Manuscript Music.. and Princesses

       This post is brought to you by Princess Maker.
       No, seriously. It is.


       Thanks to Steph Perkins and her blogpost, hours of my life have gone to this website. When I was younger I used to enjoy making little dolls, designing their outfits and what they looked like. That's what this website basically is.. only better. You get to make princesses!
       Needlesstosay, I had to make each of my (female) characters princesses. From left to right/top to bottom: Iona, Addy, Rosie and Nata. Technically Rosie and Nata, although important characters in the trilogy, don't show up physically until book two (but they are spoken about!). Aren't they all so pretty?! I especially love that Addy is so pink and that Rosie looks like a badass-version of Giselle from Enchanted. I even went one further and made the characters of my other WIP into princesses as well. I'm not going to post those princesses because I have yet to write a damn word of it (other than just plotting points/an outline) so it feels a bit premature to put anything out there about Terasunda.*
       I'm glad I did this. In doing such, I actually learned something about my characters for both series. No two are alike. When I was making up each of the nine girls, choosing their features and putting them in what they would wear for clothing, I didn't realize that they were all so different from one another. When I was done I found every one of them with a different color dress on and a different hairstyle (except for two, because there are only so many ways one can wear a bob haircut. Sorry, Addy and Mairin!). Not only that, but their nationalities and their personalities/style vary greatly. I did all this without realizing it, but I'm so, so happy it turned out as it did. I like diversity. I like that there is a character in each series someone can hopefully relate to in that way. They're all different. This revelation made me extremely happy.
       I appreciated the task of designing them all. It was very distracting, and a distraction at this time is very much needed. A grieving house is not a happy house. It was nice to have something to do that didn't require much concentration to take my mind off other things. This brings me to my next point.
       I have gotten zero writing done since I posted last, due to everything going on -- If you have no idea what I'm talking about, click here -- As I'm sure you can imagine, everything I would try to write right now would be absolute crap, and I don't want that. I think it would just frustrate me even more. I really need to start editing the piece I'm supposed to bring in and read to my class on Sunday, but I just can't do that right now. I also need to get working on some critiques, but I can't seem to focus on those either. I always want to give the text my critters send me my utmost attention, so I'm thinking that those are, unfortunately, going to have to sit on the back-burner for now too. Hopefully when this week is through I'll be able to get my head back into things.

       On a less depressing note, this weeks YA Highway Road Trip Wednesday question is: If your WIP (work-in-progress) or favorite book were music, what song(s) would it be?
      I was actually just discussing this, albeit briefly, in the comments section a blogpost by one of my crit partners, Marisa. Every single time I try to write an Iona/Nathair scene, I have to listen to Drumming Song by Florence + the Machine. It just helps in such a strange way that I never expected. It really gets me into the scene, makes me feel more of what their feeling as I'm writing. I hope that shows! The entire album, Lungs, is absolutely amazing, I love every single song, and I thought I was on my way to a world record with the amount of song plays I had goin' on until I read on Marisa's post. She has listened to Rabbit Heart over four-hundred times since she started writing. I'm definitely not that far, but we'll see how many plays I have once I'm actually done! Another song off that album that has inspired me completely is Blinding. I think it inspired my entire idea for Terasunda, actually. I try to not listen to it so often because it just makes me want to ditch my current WIP to go write that, but I can't! I love The Eternal Gifts too much to just leave it in the cold. :)

Florence Welch

       The thing with music and me is, I love it, and it inspires me to no end, but I can't actually listen to it while writing. I know a lot of writers that need to have it on in the background as they go along, but I have never been able to do that. I know a lot of writers that need commotion to some degree going on around them (hence writing in coffee shops being so popular) but I have never been able to do that either. I need complete silence when I write. Like, pin-drop quiet. If anything is going on around me I can't concentrate and I get extremely frustrated. That's why I usually get my most writing in when I'm home alone. Since I don't have an office/a desk somewhere away from the noisy first floor, I usually can't write if anyone is home. The TV going and people talking just aggravates me! I wish I could write with noise the way Baby Bro does. Baby Bro needs lots of noise while he's doing homework and such or else he can't concentrate. It's so strange how we all have our different little quirks.


       Okay, well I suppose that is all for now. Go make princesses and listen to Florence + the Machine! Hopefully I will have a better writing report for you all next week..


Happy writing,



I am working on my footnote problem because of a comment Baby Bro** made about another post of mine.. I'm trying my best to have less of them! Of course, less footnotes means more sentences in parentheses, but whatever. I think he will be proud of me this time since there are only two! And one of them is totally his fault. :D


* I'm not 100% positive about the name of that other WIP, but just go with me on this one.
** When I say Baby Bro, I don't actually mean Baby Bro. Baby Bro is sixteen. :)