Beautiful Books - Writing Edition

I'm linking up to the Beautiful Books hosted by Cait and Skye (see image).

The book is Water Princess, Fire Prince, the story of two teens, Clara and Andrew who fall into another world and (surprise, surprise) become the Water Princess and Fire Prince and that they'll have to fight Amber, the Lady Dragon.

I am going rebel this year, so I had 30,000 (exactly) already when NaNo started, and it's also a rewrite of a book that took me five years to write and I finally finished this summer.

1. Be honest: how is your writing going?

Not bad. If you'll on my sidebar, you'll see a meter that says I'm at 41,000 words. So that means that I'm at 11,000 total that I've written for NaNo - and I haven't even started accumulating for today!

(And just for the record, I am trying to stay ahead this NaNo, since I believe that the last day I'll have a chance to Validate will be the 27th, so I'll need to have 50,000 by then.)

I have hit a slower part of the story, but I'll get into this in a later question.

2. What’s your first sentence/paragraph?

I'm going to share the first conversation from both part one and part two, since they introduce the two main characters:

Part 1 (Which was written back in July):

“It is a fact universally acknowledged that a short girl, in the procession of something above her head must be in want of some young man to get it down for her,” Clara stated, as she and her two best friends headed to the pool. “And no matter how far from the case it may be, if it just so happens that her mom has told her to get something that just so happens to be on a shelf above her head, and some guy just so happens to be walking by and sees her, he's going to offer his help."

“Is that so?” Rhoda asked. "You know, you could just let them help you. It would save you a lot of time."

Clara rolled her eyes. "I had it handled. I didn't even need to be on tiptoe to get it. He only offered to help me so that he could be a dashing hero."

"Maybe he was just trying to be nice?" Rhoda suggested.

"You're a pretty girl," Kath added. ''And we know that you're against the thought of boys liking you and all that, but they don't know, so…"

Clara tossed Kath a glare. “I’m not against boys liking me, it’s just that …”

“Was he a redhead?” Kath continued, seemingly oblivious. “Because I do know that you are especially against them if they’re not.”

“Redheads have nothing to do with it,” Clara insisted, with a roll of her eyes. “I’m only fifteen, and I’m not ready to be thinking about things like that, and he was being an unnecessary dashing hero. That’s what I don’t like.”

“That and the fact that he probably wasn’t a redhead.”

Rhoda rolled her eyes, “What is its with you and redheads when it comes to Clara?”

And Part 2 (written this month):

“Yes Kyle, you may take Josh and Parker for a hike before we leave,” said Andrew, without looking up from the map he was examining. “Just don’t push them off of any cliffs. We don’t have time to call 911 right now.”

“That wasn’t what I was going to ask, Andrew,” said Kyle, with a groan. “I –”

“Well, it happens to be what I just gave you permission to do, unless you want to stay and help me pack up the tent. On second thought …”

“I’ll take them hiking,” Kyle quickly amended, before Andrew could finish the thought.

“Good. Make sure they’re both wearing proper climbing gear.”

“We’re not babies anymore, Andrew!” protested Josh, who was apparently in earshot. “We know how to prepare for a hike.”

“Good, then do so.”

3. Do you have a book cover, and/or pictures that reflect your book?

I have a mock cover (Three versions of it, actually) but I don't have a picture of it on my computer, besides which I'm considering taking my idea a different direction. Something along the lines of this picture I found on Pinterest:

Via Pinterest

4. Do you have pictures of each of your characters? If not, describe them for us! (Be as descriptive as you can.)

Via Pinterst
Clara, the Water Princess

Via Pinterest.
Andrew, the Fire Prince. 

Via Pinterest
Laura, the Doorkeeper.

Via Pinterest
Lor'Son Jakob

Via Pinterest
Queen Amber, The Lady Dragon

Via Pinterest
Jasmine, Clara's maid

Via Pinterest
Jill Anna, a seamstress

5. What scene are you most excited to write?

The scene where Clara and Andrew finally meet, which happens in part 3. Because they have some of the best conversations, and I can't write those conversations until they've met.

Sigh. So I want to get to that point as soon as possible, but I probably have somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 words before I get there.

6. Share a snippet or a scene that you really enjoyed writing.

Surveys 41,000 words' worth of delicious scenes. Maybe I should narrow this down to the 11,000 I wrote this month? Let's go with the scene where Andrew arrives in Klarand, I enjoyed that.

   Just when he was about to lose all hope, he felt a hand grab his arm, and he was pulled out of the fire. His skin collided with icy cold, and his eyes flew open.

   The fire was gone. He knelt in a strange pink substance that felt like snow, though there was still heat coming from behind him.

   “Are you all right, Fire Prince?”

   Andrew looked up from the strange snow to find a bearded man standing over him – his rescuer? The man was dressed in a strange green outfit, with a knife in his belt and a bow strapped to his back.

   Closing his eyes and shaking his head in an attempt to clear it, Andrew pushed himself to his feet before his legs and hands could freeze. Had he somehow ended up at a renascence festival? ‘Cause that was certainly what the man looked like he was dressed for.

   “Where am I?” he asked.

   “Three feet from the Firefall in Lower Klarand,” the man replied.

   “Right.” Andrew didn’t recognize those names at all. “So … do you mind if I could use your cell phone. I should probably call my dad and let him know I’m all right and where I am. He must have seen that fire from where he was.”

   “My … cell phone, Fire Prince?”

   “You know, the phone you use when you’re not at home,” Andrew explained, feeling very annoyed. “I know you’re in character and all that, but I need to let my dad know I’m okay. I need to get back to them!”

   But the look on the man’s face was as innocent and confused as though he had never heard of a cell phone before in his life.

   “What is a phone?”

   “A telephone. You use it to talk to people from far away,” Andrew explained. Frustrated, he turned away from the man and tried to take in his surroundings. It was apparently winter here … and it had been summer just a few minutes ago. Not only was there pink snow on the ground, but most of the trees were bare. Those that weren’t were … purple? And that one was blue.

    He shook his head again, trying to convince himself that he was seeing things. He opened his eyes again, and they fell on the source of the heat – a rushing river made of fire.

    Heart hammering against his chest, he knelt down to get a closer look. It certainly wasn’t water – it was smoke, not steam that rose off of it. And it wasn’t lava either. Andrew had seen lava – and many forms of it. His dad was a scientist who studied many things, and took their family pretty much everywhere. There wasn’t much in the natural world that Andrew hadn’t seen.

    But red snow, blue trees, and fire that flowed like water were new to him.

    “Are you all right, Fire Prince?”

    Andrew pushed himself to his feet and spun back around to face the man. “My name’s Andrew.”

    The expression on the man’s face didn’t change. “Yes.”

    “Andrew Stevenson,” he added.

    “Yes. You are the Fire Prince.”

    “But …”

    “Fire Prince, if you are trying to tell me your true name, I don’t think it’ll work,” the man informed him. “The prophecy states that we shall only ever know you by your title.”

   The words swirled around in Andrew’s head and frustrated him all the more. His eyes traveled back to the river of fire, traveled to its source. He and the man stood at the foot of a cliff made of black rock, and the fire spewed from a hole in it about three hundred feet up.

   “The Firefall, you said this was?” Andrew asked.

    “Yes, Fire Prince.”

    “Stop calling me that!” Today was crazy enough without adding a man from his history books insisting on calling him this strange name. He needed to find a way home!

    “It is who you are, you cannot deny it,” said the man, calmly. “The fact that you tried to tell me your real name and I still heard only your title confirms it.”

    “I don’t care – stop calling me it!” He gestured wildly towards the fire river. “This isn’t scientifically possible.”

    “Perhaps not in your world, but you’re in Rizkaland now.”

    “I thought you said something about Lower Klarand.”

    “Klarand is one of the islands,” the man explained. “And you’re in the lower part of it. If it makes you feel any better, this is the only place in all of Klarand where fire flows like this.”

7. Now that you're writing, have any of the plot details, or the process itself, turned out different from what you planned or imagined?

I usually keep a loose hand on my plot idea, willing to let it weave and dip wherever it goes, even when rewriting, which is what I'm doing. So yes the crystallized words across the page form differently than the cloudy thoughts within my head, but I've come to expect that as I write, and I cannot give any specific example.

8. Is there a character or aspect of your plot that's difficult to write?

(Please refer to question 1 where I mentioned that I hit a slow spot, I will now explain.)

Part 2 has no girls in it. Nil. Nada. Well, Laura has shown up once, for a few paragraphs so that she could send Andrew into Rizkaland, but for the most part, the cast is decidedly male.

And I'm not a guy. Nor do I really know very many guys. So it's been harder to push through Andrew's scenes. However, I've still been able to manage at least a thousand words a day, so I've been surviving, but it's been difficult. I've actually been focusing on worldbuilding though, since my men are out in nature, and Andrew, being the son of a scientist, is one to ask questions.

9. What’s your favorite aspect of this novel so far? Favorite character?

My favorite part is the world of Rizkaland. I love worldbuilding, and Rizkaland is my favorite world of all I've built. But even as much as I know about the world, I'm still being surprised at every turn!

As for favorite character? Let's see ...
Clara/Andrew/Jasmine/Jill Anna/Karlos/Leaf Princess/Laura/Jakob/I can't decide!

10. Have you drawn off of any life experiences or people you know to create your novel and your characters?

Contrary to popular belief, I've never actually fallen into another world and be asked to get rid of some sort of scary evil oppressor, so in truth, the book doesn't really resemble my own life. Unlike the characters, I've never touched a real sword in my life, and I've only ever messed with a kid's bow.

Except for the fact that I gave Amber my own physical description and one of my weaknesses, so ... yeah. That's me for you.

11. Do you have a playlist or certain song for your novel and/or characters?

Usually I'll plead innocent on music-related questions, but I actually have one for Clara and Andrew: King and Lionheart.

It just really describes their relationship once they decide to work together in part 5. He's very much a King, while she's the one with the heart of a lion. They're beautiful together.

12. Let’s have some fun for a moment: imagine you are somehow transported into your book’s world. Which character are you most likely to be found hanging out with?

I'd probably hang out with Jasmine or Karlos, since I get along with kids really well and I love these two.

13. How do you keep yourself motivated to finish your daily wordcount? (Pinterest? Internet breaks? Chocolate?)

At the moment, my chief motivation is my calculator. Yeah, I'm interesting like that.

14. What inspiring quote keeps you writing?

I don't know if there's any one particular quote, but here's one that describes me right now:

Via Pinterest

Except that I'm typing this book. It's the sequel that's being written by hand at the moment.

15. How does this book make you feel so far? Are you laughing? Crying? Frustrated?

I'm excited. Honestly, the energy buzz that I'm getting off of this book is almost frightening.