Hello everyone!

My name is Claire, and this is my first Wattpad Block Party. I legitimately so glad to be amongst this line up of amazing authors.

Today, I am going to be doing three things.

1) I'm going to take you on a little journey with me as I vlog writing a chapter out of my story 'They Are Made From Lightning' (along with everything in-between, of course) (Spoiler: there are a lot of things I did in-between writing this chapter). I would call this a 'writing vlog'. But that would be a lie. Let's call it a 'what-claire-did-for-3-days-whilst-she-was-procrastinating-' vlog.

2) I'm going to show you a little preview of the story. Which hopefully is a decent piece of writing, lmao. Both my fingers and toes are crossed.

3) And then I'm going to tell you about 5 things I've learnt from my 7 years of practicing creative writing! It's not a one-size-fits-all set of tips, but pick and choose what you will :)

ACT ONE

Process

You know what, I'll let the vlog do the talking. 

https://youtu.be/MnCpyBken2A

Let me know if I should do more of these! I had tons of fun but also good lord that drained me.

ACT TWO

Piece

Well, the chapter that I was vlogging about? I'm going to preview it for you now. It's from a story that I've written called 'They Are Made From Lightning'. You can find it on my profile, and only the prologue is up. Official updating will begin in feb! In my vlog, I talked about introducing a new character – she's featured in this snippet so I thought it'd be pretty cool to see how the events from my vlog transpired.

Blurb: They Are Made From Lightning

Sitting lonely, wedged between buildings and in the deep, reeking underbelly of this underworld - a pair of wayward twins, a silently powerful fighter, a lost boy.

A foreboding storm.

And these things - the good, the bad, and the in-between have one thing in common. They are made from lightning.

PRESENTING: They Are Made From Lightning – Chapter 4 Excerpt

*

Some existed in the dark underworld of the Equatorial city. Others existed in the temporary façade of a glittering overworld. Eris and Chaos, arguably, existed somewhere in-between. They were two things: wanderers with no home, and walking turmoil.

During the day, the Equatorial city's epicentre housed a large operational district. Workers worked meticulously to ensure the running and safety of the city. On the outside, they seemed like a well-oiled machine. The façade was relentlessly powerful. Some maintained the solar panel operations, making sure that they were collecting enough sunlight to power the city. Scientists ensured the oxygen levels within the equatorial region were still within stable, habitable boundaries. They ordered plants from greenhouses all over the city. Governmental agencies sustained food stock. Meteorologists monitored the distance of the storms clouds in the distance – the ones that covered the whole of the Earth save for the equatorial belt where the city stood.

And yet, one thought hung over their minds so well that it could've been the storm clouds themselves.

God save them all.

But at night, the city revealed a new face.

*

Midnight and beyond approached as the hours went by, like a slow descent to the witching hour. Shadows skittered between alleyways, and through hallways. People no longer populated the streets.

Except for Grenson, that was. He'd worked over-hours tonight, and was returning home lugging a briefcase so large that he had a briefcase-induced limp. He cursed under his breath as he dragged the weight of the case (and his body) through the alleyways behind his workplace.

He sincerely hoped that the overtime pay was going to be worth it.

He just had to make it through this alleyway, turn a corner – just to the next main street – and then catch a cab home. That was all he had to do. It's that easy, he repeated to himself. Easy, easy, easy.

At that very instant, a high-pitched laugh echoed throughout the alleyway.

His head snapped up, eyes scanning the dim alleyway in front of him. The owner of the voice was nowhere in sight, and it took him several hesitant moments to decide that there was (hopefully) no one waiting in the darkness to ambush him.

He began to talk again, slowly, step by step like a child learning how to walk. Scanning his environment, breathing as softly as he could so as to not wake the monsters that observed him with glistening teeth. The suitcase was beginning to feel like a liability – if anyone came at him brandishing a knife and a wry smile, he decided that it would be best to drop this damn thing to hopefully divert the attention from himself. A decoy, if you will.

Leave the carcass out so the monsters with glistening teeth would decide that a briefcase was more noteworthy and potentially valuable than a man in a working suit.

He was ready for the monster with the knife and wry smile. He was ready.

Just as he was turning the corner to the main street, he felt a jolt of relief surge through him body like a shot of lightning. Was this what heaven looked like? A road fully lit by lanky streetlights, a triple-lane road and the purr of engines racing through the midnight streets?

He was so overcome with relief that he'd failed to notice the person bump into him at first.

And when he did, the very first thing he noticed about them was the sterile, white trench coat draped over a figure. The person hung their head low, and he couldn't make out a face. A strength and power seemed to trail them, and when the breeze blew, the white coat billowed to the will of the wind.

"Oh. So sorry, Sir." The voice that escaped the pale figure was that of a girl's.

Grenson's breath caught in his lungs for just a moment. He hadn't expected this to be a girl. But he didn't want to linger. He clutched on tighter to his briefcase and cursed at the girl for giving him a fright. And then – shaking off the bizarre incident – he scampered off towards the main street to bask in the welcoming embrace of bright street lights, suitcase bouncing off the jagged tar behind him.

And, of course, he failed to notice his missing wallet.

ACT THREE

Breakdown of the process

I thought I would share a few writing tips – I do creative writing in uni, and I've also been writing since I was a wee lil thing. This is a little bit of what I've learnt so far. Hopefully it helps someone!

1) Writing is not meant to be black and white. It is subjective. There is no clear, objective, one size fits all, distinction between 'great' and 'okay' writing. There will be writing that the masses will love, and that will be considered popular writing. There will be pieces that only a few will love, but that does not make a piece of work bad. So, moral of the story – write something that means a lot to you. Find a writing style that means a lot to you. Create stories that mean a lot to you. Because then, the reception that it receives from others will matter a whole lot less. Because this way, the majority of the feeling of content comes from within you.

2) There are two types of editing. I thought I might just share this, since it's something useful that I've learnt in my university creative writing unit. Editing is not merely picking out grammatical mistakes and errors and rewording sentences to sound better. Think of editing as on a range of levels. On the micro levels you have word editing, line editing, typos. And then you move up the scale a little bit and you have syntax editing. Sentence structure and how to best use it for your piece. And then even further, onto macro levels, you have editing on the level of concepts and themes. This is conceptual editing. How conceptually cohesive is your piece? Are the characters contributing to the story enough?

3) A lot of the time, stories are the same tale, told over and over again. This is one of my favourite videos about 'The Hero's Journey'.

https://youtu.be/Hhk4N9A0oCA

4) If it helps, find time away from Wattpad to develop your stories. This is just something that I've learnt as a writer on Wattpad. Pack your bags and leave the site for one, two weeks. Immerse yourself into the creative world – Wattpad is another realm altogether. The story comes first.

5) The key is in balance!! This is something very important that I failed to learn during my younger days on Wattpad. When you're young and you only have school, Wattpad and writing can mean a lot to you (it probably still will when you're older). But think of it this way: if you populated your mind with only writing, then what do you actually have to write about? I learnt this the hard way, but you need balance in your life. Get healthy. Meet up with your friends. Study things you love. Pursue other hobbies. If you are a multi-faceted person, you can draw inspiration from multiple channels in your life. And trust me, you will probably be a lot happier.

Right, kiddos. That's it from me. Enjoy your week and check out 'They Are Made from Lightning' or my other blogs on my youtube if you want (either would make your girl really happy).

And I'm out.

xC

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