NANOWRIMO: The Conclusion + Learning From Failure

NANOWRIMO: the conclusion + learning from failure

Hello friends!

Long time, no see! ᕱ__ᕱ These past two weeks I have been giving myself a little break from this blog. I have been swamped with final projects in all of my classes and have been trying to balance getting all of them done with middling success. I’m not thriving, but I am surviving. 

However, to make up for my absence, I will be giving y’all some extra content within the next two weeks. In those posts I won’t be boring you with my rambles as I usually do and instead will simply be giving you some content that I have created for my novel! In this post, though, I will be updating you on my novel’s progress and giving you my thoughts on NANOWRIMO.

For those of you who have been here for a bit, you will know that I attempted to participate in National Novel Writing Month for the first time this November. (As always, here is a link with more info about NANOWRIMO for your perusal.) My personal goal as a full time student with a part time job, was to write a 25,000 word manuscript instead of the full 50,000 words. November has ended and I am happy to report that I failed. I failed to reach even my cut down goal. However, I am surprisingly really happy with my progress this month. I learned a lot about myself as a writer and about my process and while I didn’t manage to write even a 10,000 word manuscript, I feel much more prepared to tackle writing this novel.

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So, here are the things that I learned:

Character design and building is VERY important to me

This, I already knew. One of the main things that bother me about book to movie translations or “hot takes” about books on social media or even some fanfictions is that characters, their personalities and development and relationships, are often either misunderstood or sacrificed for the plot or the sake of another character's development. It’s so annoying. I personally belief that every character in a work of fiction should be able to stand on their own, especially if they are a main or secondary character. Characters should be their own individuals with their own motivations and backstories and for goodness sake they should be consistent! (Crappy character development is a thing that bothers me about published novels too. The wasted potential of Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, and Draco Malfoy, among countless other characters, in the Harry Potter novels bugs me so, so much!!)

 So, one of the things that happened everytime I sat down to write this NANOWRIMO was that I would find myself getting “stuck” on this character’s backstory or that character’s personality. I have 13 characters that exist for this story in my head. 2 are the main main characters. The 11 others are also going to have their own plot lines and spin offs. Before NANOWRIMO, I knew that this would make my novel complex. After NANOWRIMO, I realized that I was going to have to organize and map and structure and detail my characters (along with several other things) to the metaphorical gods before I even try to manuscript anything or else I am going to be stuck forever and I will never get this book out of my head.

Worldbuilding is also VERY important to me

This was a bit of a surprise. I am definitely no Tolkien and before I started this blog, and my creative writing journey, at the beginning of this fall, these original characters simply just floated around in my head in a vague fantasy realm with no discernible structure or detail. I expected to be able to just continue with this vague fantasy world and as I started writing let the structure fall into place. Yeah… that’s not what happened. 

As I began to outline character backstories and a basic plot to start writing, I would find myself drawing up short when I needed to insert a detail about the world in which my story is taking place. This month made me realize that I need to also worldbuild to the metaphorical gods before I try to manuscript anything, and in some cases before I try to go deeper into outlining my character’s backstories and such as well. I’m such a detail oriented person that I have no idea why this didn’t occur to me before, especially because I am including a magic system in my book. I hate fantasy books (that are meant to be serious and not just cozy reads) in which the magic systems rely on the “because it’s magic” excuse and the author doesn’t make any attempt at giving at least some sort of structure or rules. So yeah. I really need to worldbuild, which I am going to hate because it is going to take FOREVER (detail oriented person).

I work better on lists and schedules

This I did know, but I didn’t realize it applied to my writing. A lot of the reason why I failed to write anything of substance for the plot of my book is that I thought I could just throw myself in and make it up as I go. Incorrect. As November passed, and I kept getting stuck on details, I realized that I would need to incorporate my penchant for planning and list making if I was ever going to complete a task this large.

Also, side note, but I keep referring to this story that I’m writing as a novel. It will most certainly not be a novel. It will be a whole dang book series. (13 characters!! Who will each get their own POV at some point!! “A novel” my a**.) 

I can throw myself head first into school essays and short writing assignments no problem, but with a story this big, all coming straight from the mess I call my brain, I need to do a lot of planning beforehand. That, above all, is what this failed NANOWRIMO taught me. 

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So! Now that I have torn my failure to shreds and dissected all the little pieces and given yall a short (yes that was short for me - I’m starting to think you guys don’t know me at all ᕱ__ᕱ) summary of who, what, when, where, and why my failure occurred, what’s next. Well, I plan. I outline to the metaphorical gods (as I seem to be fond of saying in this post), and next year, when November rolls around, hopefully I have done enough planning and outlining and detail work that writing a 50000 word manuscript should be a breeze!

That’s all for now folks! If any of y’all are curious as to some of what I did manage to get done on my novel/series over NANOWRIMO then stay tuned for the first of your special content posts which should be up within a few minutes of me posting this. Also, if any of y’all have suggestions about how to store/order worldbuilding content in an easily searchable way that would be fantastic!! Please do let me know. Thanks for bearing with me! ᕱ__ᕱ

And remember, dot your j’s and cross your t’s!

~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

Percy Jackson is the best book boyfriend and one of the main reasons my standards for relationships in both fiction (my own original work and work I consume) as well as real life are so incredibly high

We do not talk about this passage enough, this is so sweet

Omg y’all it’s this account’s one year anniversary on Tumblr - talk about going full circle lol

the creative process & writing sh*t

Hello friends!

This week, as I get back into the swing of working on my original story and the challenge I’ve set for myself with tackling the seemingly insurmountable task of worldbuilding, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I’m going to approach crafting my fantasy world. I’ve been kicking around the interwebs for a bit for some guidance (how-to videos and blogs, inspirational content, etc.) and I’ve not had much luck. I’ve been looking into a few courses (mainly https://rmarcher.com/resource-library/the-worldbuilding-toolbox/) and resources (mainly https://milanote.com/guide/worldbuilding & https://inkarnate.com/) but I’m not sure about any of them. 

(^ me this week)

I’ve said before that I am not Tolkien (though I wish). I have never built a world with the extent of detail and specificity and concreteness to which I need to build the one in which my story takes place. I have no idea what I’m doing. 

I think, however, that's part of the creative process, though it pains me to say. I like when outcomes are known and things are in order (though life rarely ever truly is). I’m gonna admit something to y’all….  I am a total perfectionist. I like things the way that I like things, and I don't like not being able to make things the way I want them to be. 

But part of writing, as I am slowly coming to learn and accept, is creating complete sh*t. And if you create enough sh*t then every so often you’ll stumble across something that's gold. All you need to do is have the courage to dive in and the willingness to get messy.

Therefore, what I really need to do to start building this world for my story, is to just dive in and mess around. That scares the crap out of me because I know some of the stuff (maybe even most of the stuff) that I’m going to make will be terrible. But with all the terrible stuff, there is going to be some stuff that is awesome. And, I don’t know about you, but for me a lot of terrible stuff and a little bit of awesome stuff is better than no stuff at all. 

As I’ve been cutting down on procrastination, I’ve been trying to make intentional space to be creative. So, as I continue to make time to do my other creative hobbies like crocheting and graphic design, I am going to make time to write as well. I’m going to throw myself head first into this whole worldbuilding thing and just try stuff out. I may use worldbuilding resources or aids, but for the most part I’m just going to write. I want to  make the commitment to do this thing, but also give myself space to let my creativity grow. 

So, I will keep you all updated as I go along. Hopefully I'll have enough good stuff to share (because I don’t want to bog down my feed with crap), but we shall see. That’s all from me today, I guess.

And remember, dot your j’s and cross your t’s (even when your writing sh*t ᕱ__<)!

~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

happy holidays!! 🎊

Hello friends!

Happy New Year!! I hope you all had a wonderful, restful holiday season! Next week I will get back to the normal weekly posts, but for now, here’s to new beginnings in this new year! See y’all in 2024!

Just remember to dot your j’s and cross your t’s!

 ~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

new character + happy halloween!!

Hello friends!

This week’s post will be relatively short, probably my shortest yet. I have been very scattered with my creative writing this week as midterms have just passed and final project season is beginning. (Plus Halloween is in 2 days!! ᕱ__ᕱ) I have been working like crazy on several different creative projects for several different classes and I have gotten a lot done, it has just been mostly detail work and much of it is not something I can comprehensively show. So, for today I will simply summarize most of what I have worked on for my original story and give you the deets on a new character that I mentioned in the plot description from a few weeks ago!

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In short summary: I ironed out some naming conventions, did some more world building, came up with a bunch of new words for places, and named some characters. I’m still working on basic character descriptions for them, but fear not! You should be seeing some within the next few weeks. (Hopefully I can get some more character drawings done as well! ᕱ__ᕱ) However, I said I would give you one today, so here is a sneak peek to what you can be looking forward to! 

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Aurora of Sylvanthia [meaning]

Age 17

Human

Queen of Sylvanthia

Crowned Queen at age 16

Her mother passed from illness when she was 12  and her father soon followed

Their Council of Advisors took over as regent until she was came of age 

A corrupt faction attempted to coup her before she was even crown but she discovered their plot and reverse couped them taking her rightful place as queen 

Well loved by the people of her kingdom

Incredibly kind if strong willed and stubborn

Often underestimated for her young age and slight stature

Ruthless to those who cross her

Engaged to Kazuki of Okunseiko (Prince Pretty Boy)

Arranged marriage that they basically strong armed their parents into as children

A puppy love romance turned into reality

Her closest advisors and friends include Romulus (Golden Retriever Boy) and Sascha (Hot Spy Lady)

Her current daily routine involves fixing all the of the sh*t that the corrupt faction messed up in her kingdom, preparing her kingdom for war, and worrying about her man

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And that’s about it from me today. I wish you all a scary Spooky Season full of some tricks but mostly treats! ᕱ__ᕱ 

And just remember, dot your  your j’s and cross your t’s!

~Clementine J. Quincey 🎃🪷