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Subplots and Storylines – May 2017

Tracey Dyck 24 Comments

Transitions are fickle things. Sometimes one hardly realizes that the season of life has changed, and other times one is aware of every minute detail. May was a month of transition for me, slipping from college to “normal” life.

Princess Peach (me) and Mario (my brother)
It started out with exams, volunteering at a Special Olympics swimming event with my classmates, and dressing up as Princess Peach at a church event for moms and their little ones. There was a Mario Kart track set up where kids could drive little motorized cars in a circle, and my brother and I provided the entertainment!
(Ignore my awkward princess pose. And the fact that my crown is falling off.)

On another day, my classmates and the college interns had a barbecue to celebrate the end of the year. We had written letters to God at the beginning of the year, and now we got to open them and see just how far we’ve come since September.

Then it was Mother’s Day. In creative ministry (for college), we worked hard to put up some amazing décor to celebrate all the moms in church. It turned out beautifully. And at home, we had a quiet celebration involving Chinese takeout. (Come on, we saved her from making supper!)

And then I went to an escape room with my peeps from creative ministry! I’ve never been to an escape room before, but after this, I would LOVE to go again. I tried a castle-themed room with twelve other people. The logic! The teamwork! The tricky puzzles! If we’d had an extra two or three minutes, we would’ve made it out successfully, that’s how close we were.

The middle of the month rolled around, and with it, college graduation! Celebrating with friends and family, looking back on the past nine months, giving a valedictorian speech, and spending the night at a friend’s place for the afterparty–all were such beautiful, bittersweet memories.



We graduated! This is me with Jacky, a good college friend who
recently moved back home, hours away from me. *sniffle*

Like I said, May was a month of transitions. So after grad, life has switched gears. I’ve returned to volunteering in kids ministry at church (which I had taken a break from because of the intense college schedule). I’m back to working four or five shifts a week. And now that my sisters are done school for the summer, life at home has taken on a different pace too. You’d think it would be slower, but oddly, it’s not as slow as I was expecting.

Books

Finally // Wendy Mass

Goodness, I’d forgotten how dramatic the twelve-year-old life could be! This was a cute book about the mishaps and missteps that befall Rory when she turns twelve and can finally do all the things on her list, like get her ears pierced, babysit, and go to the mall with her friends. (Talk about a throwback to simpler days . . .) Four stars.

Crazy Dangerous audiobook // Andrew Klavan (narrated by Nick Podehl)

I read the novel four years ago and loved it then. Listening to the audiobook, I loved it again! It’s intense, it’s endearing, it’s a little creepy at times, and Sam Hopkins is just my favorite. I was reminded of how addictive Andrew Klavan’s books are! Because I can count the number of audiobooks I’ve listened to on one hand, I wasn’t sure what to expect with this. But the narrator was perfect for this book. Now I need to go find some more audiobooks to listen to on my drive to work. Five stars!

The Purpose Driven Life // Rick Warren

Another college read. We started in September, but we didn’t even finish (as a class) before grad, so I finished the final chapters on my own. I’m pretty sure I read it eons ago too . . . Anyway, there were a number of good reminders in here. It’s not like I got nothing out of it, don’t get me wrong. But I learned the most from the chapters I disagreed with, because they sparked great class discussions. We dug into the Word, bounced perspectives off each other, and learned how to rectify the disconnect between what we saw in the book vs. what we know of God’s character and the Bible. Three stars.

Green Rider // Kristen Britain

At Jacky’s behest, I began reading one of her favorite series! It felt like the pacing lagged at times, especially in the first half of the book, and later the climax kept looking it was going to happen, but then it wasn’t the climax after all. (That could’ve been just me, though.) But the actual ending helped make up for it, especially when Karigan, the protagonist, started doing more for herself. And I liked the concept of the Green Riders, a group of special messengers/riders with magical abilities. Jacky tells me the series gets progressively better, so I’ll pick up book two sometime. Three stars.

Movies & TV

I watched a fair bit of Once Upon a Time and The Flash, as per usual. My siblings and I finished season 1 of OUAT and started season 2. With my parents, I finished OUAT season 2. With just my sisters, we watched some more of season 5. Jumping around the timeline so much is kind of fun, actually. You get a really good contrast of different parts of each character’s arc!

My siblings and I just recently finished season 2 of The Flash as well. Somebody help me, I think the pieces of my heart are all over the floor. (Seriously, I need to write a blog post about this show ASAP.)

The grade 6 students of a nearby Christian school made a movie based on a WWII novel, which I got to watch. They did such a good job!

Moana: While not as good as Tangled, this was a fresh twist on the typical Disney princess story. I liked that it was a friendship story instead of a romance. And the songs were fantastic! I’ve loved “How Far I’ll Go” long before I watched the movie.

Doctor Strange: This was awesomesauce, you guys. Quite different than most Marvel movies, yes, but I think that’s a good thing. The beginning–wow. Something about the subtlety and atmosphere (and Stephen Strange’s awful attitude) really grabbed me. And then the superhero aspect kicks in . . . and there are jaw-dropping visuals . . . and a dash of humor . . . and gahhh, I want the Cloak of Levitation for myself. Can’t wait for a sequel!


Writing

I booked my appointments for Realm Makers! Woohoo! It feels even more real now, and the pressure is on to finish The Brightest Thread in time to pitch it.

With college being over, I had some time to pick up Ted Dekker’s The Creative Way writing course, so I listened to session 12 and learned more about the four types of conflict. (I’ve yet to do the workbook part of that session, however.)

In the first half of May, I had a little blip of productive writing time, and then wrote basically nothing until after grad. About 12,000 words have been added to The Brightest Thread, bringing it to a total of 32,824 words. The goal is to fall comfortably between 80 and 90k by the end of June so that there’s time to edit a bit before Realm Makers. S.O.S. Please send coffee.

I’ll be fine . . . probably. Most of this TBT work has been quite enjoyable, truly, and this week I wrote some positively scrumptious scenes, if I do say so myself.
But still send coffee. I’m going to need it.

So that was May 2017!

Whew! A lot of fun, some hard work. Goodbye to one season and hello to another. And now it’s summer, and that means sunshine, gardening, and hopefully more books and more writing.

What about the rest of you? If you’re a student, is school out yet? What’s on your summer agenda?

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Retellings – Love ‘Em or Hate ‘Em?

Tracey Dyck 41 Comments

With my mind on The Brightest Thread, I’ve been pondering retellings lately, retellings of all sorts and all formats. Books. Movies. Fairytale retellings. Superhero reboots. Book-to-screen adaptions. We’ve been seeing an influx of all of them–and perhaps a decline in original ideas, but that’s another topic for another time.

What I want to talk about today is the vast spectrum of responses these retellings get from people. One retold fairytale or rebooted movie from the 90’s might be adored, loathed, criticized, apathetically ignored, or anything and everything in between. Now, of course any work of art, original or retold, will elicit a variety of responses, but it seems that people become rather vocal when it comes to retellings.

Why is that?

I propose it’s because of people’s deep emotional attachment to the original story.

Take Beauty and the Beast, for instance. (And we’ll remove the LeFou issue from the equation for the moment, so we can focus on the bare bones of a retelling without whatever social agendas a director might shoehorn into a story.) Some people loved it. Some people strongly disliked it. Others feel conflicted, because they liked some parts and not others.

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Maybe the big deal is because a lot of the people who went to see the movie love the original tale of Beauty and the Beast–either the animated Disney movie or the Grimm fairytale or perhaps both.

Let’s take a look at an imaginary person for a moment. We’ll call her Jane. Jane grew up with a big fat book of fairytales, a book whose pages she wore ragged with use. She grew up watching B&B and sang “Tale as Old as Time” often enough to drive her brother mad. She’s eighteen now, and when she saw the preview for the new movie, she was ecstatic. Getting to see her favorite story brought to new life with modern special effects and great actors? Of course she’s thrilled!

On opening night, she settles into the theater folding chair, bucket of popcorn in hand, and her breath catches as the first scene starts.

Two hours and nineteen minutes later, Jane staggers out of the theater with her mind whirling.

Now, this could go many ways. She could be euphoric over the magical adaptation, the perfect songs, the many little nods to the original Disney film, the new twists.

Or she could feel angry and betrayed because of how, in her mind, the heart of the original was lost.

Or she could feel anything in between! But chances are good that she’s going to feel something, and it’s probably going to be a strong something. Because Beauty and the Beast is her favorite, and she wants the retelling to do it justice.

This goes for any adaption on the screen or on the page, and it’s an interesting topic to explore whether you’re the consumer or the creator.

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I think of the plethora of superhero films. They reimagine the comic books. And some of them reimagine the first reimaginings of the comic books. I mean, we’ve had three different Spider-Mans in the last fifteen years. If you like superhero movies, you probably have a favorite rendition, right? Even if you never read the comics (I never have), you have a certain expectation of who Spider-Man should be, and you’ll judge the movies accordingly. Nothing wrong with that; it’s just how it is.

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Or what about the Narnia movies? I adore them, even when they strayed from the books. And I adore the books too, just in a different way. That’s another complexity in this world of retellings! Some people are weird enough to separate the art forms, and they love different takes on a story. I don’t think of the Narnia movies the same way as I think about the books. I love them both for different reasons, and I’m on pins and needles waiting for more news on The Silver Chair. (Not to mention very sad that there’s no chance Will Poulter will get to reprise his role as Eustace.)
Like I said at the beginning of this post, I’m writing a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, so I’m growing increasingly interested in what people generally expect of a fairytale retelling. How faithful do they want it to be? How many twists do they want? How fundamental can the twists be? Gender swaps? Role reversals? Genre bending? How many different ways can you interpret the heart of the original story? What is the heart? What do you highlight? What do you downplay? Is the original story a concrete framework, or is it a set of loose guidelines to play with as you please?

Stray too far, and you’ll upset someone. Stick too close, and you’ll still upset someone. Because Sleeping Beauty matters to this audience, otherwise they wouldn’t pick up a book based on it.

I’ve already come to terms with the fact that I can’t please everyone, so I’m not even going to try. But still, it’s worth figuring out what expectations your audience might have when they crack open your book.

I don’t know where I’m going with this post, really . . . I was just puzzling over why people react strongly to retellings, and I think I stumbled over one key reason. What do you guys think?

And when it comes to fairytales, what’s your perfect mix of ingredients? Do you like them to stick close to the original one, or do you like a wild ride of twists and turns? Tell me your thoughts on retellings/reboots in general, too! Let’s discuss them allll!

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Subplots and Storylines – April 2017

Tracey Dyck 30 Comments

Hello hello, adventurous questers! My apologies for being late again. Hopefully once college is over in a few weeks I’ll get back to being a prompt blogger again.

Life Adventures

How was your April? Mine went quite well. It started with spring break, which ended up being not very break-ish and rather full of work and social things. But I did manage to get my flight to Realm Makers booked! I’ve never booked a flight before, and since things just weren’t working out properly on my end, I got the help of a travel agent. Maybe it was overkill, but I wanted to get it right. But my goodness, why is it so expensive to hop on a plane and travel a few inches across a map? (Yes, I am a new adult clinging to her delusions as to how money and the world should work, why do you ask?) But regardless of the price, I’m very happy to have that in place!

What else happened, let me think . . .

Some college classmates and I were filmed for a year-end video. #bittersweet

I took an exam, which I think I passed.

Easter happened, and it was lovely.

But the highlight of the month was my class’s trip to Calgary, Alberta! On our first full day in Alberta, we visited Banff and hiked Johnston Canyon. Those mountains are food for my soul, I tell you. The trail was gorgeous, although mostly covered in ice and snow that made navigating inclines rather . . . challenging, especially for those of us wearing fashionable shoes with zero tread. Thankfully my runners (or sneakers, as you Americans call them) had some grip, but I still went slip-sliding all over the place. By the time I reached the bottom of the trail again, I could feel every muscle in my legs. But it was so much fun!

a glimpse of the Rockies on the cloudy drive to Banff

Johnston Canyon
me at Johnston Canyon

more of the canyon

a frozen waterfall in the canyon

 
me and my bro

Banff in all its quaintness

walking through Banff with college friends

One of the main reasons we were in Calgary was to visit a church, so on the second day we got to help out a church picnic. I enjoyed meeting lots of people and making this outreach event possible. Calgary is a city of constant change, and the average person doesn’t live there longer than a couple years. Folks commonly have trouble making friends, so it’s awesome to see relationships forming in a church setting.

After the picnic, some friends and I went to a movie. Because half my group didn’t have money for the c-train, we ended up walking forty minutes in the rain to our hotel afterwards.

On the Sunday we were there, we served in church, which was an amazing experience. I was placed in an area where I had little experience. Even though I made frequent mistakes, I was able to laugh at myself, learn on the fly, and move on–something I wouldn’t have done at the beginning of the school year!

Overall, I had a blast, and I’m sad to see the college year coming to a rapid close.

Screen Adventures

Once Upon a Time, portions of seasons 1, 2, and 5
Again, not much new to report here, except that season 5 is . . . *sniffle* . . . very feelsy. You have been warned.

The Flash, part of season 2
I think the episodes I watched this month are some of the best in the entire show so far! The reasons why are very spoilery, so if you haven’t watched The Flash–DO IT.



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The Lego Batman Movie
Although I didn’t like it as much as The Lego Movie (which had more heart and creativity to it, in my opinion), this was still an entertaining ride. The jokes fly at you a hundred miles an hour, Batman and Robin’s opposite personalities often providing the bulk of them. Plus, the movie was very self-aware and poked plenty of jokes at itself.



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Mulan
Confession: I had never seen this one until now. Never quoted Mushu. Never sang along to “I’ll Make a Man Out of You.” But I fixed that problem this month! . . . By watching it in probably illegal five-minute video segments on YouTube. Hush, don’t tell anyone. While I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite Disney movie, Mulan herself was an awesome character, Mushu was hilarious, and I can finally see why “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” is so sing-along-able!

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First three episodes of The Musketeers
I watched these on the bus ride with one of my college friends. Love the period costumes, the swords, the horses, and D’Artagnan, but I could do without the bits of sexual content, please.

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Beauty and the Beast (2017)
There’s been a great big hullaballoo over it, yes, and while I was admittedly disappointed in LeFou’s supposed “gay” moments, I loved the movie overall. It was magical! Beautifully filmed and skillfully acted. I wasn’t sure I’d like Emma Watson as Belle, but she grew on me. I love, love, loved the Beast. The wolf scenes were terrifically intense. Maurice was even more lovable than he was in the animated movie. And I was pleased at how closely this film followed the original, while still throwing in some lovely changes.

But since one of those changes was the aforementioned great big hullaballoo, I feel I need to articulate myself on that topic. Am I 100% sure what I think? No. But I can tell you that:

a) I’m disappointed that Disney felt the need to go that direction,
b) even so, it doesn’t seem to be a step in homosexuality’s favor by making the stupidest character in the movie gay,
and c) most of LeFou’s comments weren’t particularly overt, so I’m not sure if I would’ve missed some of them if I hadn’t been on high alert.

That being said, CAN WE STOP FOR A MOMENT AND APPRECIATE THE LIBRARY SCENE? Oh my heart. Honestly, I think this movie made me cry three or four times.

Book Adventures

Storm Siren // Mary Weber

This one’s been on my TBR for a while, thanks to the enthusiasm of its readers! It took me a little while to get into it, but once I did it was enjoyable. Nym was a snarky bundle of pain, and I loved her character arc. Her elemental powers were awesome, too. I also grew to like Eogan quite a bit. I wish their relationship had had a deeper substance to it, something beyond oh bolcranes, he’s handsome and the calming effect he has on her out-of-control powers. But maybe that will come later in the trilogy.

Sadly, I didn’t connect to most of the cast, even the people I was supposed to like. Not until a certain character death did I really begin to care for that person. Oops?

But I do have to congratulate Mary Weber on a unique combination of premise, storyworld, and theme. I LOVED the themes of this book! I won’t even name any of them, because you’ll just have to take Nym’s journey for yourself.

Outriders and Trackers // Kathryn Mackel


I needed books for the bus ride, so I grabbed these two off my shelf. The first one I read and enjoyed several years ago, but the second I’d never gotten around to. So what did I think this time around? Well, Outriders was both better and worse than I remembered, if that’s possible. I appreciated the characters more now, but the writing and backstory felt weaker at some points. I also would’ve liked to connect with characters a little sooner and a little deeper.

But. The premise was very unique, involving a futuristic world ravaged by toxins and radiation from the Endless Wars. The last of Christianity (though it’s never referred to as such) has taken refuge on an Ark beneath the arctic ice. We never see the Ark, since the story follows the birthrighters, teens and young adults sent out from the Ark to build camps and begin the work of restoring the earth to its God-given birthright. Meanwhile, the baddies mistake DNA manipulation for sorcery, and use it to “transmogrify” creatures into armies of giants and grotesque creatures.

Brady and Niki are my favorite characters, although Ajoba, who annoyed me in the first book, grew on me a lot in the second. I just wish there was a third book, because there were several loose ends that the author never tied up.

(One caution, however. I’d recommend these books for roughly 17 or 18 and up, due to references to rape and the villainous Baron Alrod’s penchant for “lollies,” or concubines.)

The DNA of Relationships // Dr. Gary Smalley


Another college read, and perhaps one of my favorites so far! It was easy to read and offered super practical and insightful advice on how to better all my relationships. One thing I learned was the concept of the Fear Dance, describing the vicious cycle of hurt and reactions between people in a relationship conflict. It opened my eyes to the underlying problems I sometimes have with people I know, what my core fears are, and what I can do to change me. While the book focused more on marriage, I’d recommend it to singles and marrieds alike because the principles are so amazing!

Writing Adventures

I did some more Snowflake Method outlining for The Brightest Thread before deciding that the process had helped me as much as it was going to help (for this story, anyways), and called it quits early. Which means I got to start actually writing again on April 9th!

Alas, I had very little time to write this month, so I was able to work through only the first two chapters, adding about 1200 words to the story. For those of you who don’t know, TBT started out as a novella retelling of Sleeping Beauty, which I’m now expanding into a full novel!

Whew, that was a long post. What sort of April adventures did you undertake? Any thoughts on the books and movies I consumed? Ever been to the Rockies?

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Subplots and Storylines – February 2017

Tracey Dyck 17 Comments

I’M BAAACK!

(I have been hanging on to that gif for months, just waiting for the perfect moment to use it. This is so fulfilling.)
But I’m kind of lying, because I’m only halfway back. Posts are scheduled for March, but depending on how day camp prep goes, I may not be able to reply to comments until that’s all over. Not to fret, I will get to them eventually! And come April, I’ll be back for real. Whew, that sounds like a long time from now. But if the next month explodes just like February exploded, it’ll pass in a flash.

Subplots of a February Variety

I think just about every week was packed. I had a friend over for a slumber party . . . I attended my church’s young adult night (an awesome Valentine’s-themed evening about dating relationships) . . . I was a stagehand for a special Valentine’s skit at church (basically just carried stools off stage and carried an easel back on) . . . the youth group where I volunteer every other week had a winter formal . . . I volunteered at a big indoor carnival for families, which was tons of fun (did you know Canada gets a long weekend in February?) . . . and attended a business/leadership seminar one evening.
College is full of volunteering, but this month had all kinds of extra stuff, it seems.
In other college news, I did a book presentation on The Purpose Driven Church, a project on which I made a few mistakes that I learned a lot from. Such as:
  • The way I manage a personal project is not how I should manage a group project. As the lead, I overestimated my group’s abilities and started too late, causing us to have to compromise on a couple of things.
  • Don’t assume your team can read your mind!
  • Don’t assume they will push themselves as hard as I push myself. I need to encourage and motivate them.
  • Stop and think about the why behind the project. Remember the purpose and the people first; the task is secondary.
Oh, and I received my most exotic letter from a friend EVER–it traveled from Kenya!

February Films



The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (rewatch)

Peterrrrr. Gwennnnn. My poor heart. Watching it a second time didn’t make the ending less sad (or frustrating, considering there won’t be a third movie–thanks, Andrew Garfield). I was also watching it late at night, and was too tired to appreciate the last hour of it.

Once Upon a Time – Seasons 1, 2, and 5

I’m still rewatching season 1 with my siblings, but I started season 2 with my parents, and my sisters and I watched a bit more of season 5. I’m all over the place! But now that I’m in the second season, it’s a lot of fun to have Captain Hook around.

The Flash – Season 2

Watched a bit more of this with the sibs too, and it continues to be amazing! Patty Spivot is one of my favorite female characters ever.

On a side note, I just realized that all three pictures up there mirror each other, and all of them included a blonde female. Ha.

February Reads

I went 25 days without reading a novel. 25 DAYS. I felt a bit lost! But I was reading plenty of nonfiction for school, so that sort of made up for it. (Sort of. Recently I started reading Marissa Meyers’ Winter, which now makes up for it completely. Still love mah fiction.) I didn’t complete a lot of books this month, but you do read slower when you’re taking notes.

The 5 Love Languages Singles Edition // Gary Chapman

I’d heard of the love languages concept before, but it was good to read about it for myself. In case you’re unfamiliar, the basic idea is that everyone receives love in different ways: either through words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, acts of service, or physical touch. It’s important to recognize how you receive love, and to see how to best give love to others in a “language” they’ll understand.
My whole class took the test, and I confirmed that quality time is my top love language. (Words fell in second–no surprise!)

Self-Improvement 101 and Teamwork 101, both from The Complete 101 Collection // John Maxwell

I’m reading through an eight-book collection of John Maxwell’s core leadership principles, and the two parts I read were both amazing! Very easy to read. The info is so condensed, I know I’ll be rereading chapters as I need them in the future. The best part is, many of the principles I’m learning here are directly applicable to college.

February Writings

Technically, I didn’t write anything this month. But I did make the decision to set aside The Prophet’s Key for the time being, in favor of getting started on the expansion of The Brightest Thread. I had wanted to finish the first draft of TPK completely before switching gears, but I was struggling to get into the right frame of mind. And . . . well, before I explain more . . .
I registered for Realm Makers! Yippee! It’s becoming more and more real. My hotel is booked too, but I’m still watching flight prices and hoping they’ll come down soon. If not, I’ll just have to go for it and buy my ticket. I’m very excited for the learning opportunities a writing conference will bring!
Realm Makers is one reason I switched gears. You remember how I wanted to publish a standalone novel before publishing all the Prophet books? And how that standalone is going to be my Sleeping Beauty retelling? Well, there’s the chance to pitch a complete, ready-to-go manuscript to agents and acquisitions editors at the conference, and I’d really like The Brightest Thread to be ready for that! But if I were to plod along for another few months to finish The Prophet’s Key, I would have precious little time to write an expanded TBT draft and edit it to my satisfaction–and figure out my pitch–before the end of July. Even starting out now, in February, may be cutting it close.
But I want to put my self-imposed deadline out of my mind, and simply focus on enjoying this story. Enjoying the process. I want to get myself back into a healthy writing place. But that’s a post for another day.
In the meantime, what I actually accomplished this month was reading over TBT, both the polished version and the longer first draft, and writing up several pages of notes on what I’d like to expand. There’s still work to do: I want to write out a brand new outline, possibly experimenting with the Snowflake Method, before jumping into the actual writing.
I’m looking forward to it! This is one of my favorite stories I’ve ever written, and it’s exciting to think of how it will grow and change in the near future.

Storylines of Growth

February was definitely a month of growing and learning. Some days were overwhelming, but I’m arming myself with what I need to face March–a month that promises to be even more of a stretch!
What have y’all been up to? Tell me all! And while you’re at it, what are some ways you gear yourselves up for a busy season of life?
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