First Rebellion Status Report: Monthly Wrap-Up and Update

Imagine deft fingers striking a match in the middle of a forest. It hasn't rained in weeks, and the grass and bark are dry. The fingers loosen around the match, and it falls to the crackly grass. The flame is small, so small that only a few animals notice as it passes onto the dry ground.

But it grows, and it spreads. It isn't long before the entire forest is aware of it. What had been a harmless, candle-sized flame only a short while ago is bigger, more noticeable, and more effective.

This is the story of Rebellious Writing. It's amazing how quickly a fire can spread through a forest, under the right circumstances. Similarly, it's amazing how a single blog post (Dear Writers) by a single blogger (Gray Marie) can inspire an entire website by multiple bloggers in the space of about two months. And especially under the right circumstances, when so many authors are filling the YA shelves with all kinds of profane, filthy novel content.

The difference between RW and a forest fire, of course, is that our intent is not to cause damage, but to try our best to fix it.

It's been twenty-one days since our launch of the Rebellious Writing website. Today I'd like to give a quick overview of what we've done this month, as well as link you to some posts that were published in other areas of the blogosphere - a few that I personally enjoyed.

WHAT WE DID THIS MONTH

Since the launch, four posts have been published, and all of them are spectacular! So, if you haven't read any one of these, I'll give you a hint: the titles are click-able.

Website Kick-Off: Featuring the Founder's Round Table
(in which we, the authors, introduce ourselves and explain how Rebellious Writing came to be)

Reconnaissance Mission: Becoming a Book Scout for Rebellious Writing
(in which Catherine Hawthorn invites you to "scout" books for us!)

 The Elephant in the Bedroom: Can Good Romance Be Clean?
(in which Faith Thompson talks about the physicality of romance in YA)

Guest Post Featuring Caitlin Lambert : The Neglected Niche
(in which guest poster Caitlin Lambert encourages us to write clean books for the secular market, not just for the Christian market!)

FOLLOWERS AND VIEWS

FOLLOWERS: As of August 30th, 2017, a total of 39 wonderful persons are following us (see them in the sidebar).  Thank you, dear followers, for your support. You are part of the fuel we need to keep this fire going and growing! As every blogger can relate to - and really anyone with social media - new followers also make us warm and happy. So thank you! It means a lot.

VIEWS: We've received close to 3,500 views from people all over the world.  According to our stats, that is.  Views from faraway places are often scam, but it's definitely safe to say that we have legit views from Australia, plus a fairly reliable amount from Russia and the United Kingdom. Again, thank you. It's wonderful to see the RW fire spreading as far as other countries!

OTHER CORNERS OF THE BLOGOSPHERE

Let's take a peek at what some of the Rebellious Writers have been up to on their individual blogs, shall we?

In terms of writing tips, Gray Marie wrote a post about writing unforgettable villains over at her amazing blog, Writing is Life! Also, Melissa Gravitis wrote a post on her own wonderful blog, Quill Pen Writer, about developing the history of a complex fantasy world. Both of these are super helpful and just generally great posts, so click the links and check those out.

In terms of writing tags, Anna C.S. participated in the Voices of YA Tag earlier in the month. She had some great answers, so jump on over to her beautiful blog, A World Through Her Heart, to read it! On Catherine Hawthorn's splendid corner of the blogosphere, The Rebelling Muse, she did a two-part tag catch-up, the first of which featured three tags about characters, which was a lot of fun.

This was just a little taste of what the other Rebellious Writing authors are doing on their own unique blogs. Go to our We The Youth page to find links to all our individual corners of the Internet!

ONE MORE THING TO SHARE. . .

Rebellious Writing is expanding into a community, and whereas I used to consider it a tiny group of like-minded bloggers, I now imagine a concert-sized crowd of members. Don't get me wrong - I know we're not anywhere near that point yet. But there's you. All you lovely people! So let's join hands in our effort to write clean fiction for the YA shelves. Let's join hands in spreading light and truth and goodness in the words we write, and wherever we go.

A thousand heartbeats beat in time

And makes this dark planet come alive

~~ "Shooting Star" by Owl City

As for next month, September is going to be a blast! The authors will have more articles up about writing, and there will also be a book review. We have many more posts planned, dear readers.

Rebellious Writing is just getting started.

- Lila Red