Yes, I’m Somehow Getting Into a Bad Habit of Not Posting// A Little About My NaNo Novel

Guess who’s back? Here’s a hint- it’s meeee!

I don’t think you want to know what’s been up with me this December. I did only one other post and then went on another of my uninformed breaks and now it’s almost new year day. Well, I’ve been lazy and travelling and also reading quite a bit, so let’s just say I have all rights to be excused.

I had quite some time debating whether or not I should do this, but… let’s just say I’m going to grit my teeth and get over with it, okay?

TODAY, YOU WILL FIND OUT WHAT MY CURRENT WIP IS ABOUT.

And no, I’m not doing it this late because my novel is so epic that I want to be dramatic about it, it’s just that I was afraid everything would go wrong and my idea would be a total flop to the world.

I guess I’ll leave it for you to decide.

Without further ado, I present…

 

temporary cover that took ages to make

 

The easiest way to tell you what this is about would be in a form of a questionnaire or something, right? And since it’s obviously REALLY late and everyone feels November was ages ago, you may not actually have bothered to think of these questions yourself. SO, as a special surprise, I’m asking them to myself!! I know I’m a genius.

Here goes nothing…

This is a story of, among other things, courage of a different kind. It highlights the need for mental bravery, readiness to make shocking choices for the sake of not the greater good but for yourself. It is about deciding what you want to live- and die- for, when you know that the world cannot be changed in the time you have.

It as about war, and division, and relations, about learning to handle the unexpected turns life takes. It is about the simple joys of living, and most importantly, about discovering the true meaning of peace.

Synopsis

“Some things in life change people. Like war, I suppose.”

Eighteen-year-old Kestrel Mark’s carefree life along the borders of the proud country of Lieto begins to fade as rumors of war with its neighbor, Iskra, start spreading through the village. When consequences lead her to the capital of Rivercrest, her life intervenes with that of Bailey Harper, a friend she never intended to make. Together they take an insufferable decision, one which can rouse hope between the nations… or turn Kestrel into someone she never wanted to become.

A story of humanity, choices and war- both internal and external.

Well, the confusing part is that most of my characters are girls, and I have no idea how I should be feeling about that. I mean, I personally don’t like too much of a gender in a book.

The point is, this story is brimming with females. The main character, whose POV the book is in, is Kestrel Mark (Mark is an acronym which you will never be able to decode *sniggers*). And then there are the other MCs, Bailey and Jasmine (who’s named after a stuffed toy… but that’s another story).

There are backstories behind how the three of them met. Jas is like Kestrel’s childhood friend and Bailey is someone she meets while training for war. And then there are Ketrel’s siblings. There’s the sister, Avery,  and the brother, Warner. And Sierra Blake, the trainer. And the old bookstore owner Mr Vellichor. Yeah, I had inspiration for the name.

There’s the president, Azalea Wolf, and the other president who doesn’t matter. There’s a certain Dave Unknown-Last-Name, a Mr McCartney and his weirdo son Sven. And there is Sven’s son, Riley. And there’s this guy who Mark nicknames Blondie and his kids Abriel and Conner. And there are other little characters who I have never named.

They’ve all got bits of me in them, they are blends of my own personality, a patchwork of things that are me and not me at the same time. But that’s for another day.

Here’s an aesthetic, just because I’m feeling good today-

 

photo credit to the internet

 

This is the best part! I love being able to ignore all the cringy bits and focus on what I love about this story for a change. They aren’t even that many, but that’s okay, I guess.

>introducing mccartney<

>priceless reaction<

>dreaming of somewhere<

>bedhead<

>dinner blues<

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Before I end, I want to thank each and every single one of you awesome people for sticking with me through my absence- thank you SO MUCH, guys! I hope to see you again soon, assuming that I manage to pull off the next post I have planned.

P.S: Be sure to visit TWW’s InkCraft Cover poll! Voting ends on January 10th 2018.

So over to you now… what do you think? *fingers crossed*

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The Great Comeback: How I Survived NaNoWriMo 2017

So apparently someone hasn’t been here in a long while. And you noticed. Or maybe you didn’t notice and just sat there munching cookies (I want some) while my fingers tap-danced for hours together all November, but that’s a different story.

Well, dancing ain’t really my thing in the first place, and so you may ask how on earth I survived this month, but I have my answer ready for you. I HAD HELP.

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Firstly, let me tell you why I needed help.

1. My plot was cringy
2. My plot was cringy and
3. My plot was cringy.

It’ll be a bit until I reveal it, but the only thing I knew about it was that there is a someone (I didn’t even know that someone’s gender, but that’s not the point) who is desperate to help her family stay alive when she (and then I decided it’d be a girl) is called to war and there is no one left to feed them. And then she does some really weird things for them and ends up messing her own life up.

But nooo that just didn’t work. I had no idea what that idea meant. I needed something more heart-wrenching, something more writable, something I’d actually want to write. Very unlike Random Idea That’s Never Going To Work. So I told my mom about it. AND THEN WE CAME UP WITH THE MOST FABULOUS PLOT EVER AND I WAS AWAKE ALL NIGHT THINKING ABOUT IT.

But then I realised the plot had no ups and downs and we’d just come up with the skeleton of the story. That’s where my genius friend comes in, who we will call R for now.

R was the most amazing and supportive friend ever. When I first told her I was going to write a novel in November she said great, what’s it about? And then I knew it would kill me but I told her anyway. And all through she actually looked interested. That was more than I could’ve hoped for.

But THEN she said, “Hey, I think this should happen.” And then she said, “I think that should happen.” And then she gave me a bunch of ideas and my head was screaming. This was going to be the best novel I’d ever written. So, kids, that’s how help saved my life. The end.

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Now that the backstory’s done we come to the frontstory- how did November go? Well, to be honest, I had expected much worse.

Before the start of the month I saw a lot of articles on how terribly treacherous it was going to be and I got a tad bit misguided, so I decided not to go for the full 50k. I set 35k as my personal goal and as the month passed… I realised it was easier than I’d thought. But I still wasn’t sure. So I kept going on my 35k goal, but when I finished the story, I was SO close to 50k it was killing me.

As a novelist I’m terribly inexperienced, and 48k may sound like child’s play to so many. I know people who can write 10k in a day. Leaving aside the fact that I could never have done that, my longest streak in a day was 3.5k which is good enough for me.

Let me guess- now you want to know what it’s about.

But nope. I’m evil that way. 😈 But someday I will. Until that someday… well, have fun waiting, I guess.

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Apart from all this, things have been going on when I was away, which includes a lot of design orders and also some stalling thrown in, but all in all, this month was amazing. You know how sometimes the truest of friends are the most difficult to get? Well, the most productive of months need you to shed the most tears.

Until next time, amigos! I’ll leave you with a digitally made portrait of my awesome MC, Kestrel. I don’t know about you, but I bet my future self is going to think it’s horrifying. And yes, I did the grunge effect myself.

You might also want to check out the reopening/reclosing post I wrote for DPS here.

P.S: So how did you survive NaNo (assuming that you did)? Did you have help too? What’s your novel about? Do you want to know more about mine?

Long Time No Art// Artist Interview with Buttercup@ Typically Untypical Teen

I’ve been busy. Don’t roll your eyes now.

Things have been going on, I’m so happy about all the support I’m getting for Design Pique, and that’s been keeping me very occupied, so I haven’t posted for some three weeks.

But I had to get back here and patch things up, and art is very helpful when it comes to patching up, so there.

I have not been completely unproductive around art, but I also decided to put in some other ones I did earlier this year. Enough said. And before I get started with that, I want to put in that I’m going to have zero posts this November. But maybe after I’ll post about how it went, so there’s something to look forward to.

I was also supposed to do a post for the Ode to Zella tour, but I don’t have enough time to do a different post for it, so I’ll just be leaving a link.

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Today I’m having an art collab with Buttercup from Typically Untypical Teen. I’m sure you didn’t guess. 🙄

Recently I designed Buttercup’s blog as a DPS  project (find the Overview here– Behind the Screens coming soon) and after I was done with it I asked her about this. This will be a five-question interview, and I’m going to answer art-related questions she set for me- you can find her answers to my questions in this post, and you might as well give a follow.

Well, here we go!

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Will art be a part of your future occupation?

Will? I don’t know. May? Absolutely.

Being a full-time artist is not something I’m thinking of, but yes, I want my profession to have something to do with art. As a designer, though currently non-professional,  I’m sure that someday I’m going to have to stop using graphics from the net and start turning my own art into some. And, well, whether or not I’m going to be a designer by profession, art is still going to be a major hobby.

Who’s your role model in the artist community?

To be frank, I don’t know all that many inspiring painters. Wow.

But there is this one person on Instagram who does the most amazing double exposure paintings and I want to paint like her someday and JUST LOOK AT THAT. *sighs*

 

source

Realism or Cartoon?

I don’t have a problem with either, I showed you my hand in cartooning in this post, but I feel realism works better for me. My personal style is more into fine art, mandalas and zentangle, which I’ve posted about a couple hundred times.

Faber Castell or Prismacolor?

Prismacolor is amazing. I’ve seen art being done with it and it works magic. But I don’t even remember using it. I used something like that in my cousin’s place and I’m not even sure it was Prismacolor but STILL IT’S THE BEST AND THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. *snorts*

What are your three best projects?

Hahahhaaa this question was freaking me out the whole time 😂

Pinterest inspired:

From this post:

… Aaand my best take on realism:

The black thing’s a pencil, in case you were wondering.  

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Well, that’s all for today! Hope you enjoyed that, and wish all my fellow NaNoers a very happy November- oh, in case you need a recap why the world is stressing out about it so much, it’s because we’re all perfectionists too arrogant to admit our work is not a lump of fungus. Chop chop. End of story.

Check out this insanely relatable NaNo post from Ruby Sky and Gracie’s lovely post about her experience with Design Pique! All gifs are taken from the net, so credits go to their respective owners.

Yours,
Mukta

P.S: Have you ever used Prismacolor? What are your plans for November? Do you have any watercolour tips or any artists you know who are worth checking out? If you’re an artist, link some of your art, and I may share it in my next post in December!