Latest Posts by sinedra - Page 6

Writing Tip #6

Have multiple copies of writing you really care about. You never know when you're going to have your laptop give out, or lose a flashdrive, or drop your notebook in water. This is another way handwriting it comes in handy. You automatically gain two copies: a physical one and a typed version. Even saving recent copies to an email draft is a good idea. (Or emailing them to yourself if you don't trust drafts)

I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I’m afraid of.

Joss Whedon  (via dragontameroutofcharacter)

This blog is against 50 Shades of Grey and sees it for what it truly is: glorification of abuse on women and literal trash

Author Recommendations #1

Genre: Fantasy (No Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, or C.S. Lewis but they are good and should be checked out.) -David Eddings Books: The Belgariad and the Mallorean series. -Tamora Pierce Books: The Immortals and The Song of the Lioness series. -Rachel Hartman Book: Seraphina -Dawn Cook Books: First Truth, Hidden Truth, Forgotten Truth, Lost Truth -Holly Black Books: Tithe, Valiant, White Cat -Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Books: Hawksong, Snakecharm - Martine Leavitt Book: Keturah and Lord Death -Tanith Lee Books: The Claidi Journals -Colleen Houck Books: The Tiger Saga -Peter S. Beagle Book: The Last Unicorn, Two Hearts (story) If you'd like more then let me know.

Writing Tip #5

Try stepping away from your work for a bit. If you come back to it in a week or two, you'll be distanced enough to notice mistakes or discrepancies in the piece. It can also help with writer's block; stressing over ideas is actually counterproductive.

Writing Tip 4

Rather self explanatory today. Whether you're writing a fanfiction or a novel, do your research. I can't explain how many times I've stopped reading a story because of iPods in the 80s, matches in 307 BC, indoor plumbing in plague ridden England during the Dark Ages. Seriously, it's impressive when a writer adds history or cultural facts to their story (particularly fanfiction, which I love, but is riddled with problems). I don't mean just use Wikipedia, skim through history books or read up on villages or other countries. I promise in the end it'll make you feel good and further your pride in your work. Publishing companies also will usually throw your work automatically out for not researching things, if the above wasn't incentive enough.

Book Review 2: Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

Being a wolf lover, I devour YA novels with wolves in it. I’ve done my research and watched documentaries (no one would be able to tell they’re my favorite animals. All the books, movies, and stuffed animals don’t give that away) so my expectations are high. Some authors like Tamora Pierce and Maggie Stiefvater make me very happy with how they write them, it’s clear they actually read up on things. With that rant over, authors like Andrea Cremer have much potential, but the execution makes me want to burn books (which I have sworn against).

Basically, it’s the usual plot of people who can turn into animals. A young girl is the “alpha” of her own pack and is supposed to marry another “alpha” to combine their packs. Naturally, she falls in love with a human boy and has to fight against her desire and duty.

Perhaps my dislike of this book is showing through, but I couldn’t take it seriously and only made it through because I wanted to see how much worse it could get. If Cremer made it clear that these were kids that could change to wolves but were still human, I could forgive it much more and lump it in with the mediocre of the YA genre. But I can’t do that.

Her writing, overall, is forgivable. It isn’t anything special but is bearable and probably the best thing about this novel. The plot is honestly not great, there are many plot holes, the main character is a cardboard cutout (cute, popular, the best in her “pack”, smart) and everyone else is nearly forgettable. I mean I couldn’t even find this book on wikipedia (no lie I spent an hour trying to find it, it’s not there).

Here’s where my rant really begins. It could be a good premise, wolves given powers to change by witches to serve as their protectors (or at least what I can remember of it) and they try to blend into the human world. Sadly, it doesn’t get close to that, and her “wolves” aren’t wolves at all. They’re hormonal teenagers that want to do everyone and have very little in common with a pack. Sure they change, but that’s the end of the similarities. I expected so much more on the wolf end. Like the concept of the alphas mating, fine I can handle it, but not when one of the two has been sleeping with human girls for years and his other members are coerced or genuinely love sleeping around. In a real pack, only the alphas mate in a pack, and only with each other. It’s for life Ms. Cremer!

That’s not even the end of my frustration with her “wolves”. But for some reason they can turn other people into wolves with a bite… Completely out of nowhere, and doesn’t make a lick of sense. Again another plot hole that I couldn’t look past.

I know these books are rather popular, but I loathe them. I see where it could be good; I tried looking at these books less criticality (hard to tell I know) as I know more in the writing world, but that just makes the writer in me more frustrated. It really had the potential to do well and fails in everything other than the writing itself. So I’m sorry if I’ve torn this apart or seem to not be giving it a fair review, but this really did come from a writer/editorial view point.

Perhaps they get better, but I don’t really have a care to give the series a second chance. If you feel differently, then please leave me a note with a fair argument and not looking for a fight.

Writing Tip 3

Take criticism like an adult. You won't always hear what you what to, the writing that you put so much time and effort into may be torn apart, but you have to roll with it. There's always some truth to complaints, some people just love tearing writing apart, most are honestly trying to give you feed back. If you get mad or cry how will you handle the publishing process? Most people get told no many times over, it's life.

So, don't be rude or outright ignore it. Take it to heart and if you get a complaint more than once it probably does need to be changed or fixed. If you handle this with a good attitude and act respectful, people will be less likely to rudely rip your stories apart. Besides, the compliments are worth it in the end.

The poor novelist constructs his characters, he controls them and makes them speak. The true novelist listens to them and watches them function; he eavesdrops on them even before he knows them. It is only according to what he hears them say that he begins to understand who they are.

André Gide

Hey all! Becky here with a quick reminder that we do accept and post story submissions. We mods aren’t just promoting our own writing but others as well. The only major requirement is that you have a specific inspiration for your story or snippet and that you duly credit it in your submission. Check out our submission page for more info. Thanks for all your support so far and here’s to more great stories.

Writing Tip 2

This might seem a bit over hashed, but always carry a small notebook or notepad with you for ideas. ANYTHING could give you an idea or inspiration. And you might think you'll remember it later. I guarantee that the best ones will slip your mind.

Writing Tip 1

Try actually writing on paper before you type it. Your hands have a harder time of getting ahead and nothing is more fulfilling than using an entire notebook for your stories.

Book Review 1: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

I (again) apologize, as I've never done an official review or anything. Since that's out of the way I'll do my best to bring forward a decent amount of points on both ends. If I need to improve, please tell me. On to the review!

I'm a huge fan of the YA fantasy genre, if there isn't some fantasy in it then I'm likely to not even pick it up. Safe to say, Seraphina is fantasy through and through. Rachel Hartman brings in refreshing elements to a subject over-done in every form of media/genre: Dragons.

As a short summary, the story follows the young protagonist: Seraphina. She's delved out of her comfort-zone (and guiltily ignoring her father's wishes) and begun working at the palace. Before she moved in, the crown prince is killed and everyone believes it was the dragons that did it. Seraphina finds herself pulled into the mystery with the help of Lucian Kiggs, captain of the guard and nephew of the killed prince. The treaty between the dragons and humans hangs in the balance.

Without spoiling the plot too much, let's just say that the dragons (who we see mostly in compressed human forms) are a wonderful relief. They definitely don't feel human and don't have a perfect peace with the humans. The tension and distrust is felt from cover-to-cover, it's honestly wonderful because it isn't a stagnant world and its future doesn't depend on the protagonist to fix or cause trouble. For a fantasy world, it come off as extremely realistic.The world itself is a mix of medieval European and fantasy setting that pulls you right in. Nothing felt awkward or out of place.

Seraphina, herself, is also a well rounded character. She's not beautiful, socially exceptional, or even well known. She enjoys being in the background and prefers it. Granted, like most YA protagonists, she certainly could benefit from a few more flaws, but she's a model for many of the Mary-Sue cut outs being sold on the shelves. I'm also not one really for first-person in stories, but I actually enjoyed being in her head.

On the opposing end, the plot is a bit overused. Hero/heroine gets involved when country's peace is threatened and heads off to fix it. I personally felt like I had too many characters thrust at me at the beginning, it was hard to keep track of at first. And there were certainly a few scenes that didn't need to be in the novel at all (sadly they're spoilers so I can't mention them), but they only succeeded in making the novel longer rather than pushing the plot along.

As a final comment, I would certainly recommend it. I love it as a whole, which makes it easy to ignore the bad points. I'm certainly keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel and will probably read it again.

This blog

Well, if I treat this blog anything like my facebook then it'll be sorely neglected and sometimes forgotten (apologizes). But I'll try to do things like book reviews/recommendations, story snippets, or just rants basically.