You know those moments when you just don’t want to create? The inspiration is uninspiring, and the motivation unmotivating. You just lay motionless, waiting for something to happen.
I’m experiencing it now. Making myself start writing this took a lot of coaxing. It’s hard to combat, and sometimes the answer is stepping back for a bit.
If you assumed that this was a hiatus announcement, think again! You…probably didn’t because of the title. Yeah, I have to work on my subtlety. Next time.
The other sometimes is looking back at what you have done for encouragement. I can’t do that because I haven’t finished any writing projects I’ve begun yet. But I initiated stuff, which is better than nothing, right? Right?
If you’re curious, stick around for glimpses into my less-than-half-formed WIPs.
The ✨Glimpses✨
1. Swan Lake (a novella…hopefully)
Description: 🏹🦢👑🌒🧙🏻♂️
Stage: Drafting (Planning isn’t complete yet, so what possessed me to start is beyond me.)
Completed Chapters: 3, currently in 4
Characters
- Main: Prince Siegfried, Princess Odette
- Major: Axel, King Christoph, Queen Uberta, King William
Goal(s): 15+ chapters • over 20,000 words • succeeding in writing from a narrator’s POV • giving Siegfried and Odette’s relationship some much-needed depth (as compared to their The Swan Princess counterparts)
Related: What’s Your WIP? (in which you will find a blurb, a snippet, and other important things)
Extra Info
The moment you realize your so-called “original work” is nothing more than fanfic of a specific Swan Princess movie…
…is not a pleasant moment. My apologies to anyone who thought I could pull that off. Original work. Ha, hilarious.
I’m a baby writer, so I’ll jump for joy if this first attempt at a novella passes 10,000 words. Don’t expect…a plot. Or do expect it and then be disappointed. But in truth, the only reason anyone would read till the end would be for the action, not my sorry, unpolished writing.
Enough self-deprecation for now. Moving on.
2. That One Fantasy Story I’ve Been Planning for Forever (novel?)
Description: 🗺🤝🏻🍂🚢⚔
Blurb:
The village electing her father as chief changed a lot of lives: her father’s, her family’s, and her own. Nothing changed, they said. They were wrong; everything did. An ever-increasing burden of pressure was laid on Alessia’s shoulders—she has to be the best. She has to prove herself. When the opportunity to go on a quest affecting not only her village but the surrounding ones, friend or foe, is presented to her, she grabs at it. So what if her father doesn’t know? She’s assembled her little band of coworkers, the best of the best: Brielle—her sharp, analytical, and strategical best friend, Sienna—the history buff with access to forbidden maps, and Zed—the self-claimed tech whiz with a sense of humor. Everything will fall into the plan, the plan she’s planning to make sometime in the future. So, imagine her dismay to having to work with a stowaway, a spy, from a neighboring tribe, with which they weren’t on good terms. How’d her life become such a mess?
It’s pretty vague, but it’ll become something one day.
Stage: Planning
Characters
- Main: Alessia
- Major: Marcos, Brielle, Sienna, Zed
Goal(s): 30+ chapters • over 30,000 words • developing the individual characters • *gulp* pulling off the hero hating herself and finding peace at the end arc • Enemies to Lov- say what? Who said? Huh?… Ignore that. • and other stuff
Storytime
If you’re like me, you were too lazy to read the blurb. Chunky paragraphs induce headaches.
To summarize, my MC—Alessia—is a troubled girl; she goes on a quest with friends; an enemy was there (a “there” I will not disclose) before they set off and has to come. Gasp. Originality and articulateness abound.
I haven’t got a plot, but, funny thing, I’ve been brainstorming on this since last year. How sad is that?!
And yes, we are equipping children to do such outrageous things. Perfect!
3. Oh my goodness, I still haven’t finished that “Prompt to Paper” anecdote (a short story)
I’m taking this opportunity to apologize for not yet posting this. It’s not professional or ethical.
I have—How do I say this?—given up on it. So, either someone requests me to complete it, or you, my dear reader, refresh this post once or twice to see what the outline was for the rest of it. No, this isn’t an attempt to get more views. I’m being serious. (Do the second one! Do the second one! ~your conscience)
Edit: Never mind, I’ve made it easy.
2. The Clark family is on a kalesa, exploring the walled city. Adam—their charming tour guide with impressive fluency in English—gets along with Dad just fine and regards all sites with respect. He claims they’re ancient, and Thomas can’t help but agree as the carriage’s horse trots past a historically significant Starbucks.
- Don and Angelo sit among other POWs (Prisoners of War) in the stench-filled dungeons of Fort Santiago. If the Japanese officials wouldn’t kill them, they would easily suffocate with such little air circulation. Don worries about Angelo. “That gash won’t make surviving much easier.” But Angelo convinces Don that whatever happens…happens. With nothing else to do but count the segundos till they die, Don shares his cigarette pack with his cellmates. A Japanese soldier calls him to come out and follow him. There was business to be done.
3. Thom and company return after strolling around Baluerte de San Diego. Marie (his sister) thought it was pretty, and he genuinely agrees that the site was interesting, more so after Dad gives some insight. Thom gets jittery after finding out they had one last stop: Fort Santiago. They reach there as quickly as he’d hoped, and Adam tells them all about how American and Filipino soldiers died there due to suffocation and the heat. Thom is moved and asks if his grandpa might’ve died there. Dad says it was his own great-grandpa, Thom’s great-great-grandpa. Thom is silent for the rest of the travel. He asks his dad if they could visit again sometime.
Goodness me, I feel so evil.
4. Some Unimportant Fanfics
Descriptions: 1. 🥼🥽🤦🏼♀️🕷🕸 , 2. 🌬🍃👩🏻👻📿🌊
Which begs the question: Should I get an AO3 account? We’ll see.
Share in the comments how you feel about certain platforms where fanfics are regularly published. (AO3, Fanfiction.Net, Wattpad, etc.) Which do you prefer? Which gave you the best experience? The worst? Any advice is appreciated!
Thank you for reading!
And come back next time oooooooon CKJ!
A Christian Kid's Journal 
I’m gonna just say it, I was absolutely giving this post the stink eye until I saw the part where you mentioned Prompt to Paper. Now I am heartbroken, disappointed, and utterly crushed…but I get it. Sometimes you just don’t have the creative juice or the time for something. So while we may never know the fates of Angelo and Don, I’m now free to imagine my own scenario where they inexplicably escape and are rescued by Errol Flynn and his intrepid band of marines. Everyone goes home in time for dinner, the end.
Anyhoo, about Swan Lake – do you have any idea how many people have written popular books that are literally just retellings of folk- and fairytales? And they’re still really good? You’re taking a beloved story and breathing some new life into it, and that’s a challenge. I personally think you’re up to it. Also, The Swan Princess gave me nightmares for weeks as a kid. I expect no less from this story. 😂
(Is that an Enemies to Lovers trope I see on that fantasy story? 👀)
Ooh, my time to shine. I’ve got both a FanFiction and AO3 account, and neither one is particularly better than the other. AO3 has more fandoms and is generally more lively, and the tag/filter feature is really helpful once you figure out how it works. FF offers a more detailed breakdown of your stats – so while AO3 might tell you a visitor read a fic, FF will tell you the country they’re from, what chapters they read, and how many times they looked at them. Cool stuff. Since this is the internet, of course, there is a lot of outright gross stuff on both even in more innocent fandoms, particularly on AO3. The filter is pretty helpful, though, in cutting that out, but do yourself a favor and read the tags carefully. As for Wattpad, I’d steer clear. It’s got some worthwhile stuff but is known for smut and sappy romances, primarily, and has a history of stories getting stolen off it.
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I knew you would be, and I was crestfallen whilst writing it as well. *cough* You’re absolutely right, Miss Texan. And perhaps the entire story exists better as an outline. (You’re not the only sadist here-) Well, I mean, sure. Why not?
Up to it?! You’re incredibly kind to say that, but…honest question: don’t you feel my writing is a little choppy, stiff, and any other adjective that’s the opposite of flowing? I can’t help but feel like it is, and I haven’t a clue what to do about it. Ooh, nightmares! I’ll take note of that. Was that because of Von Rothbart, the fact that to get their happy ending they died, which isn’t so happy, or something else? 😂 (Also, some fairytale illustrations are just plain creepy!)
(No, no it is not. 🤗)
Wowee, you didn’t hold back on that one! Thanks so much for the insight, Miss Texan! I have yet to figure out AO3 tags. That thing is a labyrinth. Detailed stats are always a pleasure, especially when you’re like me and just like watching how certain bars are higher or lower than the other. Good stuff. And the Wattpad one is understandable; I just thought the format was cool.
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Aha, so you knew I was going to be cut to the core by your unfinished story! The audacity. You’re turning out to be an excellent literary sadist if I do say so myself. Hey, maybe in fourteen years or so you’ll remember good old Don and Angelo and do something with them. And maybe not.
Your writing has a ring to it like you haven’t been doing it for a billion years – some practice will fix that. Choppy can also be seen as conversational, which is how I view it for the most part. How I keep my prose from feeling jerky and staccato is mixing and matching sentence lengths; I might have a couple of quick, short lines, and then I’ll follow with a longer one cut up by commas. It’ll become second nature the more you do it. Essentially just practice until your eyes fall out of your head, and then practice some more. Then you can join the ranks of the overcaffeinated, under-rested writers. Oh, and practice. Yup, it was Von Rothbart, all right. Now I can play any horror game without batting an eye, but a strangely animated bat-wolf thing was just too much for me back in the day!
(Hmm…must be seeing things. I’ll get my vision checked.)
That’s the great thing about me, I never do know when to shut up. 😂 I’d offer to help with the AO3 tags, but I hardly know how they work myself. It’s something I just sort of do without understanding it, and it somehow turns out right. I think Royal Road is an alternative to Wattpad, but it focuses mainly on fantasy. Of course, if you’re writing fantasy, then you’re all set. I haven’t tried it myself.
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Oooh, these all sound interesting! Happy writing!
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Thanks, Diamond! 😁
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