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Hey fellow KeePers!
It feels like it’s been a really long time since I’ve actually hopped on here and had a meaningful conversation with a lot of y’all. School events keep me really, really busy, and when I’m not dealing with that, I’m writing. XD Anyways, I really miss participating in discussions on here. So I decided to start a topic in which we just all rant about our WIPs. Because what’s more fun than that??
Share anything you’d like – where you are in the writing process, who’s your favorite character, what destructive powers your villain has, that sad scene you just finished writing, the next step you’re taking to ruining your MC’s life, your book blurb, that epic plot twist you’re eager to pull off, your official book playlist, how you got the idea for the story, your Pinterest board… A N Y T H I N G.
I want to hear all the tea!! So spill it.
I can rant about my WIP for eternity, but I’ll refrain from spilling EVERYTHING right away until some others join in. However, I will kick things off by telling y’all a bit about it.
My WIP is called Where Faith Remains, and it’s a historical fiction novel set in the 1970s US after the Vietnam War. My main characters are Russell, a Vietnam veteran, and his adopted daughter, Eliza. The story is told through the POV of Eliza, a little girl keenly aware of the fact that she and her father are different from everyone else – both because her father is missing his legs, and because she is black while he is white. Eliza is an unusually wise, compassionate little girl, but she also fears and deplores anyone who is not her father because she’s only had bad experiences with everyone else. Much of her internal conflict is driven especially by a harrowing memory of her grandmother (Russell’s mother), who hates her son because he adopted an African-American.
I love WFR for so many reasons, but to name a few: It has all the themes I love writing – self-sacrifice, faith in the midst of trial, unconditional love, forgiveness and redemption, racial equality, and adoption. And I love the characters. Russell and Eliza are my favorite characters I’ve ever written, and they’re my favorite fictional father-daughter duo EVER. They deserve a place right up there with Atticus and Scout Finch, Jean Valjean and Cosette, and Hans Hubermann and Liesel Meminger. I love them so much.
Also, WFR is actually expected to release early 2023, which I’m super excited about!
Anyways, so that’s a bit about my WIP! Go ahead and share about yours. Can’t wait to hear what y’all are working on!
@devastate-lasting @gracie-j @scripter-of-kingdoms @godlyfantasy12 @abigail-m @keilah-h @elishavet-pidyon @jodi-maile @annabelle @daisy-torres @koshka @trahia-the-minstrel @libby @lydia-s @e-k-seaver @issawriter7 @mkfairygirl @seekerofthetruth @kathleenramm @jenwriter17 @nanisnook @elfwing @seekjustice @sparrowhawke @maryg3 @relia @writerlexi1216 @nova21 @hallie-jean @faith-q @ariel-f @anyone-else@joy-caroline
Wow, your WIP sounds so good! How far are you in writing it?
So my current WIP is a series about mermaids called Daughters of the Sea. I know, I know, I’m way too old to be thinking about mermaids anymore, but you have to admit, they’re pretty cool creatures.
Anyway, the main character is a girl named Maria. She starts out as an orphan, living in an orphanage with no idea who her parents are. When she’s invited to a school beach party the day after her sixteenth birthday, she decides to go swimming. But when she does… she turns into a mermaid.
The series was originally intended to be mostly fantasy, but it quickly turned into a YA drama book, with some fantasy mixed in. Maria has to deal with her “best friend” Isaac, who wants to be more than a friend but she doesn’t know it, and her new acquaintance, Alex, for who she has real feelings. Then there’s a twist at the end, but I probably shouldn’t spoil it. (It’s really hard trying to resist the temptation, though!)
So I label this series as Young Adult, but I’m going back and forth between that and Middle Grade. Most of the main characters are all teens, but I’m also not sure that older kids would be interested in a book about mermaids. So far my only friends who have been truly interested in it are eight-to-ten-year-olds. But then there’s some slight adult content at the end, and the whole boyfriend thing is kind of not what you’d call “middle grade”, so I’m still trying to sort that out.
Right now I’m working on the third draft of the first book, Identity. The second book is called The Keeper of the Phantom Reef and the third is called The Girl of Yesterday. I haven’t determined the rest of the titles yet, especially since I don’t know when the series will end. I’ll just write it until I get tired of it, then move on!
My favorite character in the series is probably Alex. He’s a mermaid-human hybrid just like Maria, and he’s kind of the bold warrior of the book. I love how he’s so opinionated and independent, but also kind and caring.
Okay, so I think this rant has gone on long enough. You will probably be super bored out by the time you get to this point, so I don’t blame you if you’ve stopped reading already. (Although, you wouldn’t be reading this if you’d stopped reading 🤔)
Also, I know this is kind of off-topic but is anyone here participating in Young Writer’s Workshop this year? I am going to for the first time since now I have an official job writing blog posts for my dad’s business. I’m super excited! 😀
In the words of Jinto Queb, "Hurry, reading is fun!"
@joy-caroline Your wip sounds amazing! All the best with it! 😀 i love those kinds of stories, those types of characters. i have a soft spot for them,
Wow, I haven’t been on KP since October! so much happened since then lol. I finished the last draft of my novel on New Years Eve, 30 minutes before midnight, thus fulfilling my one goal of the year lol.
Beta readers are going through it, I found an editor for once its eveeeentually ready for final edits, and someone to do the cover and im looking up stuff for publishing on Amazon.
My WIP is kinda hard to rant on without a full book of its own of writing becaaaaaause its sort of all 11 books; im going through all of them to make them consistent, so it’s been a while since i actually continued. I’m making a timeline for the series as well as a world timeline from the beginning of counted time in their lands and other things, architecture for all, and how they percieve historical events in all 15 cultures and attempting languages for half of them and miserably failing T_T
I killed off a few of everyone’s favorite characters along the way, threw a kraken into the mix in my book just to have some fun, added back stories and secrets to give more opportunities for foreshadows and meaningful deaths, MWAHAHAHA- er…
*cough * all that evil writer relishing aside, im happy with how its going, especially the series as a whole, the characters are much more real to me with every time i reread and rewrite them, love, hate, darkness, light, betrayal, forgiveness, loyalty, faults, failures, successes, heartbreak. it’s theyre like real, breathing people to me.
I’m working on a map for my world *EEEEEEEEEEK * and i just finished the compass for it, and the scale.
I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title
@annabelle wow i think that sounds interesting! if you do it right it could definitely be YA,
sorry that probably isnt helpful XDD
No but it honestly does sound cool, i’ve never been a huge mermaid story lover, but I’m looking more into celtic mythology with sirens and mermaids and selkies and it’s rather intriguing and now I’ve put some of those kinds of creatures into my own novels…
sorry, sidetrack. Seriously though, that human-merfolk hybrid plotline sounds interesting, and i know of older teens who love mermaids (i believe I’m right in tagging @daisy-torres 😉 ) so its just a matter of finding them
I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title
Ooh, your WIP is so cool! I can relate to the evil writer mentality. I’m killing off my main character’s twin sister in the second book in my series, and I’m considering killing her boyfriend. (oops, sorry, that was a spoiler).
*gasps* So I’m not the only teen mermaid lover!!! @daisy-torres, WE NEED TO TALK!!!
In the words of Jinto Queb, "Hurry, reading is fun!"
@joy-caroline
WFR sounds like an amazing book!
A few things I love about my books;
The themes good/evil, sacrifice, redemption, trusting God even with death, and His presence even in the worst of storms, how a good God can allow bad things to happen, faith even when it seems useless, there is nothing that He can’t forgive. So, yeah, I have a lot of themes to weave in, but it is a trilogy which I want to be powerful.
My characters are animals (there are no humans), but it’s for any age group. Which may be a little confusing.
The excellent excuse to research tons of random historical facts! I mean RANDOM historical facts!*squeals* (homeschooled-nerd)
Anyway, my current WIP is a Medieval Fantasy series (at least the first two are. The last one is almost modern). MCs in the first book are Zlatan and Vulkasin (wolves). Second book’s Wilkins and Spion (foxes). Third book’s Mitchel and Anastasia (cats).
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
YOU’RE KILLING OFF HER TWIN!!! (From a twin)
OK, ok, but that’s going to be hard to write. A quick question; are you familiar with twins/know real life twins?
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
@annabelle EEK girl YESS XD You are absolutely not alone XD I’m actually plotting a mermaid story atm, though I’m not writing it yet XD It’s set in a small fishing town, and the main character is a normal college graduate who visits his hometown. However, when he goes home to his town, he begins to find himself in a mystery involving a strange man and girl with amazing voices who are new to the town, and never speak to anyone–which is automatically suspicious when you live in a small town where everyone knows everyone XD I’m really excited to get to write it *sighs dramatically* but alas, I must slow down and work on my current WiP for the time being T_TXD
"It's easy to be caught up in stardust and whispers when reality is so dark and loud."
@joy-caroline Ahhh I loveee that idea for your WIP!! I’m plotting a story set in the 70s myself. I feel like there aren’t enough young adult novels set in the not-to-far-away past XD
@elfwing hehe you would be absolutely right to tag me XD"It's easy to be caught up in stardust and whispers when reality is so dark and loud."
@annabelle ooo cool! mwahahahah that’ll be interesting… I have twins in my story in last couple books, and i close to kill kill them both a few times while theyre on opposite sides of the world. XD (i write fantasy btw) it’s more satisfying for me to write a good character death than it is a love story XD
haha no worries i spoil my book all the time, like when i told a reader about the struggles of a character who went blind… before they read the part about them becoming blind O_O XDDDD
I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title
@daisy-torres yesss i wanna do a story about miners in the 1920s of England or Wales that immigrate but i need to do so much research i gave up pretty quick T_T T_T. I need to finish what I’m doing first lol
I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title
No, actually I’m not really familiar with real-life twins. Maria and Grace (those are the twins) don’t meet each other until they’re sixteen, so that makes it slightly easier for me to kill Grace because they haven’t known each other for very long before she dies.
That sounds like a cool plot! If you ever get around to writing it, editing it, and publishing it, then let me know because I WANT TO READ IT SO BAD!!!
Yes, I understand about having to work on one project at a time. I have so many ideas for great stories in my head right now, but I just don’t have the time to write them.
So in my book, there are four main tribes of mermaids: Ocean, Lake, River, and Ice. Maria (the MC) is an ocean mermaid. I also threw together a quiz to find out which kind of mermaid you are, here’s the link if you’re interested:
I took the quiz and got Ocean Mermaid, but all of my other siblings got River Mermaids!
Also, my little sister and some of her friends are obsessed with mermaids like me, so I decided to help them write a side-story to my Daughters of the Sea series. It’s called The War of Fire and it’s about an ice mermaid named Krystall who has to battle against the evil Fire Queen. It’s a pretty basic plot, which is kind of necessary when writing with nine-year-old girls. It’s kind of hard to work with them, because they don’t know as much as I do about writing, but it’s still cool.
Okay, sorry I made this so long, I just really needed some mermaid-lover companionship. And anyway, Joy C. Woodbury did give us permission to rant, so I couldn’t help it.
In the words of Jinto Queb, "Hurry, reading is fun!"
Fantasy is so cool, and I’ve always wanted to write it. I’ve started several fantasy novels, but never finished them.
Yasss, killing is so satisfying! (Though the way I just said that sounded really evil LOL). I like love stories too, but only when there’s some sort of conflict between two characters falling in love with one character. I just love it when that happens.
In the words of Jinto Queb, "Hurry, reading is fun!"
That makes it easier. Sort of. You see, I have read books where a set of twins have grown up together, and are close, but when the author killed one he/she cried for like a couple days and was absolutely FINE! That makes no sense for friends let alone twins or siblings! They should have been crushed, permanently changed, grieving. Real grief is hard and takes a Loooooong time.
*Deep breath*
Anyway, it sounds like you have that pretty much straighted out already, so I’ll shut up. Daughters of the Sea sounds like an interesting series.
(Wow, I usually don’t use exclamation points.=])
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
No, you’re completely right. When I get to writing that part, I probably should make Maria grieve for her sister more. I appreciate tips like that. 😊
In the words of Jinto Queb, "Hurry, reading is fun!"
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