"Unspoken" Piano Composition

I pointed out before that I love piano music and that it can be so touching. I also love listening to piano music when writing stories. It is easier to get inspired by this kind of music than songs that have lyrics in them, for the simple reason that I start listening (and sometimes sing along) to the lyrics and get distracted from what I was actually doing.

I recently came by the composition below, "Unspoken". It is from a fellow writer whom I've gotten to know via Go Teen Writers. Leah is only 17 years old and composed and played this piece herself. The first time I heard it I was totally awed by it. Isn't it gorgeous? If you want to know more on the inspiration for this piece, have a look at her blog.

My writing: the story so far

Can I just say a huge thanks for the comments on the '10 questions on my writing' blog? They were heart warming, really. Why I am mentioning that in this particular post? Because I'm going to give you guys another peek into my writing. This time though in the projects that I did before I started writing that story 'The golden heart'.

I actually had a lot of fun browsing through my old stories. The first one that I came by that I actually have saved as a word document (before I did some drabbling in notebooks and though they for sure might have had some nice elements, I never turned them into actual sotries) was called 'Miss & Mister Dance'. I started the story in 2006 so that is quite a while ago. It was about a girl, fancy, rich, into ball room dancing, and a guy, always getting into trouble, and the typical street dancer. Boy meets girl, fall in love, dance together and well I guess the ending is fairly predictable here. I enjoyed writing it though a lot. It had some inspiration from 'Step Up', hence the usage of Gina Rene's U Must Be in the story. The total word count was 18.761 words. Not bad I would say. I wrote the story in Dutch in case anyone would like to read it, though I think some of you might have read it actually when I wrote it that long ago.

Blog Hop: 10 questions on my writing

I got tagged for this lovely blog hop by Hannah. It is a blog hop about the book/story you are currently writing. So here we go, hope you guys will enjoy it! 

1: What is the working title of your book?

The current working title is 'The golden heart', though I'm not sure if that's the title I'll keep in the end.
 

2: Where did the idea come from for the book?
Fairly honest, I can't exactly remember anymore. I thought of something similar to this a long, long, long time ago. As in years and years ago. I never really started on writing it though, I'm not sure why. Only about a year ago I started to seriously jot down things about the story plot and the characters and well, right now I'm actually writing it.
 

3: What genre does your book come under?
Fantasy, that's one, as well as YA I think.
 

4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Ouch, that's a hard one. My female main character would come closest to this photo of Nina Dobrev (only her hair colour would be slightly different) and my main male character to this photo of Joseph Morgan. There is a third main male character in the story, but I haven't found a right actor for it yet. 

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? 
Caught up in her royal life, Aveline would have never thought it would be her destiny to reunite her people and restore the long-lost magic. 

6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?
None of the above yet.

7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I'm currently still working on the first draft and well since I started last year, that would be at least a year so far. 

8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? 
That is such a hard one. The first two that actually came to mind was 'The Mortal Instruments' series of Cassandra Clare and Trudi Canavan's 'The Magician's apprentice', though I would hardly dare to compare my own story to fabulous stories like that.

 

9: Who or what inspired you to write this book?
There are a lot of writers that I admire which goes from world famous writers such as J.K. Rowling to indie authors. Inspiration definately comes from authors like them. Though my best friend, Yasmine, is definately a source of insipartion as well as she reads along with what I write and now and then, when needed, urges me to keep going!

10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
It is my first story that I'm actually writing that is completly my own. Previous I used to write a lot of fanfiction, but this is really mine. Further? The story will have elements of magic, war and definately some love as well. Oh and definately let me know if you want to hear more about it and I'll do a couple of more posts on the story.

To pass on this blog hop, I'm tagging the following awesome people. If I haven't tagged you and still wish to answer the questions, feel free to do so!
Aidyl
Ikhlas
Emily

Guest Post by Rachel Harris: Getting to know your characters

Thank you so much, Arlette, for inviting me here today. I love talking about the craft of writing. I love losing myself in topics like theme and plot and character. In fact, the pre-writing phase is always my favorite part of the entire process.

And getting to know my characters just makes me giddy.

They become real people to me. I never begin a manuscript without feeling as though I know my characters inside and out. I want to know how they will react to any situation I throw at them, what their brand of humor is, how they hold themselves, and how they see the world. To show this, I thought I’d give you a glimpse into how I got to know my characters for one of my first manuscripts, a YA Contemporary Romance coming out next year with Spencer Hill Contemporary.

This story is dual POV, so I had two main characters. I went the most in-depth with these two, and each of them probably had about ten pages of information. I used Noah Lukeman's The Plot Thickens, 8 Ways To Bring Fiction To Life, along with some of my own ideas, to create their backstory, motivations, likes and dislikes, etc. This is also where I described their friends and family, who make up my minor characters. At this point, I also gave those characters their own backstories, and decided things like hair and eye color, etc;

Guest Author Jade Varden: Don’t Rush into Writing the First Draft

Welcome to the first Guest blog here on my blog. It's written by author Jade Varden and it's all about Writing a First Draft of a story. Check out below the amazing article she wrote with some good tips out there!

Write now, edit later. This is a common piece of advice that's very freely dispensed to writers on forums, through social media and in helpful blog posts that offer advice. But sometimes, it's the worst possible advice a writer could get. It's true that writing your first draft is a little bit like vomiting words on a page, but if you actually want to end up with a workable final draft you can't just spit sentences out at random. 

Yes, authors, there is stuff you've got to do before you ever sit down to write that first draft. I know, because I've learned the lesson the hard way...many times over. 

Just Write It

Just get the words on the page, and worry about the rest later. I've seen this piece of advice parroted everywhere, and I've suffered for it. Because I've tried that...and I've learned that it doesn't really work. 

On paper, the advice makes sense. Writers are supposed to write, so just sit down and write. Right? Wrong. If you don't have an idea of what you're going to write about, you're just wasting your time. There's stuff you need to do before you start writing that first draft. If you don't, you're liable to get stuck, or come out with a book that's not at all well-crafted and filled with weird plot holes.

It's sort of like getting in a car and just driving, without paying any attention to street signs. You don't have any idea where you're going to end up -- maybe a luxury neighborhood, maybe in a dangerous area, maybe in the country, maybe in the factory district. But one thing is certain: you're going to take a bunch of unnecessary turns along the way, maybe even run into a few dead-end streets. You might backtrack, and cover some of the same streets twice. Why? Because you don't know where the heck you're going!

And you'll end up doing the same sort of crap in your book if you just sit down and start to write for writing's sake. The ultimate goal is to end up with a tightly-written, exciting plot that hangs together and follows a plottable course from Chapter 1 to The End. Going in a bunch of random directions on the way there is only going to waste the reader's time, and yours when you're trying to edit all that mess later on. 

So don't just write it. Build your first draft foundation first. 

Fundamentals

Every book starts with a single idea. Some writers think of a setting first, or maybe a situation. Some might be inspired by the idea of a character, or a crime, or maybe even a romance. I almost always think of the end of a book, and then figure out how it happened by trying to work backwards. No matter what your idea may be, before you write it you need to figure out a few things.

• Outline: This should be one of the first pieces you create when you're thinking about writing a book. The outline can be as detailed or as vague as you like. Its main purpose is to help you define some sort of structure for your story. Start at the beginning of the book and go to the end to create an outline, thinking about your book in broad strokes. Some writers like to outline by chapter, writing a short summary of what should happen in each until they reach the end. 
• Characters: You've got to know who the main characters are, and you've got to figure out their names. How old are they, what do they look like, and what are their main characteristics? If you don't think about this now, it's just going to become a huge stumbling block when you attempt to write the first draft. I like to make a character list for each of my books in a separate document, so I can access it whenever I like.
• Setting: Figure out where your characters are. Know your setting before you start writing, because it will come up in the course of the first draft. You can't picture the world your characters live in if you have no idea where it is. 

Once you have all your fundamentals covered, you're in great shape. You're ready to write your first draft, so go ahead! You now have everything you need to create a really good one.

About the Author

Jade Varden writes young adult novels for teen readers. When she’s not crafting mysteries in her books, Jade also blogs practical writing tips for authors who self-publish. Jade currently makes her home in Louisville, Kentucky, where she enjoys reading and reviewing indie books by other self-published authors. Follow her on Twitter @JadeVarden. Visit Jade’s blog at jadevarden.blogspot.com for reviews, writing tips, self-publishing advice and everything else you ever wanted to know about reading and writing books.

Jade on Amazon || Jade on Goodreads

Writing Challenge: Great First Lines

Some of you might know that how much I love writing. I've been participating in a writing community for a while now, which is aimed at young writers (Go Teen Writers), besides the site they have a great Facebook community as well. I did a post on a writing challenge of GTW before, which can be found here.

The writing challenge this time had as theme 'Great First Lines', and yes that meant exactly what it says: writing a great first line of a story and literally just one line. It turned out I had a bit of a problem with keeping it to just one line. That was found in the feedback I had received as it was a bit too "wordy". Below the two entries that I handed in (you were allowed to hand in up till three), along with the feedback I received on it.
Would love to hear from you guys which one you like (and why) and if you have any other tips on it. Thanks guys!

Dantes kneeled down in front of the throne of the High Lady, ready to hear what quest it would be that was going to change his - and that from everyone else he knew - life.

Feedback:
This sentence has a unique twist that I like.
This sentence hints at a much bigger story to come.
This gives me a clear idea on who the point of view character is.
I think this sentence is too long - consider breaking it into several or using more punctation to make it stronger.

The room was only lit by a few candles, that were forming a path towards the throne of the High Lady, towards his quest that would be one of life changing proportions.

Feedback:
This sentence hints at a much bigger story to come.
I think this sentence is too long - consider breaking it into several or using more punctation to make it stronger.
This feels too wordy.

Writing Challenge: 'Why did we come here?'

Some of you might know that how much I love writing. I've been participating in a writing community for a while now, which is aimed at young writers (Go Teen Writers), besides the site they have a great Facebook community as well.

One of the parts of the community is the writing challenges they have. You get a subject/line on which you have to write a small part with a maximum amount of words. The last one, in which I participated as well, had as a subject 'Why did we come here?' You had to use that line and you could write a maximum of 110 words, those were the only restrictions.

Today I received my feedback on the piece and I would love to hear more feedback on it from you guys to improve my writing. Unfortunately I didn't make the top 20, but the more it stimulates to keep on improving my writing!

‘Why did we come here?’ I asked him for the second time, but still he remained silent. I let my eyes wander, just for a second, over the high dangerous chalk-cliffs that stood off against the green of the peaceful forest that we had left behind. I turned back to Damien to face him. ‘Why did we come here?’ I demanded for the third time now. He looked up at me, his face as cold as the chalk-cliffs facing me along with him. ‘Don’t talk, walk.’ He demanded as he pushed me towards cliffs that held the secret of my fate.

The feedback I got on it was that A) the description was very good, but that B) I used repetitive words. I know I've had that feedback before and it seems to be something I do quite often when writing. Does any of you have any other suggestios/remarks on it or tips to avoid repetitive writing, let me know!

My Passion: Writing

Some of you might know how much I love to write, either because you have read the introduction to this blog or simply because I told you or maybe because you have (once) read any of my drabbles/fanfictions. I really like doing drabbles/short stories and fanfictions, but my real dream would be to ever publish my own novel. I have some ideas, which I have had for a very long time, but that is something that is in real beginning phases so that is not really what this blog is going to be about.

You might wonder, then what is it going to be about? As someone who is Dutch, my English isn't perfect. I know my English improved a lot over the years, but there will always be flaws as it is not my mother tongue. However, the real dream for me would be not to only publish a novel, but actually write it in English, simply because I like the language a lot more and everything I write just sounds better in English.

My biggest problem when writing in English, however, is explaining. I can sometimes realy envision a particular scene, but have trouble to put it down in words. Therefore, I got the idea to publish some writing exercises here and I would be absolutely delighted if you guys could leave a reaction, either positive or negative, all very much welcome! Any other comments about blogs or sites that have great writing tips etc., very much appreciated as well.

Avelyn walked through the forest, knowing she was alone here. The idea was both assuring and haunting at the same time. The slim, but tall trees always casted long shadows at twilight, which frightened her. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, casting out all the shadows that were surrounding her. Now that the shadows weren't present for her anymore, she could concentrate on all the good things around her. She could feel the grass playfully tickling against her bare feet and the soft breeze playing with her long blond hair.
Avelyn deeply breathed in and out, giving the nature the pleasure of calming her down. If she listened very carefully she could hear the water rattling down the rocks, which was the most perfect sound for her right now. The waterfall had to be close by, peace and safety was close by.
Her eyes snapped open, her feet moving as fast as they could, to go back to what she had been searching for, for so many hours after she got lost in the woods, home.

Alright as mentioned above, any comments on my writing style, way of describing, please leave it all in the comments, every comment will be very very much appreciated. If you leave a comment feel free to leave your Twitter, Blog, Site or anything as well, so I can leave some nice credits/thank you's over time. Thank you guys and hope to do this soon again!

Vampire Diaries Drabbles

As some of you let me know that you liked the previous drabbles of The Vampire Diaries, here's the first follow up. The first one is a little Salvatore Bromance as requested by Darlene. The second one is Klaroline, I'll do some Stelena/Delena next time again ;)

Team Salvatore
'So you really think this is going to work out?' Damon asked his younger brother Stefan, who raised his eyebrows in confusion.
'What do you mean?' He asked.
'Well this whole, you are a bad vampire ripper now. It's not very convincing.'
'You always told me you didn't like me eating bunnies and now you are scoffing me as not being good a the bad guy, jeez Damon thanks.' Stefan said to his brother and turned back to his drink. Damon let out a chuckle on his brother's reaction.
'You just have to act a little bit more like me Stefan.' Stefan straightened up and looked at Damon.
'Alright let me try this. So, Stefan, you shouldn't always be eating bunnies, it is really not healthy for you.' Stefan mimicked his brother. Damon laughed.
'You really have to work on that, Stefan. You are by far not as good yet.' He smirked.
'Prove that you are better in mimicking me then.' Stefan challenged Damon.
'You shouldn't always be killing people, Damon. Squirrels are a much better solution.' Stefan laughed.
'That was really bad, Damon.' Damon smirked and held up his glass, klincking it againt Stefan's when he held it up.
'To very bad impressions.' Damon said.
'I drink to that.' Stefan agreed.

Klaroline
Klaus looked around. He was sure Caroline would be somewhere at the 1920's party, for sure she wouldn't miss a party. His eye caught a lot of people he rather wasn't around, The Salvatores, Tyler Lockwood. He kept scanning the crowd till he saw her blond hair waving through the crowd. He could make out the bright red flapper dress he had bought for her and was surprised to see her wearing it at all, but maybe this was only to give him hope he shouldn't be having in the first place.
'Caroline.' Klaus said as he approached her. She turned around to face Klaus, though she didn't seem to happy to see him. 'You look wonderful in the dress.'
'I didn't have anything else to wear.' Caroline told him. 'So don't get your hopes up.'
'Caroline, there you are.' Tyler interrupted them and looked at Klaus with a bit of a suspicious look. He didn't like him always trying to hit on his girl, but with his sire bond to him, he didn't have too much choice.
'Tyler, you obviously wouldn't mind if I take Caroline for a dance?' Klaus could almost feel the tension build up between them, but he seemed to care less and was satisfied when he saw Tyler shake his head.
Caroline looked from Tyler to Klaus. 'Right.' She muttered and walked of with Klaus to the dance floor.
'I don't know why you keep trying this, Klaus. I'm obviously not in to you.' Caroline said a he spun her around. Klaus smiled at her in return.
'What isn't can alway come, Caroline. Besides, you just need to start realizing that this all won't be enough for you.' Caroline snorted. 'I have plenty of time, love, I can wait.' He spun her around again and held her for a second afterward, their eyes locking for a split second, before Caroline stepped back and walked away without saying another word, leaving Klaus behind.

Delena, Stelena... Klaroline?

Alrigh, so as promised I'll try to keep this blog as up to date as possible and try to keep it interesting at the same time, so even though I have still some books lined up to be reviewed, I will not only keep doing that, because you guys must get bored at one point of that I guess.

In my first post I asked if you guys wanted to read some drabbles of mine and I got possitive comments on that, so let's do it (you can always so NO still if you do not like it at all, haha). I will do some 'Vampire Diaries' drabbles to start of with as I got requests for those. Klaroline (Klaus & Caroline) and Delena (Damon & Elena) seemed to be favourite for drabbles, so I'll do those combined with a little Stelena (sorry, I'm more of a Stefan person). I won't make it real stories, but some follow up sequences. Let me know if you like them (or not) and if you want to read more ;)



Just to be sure, I do not own any of the characters mentioned below in the drabbles, neither the parts that are based on the real TV Serie.

Stelena/Delena (Team Salvatore?)
I let the story drabbles happen somewhere during S3 of the actual serie, but the events may be different or in a different order.'Stefan?' Elena whispered quietly when she saw Stefan. She knew she wouldn't have much time until Damon would come out of the bar again, or until Klaus would interrupt them and that for sure couldn't happen, because then he would know she was still alive.
Stefan turned when hearing the so known sound of Elena's voice. Everything inside him felt twisted when he looked at the girl he loved so intensely. He could feel himself lighten up for a moment, but that all dissapeared again with the same pace it had came.
'You shouldn't be here Elena.' His voice was hard and stern. He believed every single word he said, though he didn't want it to be true. Klaus couldn't find out she was here or she would die and he had promised her over and over to do everything to keep her safe. Though all these words didn't seem to come out.
Elena rushed over to Stefan. She didn't care what he was saying, she wanted him to come back home. She walked over to him, leaning in and kissing him.
Stefan had the feeling everything bursted inside him, but mind took over heart and pushed Elena of him. 'You shouldn't be here.' He said harsh, keeping her off. He could almost feel all the pain that he caused her, but it was for the better. 'Now go back home with Damon and stay there.' He turned around and walked off, hearing Elena starting to sob behind him.



'Elena?' Damon walked into the living room from the Salvatore mansion. It was about three o'clock at night and he had been sure Elena had gone off to bed, but now he heard her downstairs. Elena looked up to him, her eyes all puffy.
'He isn't coming back, is he?' Elena asked Damon, referring to Stefan. She hadn't able to sleep since the moment Stefan had walked out on her, neither had she stopped crying, even though tears had stopped flowing a while ago. 'He has to come back.' She added in a whisper.
Damon walked over to Elena. He wanted to take her in his arms and comfort her, but getting comfort from the brother of the one she was crying over wasn't really going to help the case, he knew that much.
'I'm going to do everything in my power to get my little brother back, Elena.' He reassured her. I would do it all of it, for him, but most surely for you as well Elena.
Elena smiled a little, faint smile, but it was the most she had done as much as smiling in the past time. 'Thank you.' She whispered to Damon.

Klaroline (Goo... Originals!)'I really do not know what to wear.' Rebekah exclaimed as she showed of the million dress in front of Klaus. 'They really do not have proper clothes that suit a party thrown with a theme of the 1920's, where has the style of all these women gone off to.' Klaus rolled his eyes, only half paying attention to his sister, while he sipped champagne, waiting for her to be ready.
'Just pick something, sister love.' He said, without looking up. 'I'm sure you will look dashing as always.' Rebekah grunted a little and walked over to her brother.
'Don't be like that, Nik. I'm pretty sure if this was about a dress for that Caroline girl you seem to chase, you would be all ears and eyes.' Rebekah didn't like Caroline at all and the new interest from her brother for her, was even less to her likes. That girl was ruining her family.
'Don't be such a mood killer, sister.' Klaus said, badly wanting to change the subject. 'Today was going to be a day for siblings, as you wanted so badly.' He said and saw Rebekah smile a little, knowing he had succeeded as much as was necessary. When Rebekah returned back to fitting more dresses, Klaus got up and went to the counter where he made sure the dress was send out today, that was meant for Caroline, together with the hand written note, that asked her to save some time for him tonight.



Did you guys liked it, hated it? Should I never do this ever again? Any requests from 'The Vampire Diaries' or other series/movies/books? Let me know in the comments!