The Warden and the Wolf King

Found this cover picture… I AM SO EXCITED!!! I cannot wait for this book! Shouldn't be too long now :D!

Trusting, Waiting, and Hoping

Those three things were the focus of my quiet time this morning. They really stood out to me and I want to talk bout them, but also about some other things, so bear with me as I gradually get to the point :).

~~~

A couple weeks ago, I posted my third (?) post of Pinterest inspiration. I like doing that kind of thing, because pictures are way more interesting to look at and because Pinterest is a great source for story inspiration. But I'm not doing that again today, because I don't really have anything new. Or I don't know what more to show you.

Part of that is because I haven't been on Pinterest for about a week. My friends and I were talking a little bit last Wednesday about what we were giving up for Lent. I hadn't decided on anything yet (plus, it was only the first day of Lent and I actually kind of forgot about it...) but I knew that Pinterest was taking up more of my time than it should have. I didn't want to give it up, because it's a good thing and it's useful and... of course, there's not really a good excuse. I knew God was leading me to give it up for the weeks until Easter. So I did (with the disclaimer that using it for specific story research/inspiration or for showing someone something was permissible. Just no mindless browsing.) And so I have some extra time that needs to be put to use.

It wasn't an easy decision to give up Pinterest, but it hasn't been too hard since I made it. I still have to resist the urge to get on when I have a few spare minutes, but I'm determined to stick with it. I want to direct my thoughts back toward God and spend the extra time talking to him, learning from him, and doing what he wants me to do (stuff like writing or spending time with my siblings.) That's really the purpose of fasting during Lent, to bring my mind back to God.

Fasting and Lent aren't just about depravation. Lent is a time of waiting. Going without, but looking forward to the joy of Easter. I've been thinking a lot about waiting recently. And about looking forward to joy. I think they both can relate to many things, but especially to the plans God has for my future. I'm waiting for and looking forward to graduation (which is 2 months away! O_O), summer, college, and whatever else God brings as I follow his path. Of course there are still unknowns, because God's plan is so much bigger than mine. Unknowns are hard, but that's why I need to trust God!

Some of you read the testimony I wrote for English class a few weeks ago (if you didn't and you want to, let me know.) It was all about trusting God and how he has taught me to trust him through the various experiences he's given me the past few years. There are new experiences now, and many more coming up, that I'll need to continue to trust him through. Part of that trust is waiting (see a theme?)

I read this in my quiet time this morning. It's from Jesus Calling for Kids, by Sarah Young. (It's written as if Jesus is speaking to you.)

"Your faith begins with trust. Each day, choose to trust Me and My way more than you trust yourself. Trust Me to be there for you, to care for you, and to keep My promises.

"Then, wait on Me. I will answer your prayers, but it will be in My own perfect time. If you say, 'I trust you,' but you keep trying to make things happen right away, then you are not really trusting Me. Real trust means waiting for My answer.

"But wait with hope. Don't just wish for My answer; expect it! Expect to live a life full of meaning and purpose. Expect your heavenly reward."

I love the connection made between trusting and waiting. It makes so much sense! Part of waiting is being content with where God has placed me and what he's doing through me right now. Not just looking for whatever comes next, but making the most of the moment. Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." Delighting in God means finding my joy in him. Not looking to other things for satisfaction, but being content with him and his timing. When I do that, the desires of my heart will begin to line up with his will, and he will bless me.

Another of my favorite verses related to waiting is Exodus 14:14-- "the LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." I don't have to worry about making things work out, because that's God's job. My job is to trust in him, wait on him, and hope in him.

My Character Names

I've been thinking a lot about character names recently (can you guess why?) so I thought I would find a way to incorporate that into a blog post. When I came up with this idea to list all the characters I've ever named, I was thinking just within my novels. But then I realized I've named characters in other stories too. So for the sake of sticking with the original I idea, here are all the characters I've ever named.

(Clarification: These are the ones that I remember. I wrote a few stories before I really started writing seriously, but no, I don't remember what I named characters when I was five. They were probably all named after myself, my sister(s), or any other name I liked at the time.)

Oh, wait, another thing before we begin--I'm just going to list these by story so it's slightly organized and so I have a systematic way to remember all of these. Also, I'll try to go in chronological order of when the stories were written.

A Bee's New Job
(I wrote this "book" when I was probably around nine or ten. It's an alternate perspective of The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco. It is "finished" and illustrated.)
-Susan
-Lilli
-Daisy
-Queen Chrysanthemum
-Geranium

Some where in here there was a... something (ok, I guess you could call it a story)... that I started and named people, but it didn't go anywhere and I've started using the names for other things, so I'm not going to include it. So I guess it's not all the characters I've ever named as much as all the ones that went somewhere. There were two of those stories in here, actually.

The Feast and the Falcon
(This was the first of my short stories/picture books we wrote and illustrated for Writing Class. I was probably around twelve.)
-Rana
-Kitcha
-Kadar
-Sarsoureh
-Yasmin
-Omar
-Rakin
-Mustafa
-Amir

Saved By Rubber Bands
(This is my second of the Writing Class picture books. Maybe age thirteen?)
-Jacob Westwall
-Jeremy Westwall
-Ethan
-Anna

Blue and Butternut
(This was a short story for Writing Class that I forgot about until I started doing this. I don't remember how old I was, but we can guess around fourteen.)
-Jack
-Blue

Andreana's Courage
(Here's another one I forgot about. It's a short story I wrote for a contest.)
-Andreana
-Zaith
-Miedor
-Cyrus of Marwood

Untitled, Unfinished retelling of Beauty and the Beast
(Another I forgot about. It didn't get very far, but I'm listing all the characters I've named, so...)
-Elaina
-Gwendolyn
-Everett

Carrie Ann and Rachel Tess
(These were both part of a "series" I started planning but never got very far with. I named a lot of characters, though... Technically I should list them in age order, but... eh.)
-Carrie Ann
-Bennan
-Lynna Kate
-Emma Lee
-Connor
-Miranda
-Rachel Tess
-Elliot
-Leon
-Aidan
-Brenna Grace
-Kayla Beth

My First Novel (which doesn't have a title)
(Yay, the stuff I remember! I would have been fifteen/sixteen when I started working on this one. Some of the names have undergone revision, so I'll list the final (so far) names.)
-Aubrinn
-Captain Zavier (affectionately referred to as "CZ" in much of my brainstorming)
-Drey (who spent the majority of his first months of existence as "U.G."--short for Unnamed Guy)
-Beth
-Dacia
-Corianne
-Francesca
-Elinore (I just decided this one recently. The poor thing has gone through a lot of changes...)
-the Earl Remington
-Edrick Remington
-Edaline Remington
-Britta
-Elliot (who I believe I cut out...)
-Jaina
-Aaron
-Emory
-Eireen

Measure the Horizon (working title for my second novel)
(I didn't get as far with this one, but I do have some names!)
-Bryllen Tate
-Edmin Tate
-Ferris
-Kendric Banner (last name subject to change)

(No, spellcheck, these names are not spelled wrong. They are perfectly fine, so you can just remove your little accusatory red underline, thank you very much. *scowl* #creativenameproblems)

Scarlett and the Woodcutter
(This one was a short story for English Class last year. It has a few names, so yes, it counts. Actually, interesting tidbit, I pulled the idea for what characters to have from Little Red Riding Hood.)
-Scarlett
-Nicholas Turner
-Sterling (a dog)
-Earl (a horse)

The novel I'm working on now (guess what--no title!)
(I definitely remember these! Then again, there aren't that many to remember...)
-Cambriel Scott
-Ainsley Cartland
-Katrel Valerian
Oh, guess what, that's it! Only three... Well, I've been working on more, so I think there should be a few to add to this list in the near future! (I'm really hoping...) If you want to help me out, could you tell me how you would pronounce the name "Melia"? Thanks!

I hope you enjoyed reading through all these names! I had fun listing all of them, and it helped me remember that I have been successful in naming people in the past!

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 :).