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Hello Bookworms,
I come to you in a weird moment of freedom and relief. If you follow me in other areas of social media, you will have seen that my thesis is done. It is done. I finished my requirements for college. I have an overwhelming sense of relief, fear, all mixed up with a feeling of loss, and the fact that it is done feels almost anticlimactic. I knew there wouldn't anything like sunshine and rainbows. But for something that I have been working on since May, that has gone through several drastic changes, I don't know. I just wanted more I guess. It could be coupled with the fact that this was the last thing I had to submit to complete my degree. There is so much pressure put on this one 30 page file. Without it, I will not graduate. And with it? I don't know. I don't plan on continuing part of the project, doesn't interest me anymore and I know it is not my best work. But as one of my friends said, the fact that I kept going with it even though I did hate it, is a feat in itself. I am proud of what I put out, don't get me wrong. I did a lot of work to make the story what it was. I started my thesis with a 70-page draft. I scrapped that within two weeks of coming back to campus, changed the point of view, format, and the tense that I was writing it in. I wrote something that I have never even tried to write before. An epistolary novel. Did I do it perfectly? No. I didn't research it thoroughly because I scrapped everything I had done over the summer. But I created a cohesive piece that several people say they love and want more of. I have put so much work into these 30 pages. I keep saying that. But I don't know what else to say. I am going to do a more in-depth reaction maybe next week but right now... I just feel sort of out of it. I don't really know how to think about it besides relief that it is done. So I guess that is all for today? I am sorry I am so out of it, I almost feel like I don't know how to function now that everything is completed. It is weird. I will just have to blog ore to get into another structured habit. Until next time Katelyn Find me on the interwebs https://nanowrimo.org/participants/ladykate100/novels/wip-1233502 Twitter @Scripturienting IG: @Scripturient101 Facebook: The Scripturient 101 Youtube: The Scripturient 101 www.thescripturient101.weebly.com https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/53086148-katelyn-costello
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 Hello my scripturients,
November sure has been a roller coaster ride hasn't it? As you can see by today's image I am a Nanowrimo winner again this year. This marks the 5th year that I have won Nanowrimo, yay for five years. I do want to say that I feel slightly torn over my win this year. If you don't know, I used NaNo as a way to get back into my novel and do a first rewrite of my novel draft. Not every word or every sentence was new. Some of the sentences stayed the same while others change complacently. But that is the nature of a rewrite, not every word is going to change. And that is something I have had to keep telling myself. Part of the reason I have felt so bad about it, is that I know that I would not have been able to get though a new draft this month. But for me this month rewriting The Frituals was my escape from work and school and everything else that has been getting me down. It has really been good for my own mental sanity and productivity to escape into my world. This week I have been working on planning out the last few chapters and then branching out into outlining the next book in the series. As a present to myself for winning NaNo I have spent the last few days working on formatting my novel in order to print out a proof copy from Createspace to annotate. I will be filming my unboxing of it FOR SURE. I am very very excited about these next steps and to actually hold my book in my hands. I have some thoughts about the next steps for it but that might be a more in depth video/ blog post for next week when I get my thoughts together. I have a lot of thoughts I need to correlate together before I can explain them in detail. But I hope to share my plans for future projects soon as I am sure I will need all your help. My final thesis workshop is tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day to receive edits. So this weekend I will be hiding and editing. I am also hoping I can set up my office space at home... a bit at least. So my thesis will be done and submitted by Wednesday at noon, but do to my schedule it has to be done a bit earlier. I have one other paper so I need to hide and write, sorry if I am not nearly as accessible as normal. Finishing this semester feels bittersweet. I am really excited to be done, but am also feeling lately like I am not prepared enough but I know I am. It is a struggle. HOWEVER since next week I submit my final papers I will be free. I am working on getting a day job but in the mean time I am going to be throwing myself into this. I am going to be posting whenever I can but at least Wednesday and Fridays. So I will be shifting my reviews to friday's and they may not be every week but there will be more books so be sure to follow me on twitter to know whenever I am going to be posting. I think that is all of the thoughts that I have together for now. Send me a message on instagram or twitter and be sure to subscribe to my youtube channel to hear my ramblings out loud! Katelyn Find me on the interwebs https://nanowrimo.org/participants/ladykate100/novels/wip-1233502 Twitter @Scripturienting IG: @Scripturient101 Facebook: The Scripturient 101 Youtube: The Scripturient 101 www.thescripturient101.weebly.com https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/53086148-katelyn-costello  Hello My Scripturients, A year ago today I decided to peruse a goal that I had been wanting to do for quite a while. As you may have guessed at this point I absolutely love books. They have been vessels for my happiness for such a long time that I wanted to shout my love from the roof tops. Writing and filming these reviews and writing updates has defiantly been a learning curve for me. I haven't had the most eloquent reviews to start with but I am working on it. And will continue to work on it in the next few months. Down below I am going to be talk about updates to my posting schedule ect. Now a year later I have a little bubble of friends. I have had interactions with best selling authors traditional and indie, small booktubers, and readers and writes alike. We share our love for books across many platforms. This community that I have become a part of is so kind and so encouraging. Everyone is so inspiring and I find it incredibly encouraging to hear, and see how people are doing in their own writing projects. This has helped me a lot this year. Particularly this semester when I have been felling down on myself. You all keep me in check and don't even realize it. Just by clicking on the link to get to this blog post you are holding me accountable for the things that I say I am going to do. This little bit of structure helps to keep me on track and keep me feeling happy and healthy. Life UpdateSo officially, next Wednesday December 13th my Senior Thesis is due at noon and after that I will have finished my degree. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH Okay got that out of my system haha. That has pretty much been my internal monologue since mid- November.
So if you have finished your degree Katelyn what does that mean for your blog? I am glad you asked. It means I will have a lot more time for you all! I am working on a day job, and I will be working a show, but I plan on spending a lot of time writing for this blog, reading for reviews, filming videos and, writing my books. (Wednesday is going to be all about this with a NaNoWriMo update and book plotting session) And of course you will get to hear all about all of those things. Why else have this place I can shoot nonsense into the void from? You may know that I have a youtube channel where I also post reviews and updates on my reading and writing projects. I think that both platforms are invaluable as a reader/ writer working to improve my reading and writing skills now that I am going to be out of school. As such I am going to use them as a pair. I am going to try to have a video for each review, a blog post for each wrap up, ect. I have been sticking to a Monday, Wednesday schedule over there so I am going to go for that here. So Writing Wednesday, and Fiction Fridays are back, being joined by Monday Musings. A series of blog posts on things in the publishing world that have intrigued me or really any random thing I wanna talk to you about. I am thinking of starting a monthly newsletter. What do you think? Let me know on one of my socials what you think and what sort of things you like from other newsletters. So I got caught up in work and now am writing this blog post at 1 am. I can't tell if it even makes sense. I am sure I am missing things. If so check out my twitter for any updates after posting. Katelyn Find me on the interwebs https://nanowrimo.org/participants/ladykate100/novels/wip-1233502 Twitter @Scripturienting IG: @Scripturient101 Facebook: The Scripturient 101 Youtube: The Scripturient 101 www.thescripturient101.weebly.com https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/53086148-katelyn-costello  Camp Nanowrimo, the event that happens twice a year that for some reason I can never win.
Bookworms, I come to you again on the side of defeat when it comes to Camp Nanowrimo. I talked with a few people in my writing cabin this year and we all felt the same. Camp Nanowrimo in April and in July has no where near the same feeling as it does in November. There isn't the same urgancey to write when you make the goals, and sometimes no matter how high the goal is, you just can't seem to reach it. There were several days last November where I was writing close to 3000 words. This past July? I couldn't get down more than 1000 a day sometimes every two days if I was lucky? Why is it different? I don't really have an answer for that. I had plenty of ideas in mind for the story since it is my thesis. I had a start of an outline, at least a general path I could mosey my way though, and I had a cabin filled with some wonderful people including Kristen Martin and Vivian Reis on youtube. But for some reason when ever I sat down to write the ideas would hit a wall and refuse to flow. My goal for the summer is to write 55,000 words by August 31st. As of right now I am on my way, trying to sit down and write a few hundred words everyday, but it has been a struggle. I have changed things as I went and thought of new things for my characters that requires deleting and rewriting several scenes. But progress doesn't always have to be linear. That is something I learned this past month. Even if I can't get through a scene I can still write others. It is taking me weeks to get through one plot point. It just won't come out, but I know others will so, I bounce around. Editing me may absolutely HATE this action later. But for now it is what I need to do to get the words on the page. I want to get back into doing these writing updates more regularly if this is something you want to see too, let me know on twitter at @scripturineting or on instagram @scripturient101 Thesis Stats Start of July: 3,000 (ish) words End of July: 16,771 words Words left for summer goal: 38,229 Katelyn Costello Twitter @Scripturienting IG: @Scripturient101 Facebook: The Scripturient 101 Youtube: The Scripturient 101 Dear Bookworms,
So my little writing fiends, you know that feeling when you are working on notes and outlining when all you can think of is writing? That is the state I am in now. My ideas are flowing and growing the more notes I write, and the more I just want to put pen to page. I am hoping I can soon start, maybe the next time we do a writing update I will be able to tell you I have written a good chunk of it. I want to try to write 5,000 words a week. If I do that then by the time I go back to school I should have at least 55,000 if all goes to plan. For this week this is all I really have to say. I think from here on out I will post a little quote from whatever I write. Follow me on instagram for a more regular update on my reading and writing at @scripturient101 Katelyn Costello Hello Bookworms,
I don't know about you but I woke up thinking it was Friday! It is in fact not Friday! This week I wanted to share with you something fun! This Friday ( you can see why it is on my mind) my thesis proposal is due. Now this is going to be a fluid document, that is going to be changed and edited over the summer. But this first round is a sort of guideline for what I want to do. So what is my proposal? Working title: The Last Fritual Genre(s): Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy Topic:For my senior thesis, I want to create a prequel to a fantasy series that I am currently writing on my own. This piece is a first-person POV story telling a story of an elf named Matron who is born with a natural affinity for all five elemental magics (Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit), powers he doesn’t really wish he had. These powers, make him a fascination and an outcast in the city. On top of these powers that exile him, there is a war between elves and man that has ended. There is still an underlying level of tension between the races. This tension causes some people to be uncomfortable with his friendship with a human girl names Serena. I am currently outlining a draft of the story to write it this summer after I complete this draft I will decide which section I would like to focus. Research Plan: Reread:
Read: The next few books are YA or Adult novels that are fantasy and have elemental magic as a “element” (hehe) of them. So far I have found it to be a small niche in the the writing community. Something that would be helpful for me would be any books written from a male perspective. I was talking with a friend the other day and realized many books on my radar YA/ Middle Grade wise are female protagonists. Aside from Rick Riordan and a few more, most of my male protag are in military fiction like Clive Cussler.
I am currently working on outlining this bad boy, then as it says come June 1st I wanna start writing!!! Katelyn https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSEeWBRSsR2aTwC8rDjAXkA twitter @scripturienting or on Facebook The Scripturient 101 and Follow me on instagram @scripturient |
Katelyn CostelloA lover of words, reading and writing. Archives
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