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January 31, 2017 at 8:07 pm #25230
Well, I would like to get better connected in a Christian writing community, so here I am, even though I am a little bit worried about how this will fit into my time management. Anyways, let the social experiment begin.
My name is Gabrielle, and I am currently at a small Christian college, though I was homeschooled before. I am a tomboy, hunter, backpacker, and was a competitive swimmer for many years. My MBTI personality type of INTJ, and my passion is for writing. I particularly love fantasy and faerie tales, and I am very passionate about searching for truth through my writing. Truth has always been a major drive for my writing, though now I am trying to refocus on love as well. My favorite authors are J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and possibly George MacDonald and Flannery O’Connor (I need to read more of their works.) My favorite book is “Till We Have Faces” by C.S. Lewis, but I also love Les Miserable, Frankenstein, the Silmarillion, and many others. My favorite poem is “Mythopoeia” by Tolkien, and if you have not read it, as a writer, you need to. Trust me. It is worth it:
“I bow not yet before the Iron Crown,
nor cast my own small golden sceptre down.”I started writing when I was nine years old (I actually hated writing before then), and I have primarily been focused on a single world and story since, though it has changed very much. Right now, I am in the process of finding and receiving beta reader feedback on a 80,000 word Young Adult, High fantasy novel. The tentative title is “Out of the Curse,” and it is about a teenage soldier raised to fight for a rebel leader who believes freedom is the greatest good, but when a sacrifice changes her life, she discovers something worth even more. It has dryad, selkies, and several other of my favorite fantasy creatures along with a couple of my own creation. I hope to start querying agents by the end of the summer for this novel.
I also have a small writing blog of my own (Write for the King) whose title is shockingly and completely coincidentally close to this website’s subtitle. I also hope to maybe contribute a few article here.
So “hi”!
God bless,
GabrielleJanuary 31, 2017 at 8:21 pm #25233Hi, @gabriellemassman! I’d like to officially welcome you to the bestistest place on the internet. Hmm, tough thing balancing this with time management, but at least whatever time you do have for here will be well spent.
Hey, tell me more about your story. It sounds neat. I’m hoping to write some fantasy soon, so I want to hear about your approach.
Ok, now I need to go read that poem.
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January 31, 2017 at 8:29 pm #25237@GabrielleMassman Good ta meet ya!
*gasp* I LOVE that poem!! Wow. It’s one of my favorites.
And Les Miserables is one of my absolute favorite books too, so yay. 🙂Hope you have a great time here.
January 31, 2017 at 8:30 pm #25238Hello, Gabrielle! Let me be second to welcome you. 😉
I’m actually a fellow Tolkienite and I had never read that poem… I just went and looked it up and now I’m choking. THAT. IS. AMAZING. I have a new favorite. Thanks so much for recommending it!And your book sounds lovely. Welcome to KP. 🙂
January 31, 2017 at 8:31 pm #25239Ooops, or third, apparently. XD
January 31, 2017 at 8:49 pm #25244@gabriellemassman hello! You made it! 😀 (It’s the person with the pink blossoms picture from YWW FB group 😛 )
Yes, welcome to the bestietest place on the internet! (did I get that right @daeus?). So excited you’re here to join in the discussions and hang around! 🙂
January 31, 2017 at 8:56 pm #25246@audrey-caylin Close. It’s bestistest.
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January 31, 2017 at 8:58 pm #25247@daeus oops 😛 This is my first time welcoming someone.
January 31, 2017 at 9:36 pm #25250@Audrey-Caylin We’ve all made that mistake at least once before. 😉
@Gabriellemassman Mae Govannen, fellow INTJ! It does my heart good to see another of my rare personality type. I hope KP will be as much of a blessing to you as it has been to me! I’m going to go read that poem now so I can redeem my name of Tokien Geek…INTJ ➸Your friendly neighborhood mastermind. ➸https://thesarcasticelf.wordpress.com/
January 31, 2017 at 10:58 pm #25253Welcome @Gabriellemassman! 😀 Glad to have you here!
January 31, 2017 at 11:29 pm #25254@Daeus Thank you for welcoming me. Out of curiosity, what is the story behind the “bestistest” comments?
One of my favorite elements of fantasy is the sense of wonder and newness that it brings. To steal the idea from Tolkien and Chesterton, fantasy is all about taking something we think we know (possess an idea through our sense of understanding and familiarity) and making it strange, new, and completely outside of ourselves. My story first started that way. I was camping when I was about nine years old, and I remember watching the camp fire, staring at the trees in the breeze, and looking out over the lake, and I could imagine people, very different from me, in the fire and the tree and the lake. Then later, I began to rewrite the story for God. I wanted to explore how we, as Christians, should view freedom in relation to our purpose in Christ. So I took one of my “bad guy’s” foot soldiers, made her my main character, and saw what happened from there.
I hope your fantasy goes well. The best advice I can offer is pretty simple and very common; write what you love. Take what you love, make the physical resemble the spiritual, and strip away the familiarity, and you have a fantasy story 🙂
January 31, 2017 at 11:33 pm #25255@Emma-Flournoy I am so glad you like that poem, too! I have not been able to get it out of my head, and it has been almost a year since I read it. It really has a wondrous message.
Ooh! What is your favorite Les Mis character? Not many people have read the book (and frankly I understand), but I absolutely love how the book develops the friends of the ABC. Enjolras has to be one of my favorite characters ever, but Jean Valjean and Combeferre are great characters as well. I would like to listen to it on audiobook sometime, but I think I will have to skip several annoying and unimportant chapters if I do so.
January 31, 2017 at 11:35 pm #25256@Kate-Flournoy Isn’t that poem amazing? Ever time I read it, I am overwhelmed with a strange sense of humbleness, duty, honor, and glory. It makes me fall in love with writing fantasy all over again.
So who is your favorite Tolkien character? I just finished listening to the Silmarillion on audiobook, and I had forgotten how wonderful his stories really are.
January 31, 2017 at 11:37 pm #25257@Audrey-Caylin Thanks for welcoming me. Hopefully, I can figure this online community out 🙂 I have been astounded by the responses so far– I didn’t think so many people would notice me, and you all seem great. Thanks for suggesting that I join. Do you have any suggestions about what to do now?
January 31, 2017 at 11:40 pm #25259@Ethryndal Hello! Yes, INTJs are rather rare, though I have meet several online. I am not surprised to find another as a fellow Tolkien nerd. I hope you enjoy the poem. It really is beautiful. What does your username mean? I assume it is elvish. Sometimes I go by “Agarisil” (blood moon– think Agarwaen and Isil) when I am feeling particularly Fae.
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