any nicknames? Does anyone tease them by giving them particularly nasty ones? Did one of the parents disagree on their name? What does their name mean? [Use http://www.babynamesworld.com to find out!] Is their name meaning of significance to the story?)

How old is your character? (What grade are they in? What is their age? When were they born? Do they look young for their age? Old for their age? Do they know more/less than they should at this age?)

What does your character look like? (Are they the spitting image of 21 Jump Street era Johnny Depp? How tall are they? What race are they? Do they have scars? Birthmarks? What is their hair like? What color are their eyes? Do their eyes change colors? Are they skinny/medium-sized/fat?)

How does your character dress? (On a school day? When going to work? On the weekends? On a lazy Saturday morning? On the way to a party? A wedding? A dance? Why do they dress this way? Does it make them feel good? What are their favorite colors to wear?)

What are some notable relationships your character has? (Do they have a favorite teacher? Are their parents alive? What do they think of their parents? What do their parents think of them? Brothers/sisters? Pastors/coaches? Best friends/worst enemies/frenemies/Facebook stalkers?)

What is in your character’s memory? (What do they remember most vividly? Do they have selective amnesia? Can they remember things from a young age? How old were they in their first memory? Do they have pleasant memories of their parents/friends? Did they leave anyone behind? Why?)

Where does your character live? (Is it a nice place? A real place? Urban/rural? Dangerous/crime-free? Is it a community of primarily one race? Is it a diverse community? Is it a strictly conservative community? What does the community think of the character/ their family? Where did the character live before this? Why did they move? Do they wish they could live somewhere else?)

What is your character’s room like? (Is it messy? Are there clothes all over the floor, or is everything stacked up neatly and put away? Do they have a lot of posters or furniture? Do they just sleep on a single mattress in the middle of the room? Do they have a lot of clothes? Do they share a room with another person/people? Is it small/big? Do they even have a room, or do they live in a garage/tent/cardboard box? Are they homeless? Where do they sleep?)

What is your character good at? (Do they have any special abilities? What about powers? Are they smart? Do they excel in school or at sports? Can they do something that no one else can? Why do people admire/dislike them? Are they estranged because of what they do well?)

What does your character want? (This is your most important question! What will propel your character to do everything you have in store for them? What is their ultimate goal? What will they sacrifice everything in order to achieve?)

What does your character do when they’re not at home? (Does your character like to go out with their friends, or do they hardly ever go out? Do they go to church every day? Where do they go? Why? Has it been around for a long time? Why do they keep going back? If they don’t go out, why not?)

What does your character like to do? (Even if your character isn’t good at it, do they have something they like to do? Are they horrible singers with a love for vocals, or are they a bad actor who wants to take the stage? Do they always stop to play the electric pianos in the toy department, even if they have no idea how to?)

How does your character love? (Are they extremely clingy, or do they like open relationships? What is their sexual orientation? Do they identify as male, female, both, or neither? How do they classify their ideal partner? Do they think appearances are as important as personalities? More important? Less important? To what extent will your character protect the one they love?)

What will ultimately destroy your character? (What is the worst possible thing that can happen to your character? Why? How can this be prevented? What will they do if it happens anyway? How will this impact their personality? Will they change at all?)

Good luck, everyone!

[clevergirlhelps]

dotanon asked: I’m writing a story which involves two characters crossing a large distance to safety, with an enemy army at their back (not so much in pursuit as closing in on their country). I was wondering if you knew of any common, generic issues, one might run into when traveling through a large expanse of wilderness?

[clevergirlhelps]

Staying hydrated. Most lake/pond/river water isn’t safe to drink (you get stuff like flesh-eating amoeba and beaver fever). The characters need to find springs, gather rainwater, or boil all their water before drinking it.

Medical issues. The nearest healer/hospital/what have you might be days or weeks away. If your character is cut, there’s a good chance the cut will become gangrenous. If your character breaks a bone, they’ll need to fashion their own splint and traveling at a rapid pace will be difficult for them.

Food. If there are people in the forest, the characters could steal food for them. If there aren’t people, the characters need to resort to hunting and gathering. Your characters need to be well-versed in the local plantlife to go gathering. There’s nothing like a little red-pored bolete to screw over your day. Hunting isn’t nearly as successful as the movies make it seem. The Aeta (modern day Filipino hunter-gatherer tribe) have ~25% success rate and that’s how they feed themselves. Your characters will have an even lower success rate if they rarely hunt or have never hunted. Setting traps isn’t an option because they won’t have the time to go back and check them. Also, they’d better hope it’s not fall or winter. Then they’ll be gnawing carcasses and stripping the bark off trees.

Seasonal problems. Springtime? Rain and trenchfoot. Summertime? Brushfires, heatstroke, thunderstorms, hailstorms. Fall? Rustling leaves give every move away, dying plants, cold, rain. Winter? Frostbite, snow, ice. 

Staying warm. If it’s fall, spring, or winter - or summer, in higher elevations - your characters will be at risk for frostbite in the cold night (and possibly day). They need to cover up their fingers, toes, ears, and nose. It’s a good idea to light a fire - which means they need to gather firewood - except not when an army’s on their heels.

Terrain. Roots waiting to trip you. Falling branches. Icy or wet patches. Raging rivers. Hidden holes. Rockfalls. Steep terrain that proves exhausting to climb. Branches at head height. Mud. Rock scree. Cliffs. Lakes they cannot swim across. Sudden drops. The possibilities are endless. 

Animals. There may be large predators like bears, big cats, or wolves. However, they rarely prey on humans. There are bigger problems coming from smaller things. Chipmunks, groundhogs, badgers, and other woodland creatures dig holes that easily catch ankles. Wasps really don’t like having their log bumped into. Falcons will claw your eyes out if you put your hand on a ledge containing their nest. Leeches will bite anything. Black flies, mosquitoes, horse flies, no-see-ums, sand flies, and other biting insects will make the summer months a living hell. Ticks spread diseases and, yes, they are active any day above 35 F (2 C). Maggots will infest food supplies. Bears, raccoons, possums, ravens/crows, and other foragers will steal food. Undercooked fish can give you tapeworms. Not to mention that all mammals have the potential to be rabid. Your characters will spend half their time hunting animals and half their time trying to get away from them.

Also check out this blog of two women hiking on the Appalachian Trail for more general “ugh wilderness” stuff.

[threebooksandamovie]

I’d been stressing about how many days I’d gone without writing and how it would badly affect me in the long run but it’s not so bad! 2337 words per day is totally doable! I’m pumped!

Let’s do this, wrimos!

[threebooksandamovie]

Boom, baby! 2507 words!!