Further Than I Thought!

I am excited to announce, that despite my previous belief that this week I had fallen 6 pages behind (I caught up Sunday what I had missed last week, so I was currently on schedule), I have recalculated what I have left in TSOT, and if I kept writing 4 pages a day (without having caught up what I missed this week) I would be done by around the end of next week!! :D Finished writing the book!!! Then comes all the editing and such of course, but the writing step will have been finished! Soon, I will be privileged to announce to you all the name for the next book, the sequel to TSOT. :)

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

1 down, 3 to go!

The first week of NaNoWriMo is just about finished. Tomorrow is the official beginning of the 2nd week, but I think it's close enough to give a report on how writing as been going.

So my goal has been to write 4 pages a day, and I have been able to stay fairly close to that. The first day I wrote 3 1/2, then the next day 4, the day after 3, then 4, then about 3, and yesterday was about 4 1/2. So it's been staying pretty consistently going between 3 and 4 pages. I think that I might write some more today, and see if I can catch up the loose ends.

And so it begins. . . .

Today I am beginning my NaNoWriMo commitment. I know, November actually started yesterday, but I usually take a break from writing on Sunday, unless I'm just absolutely itching to write, so today is the beginning. 50,000 words (or book finished) by midnight on November 30th. *grins nervously* I averaged out how many more chapters I have in TSOT to write, and came to about 9. So that makes around 2 and a half chapters written each week. Yup, I think I might be able to do that. I'll keep you updated during the month on my progress. I would appreciate it if all you fabulous blog readers out there would keep me and TSOT in your prayers, that God will guide what words I should write down, so that this book will bring Him glory and honor. :) Pakka pú!

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Maidens and Dresses

A few of you know that I have for quite some time now been working on sewing a medieval dress. Well, I am proud to say that I have completed it! You can see it in the picture above. I have always loved the feel and look of dresses such as this. They have a softer, more elegant touch than that of most modern dresses. Sadly, we are unable to wear dresses such as this all the time. *sigh*

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Acting, Writing, and Other Things in My Life Right Now

I am very sorry that I have given no update on the play that I am in except for saying that I got several parts in it. We only have 2 more performances left out of our ~14~ (I think that was the number. . . .). That is very sad, and I am going to REALLY miss this group of people! We have come to be like one big family. And although, like any other family we've had our ups and downs (and a ton of sickness in between!!) we've been able to encourage each other, and carry each other through the downs, while bouncing and going crazy with one another during the ups. :) I will never forget a few nights ago when someone's friend's mother had pretty much died and was in the hospital in critical condition, we all stopped what we were doing and had a prayer circle right then and there in the girls dressing room. What an awesome feeling to be able to do that!

I am continually praying that God will provide more opportunities for me to act, and He is doing just that! Just about a week ago I got a call from a lady asking if I would be able to act in this years Bethlehem Village (a reenactment of the Christmas story), so I am now going to be a friend of Elizabeth, and the understudy for Mary! But the schedule for this is a LOT less busy, and it will feel good to have a break from all the rush, although I am sure that once a few months have gone by I'll be ready to get back up and going again!! But we shall see what God has in store.

In the meantime, I have found out that November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I don't intend to join in the actual NaNoWriMo activity. But I DO plan on focusing hard on writing TSOT during the month of November, and hopefully finishing it. *lots of cheers, applauds, and patting on the back* And since I won't have any acting commitments aside from Bethlehem Village which only practices on Sunday, and even then not on every Sunday, I think that I should be able to do this easy!

So I have a new goal: Finish The Sword of Teneraz by midnight, November 30th.

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Description; the 6th Sense–Part 5 the Sense of Taste

Finally, the post you have all been waiting for (drum rolls please). . . . The 5th and FINAL post of the Description series I have been doing. (Go here for the 1st post, and here for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.) We have gone through the senses of sight, sound, smell, and touch. And now we have come to that which (for me) is the hardest and most complicated. . . taste.

Patience sat amidst the tall grass in the meadow. A lark whistled its shrill cry, as it swooped into the violently waving grass, before soaring back into the quickly darkening sky, with a cricket gripped tightly in its thin beak. A gust of wind swept over Patience, gently caressing a lock of hair over her cheek. An especially long piece of grass tickled her ear before springing nimbly back into place as the wind slowed. The smell of on coming rain taunted her nose, and she turned her eyes to the horizon, where a large black monster crept silently over her once peaceful surroundings. Lightning flashed inside it's belly, as it reared up it's angry head with a rumbling growl that shook the air and disarmed it of all quiet.

Taste. It is easy to add taste into your stories when your characters are eating. For instance, practically everyone knows what cheese tastes like, so you can just mention that the food had a cheesy flavor, and immediately the reader's mind transfers the memory to their tongue (remember what we had said about the memory of feel? It's the same thing with taste). Even with things that you may not have eaten (such as a new food you create, or insects–ew!) you can make things up, or find something similar to the taste you want (or in the case of bugs, you could always give one a try–definitely not recommended!).

But there's much more to taste than food: when you wake up in the morning before you've quite had enough sleep, you tend to have a sour taste in your mouth; if you are thinking about something that makes you queasy you may get the taste of bile; or if you're sick then you often have a funny taste in your mouth. Those are just a few examples. I would love to sometime research all the different times you get tastes, such as when you're feeling something, and see why it happens. If any of you have any ideas why, please share! :)

Taste is probably the least used of all descriptions. But that doesn't mean that you can't use it! In fact, I encourage you to! When I was reading Eragon I was amazed to note how many times Christopher Paolini mentioned taste in his writing. I was also amazed at how much it added to the story! I suggest practice. . . . When you're out and about, or just hanging out at home, take note of the tastes you have in your mouth and when they happened, even why they might have come about. Then, when you sit down to write keep taste in the back of your mind to see if any opportunities open up to add it into your story.

Sadly in our paragraph I can find no place to add taste in without making it jerky and boring. But this is a good example, because you can't always add every sense into your sentences, in fact, if you did that (I apologize to anyone who may write this way) then you'd have a pretty boring book. So add description in only as much as is needed to paint a picture for your readers. And feel out what the perfect amount is for your style of writing–some people like to add more then others, which is absolutely fine. The only thing I'd say is use less during the action scenes, such as when someone is being chased through the woods. It's never fun for the reader when its all "ahhh! He's going to get me!" And then there's a description of every feather on an owl on a tree branch. Mentioning the owl would be perfectly fine, actually, I think it would add to the whole sense of the scene, just take in to mind that at that point the reader wants to know what's going to happen, and how things are going to turn out and not whether the owl is grey, or grey with brown spots.

And that brings our series to an end. :) I hope that you have enjoyed it, and that it has been of help to you. I love to hear from you. And I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on writing, and description!

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Description; the 6th Sense–Part 4 the Sense of Touch

The next post in the series. (If you have missed the first 3 other parts, you can get to them here: Description; the 6th Sense–Part 1 the Sense of Sight; Part 2 the Sense of Sound; and Part 3 the Sense of Smell.)

Patience sat amidst the tall grass in the meadow. A lark whistled its shrill cry, as it swooped into the violently waving grass, before soaring back into the quickly darkening sky, with a cricket gripped tightly in its thin beak. The smell of on coming rain taunted Patience's nose, and she turned her eyes to the horizon, where a large black monster crept silently over her once peaceful surroundings. Lightning flashed inside it's belly, as it reared up it's angry head with a rumbling growl that shook the air and disarmed it of all silence.

Touch. . . . What a special thing it is. It's the feeling of the strong arms of someone they trust, which give's a little child the sense of security. It's the softness of a puppy's fur, or a chicks feathers that gives us the delight of holding or touching them. Touch– it is the feeling of warm earth squishing between our toes that we keep wanting to come back to; it is the kiss of a butterfly's wings, or the rush of wind upon our face. Touch. But how do we interpret that onto paper? How can we say what touch is, when you have to feel it in order to truly understand it. But not necessarily. . . . Like smell, you have a memory of things you've felt; the roundness of a ball that you have just thrown; the rough grains of the wood of the chair you have just sat in. That memory, can be harnessed and used to help your writing. Let's say that the character that you are writing about has picked up a piece of cloth. You can phrase what they feel in some way like this: "He ran his fingers over the material, it was like thin silk, smooth and soft, yet in other ways it was different. . . tougher for instance, it almost had a leathery feel to it." You see, first you get the feel of silk, then of leather, mix it together and vwalla! You have the feel of this new material.

But not all things are like that. Many you have to create your own texture for, such as darkness. You can't feel it in the literal sense. And yet, it wears on you, and seems to close in on you. Fog adds a chill to the air, and strains your eyes, so that it almost feels as if it were pressing into them. You can feel someone's stare, although they are touching you in no way. And the list goes on. Experiment, touch things, and see if you can word what it feels like and that way the next time you come to a part in your writing, where you need to describe touch, you will know what to do.

Patience sat amidst the tall grass in the meadow. A lark whistled its shrill cry, as it swooped into the violently waving grass, before soaring back into the quickly darkening sky, with a cricket gripped tightly in its thin beak. A gust of wind swept over Patience, gently caressing a lock of hair over her cheek. An especially long piece of grass tickled her ear before springing nimbly back into place as the wind slowed. The smell of on coming rain taunted her nose, and she turned her eyes to the horizon, where a large black monster crept silently over her once peaceful surroundings. Lightning flashed inside it's belly, as it reared up it's angry head with a rumbling growl that shook the air and disarmed it of all quiet.

(Thank you Hannah for your suggestion on the last sentence, I do believe it flows much better now. :) )

The 5th, and final part of the series will be coming soon. :)

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

A Path of Perfection

I would just like to direct your attention to the verse for today on the sidebar.

Psalms 18:32

It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.

How cool is that?!?! It is GOD who arms us with strength, and not only that! He makes our way PERFECT! WOW!!!

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Description; the 6th Sense–Part 3 the Sense of Smell

Next we move on to the sense of smell. (If you missed that I am doing a series on description, take a look at Description; the 6th Sense–Part 2 the Sense of Sight and Description; the 6th Sense–Part 1 the Sense of Sound) The senses of sight and sound are sometimes the easiest of the senses to describe. Because when we first encounter something, first our eyes take it in, then we listen, then, once we have noticed it in those ways, we move on to smell, touch, and often lastly, taste. And because of that, often these last 3 senses can be left out when you describe things in your writing, for sake of slowing the story line down and leaving your reader uninterested. Though at times it is necessary to add them, and if you are able to discern those times, it will make your story on the whole much deeper.

Patience sat amidst the tall grass in the meadow. A lark whistled its shrill cry, as it swooped into the violently waving grass, before soaring back into the quickly darkening sky, with a cricket gripped tightly in its thin beak. Patience turned her eyes to the horizon, where a large black monster crept silently over her once peaceful surroundings. Lightning flashed inside it's belly, as it reared up it's angry head with a rumbling growl that shook the air and disarmed it of all silence.

Smell is quite interesting when you think about it. You don't even have to have a bouquet of flowers in front of you, but when you think about one your nose immediately picks up the memory, and you can smell it. But lets just focus on what IS in front of you. In a meadow, like the one that Patience is sitting in, you would most likely smell grass, earth, and flowers. With the storm coming on (I love this smell) you would catch the scent of rain in the air. If your by a fire however, the smells are altogether of a different sort. You may smell ashes, and and smoke, intermingled with the scent of the wood that is being burned. Some wood types have stronger, sweater aromas then others, so if your portraying a place of comfort, peace, and beauty, you may pull that out in your writing. Where as, if you are in some place different, such as a dungeon, or the camp of the enemy, then you might have it be wood of a more foul sort being burnt. Like I said before, the smell of things, is so small, that we often don't make ourselves conscious of it, but our bodies take it in, and it is part of our surroundings. Part of what makes us feel alert, or relaxed. It weaves through our senses, and directs the path that our emotions take.

Patience sat amidst the tall grass in the meadow. A lark whistled its shrill cry, as it swooped into the violently waving grass, before soaring back into the quickly darkening sky, with a cricket gripped tightly in its thin beak. The smell of on coming rain taunted Patience's nose, and she turned her eyes to the horizon, where a large black monster crept silently over her once peaceful surroundings. Lightning flashed inside it's belly, as it reared up it's angry head with a rumbling growl that shook the air and disarmed it of all silence.

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

By The Dwarf's Beard!

Calling all mythological experts!! (And any who simply enjoy reading fantasy, and wish to put in their two cents.) Ok, I'll start at the beginning, so I was happily writing along, everything was going smoothly, and I was happy. What more could a writer ask for? Perfect right? Weeeeeelllll. . . it just so happens that I all of a sudden realized, that I was treating this Dvergr (they're pretty much Dwarves, Dvergr means Dwarf in Old Norse) like he was a human, I wasn't showing any of his culture coming out–and I'm sure that we can all agree that Dwarves deserve to have they're own culture. So anyways, I decided to do some research on Dwarves and figure out some things that I could switch around and add to make them more Dvergr/Dwarfish. And that seemed to work! I found out some ways that I could change how the house is, so that it's more Dvergrish, like adding decorations that they might have, and making it be in a more cave like setting. So things were going pretty good! Then I scrolled down and came to the subject of Dwarf woman. And um, well, this Dvergr happens to have a wife, and their little girl. Um yeah. . . . If you have ever read up on Dwarf mythology, you'll understand my meaning, but for those who haven't, let me explain. Most people say that the Dwarf woman look so similar to the men (beards and all), and even sound so like them, that you can't even really tell the difference, others say that there are no woman, and (C.S. Lewis began this theory) they sprout from rocks. (At least that is what I found on Wikipedia, if any one has heard anything different, I am all ears!)

So, here is where the problem comes in. . . . So I have this Dvergr, and his wife and daughter. Do I have the wife have a beard (and then possibly even the daughter, as some of the myths say that they have their beards from birth) or do I completely take her out, and just have it be a group of men (though I was kind of wanting a homely feel). Or, do I make the Dvergr be different then the Dwarves in this area, and have the woman actually look like female beings. I'm laying it before all of you bloggers! What do you think??

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

P.S. A Description post is coming very soon, I promise! I've been sick with strep throat for a while, so haven't been able to get to it yet.