Agent Kit // so many WIP projects

I did a WIP post on A Sprig of Green less than a month ago. Is that enough?

NO. NO, IT ISN'T.

Because, see, I have a new WIP. My novella is finished (though edits shall still happen) and I've moved on to a new project. Or rather, an old project that shall be rewritten.

Hahahaaaa no way. My pictures are never totally random. Ever. *cough*

Agent Kit was my NaNo novel last year. I finished it on day 22 at exactly 89,978 words. I flailed and the flopped and took several weeks to recover back to my normal self. (don't do this guys, look after yourself as well as write. DO NOT FOLLOW MY EXAMPLE. xP)

Since then, I rewrote book #1, Rogue Escarlate, in January-February, edited it in march + plotted book #3. April I wrote Operation Flint (aforementioned #3), then May was back editing #1. June I finished my edits and sent it to some wonderful alpha readers. *throws confetti on them*

AND WOW. That was a lot of stuff.

With all of that, I never really got much time to look at book #2 - Agent Kit. But now that I've taken my dystopian break and written A Sprig of Green I'm diving back in. Currently I'm trying to work out one factor.

One word, guys. One important word:

p l o t

Yeah. I need a plot. I meant to be a lot further through plotting by today, but ehh. Plotting is hard sometimes and it doesn't always do what I want it to. I have to work out a plot that fits nicely with book one, preferably book three as well, but I'm already going to have to majorly edit/loosely rewrite that. (I fail at romance. Don't ask.) It's just a bit more bothersome than I was expecting.

But it's still fun at the same time, and it's going along slowly but surely. I'm also quite excited about some ideas that I've had, like bringing in characters that I originally...completely forgot about. Oops. But they actually come into this draft and we've got a whole gang thing going on. Plus some Russian Mafia involvement, a bit of kidnapping, some Ben-doesn't-like-soup-ing, and some more character development that it didn't have before. I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of this plot stuff unfolds. *rubs hand eagerly*

Anyways. I have some random stuff for you today. Like...completely random. I don't know what to tell you about this WIP? So hopefully what I've got here will suffice. 

Musics

So after the question that came up in the Rising Authors Tag I was curious to see whether I could find any songs that fitted with Agent Kit specifically. I haven't come across anything that just hits perfectly and I know instantly that it's right, but I've discovered that For King and Country has a few that fit reasonably well. I like 'To the Dreamers' and 'Ceasefire' best. Also 'Take this City' by Everfound has a sort of Agent Kit-ish feel?
(Stalk my five-song playlist (to be expanded over time) here)

Aesthetics/collages

BASICALLY I JUST LIKE MAKING PICTURES, OKAY? :P

Will and Ben <33

the main cast of characters that hang around for the whole book. LOOK AT ALL THOSE BROODING EXPRESSIONS.

Aaand if you missed the ones from last Monday, click here to stalk them allll.

Snippets

And I got asked for snippets. Again. Because apparently you all like that?? So strange. :P I don't really have a lot, and I'd have a lot less but for the fact that I'm kind of (*cough*extremely*coughcough*) competitive and the OYAN forum had/have their annual Olympics. So I had to write something. (I came out with the highest word count for week number one, in case you wondered. The overall results haven't come in yet, but soooon they shall. *crosses fingers*)
(also I'm doing a test. All my posts with the word 'snippet' in the title have rather high page views and I'm curious to see if it's just because of the title, not the content. Because here's snippets and I didn't even warn you in the title. xD)


A high pitched buzz shot through the suffocating dullness. Just the shrill squeal and the pounding throb of his heartbeat.

Jeez what was wrong with his ears?

Ben forced his eyes open, squinting against the bright spots across his vision. Everything wobbled, warping in confusing waves.

Welp. The world had gone mad.

“Ben!” The sound of his name burst through the bubble of fogginess and the high pitched squeal stopped and sound exploded out on him. Falling metal, groaning and grating, and the snap of flames.

Will’s figure gestured frantically from the other side of the smashed windscreen. The entire vehicle shifted backward. Back toward the ground. “Ben, get out!”

Oh yes. Avoiding death would be nice.

- - -

Ben crouched in the deep window frame, tapping his fingers rhythmically against his knee. “To be entirely honest, I kind of imagined Russia to be a little bit more grey and gloomy colours.” He tipped his head sideways. “Not really expecting the cream and pastel buildings.”

A rustle came from behind and Will leaned sideways against the edge of the sill. “It’s ugly.”

“Hey!” Ben twisted around, furrowing his brow at Will. “What do you mean? These are no where near ugly compared to London. Though London does have it’s own charm.”

Will grunted. “Do you always admire a country’s architecture?”

Good question. Ben glanced back out at the coloured buildings. If he studied it, the paint did look a little dull, but a pastel sort of dull. “Not really.” He shrugged and swivelled back to the room, looking around. “But honestly—”

“It’s just a painted building.”

“A city-full of painted buildings. It’s cool.”

“Okay, whatever you say.”

- - -

“Don’t look in the mirror—” Will warned, but Ben flicked his gaze upward just a little.

The mirror showed the room around him, small and pale and dirty. A utilitarian bathroom with one sink, one mirror and one toilet in a small cubicle. But mostly what Ben noticed was himself.

His jacket was burnt.

No fair. He liked this jacket.


And considering I have no plot, I think three snippets is enough for now. xD You can thank the oyan olympics for that.

Also - on the topic of snippets I thought it would be interesting to see the new snippet vs the old snippet just so you can compare, because it's cool. *nods*


Product of NaNo Insanity:

Grabbing Ben’s gun from the floor, Will dragged him forward. “Out.” He shook his shoulders. “Remember, we’ve got to get out.”

Ben blinked rapidly, trying to clear his eyes. A dull numbness surrounded his entire body. He started to look down.

“Don’t,” Will said, grabbing his chin and stopping the movement. “Whatever you do, don’t look at yourself. Save that for later.”

Ben took his gun from Will’s offered hand. “Is it really that bad?” he asked blearily.

Will didn’t reply, turning on his heel and kicking forward through the debris. The wailing of police sirens made Ben follow him with a lurch.


AND BLAH BLAH. You don't need to see any more. xD

Rough Rewritten Scene:

Will’s lips drew into the flat line of worry that had become all too familiar. “I can’t help you here. We have to get out first, then you can rest.”

“But what’s wrong with me?” Ben shook his head, but that didn’t make anything any clearer. “All I did was crash the car.” He tilted his gaze downward to look at himself.

Will caught his chin, gently pushing his head back up. “Look at yourself later. I can’t have you fainting on me now.”

“I don’t faint, I’m more manly than that—wait.” Ben closed his eyes, trying to think over what Will had just said. “Why would I faint if I looked at myself?”

Will lifted Ben’s arm over his shoulders, standing up and half lifting Ben with him. Ben fumbled for footing and gritted his teeth. He could walk. Whatever was wrong with him would just have to wait.


I THINK IT'S PRETTY SAFE TO SAY I'VE IMPROVED A BIT?? I hope so anyway. (also LOOK AT THAT you get four snippets actually xD) I'm honestly having so much fun writing little snippets and playing with Will and Ben and their relationship. Will is like a big brother trying to learn what big brothers are meant to do, and Ben always forgives him for anything as long as he gets lunch on time (and usually when he doesn't as well). 

Aaaaand I think that's all for now. Or did I miss anything?? *squints at blog post* *squints at novel document* *shrugs*


What's your WIP about?
Is there anything else about Agent Kit that I forgot to satisfy your curiosity on?
(I'll answer in the comments if there is *fingerguns*)

Comparing Your Work to Others' // dealing with low confidence and fear

Do you ever feel like you’re a failure? Like you’re not as good as so-and-so? Like it doesn’t matter how hard you try, you’ll just never be enough?

Sometimes comparing our work to someone else can help. It can spur us on to work harder, strive more, learn how to be better.

But other times, it simply pulls us down.

It’s so easy to look at someone else and see their work—or even them as a person—and the compare it to your own work, your own self. The problem is that when we do this, so much of the time, we don’t measure up.

We can’t measure up.

We’re all different people, we’ve all been given different talents and gifts. Of course we can’t all be as good as each other. But we know that, and somehow it doesn’t seem to help.

So often I see people hiding back in the corner and not wanting to show their work. For some people they can pass it off as perfectionism. For others—introversion.

But I think for everyone, it’s also just that little seed of doubt.

Everyone has it. That fear that they won’t measure up. That they’re actually a failure. That, quite honestly, they’re wasting their time—and everyone else’s.

And then even worse, there’s the moments of timid bravery when the little artist (not necessarily drawing, I’m using the term in its broad definition) steps out and show some of their work. Some of the art they poured their energy and heart into. And then someone laughs. Or not even laughs, but just passes it off as ‘good’ or ‘nice.’

It hurts. It pulls down the timid hope and our little artist soul scuttles back and hides.

The problem isn’t with the person who betrayed the trust (though they are at fault—a topic I shall be rambling on next week), it’s actually with the artist.

The problem is that so often we look to man to fulfil our desires, to fulfil our identity. We look to our family, our friends, our acquaintances. But they can’t fill that role.

The One who gave us the gift in the first place can.

If you write a chapter, draw a picture, do whatever you do and look at your work and say “I’m a failure” you’re saying that God’s gift is worthless. That he gave you something that is a waste of your time. It’s a ridiculous thought.

You don’t have to measure up to so-and-so. You don’t have to be as good as anyone.

Because that’s not the point.

We need to be looking to God to find our purpose and identity, not the world around us. And when we do that, it doesn’t matter what other people think or do. It doesn’t matter if they all seem better.

Right now, God has you in a special place.

Don’t scorn it and hate it because it’s different than someone else. Accept it and embrace it because it’s a gift.

It’s not easy to accept, and the fear can still be there. But you need to go back to God over and over and over. Every. single. day. Commit it to Him.

I promise you. You won’t regret it. And it certainly won’t be a waste of your time.

July Camp NaNo // I interview some cabin members

One of the things I find fun about family, is that sometimes they jokingly agree to something when thinking that I'm not serious at all. And then when they discover that I was entirely legit, they can't lower themselves to back out. (looking right at you, Jess. :P)

So today I've got a vlog for you all featuring two members of my family (and my cabin). In which they have to answer the quiz questions or I will whack them over the heads with my notebook.

I would also just like to applaud their skills of talking on camera because it was me - the one who has done four vlogs so far - who started talking backward and inside out first. The others were actually decent. *applauds them*

Also notice: I'm not wearing a t-shirt. Finally. XD (I told you I owned other shirts. :P)

Tell me a bit about what you're working on for camp??
(pretty please?)
What's three quirky things about your characters?

Theme Mastery // Kingdom Pen writing course

Theme has always been a struggle for me. It's such a tricky part of writing, and I've never been able to work out what in the world I was meant to do with it.

How can I not be preachy, but still be Christian in my writing? Can I write a 'Christian' novel but not specifically mention God in it? Or am I just wasting my time? Would it be more profitable to go to town and bash people in the face with a bible? (I promise I've never actually thought this one until just now. XD)

And I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this battle of doubt and confusion.

But over the last few months, I've been learning. I've been killing my brain over theme and character arcs and experiments in living. (And enjoying it, don't get me wrong)

And I've been doing that by taking the course Theme Mastery: How to Write Christian Literature that Captivates

You might have heard the name Josiah DeGraaf, or maybe the site/community of Kingdom Pen. (If not GO DISCOVER THEM RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I PROMISE THAT YOU WON'T REGRET IT) *ahem* Anyways, Josiah is the amazingly talented writer who made this course, and it was through Kingdom Pen that I found out about it.
Or rather, I found out that it was a) theme and b) severely discounted for a limited amount of time for beta testers to sign up. So of course I jumped right in. (I know, I'm just such a ooh-look-it's-free person. Although technically it wasn't completely free this time.)

And it was SO AMAZING.

Every single lesson: I learnt a heap of things. Every single bit of homework and reading work and discussion. It all made me think and learn so. much. stuff.

I used to have a vague idea of theme and that it was nice thing to have and that it needed to be good and done well and not preachy and blah blah blah. But I didn't really grasp the full importance of it, and nor did I fully realise what exactly it even was.

But then all that changed and now I know how to plot out a novel's theme and do venn diagram mashes of Experiments in Living and tie in the theme with the plot and characters. 
(Note: in theory I know how to do this. I have the information in my brain, it's just a matter of practice as I work things out more and more and I'm never ever going to stop learning in this area, I know that for sure.)

And what's more, I didn't learn just about theme. I learnt about humans and personalities and it made me think more about why people do the things they do.

And trust me, that can be really interesting. Let me show you an example:

Me: Why is that dude eating a doughnut?
Sister: Um...because he likes doughnuts, I guess.
Me: But...but why?

It makes you question everyone's motives, and therefore makes you better prepared for all circumstances. Why is that lady fiddling with the brim of her hat? Maybe she has a secret weapon hidden beneath it that shoots poison darts at unsuspecting- *slumps unconscious* Because you never know when that might be important. *sage nod*

And noooo I'm totally not getting distracted now. Totally. Not.

Basically, this course legit and honestly actually changed my life. And guys, I'm telling you right now, it was a change for the better. Some of the homework got me to delve into my own faith and study the bible and the whole course is pointing to Jesus over and over.

It was such a good reminder that I'm writing for God, not for anyone else in this world.

AND GUYSSS. CHARACTER ARCS ARE SO COOL. I love them. So much fun to work with and plan out and agh. It was amazing. HAVE I SAID THAT YET? (Shhh, yes Jane, you've screamed that about twenty times in the last five minutes) And foil characters and Experiments in Living and Poetic Justice and Mimesis. And you allll need to buy the course and learn about these epic things because honestly it's so much fun.

I feel like I'm just gushing and flailing about this now. *ahem* But it's all true. 
Spoiler: my original plan for this post was for it to be a book review style, only a course review. But then I forgot about the post until late at night, so the content slipped into flailing and shrieking and everything that my blog normally is, I just try to live in the delusion that I'm actually intelligible sometimes. XD


Back to it.
Theme Mastery has a super good resources list and reading and homework assignments. And eeep so many things that are just so good, and it's all designed to teach and develop skills. It takes work, yep. Sometimes it took me over an hour to do the homework assignments (*cough* totally wasn't procrastinating there) but they helped so much. And the hands-on examples of how everything really does work were great to see.

Also - Josiah quotes Aristotle and Plato and a bunch of old, dead, wise philosophers (along with several not-so-old and several not-so-dead wise peoples) and how cool is that? It applies. What they said then, is true just as much today as for the writers in their time.

And the great thing is that the course is self-paced and once you buy it you have it foreverrrr. And it's a full family license and everything so siblings are no problem and they can just borrow accounts and all that fun stuff.

But the best news of all...

*drum roll please*

The course got released to the public on the 22nd of May.
AND Theme Mastery is currently ON SALE for heaps less than it normally would be. SO GO CHECK IT OUT NOW BECAUSE I ASSURE YOU IT'LL BE AMAZING AND LIFE CHANGING AND EEP JUST DO IT.

And just in case you haven't noticed all the handy links, click HERE to go to the Theme Mastery page thingamy. (Also, if you scroll down far enough you can see that they put my testimony on their page. I am so honoured.)


Are you going to check this course out more?
(*cough cough* AND PROMPTLY SELL YOUR SOUL TO BUY IT. But actually no, don't sell your soul because that wouldn't be good and you wouldn't be able to appreciate it as much without a soul.)
Have you got any good tips on writing theme?
(Because I'm not styling myself as any sort of expert or anything and I want to know what your thoughts are)