Angela VanWell

Author | Reader | Traveler | Tea and Coffee Drinker

NaNoWriMo

My Writing Journey Pillar I: Love Interest

by Leave a Comment

“Any relationship worth having is earned through commitment, patience, and compromises.” Jesper Schmidt and Autumn M. Birt are referring to the love interest being a fully developed character, with his or her own wants and needs that may run counter to those of the protagonist.

Hunter, with a chip on his shoulder and his less than stellar communication skills, will only be introduced in the novella. The focus is on Ally and Riley, their friendship and how they work as a team. Hunter is a shadow, a man whose help may save them, but it is not given without reservation. To be honest, he is only there because he respects Logan, he has no relationship with Ally at all. It is one of the reasons I like them as a potential romance.

In the book, Jesper and Autumn provide several examples of how romance can develop. Whether it begins with a love-hate relationship, frowned upon, unexpected, unlikely, fated, or they are soulmates. Regardless of how it develops, both characters need to be independent of each other in their needs and wants. This is why I thought it would be good to introduce Hunter here while he is still finding his own path, and has a chip on his shoulder.

Ally does not need a knight in hiking boots to save her. Rather, she wants to save herself. A relationship is not her focus, she is more interested in taking control of her life and not hurting her family in the mean time.

While Hunter is trying to find his way in the world, but in a very separate way, with a separate agenda. He knows where he belongs and understands the situation Ally and Riley are facing better than either of them do. His own life being torn apart, Hunter’s focus is on protecting his own community through decisive actions. He tends to not talk about what is wrong, but rather just fixes it. Ally and Riley running around without calling for help is a rookie mistake to him, an annoyance he is forced to deal with.

As the novella is set years before the trilogy, both Hunter and Ally have a lot of growing to do. Neither one of them is interested in investing in a close relationship, instead they are both working on their own lives. Hunter acts more like a mentor in this story, as he tries to emulate Logan, a man he holds in high regard.

The Challenger

The Enneagram Institute

The Challenger, Type 8, a self-confident, decisive, resourceful person fits Hunter perfectly. Hunter’s focus is on self-reliance while he protects those he cares about in his community. He learnt early on in his life that survival requires will, persistence, and endurance, and he carries those learnings through his adult life.

My Writing Journey: Pillar I The Sidekick

by Leave a Comment

Riley has been in my imagination as long as Ally has. Always there for her through thick and thin. As she is for him. They are as close as family without the blood connection.

In Jesper Schmidt and Autumn M. Birt’s Plot Development Step by Step exercise book, the Sidekick is loyal to the protagonist through anything from defending the innocent, investigation for clues. to stealing cookies. Riley is idealistic and a people person, he spreads himself thin using his big heart and personality.

Riley is the youngest son in his family and therefore spent more time at his mom’s healing practice on shore than he did on the boat with his father and brothers. Although the whole family is close, it has created a distance between them, even more so then him being younger than them. Luckily for him, and for Ally, they were both basically only children and that is why they grew so close so fast. He is also the main reason Ally has experienced as much as she has, outside of the boating community, because she would stay with him and his mom shoreside for visits. He is gregarious and friendly so always had somewhere for them to go, people for her to meet, and experiences to share.

Now that Riley spends more time on the boats with his family, he longs for his favourite part of living on land. His goal of joining a band. But now, when he is not in a location for longer than a couple of nights, it is problematic. He finally receives an invitation to audition for a band, but there are other agendas that might stop him from pursuing his dream. Fortunately, Ally is there by his side, as the two of them are always there for each other.

The Helper

From the Enneagram Institute

Ally and Riley are the main focus of the prequel Wicked Currents, to the River Run Series. The novella will be written during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this November. I had mentioned NaNoWriMo before, but as a reminder it is open to anyone who wants to write. A community of like-minded and enthusiastic individuals who welcome everyone to join in. You can find out more information here at: National Novel Writing Month

My Writing Journey: Pillar I The Antagonists

by Leave a Comment

In Jesper Schmidt and Autumn M. Birt’s book, Plot Development Step by Step, the Antagonist is developed as thoroughly as the protagonist, something I never considered before. I think it is because I would view antagonists from the reader’s perspective. A darkness, slipping in and out of the world of the protagonist, tearing apart families, focused on ending the world. And in Lord of the Rings, one of my yearly reads and winter movie binges, its true. But I don’t only read epic fantasy, I read urban fantasy. And in Urban Fantasy the antagonist has more agency. They have wants and needs just like my protagonist Ally.

As this is a novella leading into the main series, the antagonists are not the darkness attempting end Ally’s world. Instead, they are a couple of guys. Yup, just a couple of guys out on the town and they want to find their own enjoyment in life. Ciaron and Darragh, fraternal twins, are working hard to break ahead of their lying, stealing, thieving family by creating their own band. They play small gigs, but intend to build their way up to the big time. Wherever Ciaran leads, Darragh follows. They are going to prove they can make it on their own, and take their momma out of the stressful life they grew up in. When the call comes out that their uncle just needs one favour for the family and he will help them book bigger beerhalls, it is a call they cannot say no too. It helps their family, and their band. How could they lose?

If only Ally and Riley would let the whole situation drop, then it would have been painless for everyone. Well, maybe not Riley’s family, but that isn’t their problem.

Enneagram, The Loyalist

Image belongs to the Enneagram Institute

They are Loyalists, like Logan, but they are an example of what happens when a Loyalist is attached to a corrupt family ideal.

I am grateful the book showed me how important the background and wants of the antagonist is. I now kind of feel sorry for these guys. They just want to make their own way in the world and provide for their momma. Who doesn’t love brothers who are close and love their mom?

My Writing Journey: Pillar I The Mentor

by Leave a Comment

The Mentor is a trustworthy guide supporting the protagonist, Ally, on her journey. My intention is for Ally to have had Logan already in her life as long as she can remember. He is friends with her parents and an uncle figure to Ally growing up. As with many people who work part time where the work takes them, Logan is around sometimes and away others. He enjoys working on the boats with his friends, but is not a permanent fixture. He is more interested in his personal startup vineyard where he turns his grapes into a grape whisky, only drank by those not faint at heart.

Logan

Unlike Ally, Logan is fully aware their is magic around them. He is a part of the magical community, although he keeps himself outside of it. He is what humans would call a shifter, he is equally comfortable in both of his forms, as a man and as a lynx. Earth has waning magic, so it is not easy for him to shift between his forms. He disappears at times, no one is sure where he goes, but when he returns, he has more vitality, almost as though he has been replenished with magic.

Having been scarred by it in the past, he courageously fights for security of individuals and for a better society. In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Logan is on the cusp between Esteem and Self-Actualization. He is a confident man, who has the respect of the boating community, especially Ally and Riley’s families. He is attempting to build a safe place for magical Beings on earth. He believes that everyone deserves to belong somewhere and is trying to make it a reality.

As a close friend of the family, Logan has taught both Ally and Riley skills in the forest that will help them in all environments. Tracking, surviving in the forest, and the beauty of having the tops of the trees and stars as a roof at night are some of the best memories Ally has of her childhood. It is from Logan that Ally found her love of sleeping outside in a hammock and having land beneath her feet instead of a boat on the water.

Logan has guided both youths to the secrets of the forest as a way to keep them safe while teaching them how to be safe. He is protective of them, as if they were his own family, and as so agrees with Ally’s parents that she does not need to be aware of all the truths of their home.

The Loyalist from the Enneagram Institute

While Logan is one of the people Ally depends on, he is not always available to be there for her. For he has his own goals, to create a safe place for Beings like him. Beings outside of their home, trying to create a new one while not being found odd, different, something scary found only in folklore.

Logan’s background begins with a loving family and ends with him alone. A snippet of him with his family can be found in the short story, Lynx in Exile. To read the story, signup for the blog mailing list and receive the free story.

My Writing Journey

by Leave a Comment

In November, 2017 I joined NaNoWriMo for the first time. What is NaNoWriMo? It is National Novel Writing Month, a non-profit on-line organization and community challenging individuals to pick up a pen and write. Write 50,000 words in November.

With the drive to write a book, I signed up and shouted to the world (of NaNoWriMo) that I was writing a middle grade book. I decided on middle grade because I wanted to write a book for my daughter. She was in middle grade (Year 6, Grade 5) at the time and there weren’t a lot of books she could connect with. My partner’s career has us moving a lot, (she had now moved countries eight times in her thirteen years), so I wanted to write for her.

For those who do not know my professional background, the predominant long form writing I have completed was standard operating procedures (SOP). That’s right, my careers and education engineered a concise, to the point, and not at all engaging writing style. This did not work. Worse, for me with a scientific background, I had no SOPs to follow, so I was at a loss at how to write. As I usually do when learning something new, I started by reading books on the subject and then decided to take a course. The course turned into a Creative Writing Certificate Program. And from that, I created my own Writing Road Map:

Behold, my writing road map.

What it shows me, is that I still have a long way to go. But that is why writing is a journey. There is always more to explore, to learn, to try. And I am still at the beginning of mine.

My first NaNoWriMo was a success. I completed the first draft of a manuscript. It was (and still is) messy with mixing of first person and third person narrative, and plot holes, but I wrote it. One day it will be edited and given to my daughter. Passion projects aren’t always for public consumption, at least mine isn’t.

I have now participated in nine NaNoWriMo events. Between them, I have written the first draft of five books; an urban fantasy trilogy, an urban fantasy adventure book, and the middle grade book, and so far, have edited two of them. The writing is coming easier to me but the editing is still a trip down a thorny path of misdirections and cliffs. Through the frustration I have learned to appreciate more the blood, sweat, and tears that go into the books I enjoy. And they remind me the path is hard, but I only need to take one step at a time to travel it. This blog is one of those steps. To share what is bringing excitement to my life, exploring life, exploring books.

This November I will complete a novella to prequel the urban fantasy trilogy I have written. The planning process needs to begin now, as I am a writer who needs a map, a means to see my what through the end of the story. This summer I was fortunate to be one of the readers who checked for typos in the Plot Development Step by Step book by Jesper Schmidt and Autumn M. Birt. I will be using it to develop and outline my story and sharing the results here.

Starting today, this is the book mapping out my writing journey

My characters already exist from the trilogy, but I will use this opportunity to round them out more and get to know them better. Character development is the first pillar in the book, so it will be the first part of story development I share next week. Hope to see you there!