Subplots and Storylines - October 2016

Well, hasn't this been a packed month! I celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with copious amounts of turkey; went from eating outdoors at the beginning of the month (I don't recall it ever being warm enough for that in October before!) to shivering in gusty winds near freezing temperature; and generally spent most of my waking hours in college.

I was looking back over my college notes to see what I all did this month, and I was surprised to see what I'd been learning at the start of October. It feels like so long ago that we talked about stress, attitude, belief systems of the heart, figuring out what you want in life, personal capacity . . . Looking back, I've learned a lot this month. More importantly, I've internalized a lot. The things I'm being taught haven't fully stuck yet, but many things are well on their way to changing my thoughts. It's amazing to see that.

Some other college highlights:

• Allll the volunteering and being a part of awesome events.
• My first speech in my communicators class! It was an icebreaker speech designed to give me public speaking experience and help my audience get to know me. It was fun and nerve-wracking, and I received great feedback/critique.
• Loving my junior high girls small group that I get to help lead every week. It's such a fun age group, and there's a distinct mix of girls who have grown up in church, and girls whose only church is small groups.
• One of my big college projects has been preparing a message for a high school chapel program. Three classmates and I have been working on this for weeks, and we just recently rehearsed our chapel in front of the class. Because I tend to prefer working alone, it's been a great experience to work as a team. We got creative and filmed our own short video to introduce our message topic . . . a video in which I play a cheesy T.V. anchor. A male cheesy T.V. anchor, complete with a curly wig and mustache. (I am sooo going to regret this.)
• Youth held a Halloween costume party (pictures to come in a minute), and featured two escape rooms! I got to help plan and build them, so it was fantastic to see them completed and ready to be used. We built a zombie lab where the objective was to find the cure, and also a Bigfoot forest with the objective of finding the dead researcher's notes proving Bigfoot's existence. Really fun!

Here's a couple shots of my steampunk costume. It was quite fun putting it together. I already owned the vest, jewelry, one of the belts, leggings, and boots. I bought the shirt and the other two belts at a thrift store for a few dollars, the skirt at a different thrift store for $6, and the aviator goggles at a costume store for $14.

 

That's actually a watch, not a choker--I used
thread to tie it around my neck. :)

 

October Films

 

The Flash
My siblings and I finished season 1. Oh. My. Goodness. This show is just amazing. I can honestly call it a favorite (shhh, I know I haven't watched oodles of shows to begin with). This season ended spectacularly, leaving me satisfied and in agony at the same time. I'm really going to have to make a separate post on this show just to flail over the characters and twisty plot.

 

 

Once Upon a Time (Seasons 1 and 4)
My sisters and I almost finished season 4 during October (!!), and we're about a third of the way into season 1 with our parents. So much is happening in 4, and it's still fun going back to the first season and getting a "before and after" snapshot of the characters.

 

 

Tron: Legacy
My brother's college ministry area is media, so he has a number of movies to watch as homework. Tron: Legacy looked like one of the more interesting ones, so I watched it with him. It had some cool things about it, like the main character being a young adult rather than the typical teen, going into a digital world, Light Cycles, identities contained in discs, etc. But the plot itself was rather clichéd, and the only main female character was pretty two-dimensional.

October Reads

The Dream Thieves // Maggie Stiefvater
I loved this one, but not . . . completely. It's a complicated issue, much like the first book. I adored Maggie's writing style. I loved the characters. (Gansey and Adam, man.) But the language bothered me again, and Ronan--who was more of a focal character this time around--did some stupid things. There was a middle chunk of the book where I was fed up with him, but then things turned around and made more sense and he made better decisions and a certain somebody got what was coming to him. So yeah. Also the occult stuff from the first book was less occult-y in this one, with more of a fantasy flavor to it, which I appreciated. (It's less real and less weird that way.)


Honestly, though, aside from Ronan's temporary stupidity and the foul language, THIS BOOK IS BEAUTIFUL. I'm so excited to keep reading the series!

Into the Wild // Erin Hunter


This was a reread. The first time I read it was yeeeaaars ago, and I remember loving it until I read further in the series and realized that the astrology-type thing with StarClan was not the best thing to be reading about, and quit. (The idea is that the warrior cats become stars when they die, and living cats seek guidance from the stars.) The only reason I picked up Into the Wild again was to screen it for my youngest sister. It's been a long time since I made the decision to quit these books, so I thought it might be wise to re-evaluate, since she wanted to check them out . . . but I don't think my conclusion has changed.


I will say, however, that the writing was less wonderful than I remembered, but the plotline--once it got past the initial tropes--was still fairly engaging.

Writer to Writer: From Think to Ink // Gail Carson Levine


I have been slowly picking my way through this book for an embarrassingly long time. I think it's been a year? Maybe more? Not that it was hard to read--quite the opposite, in fact. I was just reading a couple chapters at a time here and there between novels.


Anyway, this is Gail Carson Levine's second writing advice book. (I also have Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly on my bookshelf.) Writer to Writer is written simply, but in an engaging way that boils down the elements of storytelling into easy-to-grasp sections. I found plenty of good reminders within these pages. Unlike the first book, a lot of the material was adapted from her blog, a valuable resource I've been reading for years.

Eagle Strike // Anthony Horowitz


As the fourth installment in the Alex Rider series, this one broke the mold in some ways, which was a nice change after three very similar books. It still required some suspension of belief when fourteen-year-old Alex runs around pulling James Bond-like stunts (this kid probably should have died three books ago), but it's still an entertaining read. I enjoyed the video game element, which I can't elaborate on without spoiling things, and I had the satisfaction of halfway predicting a plot twist.

 

Book Haul
Three cheers for second-hand books! I shopped around at the annual book faire, and came home with some fabulous finds.

 

• The Lost Road and Other Writings // J.R.R. Tolkien
• A Hero's Throne // Ross Lawhead (I forgot that I already own a brand-new copy of this book. *sigh*)
• Inkdeath // Cornelia Funke
• Mockingjay // Suzanne Collins
• Allegiant // Veronica Roth (I guess it was the day for YA trilogy finales!)

October Writing

The Prophet's Key advanced by exactly 1,911 words this month. Yep, that's it. I also started working on a character questionnaire by Kristen Kieffer @ She's Novel for Aileen, but didn't get very far. When I actually have the time/take the time to fill out those questions for all my main characters, I have a feeling it could rescue my novel. I've been strangely struggling to connect to my characters, so reviving them should revive me.

And I wrote The Cage, a 1,612 word spooky story. Quite fun to exercise my writing muscles on something with no expectations put on myself!

Altogether, this adds up to only 3.5k words written in October. Of course I would've liked to have written more, but at the same time, I've been doing lots of living lately, and that's just as important. (Not gonna lie, though, everyone's NaNo excitement and wordcounts and progress makes me a teensy bit jealous! One day, you guys, one day I'll join you . . .)

And that, questers, was October.

I'd say it was a pretty solid month. Many subplots going on, lots of personal growth, some good books and shows . . . just very little writing. But Christmas break is coming. Eventually.

How was your October? Did anybody dress up? What's one

thing you learned last month? And who's all participating

in NaNoWriMo? (You guys rock! Keep pushing on!)