Happy Halloween and NaNoWriMo Eve!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

If you're planning on doing National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this year then use the candy you got today as your fuel for the rest of the month. Trust me, you're going to need it. ;)

I've only decided to take part just last week. I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up with the word count goal because of the overload of schoolwork (and the pressure of Junior year) but I'm optimistic that this year's NaNo will go as well as last year did for me. So is anyone planning on doing NaNo this year? Have you won in previous years? Would you like me to add you as a buddy? Please leave a link to your profile in the comments.

Happy Halloween and NaNoWriMo Eve!

Daughter of Smoke and Bones REVIEW

DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE
by Laini Taylor
Pages: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Add to shelf: [ Goodreads ]

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out. When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past…

The Daughter of Smoke and Bones had two major flaws for me. One was the slow-pacing and the other was the prose. The book was slightly dragging in the beginning and towards the middle I had put it down several times and attempted to pick it up again later. I get it that Karou's lonely, and I get it that her ex boyfriend was a psycho, but why spend the whole entire beginning on just that? And then there's the prose. Sometimes I'd read a sentence of description and by the end of the sentence I'd forget what it was describing. I usually have no problem with prose at all. In fact, it's one of those things that makes a story far more enjoyable for me. But it just didn’t work for me in this book.

So what did I love? Where do I start? The setting of Prague was just beautiful. And Karou—I loved her! She's strong, beautiful, has blue hair and an amazing talent when it comes to drawing. And on top of all that she's not portrayed as a perfect person. She has flaws, she has weaknesses, and she craves love. There's something about her loneliness that makes me ache for her for most of the book. When she said she was lonely I truly believed that she was. Karou and Zuzana—a delightful duo that I enjoyed. Akiva—a delicious swoon-worthy angel with a tortured past. I was fascinated by Karou's family of chimaeras, who gave us small insight into the other world called Elsewhere. And of course the world-building. Wow! The world building. I loved it to bits even though it’s one of the things that kind of slowed down the pace of the story.

I felt like all the elements of a story that I love are in this book and yet something is lacking. Maybe it's due to the high expectations I had prior to reading this book. Maybe it's because I wasn't quite connected with some of the characters. Maybe it's because of the prose that had me re-reading whole paragraphs to find out what it was about. Or maybe it's due to the slow pacing of the text. I mean, I literally sat with bated breath waiting for the huge turning points to take place and.....nothing happened for a really long time. The wait was far longer than I had anticipated: thus the reason why I had put if down a couple times.

Overall I really liked The Daughter of Smoke and Bones but didn't love it like I expected I would. Would I recommend it? Definitely! Despite its flaws it was, to say the least, a magical and fascinating read. Not your everyday read from the YA genre.

3.5 Stars

Daughter of Smoke and Bones REVIEW

On Writing: STORY STRUCTURE (Part 2)

Part 2 of STORY STRUCTURE (Part 1)

The Eight–Point Structure applied to YA Dystopian novel DIVERGENT

 

*CAUTION-CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Stasis

Normal life of Beatrice/ introduces her society/ the problem

Trigger

Picking Dauntless

Quest

Going to Dauntless/ discovering what it is like to be Dauntless/ Meeting Four

Surprise

Finding out she is divergent/Getting beat up at practices/ Learning to fight/ eventually learns how to win a fight/ Finding out her mother is divergent

Critical choice

Chooses to fight back and win the contest to become a Dauntless

Climax

She's almost killed/ her mother dies/Four loses his mind/she finds out who the antagonist/ fights/witnesses many people dying

Reversal

Things are still bad. Even though her mother is dead she's still moving on. Reversal is basically how the character is like when everything is wrong because right after the climax things aren’t automatically get better.

Resolution

Enemy is deterred (for now), Trice and Four are safe, and she is not at all the same person she was in the beginning of the book. Sets up for the next book.

Question:

Do you ever notice the structure as you're reading a book? If not, try to look for the 8 points the next time you read a book so you have a good idea of how it's done. You can find these structure point in almost every novel you read.

On Writing: STORY STRUCTURE (Part 2)

On Writing: STORY STRUCTURE (Part 1)

After I learned about Story Structure everything fell into place for me.  Plotting novels has been so much more easier for me when I have the structure in mind. I’m glad that found out about it when I did otherwise many of my books would still be unfinished. Keeping your story’s structure in mind can make a HUGE difference in your writing. It’ll help you stay on course whether you’re an outlining type of person or not.

As an example I’ll be using HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE (Part 1) and DIVEREGENT by Veronica Roth (Part 2).

What I use is a simple 8-Point Structure (made by Nigel Watts) but if you want to go into more detail you can. (Click here for more detailed structure. Scroll down to chart. )

The Eight Main Turning Points:

(Use this as a checklist as you’re writing)

1. Stasis

Introduces characters, everyday life, and problem. (Harry Living with the Dursleys)

2. Trigger

Add in a trigger that sparks off the story. (Harry getting picked up by Hagrid & finding out he’s a wizard)

3. The quest

The Trigger results in a quest. (Harry goes to the Wizarding World for the first time and enters Hogwarts, Finds out what really happened to his parents.)

4. Surprise

Surprise takes up the most part of the story. It’s basically the middles. It includes pleasant events, but more often means obstacles, complications, conflict and trouble for the protagonist. (Harry explores life in Hogwarts. Becomes friends with Ron and Hermione. Has skirmishes with Malfoy. Trouble with Professor Snape. Learns more about Voldemort.  Plays Quidditch. Learns more about his family).

5. Critical choice

At some point the character makes a critical choice. It shows what kind of person your character is and determines what the real goal will be for the rest of the story. (Harry learns that Voldemort has been trying to steal the Sorcerer’s Stone. He decides that he must find the Stone before Voldemort does.)

6. Climax

In the climax basically everything possibly bad that can happen to your character does and he/she faces their worst struggle. The climax is the highest peak of tension in your story. Up until this point your character has been struggling to get better at something and this is the big test where he/she can show us what they can really do and who they really are as a person. Note that this portion is paced really quickly. (Harry finds the Sorcerer’s Stone before Voldemort does. He comes face to face with him through Quirrel, one of Harry’s teachers. But when he touches Harry the contact burns him. He dies. Harry is safe.)

7. Reversal

The reversal is the consequence of the critical choice and the climax, and it should change the status of the characters. (When Harry regains consciousness, he is in the hospital with Dumbledore. Dumbledore explains that he saved Harry from Quirrell just in time. He adds that he and Flamel have decided to destroy the stone.)

8. Resolution

The resolution is when things return back to normal and the main conflict is resolved. The characters should be changed, wiser and enlightened in some way due to the story’s events. You can always leave a few strings open though if you’re planning on continuing with a sequel. You might want to use a different central conflict this time around because the main conflict in the first book has to be resolved. (Harry heads down to the end-of-year banquet, where Slytherin is celebrating its seventh consecutive win of the house championship cup. Dumbledore gets up and awards many last-minute points to Gryffindor for the feats of Harry and his friends, winning the house cup for Gryffindor.)

Click here to read PART 2

On Writing: STORY STRUCTURE (Part 1)

In My Mailbox (6)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren

Source: Bought from bookstore

HUNTING LILA

by Sarah Alderson

Paperback, 320 pages
Published August 4th 2011
　

17-year-old Lila has two secrets she's prepared to take to the grave. The first is that she can move things just by looking at them. The second is that she's been in love with her brother's best friend, Alex, since forever. Or thereabouts.After a mugging on the streets of South London goes horribly wrong and exposes her unique ability, Lila decides to run to the only people she can trust - her brother and Alex. They live in Southern California where they work for a secret organisation called The Unit, and Lila discovers that the two of them are hunting down the men who murdered her mother five years before. And that they've found them. Trying to uncover the truth of why her mother was killed, and the real remit of The Unit, Lila becomes a pawn in a dangerous game. Struggling to keep her secrets in a world where nothing and no one is quite as they seem, Lila quickly realises that she is not alone - there are others out there just like her - people with special powers -and her mother's killer is one of them.

　

LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR

by Stephenie Perkins

Hardcover, 338 pages

Published September 29th 2011

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.
　
CARRIER OF THE MARK

by Leigh Fallon
Paperback, 352 pages

Published October 4th 2011

　

Their love was meant to be.

When Megan Rosenberg moves to Ireland, everything in her life seems to fall into place. After growing up in America, she's surprised to find herself feeling at home in her new school. She connects with a group of friends, and she is instantly drawn to darkly handsome Adam DeRís.
But Megan is about to discover that her feelings for Adam are tied to a fate that was sealed long ago—and that the passion and power that brought them together could be their ultimate destruction.
　
　
What books are you currently devouring this week?
What books are you looking forward to?

In My Mailbox (6)