Camp Wordsmith is a weekly venture in which Angel of Mermaid Vision Books, Christa of Hooked on Books, and I post about our work in writing over the past week. We’ll also discuss various issues to do with craft. The goals here are simple. We want to write, so we’re making a public effort before all of our followers and readers to do so. And by the end? We hope to make it a little closer to our dreams of being published.

Week 12
Stage: First draft and planning
Past 2 Week’s Word Count: 2600
Total Word Count: 27300

FIRST OFF, I am such a bad slacker. This is one of those cases where life got in the way somewhat (I’ve taken on a 2nd internship and started applying to schools), but I let it. It’s not like I never could have made time for writing, but I have written myself into something of a corner. I need to take time to sit down with this WiP and do some kind of outlining business because it feels like I just keep writing myself into new corners.

NOW. Today we’re discussing a book that inspired us in our current WiP.

So, I’m going to reveal myself as a fangirl again. Because while there are definitely a ton of books, television shows, and anime that I’ve drawn inspiration from, the book that inspired me to start with is probably Alanna: The First Adventure by (you guessed it) Tamora Pierce.

Despite the fact that Alanna is, in this first book, much younger than my main character, I admire her strength. I admire her determination. They’re very different characters, but I’d like my MC to show some of those very same traits. There’s also Pierce’s world-building to consider.

Now that I’m further into things I find myself admiring a ton of other great fantasy works and they’re inspiring me as well (you can probably take a couple of WILD shots in the dark to figure out which ones).

Here’s hoping I can craft a world, characters, and situations that are half as believable as the ones those authors do.

Shooting for 5000 this week. I’m determined to get back to work!

Be sure to check in with Christa and Angel this week as well!