Camp NaNoWriMo

All of the essays have been graded and returned for the 2014-2015 school year, and all final course grades have been submitted. So, I AM DONE!!!! YAY!! :)

I will be teaching an online Fan Fiction class with Brave Writer during the month of July, but the class is a piece of cake compared to the other classes I taught during the school year; my last class topped 1100 posts in four weeks, nearly all of which I responded to point by point.

But July also marks the return of Camp NaNoWriMo--a more relaxed version of November's National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Instead of the 50,000 words-or-bust scenario of writing a new novel as we do each November for NaNoWriMo, in Camp NaNoWriMo we set our own goals and write in different genres, if desired.

Cover by Chantelleexx at Wattpad

I plan to work on two novels alternately during Camp NaNoWriMo with an overall goal of 30,000 words--one thousand words per day, skipping the July 4th holiday. One novel will be a sequel to my first novel Evening Star, a Twilight fan fiction which has been titled In the Night Watches (for which the lovely Chantelleexx at Wattpad has created a beautiful cover!!), and the second will be a Jane Austen Fan Fiction (JAFF), a continuation of Pride and Prejudice (currently untitled), starting with Bingley and Darcy's return to Netherfield after the Lydia/Wickham fiasco near the end of the novel.

Austen Variations Blog Header

I have spent nearly a year absorbing JAFF (as can be easily seen by the list of books I've read this year as posted in the sidebar of this blog), especially from the wonderful site Austen Variations which features the work of some incredibly-talented writers of variations and continuations of Austen's novels. I've become a devoted fan of their work, especially that of Abigail Reynolds, Monica Fairview, Mary Lydon Simonsen, Kara Louise, Jack Caldwell, Jane Odiwe, and many others. I've been able to borrow many of their novels through the state-wide California public library system called "LINK +," with the vast majority of the books coming from San Francisco and other Northern California public libraries. I've also invested in a few Kindle books by these authors when their books are not available through the library, plus I've been reading additional JAFF on FanFiction.net, especially by Astonishment, AnotherSentimentalFool, SophieTurner1805, Shaelelina, and DarcyFan1. So I am really excited about starting to write my own JAFF!

If anyone else is doing Camp NaNoWriMo, please feel free to "friend" me under the user name Cassandra Lowery, and we can encourage each other along the way. The beginning of my Jane Austen Fan Fiction novel can be read from the Writing Project Info page.



Happy Writing!

~Cassandra xxxooo

Summer (Almost) Past

Sigh.

I had such major plans for writing this summer. I had hoped to produce 30,000 words in July via Camp NaNoWriMo and to post weekly chapters of Only by Moonlight.

But then a fire scare right after July 4 put us in an uproar. Our small town (pop.1200) is surrounded on all sides by national forest and is located in a valley at 4,000 feet elevation at the base of Mount Laguna--about an hour's drive east of San Diego, California. A raging fire started in the desert, climbed the backside of the mountain range, and then threatened Mount Laguna which is a tiny town of fewer than 100 full-time residents but boasts many campgrounds and hundreds of part-time residences (i.e., cabins that can't be lived in as a primary residence as they're on forestry lands).

My parents bought such a cabin in 1997, and we cram as many as 25 people into the 600-square-foot cabin for Christmas Dinner every year. Major holidays are usually celebrated at the cabin--in fact, there have been several "White Easters" in which we were tempted to NOT dye the eggs and make it really fun to find them in the snow.

The Chariot Fire endangered all of Mount Laguna which was evacuated, including my parents' cabin. When the fire jumped Sunrise Highway, we knew we were in for trouble.

Eventually the evacuation zone came within a mile of our home and the fire burned up to the mouth of a canyon that ends at the north side of our town. Fortunately, the winds shifted suddenly, and the fire started burning back on itself rather than barreling down the canyon. Still, with the fire burning six miles away, it was scary.

We were warned to prepare to evacuate, so the kids and I gathered photo albums, important papers, and packed suitcases with clothing for a few days.

And did I mention that my husband wasn't home during this time? I was left at home with four kids and a '91 Toyota Corolla which wouldn't hold much should we be evacuated. He did make it home briefly to switch cars with me and leave me the minivan. Whew--that was one blessing.

Another blessing (besides the winds shifting--yay!!!) was Facebook. I stumbled across a Facebook group for fires in our area, and they posted links to the CalFire audio feeds, constantly updating maps of the burn area, eyewitness reports via Facebook and blogs of what was happening on the mountain, etc.

Over 7,000 acres burned and 150 structures were destroyed, most of them cabins on forestry lands which then cannot be replaced. Five firefighters were injured, none seriously. And at the end of the week, rains came and soaked the ground, helping firefighters to gain the upper hand and douse the monster that had just seemed invincible before.

So with packing, days of tense watching and waiting, and then unpacking again, my autoimmune issues reacted to my stress and flared up painfully. Plus three of our four kids are not healthy. Our daughter has a gene mutation that causes chronic fatigue and depression. Our eldest son has been having pain and swelling in his joints and muscles, culminating in a seizure last week (we're waiting for a call from the hospital to schedule an EEG), and our youngest son may have a congenital hernia which is messing with his digestive system and needs imaging done.

Did I mention that my husband is self-employed and we have no health insurance?

Plus I taught an online fan fiction class for four weeks which took a good deal of my writing time away. I had eight students ages 11-14, with one from Australia and one from Canada; the rest were from the US. It was intriguing that several of the students were not homeschooled; they were taking the class for fun because they were devotees of writing fan fiction stories. It was a great class.

Here is the class description from the transcript forms I send out at the end of class:

Course description: The Fan Fiction course focuses on the writing of three fan fiction stories over four weeks: one flash fiction story of fewer than 1,000 words, a second fan fiction story or chapter of 1,500 words minimum, and a third story or continuing chapter of a multi-chapter work of fan fiction with a 2,000 word minimum. After receiving written feedback in detail from classmates as well as from the instructor, students revise and resubmit their final two stories at the end of the course. In addition, two character-preparation freewrites are assigned early in the course to aid fan fiction writers in developing believable characters. In addition to exploring and defining the genre of fan fiction writing, students also read and offer an informal written analysis of several fan fiction stories from different genres (books, films, television, video games, anime, etc.) in addition to offering written feedback on a minimum of six stories written by classmates. Problem areas of fiction writing are also addressed and discussed, including: learning terms and techniques of literary analysis, analyzing story elements, writing convincing and compelling characters, plotting and mapping strategies for stories, writing believable (and correctly punctuated) dialog, following the steps of the writing process, revising and editing stories, overcoming writer’s block, completing a multi-chapter story/novel, and preparing to publish fan fiction online or in print form.   

I still have to grade the final stories this week, but they should go fairly quickly since the students have revised the two main stories (1,500 and 2,000 word minimum) that they wrote earlier for the class.

 

So Camp NaNoWriMo fell by the wayside pretty darn quickly, but I have posted a few chapters of Only by Moonlight  and am currently working on Chapter 8 which I hope to send to my brilliant and invaluable pre-readers ladylibre and EmmyDana tonight. :)

 

Year # 17 of home schooling begins in just over two weeks with our younger two starting eighth and eleventh grades. I'll also be teaching my new online class Literary Analysis: American Poetry (which I still need to write and plan) starting September 3, and my co-op high school Expository Essay course starting September 12. My Essay Grading Service for homeschoolers is also picking up speed as I just added a family with tenth grade triplets to  my client list, so they'll keep me busy.  

 

I hope to keep up with regular chapter updates for Only by Moonlight, but with these chapters being quite a bit longer than my chapters for my other multi-chapter fics, I may have to post a chapter every other week. My chapters for Evening Star and Pinned but Fluttering were around 2500 words while chapters for Only by Moonlight have been 4000-5000 words. 

 

So with summer ending soon, I just wanted to let you know what I've been up to and what's ahead. And I'm both ecstatic and sad that pattyrose's brilliant The Cullen Legacy completed today with the epilogue. I'd have to rate this story in my Top Fan Fiction stories along with (in no particular order):

• solostintwilight's In Your World (pulled to publish but some outtakes still remain of Amishward)
• solostintwilight's Letters to Corporal Masen
• Sparklingwand's A Different Kind of Pain (also pulled for publication)
• TwiloverSue's A Forbidden Love (also pulled for publication--one chapter remains up)
• TKegl's Beyond Time 
• twilover76's No Ordinary Proposal
• Aleeab4u's Falling Beyond Redemption 

So, I wish you a wonderful final weeks of summer!! Now I'm going to grade final fan fiction stories for my class and work on Chapter 8 of Only by Moonlight for all of you!!

Writing for you,

Cassandra :)

Summertime, Summertime, Sum-Sum-Summertime!

Yes, I graded my final essay for my online classes and e-mailed all the graded essays and transcript forms to the high school students in my Shakespeare Literary Analysis course on Friday, and now I have time to WRITE!!

Since January, my schedule has been crazy. Besides home schooling three teen boys in grades 7, 10, and 12, I've taught two co-op writing classes for high school students with a total of 16 students since September. Meeting on average twice each month for a total of 18 classes, the students basically turn in ten expository essays each plus an MLA style research essay which takes eight weeks from start to finish (not counting my grading time) and also do an informal oral presentation on their research project for the class.

Then since January, I've taught quite a few online classes: a 4-week grammar family workshop, a 4-week intensive literary analysis course on Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, a 4-week poetry writing family workshop, a 4-week Shakespeare family workshop, and a 4-week intensive literary analysis course on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. During this same time, I also put together most of a grammar e-book based on the grammar familyworkshop course and helped to proofread/edit a 10-month language arts curriculum textbook on "partnership writing" written by my boss.

But now it's summertime!!! And I'll have more time to write!! I still can't believe that since January I've only written a prologue and three chapters on my new story, Only by Moonlight. The good news is that I'm 2500-words into Chapter 4 and hope to complete the rough draft in the next day or two before sending it off to my two amazing pre-readers, ladylibre on FFn and EmmyDana on Wattpad. I'm really hoping to return to my weekly chapter postings so that I can move this story along. It's been difficult writing it because with so much on my mind and so much time between writing chapters, I'm not keeping it simmering on the backburner of my mind like the rest of my stories.

I hope also to pick up a few of my already-started but unfinished stories, excerpts of a few of which I've posted here on this blog. We'll see; I'd love to have a writing-intensive summer!! However, I am teaching one summer class: Fan Fiction!! I taught it for the first time last summer, but since I was designing and writing the class as I was teaching it, the class was quite time-intensive. But with the class all prepared and ready to go, I shouldn't have to use too much of my time on it this summer.

The Fan Fiction class is designed for students ages 12-18, and we'll define and discuss the genre of fan fiction, study and critique a few fan fiction stories, then write three chapters/stories (not necessarily all from the same fandom): a 500-1000 word flash fan fiction chapter/story, a 1000-2500 word chapter/story, and then a 2500-5000 word chapter/story. We'll also discuss how to deal with writer's block and how to finish one's story. With two completed novel-length stories under my belt plus several shorter stories (one shots), coming up on 3 million reads/hits on my works between FanFiction.net and Wattpad.com, and teaching writing for over 20 years at the elementary, junior high, high school, and university levels, I feel confident in teaching a fun and productive course. Here's the link to the registration page if anyone's interested in signing up; the class is 4 weeks long and begins July 8: Brave Writer Online Fan Fiction Class.   

But I am planning to work on Only by Moonlight as much as possible during this summer, especially before September comes when I'll be teaching two overlapping classes: a 4-week intensive literary analysis class on American poetry and the 6-week MLA research essay course. After I return the final research essays, I'll be teaching another intensive 4-week literary analysis course on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (and hoping the new movie will be out on DVD in time for us to watch and discuss it for our class).  So I will definitely have a busy fall ahead of me, but perhaps I can write ahead enough to keep the chapters coming even while I'm teaching in the fall.

I am planning to join Camp NaNoWriMo and write a lot of chapters during July, perhaps enough to keep me posting well into the fall despite my busy teaching schedule. I guess we;ll have to see. ;) I got a great deal of Pinned but Fluttering done during NaNoWriMo 2012 and I completed Evening Star during NaNoWriMo 2011, so I do plan to keep going with NaNoWriMo in November. There's nothing like writing 50,000 words in one month to keep a writer on her toes. ;)

So these are my summer plans, and I hope that I get a lot accomplished so that you may all enjoy Only by Moonlight; I'm so excited about the plot, and I hope that you'll all like it, too. :)

Writing with you, my friends,

~Cassandra :)
xxxooo

Done...and Plans

It's been a few weeks since I completed Pinned but Fluttering. The sense of accomplishment in completing Pinned but Fluttering is incredible; it's nearly twice as long as Evening Star, and it took me nearly a year and a half of posting almost weekly chapters to complete the story. 

Unlike most fan fiction writers, I make no outlines; I don't plan out my plots beyond a vague idea of how it's going to end. It's much more fun to write that way because I don't know what's going to happen, either. But there are also drawbacks to writing off-the-cuff as well: repetition, writing oneself into a corner, etc. Nevertheless, I enjoy writing this way too much to stop now. :) 

Readers on both Wattpad.com and FanFiction.net are requesting sequels to both of my novel-length stories, but I don't think I'm ready to write another epic-type novel at the moment.

The popularity of Pinned but Fluttering continues to astound me. Currently it's received almost 200,000 reads on FanFiction.net (adding the outtakes story to the original PbF) and 1,415,600 on Wattpad.com, for an overall total of over 1.6 million hits all together. Wattpad also shows nearly 9500 votes and 6700 comments while FanFiction.net has over 1500 reviews. I still can't wrap my mind around those numbers....  

Because I am currently teaching three classes in January (two online courses, one a family grammar workshop and the other a high school literary analysis class on Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest, and one IRL expository writing class that lasts all school year) plus homeschooling my three teen boys, I'm taking January off from writing. Between Evening Star and Pinned but Fluttering, not to mention my shorter stories/one shots, I've been posting weekly chapters for just over two years. So once I return my final essays from my online Literary Analysis Class in February, during which I"ll be teaching only one online course (a poetry workshop), plus the IRL writing class and homeschooling my boys, I'll probably work on two or three shorter stories I've started, a couple from which I've posted excerpts on this blog. 

I have an idea for a novel-length story, but I've been debating whether to write it as an original story or as a fan fiction story. I asked my readers on Wattpad which they'd prefer, and currently this is how the polling stands:

Original story: 9 votes
Fan Fiction story: 14 votes
Both/Either (no opinion): 5 votes

I'm still debating. I found myself excited when I received a vote for "Original" and kind of sad when I received one for "Fan Fiction," so my heart it telling me to write an original story which I would publish on Wattpad. But part of me is still drawn to the ease and comfort of writing fan fiction since it's what I know. It would be easy enough to revise the fan fiction story into an original story since this story idea is AH/AU (All Human and Alternate Universe); there won't be vampires or shape shifters/werewolves, but the story will still be a paranormal-type tale. I don't want to say much more, but I'm definitely letting the ideas bubble away on the back burner of my mind this month. 

Teaching two concurrent online classes this month is killing me; I had to take yesterday (Friday) off and just crawl into bed and rest because I am that worn out right now. So please be understanding if I don't get back into writing until March or so. My IRL class will be working on their research essays which means I won't be grading piles of essays as I usually have to do until May when their research projects are due, so I'll have 6-8 weeks of more free time. Plus, as far as I know, I'm not teaching any online classes in March although I have some big projects I need to be working on for my job, mostly revising and editing some of our online classes (those taught only once per year) into e-books that families can do at their own pace. I'm nearly done with the grammar class, so I'm thrilled about that! 

And I am so sorry that I haven't been able to respond to many of the wonderful reviews and comments that readers posted at the end of Pinned but Fluttering. I've saved them all and definitely treasure them, and I will respond when I have the time...which may not be until February. I hate having to postpone commenting until then, but that's just the way it has to be. :(

Oh, and I just found out yesterday that Breaking Dawn Part 2 is being released onto DVD here in the US on my birthday!! At least my kids will know what to get me, LOL! :) 

So that's where I am, writing-wise and life-wise. Thanks for being understanding about my need to take a break. My autoimmune illness has also been in flare-up mode because of my work schedule; when I overwork and don't sleep enough, the pain worsens, which makes it more difficult to sleep, which makes the pain worsen further, etc. It's a vicious circle. So thanks for your understanding and your amazing support; you're all the best readers ever!!

With much love,
Cassandra :)
xxxooo

Fan Fiction Class and Flash Fiction

Well, I'm a week and a half into the Fan Fiction class I'm teaching online at Brave Writer. I have ten students (all females), about half of whom are experienced fan fiction readers and/or writers. 

During our first week, we explored what fan fiction is, defined some terms, reviewed story elements and literary analysis, and discussed what the students wanted to get out of the class. I also dug up ten one shots from various fandoms, and they had to choose and analyze three of them. I chose stories from Harry Potter and Twilight, of course, plus Teen Wolf, The Avengers (two from here). I also included some more "classic" fandoms for the more conservative home schooled kids such as Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, and Sherlock Holmes. I asked students for rec's of course, and I also put up a post where they can rec some of their favorite completed stories.

The challenge in teaching this class, of course, is in balancing the two very different worlds of fan fiction and home schooling. Many, if not most, home schooled students are Christians, and while Brave Writer is a non-sectarian business, we still need to be sensitive to our clients. Yet we also have non-Christian students as well. The student age range is 12-17, so we have to be careful of what we post. 

Along with the owner's input, we wrote Guidelines for Posting Fiction that we hope will aid parents in protecting their younger kids yet will also allow for whatever expression of creativity students wish to explore. The Guidelines explain the Fiction Ratings categories (those used on FanFiction.net) of K, K+, T, M, and MA, plus the MPAA ratings used for movies (G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17), then request that only K-T and G-PG-13 stories (written by students or as rec's) be posted in the classroom, with T, PG, and PG-13 stories being uploaded at attachments with a warning so that young readers don't accidentally read something they shouldn't. 

Stories rated M/MA or R/NC-17 will be e-mailed to me, and I'll offer feedback via e-mail. 

One student (age 15!) e-mailed me to ask about posting slash story recs; I had to tell her that it wasn't appropriate for our classroom with such young students, but that she could e-mail me the link and I would be happy to discuss the story with her. Teaching fan fiction definitely produces a challenging balancing act. 

Today students are submitting their first stories: flash fan fiction. Their assignment: write a fan fiction story of 300-1000 words, and we'll all read and comment on them. I'm thinking that I'll do the assignment, too, and thus provide Jacob with a voice before we find out what happens to him. 

This week we're also discussing the elements that the students reported struggling with the most: plotting, character development, effective dialogue, and judicious descriptions. In addition, I've also posted on writer's block and finishing a long WIP. 

They'll be starting their two longer stories soon; they may write two one-shots or two chapters for a new story, or two chapters for a current WIP. I think it'll be fun, and I'm looking forward to reading their stories submitted today. :) 

So that's what's been going on with me. I'll be writing the second half of the wolf/vamp battle from either Carlisle's or Edward's POV (possibly both) for Sunday, but I may sneak in that flash fiction from Jacob's POV before then. 

Happy Reading!

~Cassandra  :)    

Teaching a Fan Fiction Class This Summer!

Starting today, July 9, I am teaching the first Fan Fiction Class at Brave Writer! I have taught online courses on this site for over ten years, and I've designed and written several classes, this one among them. I am thrilled to have ten students so far which is pretty nice for a first-time offering of a class. This class is designed for students ages 12-18 and we'll be examining how fan fiction stories work and then apply those principles to the writing of one-shots or chapters of a new or continuing story. 


I still have some spaces left, if anyone is interested. Brave Writer caters to home schooling families, but some families use Brave Writer to supplement their kids' private or public school offerings. This four-week class is worth .25 high school credits for home schooled students. 


Here is the link to this class if you'd like more information: Brave Writer Fan Fiction Class. 


And here is the basic outline of the class:

Tentative Class Schedule: 

Week One: Discussion of definition of fan fiction and which authors have requested their works to not be the subject of this genre. Examination of fan fiction story examples. Free writing exercise to determine topic/work of fan fiction to be written.

Week Two: Character study exercise to aid in developing already established characters. Plot exercise/assignment to study the elements of plot in preparation for plotting the story. Discussion and writing of a plot outline for the story.

Week Three: Writing of first draft of fan fiction story.

Week Four: Peer evaluation of first drafts of fan fiction stories. Revision and editing of first drafts. Posting (and possible online publication, with parental permission) of final fan fiction stories.

Since we have so many experienced fan fiction writers in the class so far, we may be tweaking this schedule and deal more with writing and offering feedback on multiple chapters. We'll see how it goes. 

If you are interested yourself or have or know of a child who is interested in taking the class, please click on the link above and register immediately as today is the first day!

In other news, I should be posting the next chapter of Pinned but Fluttering in the next day or so; it will be my longest PbF chapter to date and is an outtake of the battle in Chapter 38 from Carlisle's POV. I will be writing another outtake to continue where Carlisle's leaves off, either from Carlisle's or Edward's POV, most likely the latter. 

So I shall "see" you soon! 

Warmly,

Cassandra :)