Character and Concept Inspirations

Ok, I need to post about something. What that something is might be harder to come by...

It's been a while since I did a post with stuff from Pinterest! Maybe I'll start with that and see if it goes anywhere...

Isn't this guy just adorable?! I love the concept of an owl griffin. Griffins are cool enough as it is, but then combine them with an owl... Sweet! Typically, a griffin is a cross between a large cat (like a lion) and a hawk or an eagle. I've also thought of griffins that have black panther instead of lion. I mean, how cool would black griffins be? And a bit scary... But the owl griffin looks like it's a mix of an owl and a persian cat (look at the tail!). Personally, I think it would be an awesome pet. If only...

Ok, this guy. He just looks so fun. And absent-minded. I think he would be a really fun character to write about. He's in a suit and tie, so he's got at least a nice job if not important (it's certainly somewhat dignified). But he's young, so he must be smart to get such a good job. And then he's SITTING ON THE FLOOR MAKING PAPER AIRPLANES! The whole situation is just intriguing.

Heehee. For one thing, I love opals. They're probably my favorite gemstone. But I just love the idea of, say, an archaeologist (or someone) digging up an ancient dragon scale. Ok, yes, I do mean in a story (although I wouldn't object to real-life...). Can you imagine? What else would be discovered in the same place? What kind of adventures would it lead to? It just makes my story-imaginer-brain happy :).

For a long time, I've liked the idea of fairies with butterfly wings. It's just different, but still really interesting. I'm not really sure why I like it so much... I suppose with this you could also imagine super-tiny fairies with butterfly wings--so small that you couldn't tell them from a butterfly unless you looked closely! That would be a fun concept...

I don't know exactly what to tell you about this one. I like her, and I think she'd make a great character, but I actually pinned this picture because I felt like she had (or might have) something to do with my novel. Not sure exactly why. Maybe because she has the same color hair as my hero? She definitely fits in with the overall look of the race... I just don't know who she is! (or who I would want her to be...) But seeing how my original ideas for the story have morphed into something completely new (and better), I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up somewhere in there. I guess we'll find out!

Also in relation to my novel, while I'm thinking about it, I need some names for some people. Actually a lot more than just people, there's also planets, races, cities, technology, animals, plants, food, and all that kind of stuff. But people are easier, so I'm starting with those. I've named my hero, mentor, and ally, but I still have quite a few people who are rather important to the story. The villain (who actually needs two names... one his real name and the other the name of the person he's pretending to be), the hero's mom, the ally's daughter, the ally's parent's, the ally's brother and sister, and the queen, just to list some off the top of my head. And a few more councillor names would be good too. Suggestions would be wonderful.

Well, that's it for today! Pinterest is such an amazing source of inspiration...

A Character's Inner Journey

The biggest thing I've been working on for my novel recently is getting to know my characters and their struggles. But even more than that, I've been trying to figure out the main character's inner journey. What does she learn through the outside plot and conflict of the novel? What internal problem does she have that needs to be worked out over the course of the story?

I first really learned about the Hero's Inner Journey at OYAN Summer Workshop last summer. Jeff Gerke, one of the speakers, talked about the inner journey and explained it really well. He said the entire thing can be summed up with this simple timeline:

The Knot is the inner problem the hero has at the beginning, the thing that has to be unraveled by the end of the story. The character starts out in an Initial Condition that, if he doesn't change something, will lead to a not-so-great end for him. And not just an unhappy ending to the story, but a bad place for the character.

So, you start out with the Knot. The goal of the inner journey is to take the character from the Initial Condition to what's called the Moment of Truth. This is the moment where he decides either to act on what he's learned through the story or to forget all that and return to the Initial Condition.

Yup, that's the whole Inner Journey! Of course, there are a few other things along the way. Something has to happen to start the hero on the his way from the Knot to the Moment of Truth. That something is the Inciting Event. This event must be something too big for the hero to ignore. As much as they might want to go back to their old life, they can't, because you don't let them. From here, everything is rising action through the middle section of the story. It's kind of like a constant battle between the old way of life and the new, better things that the hero is learning.

The inner journey fits in with the external plot like this:

The Knot comes in with the main character. The Inciting Event kicks both the inner journey and the external plot into gear. The rising action for each side happens simultaneously. Then, the Moment of Truth comes along. The hero has to decide between acting on what he's learned or continuing with the Initial Condition. Whichever side he chooses carries over into the climax of the story and impacts the outcome of the climax. If he chooses to ignore what he's learned and return to the Initial Condition, he gets the result of the Initial Condition that he would have had anyway, but exponentially worse. However, if he chooses to act on what he's learned, the end result is the opposite of the result of the Initial Condition (which is typically good!). Or if the end isn't exactly that, the hero at least has experienced a full turn-around.

The hero making "the right choice", the second one, doesn't always lead to a happy ending, but I would say that it does lead to a more fulfilling ending. Think of Theoden, from LotR. He chooses to act on what he's learned, but that doesn't mean everything goes perfectly for him. We can still see that he's a changed man, though, and that's fulfilling. Sometimes, the hero does eventually make the right choice, but it's too late for them to escape the consequences of their earlier actions. I'm not saying it's too late for them to change; sometimes a person can have a complete turn-around in heart but still have to experience the consequences for what they did before. The example I'm thinking of hasn't actually been finished yet, so... yeah. Avery's novel that she's working on kind of illustrates this point, I think. The hero realizes what she was doing that was wrong and does her best to make a change, but it's too late for her to escape the consequences. (I don't want to spoil too much... Avery's come up with a great story, though, so go ask her about it!)

So, that's the inner journey. Well, there's probably more to it than that (seeing as I took at least four pages of notes at SW), but I just wanted to give you a basic idea of what the inner journey even is. I'm still learning about it too, and learning how to incorporate it into my story, but I'd love to discuss it more if anyone would like!

Spoiler Tutorial

I had a couple people ask about how to do the spoilers, and the best way I can think of to explain it without showing you in person is to do a tutorial. Hopefully it will make sense. Keep in mind that I don't know exactly what I'm doing or how it works, but I've figured out how to make it work for me, so I would guess it's about the same for you!

OK, let's start out with the simpler one. (For reference, see my earlier post about spoilers.) The code looks like this:

VISIBLE CONTENT HERE
<br />
<div id="spoiler" style="display: none;">
HIDDEN CONTENT HERE 
</div>
<button onclick="if(document.getElementById('spoiler') .style.display=='none') {document.getElementById('spoiler') .style.display=''}else{document.getElementById('spoiler') .style.display='none'}" title="Click to show/hide content" type="button">Show/hide</button>

Now, you should be able to copy and paste this into your own posts. As you might guess, you put the main body of your post where it says VISIBLE CONTENT HERE and the part you want to hide where it says HIDDEN CONTENT HERE. One important thing, however; when you insert this into your post, your 'new post' has to be in HTML mode.

Just click that button before you paste in the code. You'll probably have to type in the hidden part while in HTML mode. DO NOT switch back to Compose mode after inserting the code--it might mess something up (this is where the "I don't know what I'm doing" part comes in). If you put it back in Compose to publish it, the post will just have a bunch of weird-looking gibberish.

That's it! If you want to change what the button says, you replace "Show/hide" in the last line with whatever you want it to say.

Leave the > < things there, though.

Now the other spoiler. I think it looks better and I like the way the button changes what it says, but with all that good stuff comes a more complicated process. The code for this one has two parts:

<style type="text/css">
/* animated spoiler CSS by Bloggersentral.com */
.spoilerbutton {display:block;margin:5px 0;}
.spoiler {overflow:hidden;background: #f5f5f5;}
.spoiler > div {-webkit-transition: all 0.2s ease;-moz-transition: margin 0.2s ease;-o-transition: all 0.2s ease;transition: margin 0.2s ease;}
.spoilerbutton[value="Show"] + .spoiler > div {margin-top:-100%;}
.spoilerbutton[value="Hide"] + .spoiler {padding:5px;} 
</style> 

and

<input class="spoilerbutton" onclick="this.value=this.value=='Show'?'Hide':'Show';" type="button" value="Show" />
<div class="spoiler">
<div>
PUT CONTENT YOU WISH TO HIDE HERE
</div>
</div>

Again, the all caps part is where you put the hidden part of the spoiler. Once again, you can copy and paste this into your post when it's in HTML mode. This one is, as far as I can tell, more likely to get messed up if you switch back to Compose.

Ok, here comes the more complicated part. If you want to use this spoiler a lot, you can actually add the first part of the code (the longer part) to your blog's template. That way all you have to put in the post is the second, shorter part. Here's how you do it.

Go to Template:

Yup, that one. Then click on Edit HTML.

What should show up is a bunch of code like the stuff above that sets the specifics for your blog. I highly suggest not messing with it unless you know what you're doing. I'll tell you exactly what to do for this part.

Not too far down, there should be a part that says "</head>".

Now, the stuff before it will look different on yours because I already added the spoiler code to mine. But at least you have an idea of what it looks like. Then what you're going to do is copy and paste the long part (the first part) of the spoiler code and directly before the </head>.

See, this is what mine looks like, with the </head> at the end. (Sorry it's so small... the picture's too long to fit if it's bigger...) You don't have to worry about all the different colors and everything, just make sure it's the right code.

Like the first one, you can also change what the button for this spoiler says (both the 'show' and the 'hide'). It's a similar idea to the first, but since it is more complicated, there is a little more to change, and you have to make changes in both parts of the spoiler code.

The part in the blue box is where you change the words in the first part (in this case in the blog HTML). You just replace the 'show' with whatever you want and the 'hide' with whatever you want.

This is where you replace the words in the second part (shown in a new post in HTML mode). Again, just replace the individual words.

Well there you have it! How to make spoilers in Blogger. Click here to see the website I originally learned this from (it goes to the instructions for the first spoiler, but has a link to the second one). I hope you find it useful, and let me know if you have any questions. I'll do my best to answer! :)

Spoilers :D

I'm trying some new things here… On the OYAN forum we have a code that allows you to put things in 'spoilers' so they're hidden unless you click on them. It's really handy when you're trying to talk about, say, a book other people might not have read. I thought it would be cool if I could get it to work on my blog too. So this is what I found.

There's this one, which is pretty simple:

Tada! Cool, huh?

And there's also this one, which is a little more complicated (and the button switches between saying 'show' and 'hide'):

Oh, yeah! You can also change what the button says.

 Anyway, just thought I'd share this little experience with you. If you other bloggers are interested in the codes, I can get them to you :).

Some Characters I Like (and Some I Don't!)

Ok. I'm going to do the character thing from Chloe's post that I didn't do last week. Yay! But first, I have to tell you about these books because I'm so excited

*Happiness!* The author, Jill Williamson, spoke at Summer Workshop last summer and was absolutely fantastic and such a fun person. I read Captives after I found it at a Christian book store in Michigan, and then got Outcasts right after it came out last month and read it in two days. Amazing books. I wouldn't recommend them for younger readers (they do deal with some more mature topics) but they're so good. And I just found out the last one is supposed to come out this August! YES!

Anyway, now the real part of the post...

Characters (I seem to have a theme going on here...) I'm going to restrict myself to "fictional" characters just to make things simpler.

#1. The first character I fell in love with. 
I've never really had a crush on a fictional character, but I still love lots of characters! I just can't remember the first... Probably Bree from the Viking Quest series. That's the first series I remember designating as a favorite.

#2. The first character I never expected to love as much as I do now. 

Ooh. That one's hard... I don't know about the first, but I can name a few. Bilbo Baggins, from The Hobbit. Remus Lupin, from Harry Potter. Kai, from Story's End. Margaret, Mr. Thornton, and Mr. Higgins from North and South. Thor, from... the movies about him. Ohh, Eustace Scrubb, from Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The character change he goes through... wow. And how can I forget! Elrond. He's an amazing character.

#3. The character everyone else loves that I hate.

Hmm... I don't really hate any characters that tend to be lovable, but there are some that I got really annoyed with. Like Katniss, from The Hunger Games. And there are others that I don't understand why everyone loves them, like Sirius Black from Harry Potter. Iron Man/Tony Stark. He's funny sometimes, but I really don't like him most of the time. Ohh, yeah, and Galadriel from the LotR movies. She's just weird. I don't get it.

#4. The character everyone hates that I love.

I don't know if everyone hates her, but one of my favorite characters in North and South is Mrs. Thornton. I think it goes back to what I talked about with conflicted/complicated characters being so incredibly interesting. Oh, also, Colonel Brandon from Sense and Sensibility. I don't know why people don't like him.

#5. The character I used to love but I don't anymore. 

Maybe Violet Travilla, from the Life of Faith series? I haven't read those in a long time...

#6. The character I'd want to be like.

Remus Lupin. Jane Bennet, from Pride and Prejudice (not necessarily the circumstances, but her personality, kind of). Lucy Pevensie, from The Chronicles of Narnia. Sam Gamgee, from LotR. And I know one character I think I'm already like: Elinor Dashwood, from Sense and Sensibility. It's crazy.

#7. The character I'd slap. 

Harry Potter in Order of the Pheonix. Oh. My. Goodness. So annoying! Mason Elias towards the end of Outcasts. The obvious baddies like Wormtongue and Umbridge. But I feel much more inclined to slap characters I like who are acting stupid. 

#8. A pairing that I love. 

Just one?! Never :P. Omar and Shaylinn from The Safe Lands Trilogy. Faramir and Eowyn from LotR. Margaret Hale and John Thornton. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. 

#9. A pairing I don't like. 

I have to agree with Chloe, I'm not much in favor of Tauriel and Kili. Mostly because it doesn't make sense and it doesn't fit. Harry and Ginny in the Harry Potter movies. The books are fine, but the movies make it look really stupid. 

And that's it! I'd love to hear about some of your favorite/least favorite characters too!

Pictures I've Found for my Sci-fi Novel

I was going to do a post like Chloe's because it looked super fun, but I decided it wouldn't be nice to copy her exactly :). So, this will not be a post like Chloe's post. I also thought about doing another post where I show you a bunch of random inspiring stuff from Pinterest, because there's so much awesome stuff on there. But I've done that a lot. So, this will be something different. Kind of.

I already showed you the picture I found for my Hero, but I'll put it here again to remind you.

Yup, that's her! And, she finally has a name! Everyone, this is Cambriel Scott. I spent awhile this morning starting to get to know her, and I plan to spend some more later! I like her already :).

This is Cambriel's best friend, Ainsley Cartland.

Yes, she does have rainbow hair. Ainsley was actually the first character in this novel to have a name, but I still don't know her super well. I do know that she's going to be a very fun character, though!

This next picture is one I found for Cambriel's mom.

She doesn't have a name yet. If you've read my earlier posts (this is probably the main one) or talked with me about my novel at all, you probably know that Cam's mom is sick. She has a disease caused by the element they use for power (see this post). It's kind of complicated, but basically the disease causes backwards mental development (like slowly becoming mentally younger.) The situation makes things very difficult for both Cambriel and her mom.

This next one is kind of my idea for the mentor. (Chloe, I already know what you think :P)

He's another one with a name! Yay! This is Katrel Valerian. He's the youngest member of the council, which is the main governing group on the planet. You might notice that he's the only one of my characters so far who doesn't have blond hair (yes, I know Ainsley's is rainbow, but you didn't think that was natural, did you?) I'm thinking that's because he's half different race (I told you about how I made everything more complicated for myself in my last post. Remember I said I now have three/four planets and three/four races to develop now? Yeah, those don't have names.)

Ok, since I'm now on the topic of planets, I'll tell you a little more of what I have.

This is my inspiration for the smallest planet, which is also the one that the story happens on. It's a desert planet and not super easy to live on, but it's the only known source of the element I mentioned before. The native race is kind of based off Arabian nomads here on Earth. Kind of. But they have really long life-spans. Then there are settlers from this next planet:

This is kind of the 'capital city' planet of the system. They have advanced technology in transportation and communication. The people are also humanoid and have fair hair and blue eyes for the most part. (This is the race the hero's from). Also, the people have much shorter life-spans, which, along with the fact that they're just settling on the planet, causes some conflict with the people of the desert planet.

This is my idea for a planet I'm calling (for the moment) the medicine planet. Wanna guess what they specialize in? Medicine. The people are not humanoid, in fact, they're actually shape-shifters. Like, they can take on the form of another being. They're pretty reclusive and don't like to share all their research, but they do have really advanced medical technology and do help people, if somewhat reluctantly. I'm still figuring this one out, but one thing I do know is that this is where the villain comes from…

This last one is the one that I won't be developing as much because it's not as important to the story. It's the largest planet so it has the highest gravity. It specializes in weapons, so I kind of imagine it as a giant military base. That's about all I know about it.

Well, there you go! Now you know more what I'm thinking about for my novel. I had fun finding all these pictures, and I hope you enjoyed them too!

P.S. I guess I did end up showing you a bunch of stuff from Pinterest after all. At least it had a purpose, not just random stuff I found interesting :).

Updates, because it's high time I got back to this

It's been over a month since I posted! O_o It doesn't feel that long… Anyway, I'm back! Since it has been a month, I'll just start with a few updates and such.

Writing: Well, still working on it. I am getting somewhere (I'm just not exactly sure where…) When we started school a few weeks ago, I decided to get up 'early' every morning and get ready and then work on my novel stuff right away. It's worked pretty well, especially since I've had a lot of extra time since not everything has started back up yet. The main things I've been working on are character names (which I haven't gotten much farther in), outlining chapters (which I haven't gotten any farther in), and world-building (can you guess what I've been working on most?). World-building has been fun for the most part, but it's starting to get… harder? (Not sure if that's the right word. I'll try to explain.) Pretty early on in the world-building process, I changed up my overall world a little. Like, multiplied it. Originally, I was going to have just one planet, all by itself. Maybe it would trade with some neighboring planet(s) or something. Well, now I have four planets, all kind of connected and allied and stuff. It fits the ideas I've had for my plot and everything much better, but it means I now have four planets to develop instead of just one. Ok, three, one of them's not as important. But still. It doesn't sound like too big of a task until you get into the middle of it. Actually, the planets themselves have been fine and I have a pretty good idea of what each of them is like at least physically. It's the races that are causing me problems. Yup. I have three different races with three different appearances, cultures, mental attributes, languages, governments, histories, etc. And for one of them I have to develop two different groups. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of personal experience with alien races (if any of you do, we need to talk. For multiple reasons.) I've been reading and watching some more sci-fi, which has been helpful, but I'm still not getting super far in my own races. I'm not really sure what to do next.

Oh, that's right, I was going to tell you about other things in this post too. Moving on then…

College: I have decided! At this point, I'm planning on going to Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I'm definitely excited. God has really answered my prayers in this area in giving me direction and providing for me. I think he's been leading me to Cornerstone this whole time. :)

Other stuff that happened in the last month: Let's see… I got The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Version for Christmas (awesomeness!) as well as The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug soundtrack (double awesomeness!!). I saw DoS a second time. Our other computer's hard drive crashed and we lost like all our pictures from the last 2 years at least (but not my senior pictures!). Thankfully I had printed copies/other digital copies of all my writing stuff. At least, all that I could remember… It's very possible that I lost something and have no idea :P. Also, Deborah, a graduate student at K-State, moved in with us for the semester. We're all excited :). She's really sweet and awesome and fun, and I get a kind-of big sister for a few months! And she has the same birthday as me, which is crazy and fun and just kinda happy. I don't know. I think it's cool anyway :).

Well, I think that's about it. I'll be back soon consistently, and I have a few other post ideas that I've been thinking about recently, so you'll definitely get those in the near future!