#WIPJoy Writing Challenge - July Edition

7/6/2018 - I'm doing another writing challenge, the July edition of the #Wipjoy challenge again hosted by Bethany A Jennings, (AKA @simmeringmind on IG - Go follow her!). The following are the pieces of the challenge I was able to do, not including yesterday's because I haven't found my "line to hook readers" just yet. I think I have...but I'm still deciding. Anyway, here's what I have so far in the challenge. The first three photos are Day 2 (Day 1 was a day off because it was Sunday.) The second set of three photos is Day 3 of the challenge. I'll share the others on Monday. I think I take on too many things at the worst of times! <sigh> and LOL

Day 2 - Pitch your WIP as fast as you can. - I think doing anything quickly is beyond me, even when I try! It took three frames to pitch this WIP. And I don't think pictures will work for my pitch (like some of the others were doing) since my characters are like muscular elves that range the colors of the rainbow. Kind of hard to find photos of a race that, as far as I know, doesn't exist. (It probably does, but is perhaps not widely photographed/drawn/painted, barring WoW elves. Even they are limited in range of colors, though, and their ears are too big and their hair/eye color doesn't work...I could go on, but I won't. You're welcome.) PS. If you're an artist and you wanna try your hand at some fan art, I'm not opposed to seeing it. :D

Day 3 - Introduce your MC in a line, song, and photo. Zec's song took forever to find but "From Where You Are" by Lifehouse fit him at least partially. He's definitely the most complex of my characters. He keeps a lot inside. Liha's more open and cheerful so it was easy to pick "Pocketful of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield for her. The only mistake is in the third picture, Liha's last name has been changed to Gervell.

7/9/2018 - Just a very quick post today so I can share my responses to the #WIPjoy Writing Challenge. As you know, last week was a no-go for blogging. I hope this week will be better, but so far the weather has been terrible. Not only that, one of my friends passed away after a long battle with cancer. Needless to say, I'm not in the best of spirits right now. Those are the reasons why today's post is so short.

My favorite challenge from last week was Day 6 - How would your characters introduce your story? I learned so much about my characters just from that one exercise. I was so encouraged by the result, too. I can't wait to work on OLUS some more. :)

7/10/2018 - Day 9 of the #WIPjoy July 2018 ed. asked what our MCs like to eat. And I realized I don't share much about what Zec eats. I think I somehow relate meals to warmth, sunshine, and a homely feel. I don't know that I'm conveying that same feeling to the Tanderali of Genzet. I think I need to research some more about underground and cave houses to increase the feeling of 'home' for those places in my mind.
Anyway, I shared what info I had about Liha. One of her favorite dishes is called 'geshiju' (gehSHEEjoo) and it's a berry pudding baked in a crust. She also enjoys a warm mug of khafket and both of these are served with a morning meal. Y'all know as much I love coffee, it had to make an appearance somehow. ^.^

7/11/2018 - The challenge for yesterday asked about foods our main characters (MCs) couldn't eat and why. I haven't added any kind of food restrictions in yet. So now I'm thinking about foods Zec couldn't or shouldn't eat because they might raise his already high body temperature. I'm also thinking about which of my clans would be most likely to have religious fast days, feast days, etc. And I'm thinking about food allergies. In Ripples, Yuvahl Shirashoneh fights a pollen allergy, but that's the only allergy I've discussed so far.

Also, I'm keeping it short today because I got a late start and I need to sew some of the projects that have been sitting in my pile for far too long. I also need to finish my maps for Ripples. That is a topic I'll save for an entire post on another day, though.

7/12/2018 - Day 11 of the challenge asked more about food in our current WsIP. I shared two snippets rather than just two simple lines. I didn't have any super awesome single lines about food, I guess. Well, they are still pretty much in their original rough draft format. I changed a few words but the whole chapters need revising. LOL Anyway, short post today because of my schedule. Hope you enjoy! (Click 'read more' to see read the lines.)

7/13/2018 - Day 12 - Ha! I was in such a hurry to post this yesterday, I didn't realize my words were slightly off the edge. Anyway, my cast eats basic travel food while on the road - sturdy breads, nuts, dried fruits and veggies. At home, they eat family style meals. There are inns and places where a person could buy food already prepared but so far, my characters aren't described as eating any of those types of food. At least, not yet.

7/16/2018 - Day 13 - Friday's challenge  was to drop our characters into the cooking show of our choice and write about how it goes. I guess mine came out alright. I didn't have a lot of time to devote to it, nor is my writing coming easily these days, as I mentioned above. I chose a slideshow for this one. You'll have to manually click to change the frames since I didn't want readers to start in the middle.

The only cooking show I can stomach these days is The Great British Baking Show. They don't yell at each other and they seem to be doing what they do for the joy of it. I get that to work as a chef in an actual restaurant, you have to be able to take the heat, so to speak. But if I wanted to experience it, I'd do it myself, not watch someone else be driven to the depths of despair because they couldn't hack it.

Day 14/15 - Honestly, both my MCs are fairly generous. They'd have no problem at all sharing whatever they had on hand. I think Zec would be the more reticent of the two, though, since he's been basically quarantined from people most of his life.

7/17/2018 - Day 16 - Short post today! Yesterday, the challenge was to tell about our MC's childhood summers. Since my world is pretty different from American life, and the Genzet clan is fairly rigid concerning duty and responsibility, there's not a lot to say about how any of the summer activities would be different from other times of the sun-cycle, unless it was some weather related activity. So that's kinda the point I worked from to come up with this.

7/20/2018 - This week's challenges have all been about the characters, protagonists and antagonists alike. I've enjoyed digging a little deeper into their backgrounds and getting to know them better. These two are pretty self-explanatory so I won't be writing much in this post. I'm still hard at work on creating those maps. And there's so much that I still need to accomplish before October 1st. I'm brainstorming a giveaway, so please look forward to that. If you already follow me on DeviantArt, you'll be able to see the artwork I've completed as soon as I post it. I'm also going to be adding some of that artwork to my Zazzle merch. Busy times ahead! I'll keep you all posted at each accomplishment.

Day 18 - I had to laugh. I dug and dug through OLUS to find this little gem. And I promise, my fantasy story is not a fantasy western. XD Bal Shif is an interesting Guardian. I hope he'll show up in future stories...

Day 19 - This one wasn't too hard, though I did take some time to think on it. How much to share? What if this gives something away? The hardest one to figure out was Liha because at the beginning of the story, she's so young,  innocent, and blissfully ignorant. But I think I managed it well enough.

7/24/2018 - Ugh. I don't like 'failing' at anything. I guess no one does. But if you look at failure from a different perspective, it become a jumping off point for self-improvement. I skipped day 20 of the #WIPjoy challenge, mainly because of time, but also for personal reasons. I'll share a lot of things online, but I don't know. Writing about a therapy session where my characters analyze me? <wry grin> I have no idea how that would go and I didn't have the time that day to be certain it was revised and edited. So...continuing on...Days 21-22 are presented below. (Also, I'm behind on the challenge schedule, so you can expect two pix tomorrow.)

Day 21/22 - I have to admit, this was indeed quite the challenge. I don't feel very confident about writing villains. I love the way villains are done in most of the anime and manga that I enjoy. There's usually a reason they do what they do and they also have the potential to do good things. I love that they present the concept of everyone having the same sort of potential for good or bad behavior. Now, whether my villains will equate to that or not is a matter for consideration on another day. In the words of Aragorn, "Today is not that day."

7/25/2018 - Day 23 - There isn't anything in my world that equates with what most people view as technology. But if you view it as breaking strides in creating and using tools which make work easier and more efficient, then I can give you this. There's a tie between Master Tor, who is a master gemstone carver (That's a real thing you can google!), and Ibin Etina, who is an expert assassin. Both are top performers in their fields so they must both be working their best and keep up with the newest trends in carving gemstones and cutting down fleshlings. (Geez! That sounds terrible...but I couldn't resist. They're both 'carvers' in their own unique ways... @.@)
Liha is least tech saavy because she's the youngest character and she's pretty focused on the natural world around her.

Day 24 - Liha makes the cut again as the warmest, at least where her personality is concerned. She loves people and truly cares about their well-being. Zec is literally the warmest with his abnormally high body temperature. When he purposely uses his gift, his temperature spikes.
The coldest is definitely Poten Jai Nisse. He's all about his own image and gain and he doesn't really care who he has to step on to get to the top. The Hai should really watch her back, I think. (We don't really see her in OLUS but she's the highest spiritual leader, the only person whose rank is higher than Jai's.)

7/27/2018 - Day 25/26 - I'm loving these most/least comparisons. I had to consider "religious" in a broader sense for this challenge. The Poten and the Guardian are both religious leaders but their manner of service is completely different. The first goes through the motions to get what he wants, which is more power. The second goes through the motions because they keep her focused on her task to lead the Children the way the Creator wants her to. She's more spiritually religious.

Zec and the other male younglings in the story are the characters I chose for 'least religious'. They haven't gotten old enough yet to form meticulous habits or even, perhaps, to see the value of such a thing.

I almost added Liha to that category, but she has been raised with Guardian Haya Ne all her life. She practices the form of religion she was taught. She's not as religious as Haya Ne but she's well on her way.

7/30/2018 - Day 27 - I feel the last frame needs a little explanation. Master Tor takes his tasks seriously. But if he had a choice, he'd rather win the heart of his soulmate. And Liha is a little dreamer. She would definitely be more interested in winning the heart of her soulmate.

Day 28/29 - I had a hard time figuring out which of my characters was least chill. This particular challenge question may have pointed out a problem. I'll have to pay close attention to those guys while I'm revising.

7/31/2018 - Day 30 - Very quickly, I have to say my biggest writing win this month didn't have much to do with writing. I'm most excited about how my maps are coming out.

8/1/2018 - Day 31 - Who needs encouragement? I know I do! Quick post before I'm off and running for the day...

What I tell myself, or at least, what I try to remember to tell myself.

1. I am not alone.
2. Other writers are cheering me on.
3. Those same writers also struggle.
4. No matter what, keep writing because it's what I can do. It's what I truly enjoy doing. And I still have so many stories to tell.
5. Don't worry so much!

And now for the slideshow!