The Creative Blogger Award

I started this blog in November of 2014. So I have only been blogging for about seven months now. I had just started to wonder, "Does anyone really read any of this? Am I just talking to empty cyberspace?" Then the wonderful Heather from Sometimes I'm a Story nominates me for the Creative Blogger Award! I feel like the new kid in town who's been invited over for a party! Thank you so much, Heather! And now, on to the main event.

 

The rules:

 

~ Nominate 15-20 blogs and notify all nominees via their social media/blogs

~ Thank and post the link of the blog that nominated you (very important)

~ Share 5 facts about yourself with your readers

~ Pass the rules on to them.

 

I already share a lot of facts about myself with you guys on my About Me page. So I decided to pause before I repeated myself and think about what would be really interesting. Heather had a superb idea with her list of facts, so I'm going to unashamedly copy her idea of giving you a list of Creative facts about myself.

 

• I've kept a dream journal for over five years now

I don't know about y'all, but I have some pretty vivid dreams. Lots of them are really nice but some of them are world-class nightmares. And I remember them all in detail for several hours after waking up. Instead of keeping a physical journal (don't hate me!) I use an app called "Dreams". So original right? But really, the app is wonderful. I may have been keeping the dream journal since 2010, but there are dreams in there that were so powerful that I remembered them from when I was a little girl. When I kept having so many vivid dreams I started doing research into the meanings behind dreams and what they tell you about your state of mind. It's really cool stuff! I even based a short story called "The Girl and the Bee" off of one of my dreams. Maybe one day I'll post the story here. What do y'all think?

• I've been text-RP'ing for...well a long time

That means I make stories with other people through texts. You've heard of forum-based role playing? It's the same thing except through text. I don't know how many years exactly I've been doing it so I'm just going to say a long time. It started when I friend of mine from a forum RP wanted to try out a couple of our charries in an AU (alternate universe) from the one they were in. So I said, "Why not? That should be fun!" Years later....those charries have gotten married and we've played out around five generations of action since then and we're still going strong. All through text! I should really write a post about this one day. It's taught me a lot of things about writing!

• I like to tell stories through cave drawings

 

Y'all ever seen real cave art? If you haven't then you need to check out my Stone Canvas Articles Parts One and Two. But moving on...I like drawing out stories like ancient people did. The stylized animals and people really inspire me. At first I tried drawing pictographs like the Anasazi of Southwest North America did. But then I kinda branched out to whatever spoke to me. I'm obsessed with ancient cultures so go figure. There's an example of one of my original paintings to the right.

 

• I only become inspired when I'm trying to sleep

I've heard this might be a thing with writers? Anyone else suffer with this? I love sleep. I mean, I really love being able to go to bed on time and drift off to blissful sleep....but then I'm suddenly struck with the perfect way to do such and such in my story! So I spend the next half hour mentally playing everything out in my head. Sometimes I even talk it out loud till I like the sounds of all the words. I grab my phone and write it all down in Evernote. Then I can't go to sleep anymore because the ideas won't leave me alone!

 

 

• I'm afraid of people looking over my shoulder and reading my writing

I really don't know why. But when I'm writing with pen and paper I just don't want people reading over my shoulder! So I developed this habit where I write in cursive (a dying art) in super small print and in several columns down the page, with the first column on the right side and moving to the left side. Sneaky system huh? My writing has been safe ever since! It's even backfired on me before when I wrote so fast I couldn't even understand it myself!

 

Well this has been extremly fun! I nominate....

Samantha @ The Writer's Nook

Emma @ Of Starry Knights and Lullabies

Katie Grace @ A Writer's Faith

Adelaide @ Down by the Willows

Mariesa @ The Strange and Unexplained Meo Bird

Katie @ the goodness revolt

Chloe @ Living on Literary Lane

Cait @ Paper Fury

Sunny @ A Splash of Ink

Christina @ christina writes

Sarah @ Inklined

(I only did 11. This only shows I need to find some more awesome blogs to read!)

 

By the by, if any of you have a blog you're crazy about, let me know cause I'd love to go and check it out! So does anyone else have vivid dreams? Any that have stayed with you for several years? Are there any more artists out there? One of these days I'm going to post more or my art on here.

 

 

 

 

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Monthly Highlights: May 2015

 

Welcome to the Highlights from May 2015! If you haven't been a regular guest then you can check here to get a summary of what's going on in Forgotten Featherpen. This month I was very proud of myself for posting consistantly once a week. Next month maybe I'll do better. But for now let's take a look at what's gone on.

 

 

Here are the blog posts from this month. If you missed one then feel free to drop in and see what you think. There should be lots of pretty buttons in the sidebar to help you suscribe to posts so you don't miss a single one.

• A Letter to Christian Readers and Writers
• Should I keep my Writing Secret?
• A Social Media Announcement
• Making My Plot Board

 

Another thing I'm really excited about is how Forgotten Featherpen has expanded in social media this month. Forgotten Featherpen is now on Pinterest, Instagram, and Bloglovin!

I spend a lot of time on my pinterest. It's where I collect inspiration for my book and characters (in secret boards hehe) and where I collect articles about Ancient Man. I also have several boards dedicated to the creative writing process. And now posts from Forgotten Featherpen have their own board too! You should check it out. One of these days I'll probably do a post on how I use Pinterest. What do y'all think?

 

 

 

If you're not a pinterest person (but you should still check it out because it's awesome) then you can follow Forgotten Featherpen on Instagram. There's many moments throughout the month where I feel inspired to write or when I learn something new about ancient man. Instagram is just another outlet to share that with you.

 

 

 

 

So if some of you haven't noticed yet....I'm a college student. I've been taking online classes all this time because I hope to be on an actual campus in the fall. About a week ago my last set of spring classes ended. I really enjoyed the classes. In fact it was my Freshman Comp II class that inspired the Christians and Creativity Series. But now that those classes are over I now have a full schedule of summer classes to take care of. There goes my summer! (lol) Two of the classes are American Lit and Western Thought and Culture so I'm sure I'll be inspired even if I'll be super busy this summer.

In other news my awesome brother came up from Florida to visit while he got some dental work done. We got to see Age of Ultron together. No Spoilers but.....You have to go see it! Awesome movie!

 

Also, before I let you go, here are some of the blog posts I came across this month that I really enjoyed reading. And you should check them out too and give these bloggers your lovin. :)

 

• Historical Fiction: The Basics @Of Starry Knights and Lullabies
• Music: How it can Change your Writing @The Strange and Unexplained Meo Bird
• Sickles and Pixpence: Deciding your Fantasy World's Currency @christina writes
• World-Building: The Fundamentals of a Civilization @The Penslayer

 

I guess that's it for now, y'all. If you have any thoughts about future posts or questions I'd love to hear them. Hope you all have a great start to your summer!

 

 

 

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Making My Plot Board

I've been inpsired recently by stuff I've seen on Pinterest about Plot Boards. Up until now I've tried to plot everything in my head and only write it down when I absolutely needed too. Obviously this is a very bad habit. So I decided to try out one of these plot board ideas that I've seen around and figure if it can help me move forward in my plot.

There are many, many ways you can go about making a plot board. I've heard that there are programs you can buy that will do it on the computer for you. But I'm currently on a strict budget so I opted for physical alternatives. I've seen some rather crafty people make their own board to organize their plot notes. Some people use a white board and some people just put sticky notes all over their walls. I decided I would go with a corkboard and pin post-it notes to it. I obsessed over this project for days until I could finally get to Walmart and buy everything.

I Bought:

1 24x36 inch bulletin board

4 pads of white Post-It Notes (much cheaper than buying different colors

1 set of Post-It "Flags"

I Also Used:

some highlighters

thumb tacks

favorite pens

plotting notebook

The purpose of a plot board, however you do it, is to get rid of all the stuff that's clogging up your thinking process. If you let plot ideas sit in your head they take up space. So if you're head is full of old ideas there's no room for new ideas. See? That's why you need a plot board. It's a good place to organize your ideas and see if there are any plot holes or arcs that you might not have noticed while they were sitting up there in your head.

I've figured out that I'm very much a planner, so once I happily bought everything and took it up to my room I had to stare at everything for a good hour before I had decided how to organize it. I have a changing setting in my story, plus six characters (at the moment) that participate in the plot. So I decided that I would arrange my plot board in a timeline left-to-right fashion. The left side would be where the story started and the right side would be where it ended.

I assigned highlighter colors to each character/setting and made a master list of those assignments in a seperate notebook. If I didn't have enough highlighter colors I assigned a colored flag to the minor characters. I took ideas from the plot notebook I have been keeping and got to work filling up the post-it notes. Each note represented an idea for a scene or an already formulated scene in the plot. I wrote them all out and then arranged them in chronological order from left to right in the line assigned to the note's character or setting. I wrote down any stray plot ideas and placed them along the timeline as well.

Isn't it beautiful? Now I got the chance to stand back and look at what I had so far. I was so proud of myself! A few months ago I could only say I had an idea for a story. Now look! I have part of a plot actually physically written down! Inwardly, I was doing the happy dance. Outwardly I probably still looked intensely serious as I studied my plot board.

Because my Dad has an aversion to putting holes in the walls I couldn't actually hang my beautiful board on the wall. But I have a lovely stool for it to sit on for now. The board's organization will probably change in the future, but for now it's important that I've done something to help myself move forward.

So how do you guys organize your plots? Do you have boards like I do or do you use your computer? I'd love to hear the different ways I could organize this plot board. I hope you all enjoy and have fun with your own! If you posted something about your own board I'd love to see it. Leave a link in the comments and I'll come visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A Social Media Announcement

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Hello Everyone!

This is just an announcement that Forgotten Featherpen is now on Bloglovin! I can't wait to really start using this application and I hope those of you who use the website will follow this blog.

As far as other Social Media Outlets for the blog, you can follow Forgotten Featherpen on Instagram and Pinterest! I hope you all enjoy and I look forward to connecting with you over Social Media.

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Should I keep my Writing Secret?

One of the purposes for this blog is to chronicle my journey to writing my first novel. So along the way I'm going to be posting little journal excerpts like this one. I actually journal a lot in my "real life" so this feels natural for me. So, welcome to my first Writing Journal Entry.

Should I keep My Writing Secret?

For the longest time, I can remember a struggle between sharing my writing and keeping it a secret. I'm a naturally introverted and secretive person so I keep a lot to myself. But there's also this popular thing I see going on around me called "sharing". I see writers on blogs, pinterest, and facebook all sharing their story ideas and their writing stats. Whenever I see this I constantly sway back and forth between wanting to spill everything about my story and keeping it private.

When I was younger I found it difficult to share my stories with others because they'd always look at me like I was odd. Nowadays I've accepted that I'm odd and I like it that way. But back then it was a real struggle! And whenever I told someone about my story ideas...it's like all my motivation for the story vanished afterward. It was as if I'd let something loose too soon and it flew away.

Obviously, because I started this blog, I do want to share my writing. But I also don't want to give it all away at the same time. I've been stuck with this dilemma for years!

I thought I was alone until I read K.M Weiland's article "Should You Keep Your Writing A Secret?" It changed everything!

From her perspective writing is a very personal endeavor. For the majority of the creative process, forseeing the plot, discovering the characters, and mentally living in the setting are all things that the author must do alone. If they let someone in before the proper time then they run the risk of losing what they were trying to discover within themselves. All it takes is one negative comment in the early stages of a project to completely kill the author's motivation. That's why Weiland thinks an author shouldn't reveal a story until a first draft is completed.

I whole-heartedly agree with what Weiland has to say in her article. I know I can't run the risk of exposing the essence of my story so early in it's development. I know myself well enough to know that it's too vulnerable right now. It's already taken me years to get to this point where I'm activly working on the story every day. So I've decided I'm not going to sabotage myself by revealing anything too early.

But what about this desire I have to connect with other readers and writers who share similar interests to mine? I'd like them to be excited about my story too as it grows. Now we come to one of the big reasons for this blog. Now that I'm in my twenties I finally realize that I need accountability if I'm going to get anything done. Posting regularly on a blog is a good form of accountability don't you think? I can publish each step of the process here and still keep a certain sense of secrecy about the project.

This is such an exciting prospect for me. I can stay true to my secretive nature and nothing is wrong with it! I can find the balance through the use of this blog and still connect with peolpe who share my passions for writing and the ancient world. Now that I'm all pumped up, I should get to work on my project!

 

 

 

 

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A Letter to Christian Readers and Writers

I may have said it before, but I love writing letters. That's why I've decided to write a letter to my fellow christian readers and writers out there. This will be the last installment of my Christians and Creativity Series. Within the series I've covered my thoughts on the origin of creativity from a Christian perspective, and how we should look at secular literature in a balanced way. I want to take the time now to wrap everything up by hopefully encouraging and challenging others like myself out there.

So this is for you, guys.

To my fellow Christian Readers,

Out of all the ways God could have shared Himself with us, He chose to do it through written word. God chose to use stories, letters, and a book. I think that's very special, don't you? Stories are powerful things. They are a wonderful form of communication where the author is speaking directly from their heart to the heart of the reader. In a way, when you read a book, you're taking part of a grand conversation between human hearts that spans generations.

Reading is more than simply a passtime. The books we love are like old friends aren't they? Friends we've grown up with and take with us to each new phase of life. Other books are like our new besties that we're still freaking out over. I would never discourage you from reading.

But maybe I would discourage you from reading things that are not worth your time. Time is so precious. When I was younger I would read anything. I had way too much spare time and an insatiable imagination to feed. I read good books that had great themes and great writing. But I also picked up books that, looking back, were useless fluff. I'm in college now and I have tons of things yanking for my time and attention every day. I can't waste time on fluff books, and I would say you shouldn't waste time on them either. I'm not bashing any book or series in particular, I'm only saying that you shouldn't read garbage. Garbage in, garbage out, as they say.

Read things that will make you a stronger Christian and a stronger writer. You know, if you only read bad writing that's all you're going to be able to imitate. If you really have the hunger to create then God gave you something very special as a gift. I challenge you to be a good steward of your time and your talent. Read what's worthy and prepare yourself to be a great writer.

I'm right there with y'all,

Bethany

To my fellow Christian Writers,

You know, when I was doing all this reading about Christians in the arts and so on, I came across something that I found disturbing. I guess I knew it deep down, but I'd never actually read it somewhere. Secular authors and artisits look down on Christian writers. It's not because of some religious bias or anything. If it were I might be able to just ignore them and move on. No, they look down on Christian authors because of something worse. They don't think Christians make good art, or good stories.

Why? Well because so many Christian authors just preach through their writing. Writing devotionals is a different topic, but when an author is constantly preaching through their fiction it gets annoying. Another issue is some Christian writers think the spiritual lesson will cover up other flaws in the story like predicable plot, undeveloped characters, or just poor writing. It doesn't . A badly written story is a badly written story.

I don't want it to be this way with my book or your book. If you really have the desire to publish something, then I challenge you to do it well. God has made me and you a steward of our gifts. Being a steward of your creative gifts means being serious about your craft. If you write fiction then read good fiction to give you an example. Pay atttenion in English or Literature classes. If you write poetry then learn the forms and rules of poetry. If you write historical fiction like I do, then learn how to write a research paper so you can really learn about your setting. Take every oppurtunity you can to practice your skill and hone it. Learn your craft and become a real craftsman! This is what I'm challenging myself to do, and I hope you take the same challenge to heart.

Any Christian can be an author and write a book. But imagaine a real lover of writing, a real wordsmith and craftsman who also loves the Lord. That author's work would change the world.

Keep writing!

Bethany

I hope you all enjoyed this series as much as I enjoyed talking about it with you. If you have any comments or questions I would love to hear them.

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