Writing Update: April

Oh hey there!

(That was definitely the most cringey introduction paragraph in existence. Let's move on).

Aside from being a reader, I'm also an aspiring writer (read: destined to be unemployed) and for as long as I remember I've wanted to be published. I suppose this post is more for me than anyone else but I want to do a monthly writing update on this blog so I can keep track of my writing progress and rant to someone about how much of a failure I am. 

Yeah, sometimes writing sucks. 

Seriously, there are days when everything I write is absolute crap and when I fall so far into plot-holes that a full scale rescue team would struggle to get me out. However, there are also moments when I actually like the words I've written because I've fallen madly in love with the worlds and characters that exist in my head. 

This was me at the beginning of the month.

This month was both terrible and amazing at the same time. In the first part of April I was a writing machine. It would be impossible to count the amount of times I yelled FUCK YEAH after completing a chapter. I wrote 100K in thirty days last NaNoWriMo and I think that the only reason was because I had revision and exams to do in that month. Yeah, I have exams in two weeks (!!!) and I'm seriously slacking on revision, but the writing isn't too shabby.

My project, Honour Among Thieves (I think I've mentioned it before. It's a standalone epic fantasy novel), is currently standing at 34K and I wrote most of that in the beginning of April. This novel is the same one that I wrote back in November, but I'm currently rewriting it because the first draft was, in the politest way possible, absolute bullcrap. It's also changed so much since that fist draft, and since then I've attempted to start again three or four times. I'm really happy with how it's going right now. 

Saying that, in the last half of the month I couldn't write a darn. Nothing was working, and each word was generally terrible. I'm pretty sure that there are preschoolers who could write more exciting shit. Hell, I think that I wrote better stories when I was ten or eleven (I'll post some of those one day--they're hilariously bad). I'm getting out of that slump now, but I'm not really that content with the quality of my writing. It's a bit meh. 

Lisa gets me. She's my soul twin.

This month, I began to properly plan a YA fantasy novel called The Dying Word (that title will almost definitely change). It's set in a fantastical library in which the books contain stories of peoples lives, even the bits that they haven't lived yet. I came up with the idea a couple of months ago but the idea is finally developing and I'm so excited by it. There's this character called Kit who is swoon worthy X1000 and I may be a little in love with him. That's seriously weird because I'm crushing on my imagination. 

Moving on. 

One of my favourite things about TDW is the friendship between the two main characters, Raena and Varine. I think that female friendships doesn't feature nearly enough in books and I am SO EXCITED to write this story. If you want to get a general feel for it, check out my Pinterest board. 

I'm having trouble focussing on just one project. I won't start TDW before I finish HAT (hehe) which may be a while, considering I'm 34K in and still have at least two thirds left. I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up at 150K. Seriously, it's impossible for me to write short books. It's impossible. 

Anyway, I don't think I'll write much in May/June because my exams are from May 12th to June 12th (yup, I didn't realise that until a few weeks ago). So that'll be fun.

I don't know if you found this post interesting or not, but either way thanks for reading!

Regarding Names

I've decided to completely redraft my novel Honour Among Thieves and that means creating an entirely new world for the story to take place in. Some of the storylines that I liked no longer work and there are places which I need to add in events which never could have happened in that god-awful first draft. My main issue, however comes with names.

There is a character in my book who becomes a main character in book two of the series. In my mind she has always been called Arietta, although for a long time I decided that her culture was based off of Tsarist Russia. It doesn't take a fool to realise that the name Arietta just doesn't work. I spent hours researching Russian names and all the confusing information that comes with them (who knew that patronymic names could be so confusing?) and still I found nothing that I liked. I decided on the name Ksenya, although if I'm honest it just doesn't fit her. She's always been Arietta to me and I can't imagine her as anything else.

With this huge rewrite, I decided to scrap the idea of basing the culture on Russia. In a way that's great because Arietta could keep her name but now I have an issue. Arietta is a princess and I decided to name the head of her personal guard Dmitri. I can't have two people from the same culture with one name that sounds Italian and the other that's clearly Russian. It just doesn't work. So who do I rename? Arietta or Dmitri, who suits his name almost as much as Arietta does?

*headdesk*

Another issue I'm facing is part of the world building. Part of the culture in my world surrounds on the cycle of the nine months, each of them lasting forty days. I don't want to bore you with the ins and outs of this but this is probably the most important part of my book. It is the basis of the magic system, the geography and the economics. Then how come every name I try to give it sounds like something from a tampax advert? Cycle? Menstrual cycle. Period? That one's obvious. Phases? Mood swings. 

Names are important and I'm determined to get them right.

I like names, probably a little too much. I often visit baby naming websites and read hundreds and hundreds of them, trying to find one that suits a certain character. I search names from different eras, languages and countries and it still takes an age to find The One. A name is an important thing. Would Harry Potter have been as successful if he was fighting Lord Fartbottom? I doubt it. Names are with you throughout the whole story and if a name is ridiculous, it can be quite annoying.

I'm not even going to begin to mention Teardrop by Lauren Kate. The main character was called Eureka. -.-

If a character name is done well, it can really define who they are. For example, one of my favourite Arya Stark fits her name perfectly. Nicknames can also make a character, such as Beatrice changing her name to the tougher and stronger sounding Tris in Divergent, showing her switch to Dauntless.

I still think that names should be deliberated over a lot, hence the Arietta/Ksenya/Dmitri/Menstral Cycle issue. Even if they sound right for that character or place, some people seem to forget that it's the characters parents who supposedly name them rather than the author. Why would a strict woman name her child Rainbow, no matter how carefree that kid grows up to be? Also, why would someone name their child a name which doesn't exist for the next hundred years? It's these little things that bug me.

Even if a name is brilliant, you don't know how many cause pronunciation issues. I never struggled with this but I know a lot of people who couldn't get how to say Hermione, and I myself initially pronounced Carlisle from Twilight like Carl-sie. In the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas, I know that Chaol has caused a lot of difficulties. I love the name and it fits perfectly, but man did it take me a while to get used to. But after all it is fantasy.

Saying all this, a name is after all just a name. A brilliant writer could name the bad guy Charlie and make him sound anything but sweet. Enter Charlie, the mass murderer and slave master from the mythical land of Cupcake...

Can someone write that? Please?

Names can also be overused. You can't imagine how many stories about a Cassandra I've read, or a dystopia featuring a Caleb. A lot of classic names have been made modern, such as a lot from the Brönte sisters and Austen (Edward, Heath(cliff) and Darcy) to name a few. There is nothing wrong with this, but sometimes it feels like I'm listening to a different artist cover the same record.

I could go on forever talking about this. After all, names fascinate me. There are some I like such as Kaladin from The Way of Kings, and some which make me want to bash my head against a wall (Renesme. Seriously?). Names are important to a story, but they don't make it. If Teardrop was better, maybe the name Eureka wouldn't have annoyed me so much. I really think names are important but they can also be misleading. As most people know, a lot of people initially thought that JK Rowling was a boy, and many authors such as the Brönte sisters were published under male pseudonyms.

There is one thing I can say to fellow authors as I try to avoid making people think about that certain time of the month when they read my book: choose wisely (and may the odds be ever in your favour).

Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names. - Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Why do I write?

Recently I have been thinking about why I decide to write and where my ideas come from. The real, less pretentious reason for this is because I just love writing. I love the way it can immerse me into another world, although I think that there is more to it than that.

I write because I am dissatisfied.

Here me out here. It may just be me who thinks like this. In fact it probably is just me. Either way, I write because I am dissatisfied. Why fantasy? I'm dissatisfied with the mundaneness of reality. I'm dissatisfied with maths exams and assessments, and I'm dissatisfied that dragons don't exist in the real world. Seriously. I write to escape the world that I wish had dragons and Allomancy (I've thought this through and I'd like to be a soother).

I'm dissatisfied with some of my friendships. I hate that I'm so introverted that I push people away and I'm dissatisfied that I don't feel close to people anymore. It's not anyone else fault rather than my own, but that dissatisfaction is still there. I think that that is why friendship is a key theme in my book. There is a beautiful quote from Sarah J Maas' Throne of Glass series. Her dearest friends are characters in books. I do have friends but I just don't have that closeness that Harry, Ron and Hermione do, and I've never said 'to whatever end' like Rowan and Aelin did. I hope I don't sound completely tragic when I say that I do feel a closeness to my own characters. Not in an imaginary friend kind of way, but more so that I just care for them. Genuinely.

I'm dissatisfied with some of the things I read. Again, here me out. I read more good thinks than bad and I'm not saying that what I write will be better than anyone else because it won't be, but what I'm saying is that I'm fed up with a lot of tropes I see in the books that I don't like. Instalove. Save the girl instead of save the world. Vampires who sparkle.

Some of my ideas may come from dissatisfaction, but other ideas come from simple and beautiful love. I love how the trees look when it snows and their branches hang over the road you're driving on. I love that feeling that you get when you talk to someone who just understands you. I love the way that a good book can make me fall in love with places and people that only exist inside people's minds.

We can list all the things that we're dissatisfied with and I'm sure that we'll come up with an extensive list, but I think that true and honest writing comes from the things we love.

Libraries were full of ideas -- perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons. - Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

January In Review

The first month of 2015 has been and gone. Hurrah! It's no secret that I'm not a January fan in the slightest. The worst thing? I seem to live in the only part of the country that didn't get any snow.

Now we've stepped into February, I wanted to look back and what I did last month, more specifically in the world of reading and writing. I had a fairly good month, although I'm a tad behind on my Goodreads reading challenge which I was expecting. I think that most of the books that I read in 2015 will be in the summer after school is out.

In total, I read eight books this month although I had started two of them in 2014.

• In The Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken was the first book I read this year, although I started it in 2014. I really enjoyed this and I thought that it was a satisfying conclusion, giving it 5/5 stars on Goodreads. 
• The Titans Curse by Rick Riordan was a book I fairly enjoyed, though I don't think that it was as good as the other books in the series. Again, I started this last year but I put it down to read other books, though I did like it. It wasn't amazing so in the end I only gave it 3/5 stars, though I'll definitely be continuing with this series. 
• The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien was next. I know, I know, a fantasy writer who only just read Tolkien is shameful, but I'm determined to read Lord of the Rings this year so I thought that I would start with this one. I really liked it, but for some reason it didn't grab me like I thought it would so I gave it 3/5 stars.
• Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge was possibly my favourite book of the month. I adored this one despite its mixed reviews and I would recommend it in a heartbeat. It's a Beauty and the Beast retelling which is probably why I love it so much and in the end I gave it 5/5 stars. 
• Everybody Sees the Ants by AS King was a book which I really enjoyed. It was thought provoking and wonderfully written, falling short of the five star rating just because it didn't grab me like other books have so I gave it 4/5 stars. 
• Billy and Me by Giovanna Fletcher was the next book I read. It isn't the kind of thing I normally read, but I have had it on my shelf for a while and I've really been trying to cut down my TBR pile. I enjoyed it more than I expected to but I gave it 3/5 stars simply because it wasn't anything special.
• If I Stay by Gayle Foreman was another book that I had on my shelves for a while. I loved Just One Day by the same author, but if I'm honest this book didn't pull on my emotions like I expected it to, hence the 3/5 star rating. I feel like I'm being really hard with my ratings this month, but I felt as if this book dragged which is strange because it's only 288 pages long, whilst something like The Final Empire is a fast paced book that you could use as a murder weapon. 
• Amy and Rogers Epic Detour by Morgan Matson was the last book that I read in January. I bought it on my Kindle and I really enjoyed it. I've decided to only give books 5 star ratings if I fall in love with them, hence why this only got 4/5 stars, but I would definitely recommend it. 

I didn't buy as many books as I expected to this month which is an achievement as I really am trying to cut down the amount of unread books I have on my shelf (it's embarrassingly high). In total I bought four books and I've already read two of them. The books I bought were:

• The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
• Snow Like Ashes by Sarah Raasch
• Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
• Amy and Rogers Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

As for writing, I'm 30K into the second Honour Among Thieves book, although I'm going to stop writing that until I sort out Honour Among Thieves because those changes will have a big impact on book two. I think that this month will definitely be for planning and editing, so if I don't get any actual writing done it won't be the end of the world. 

Finally, I'm participating in Katytastic's TBR challenge for 2015 (if you want more info watch this video here) and the option that I pulled out of my jar this month was to read a classic! I'm probably going to read Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury for this one, though if anyone has any recommendations I'm all ears! 

"And then I am going to rattle the stars." - Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas

Big Changes

Over the last couple of months, I've been 'editing' Honour Among Thieves. By that, I mean reading through stuff and tweaking the odd sentence or fixing a spelling mistake. If I'm honest I've been putting off editing it properly because this is the first novel I have ever finished and that scares me enough, let alone the fact that I have to rip it apart and rewrite probably about sixty percent of it.

That's what scares me.

Yesterday, I decided that it was time. I started playing my dramatic music playlist and read through parts of the novel, deciding what needed to go and what needed to stay. Most of the first half needs to go, along with bits here and there all the way through. There is a character which I love who isn't adding anything to the story and unfortunately needs to be edited out (though maybe I'll find a way to add her back in somewhere) and huge plot points that just don't work.

My novel is fantasy, but the problem is that it just isn't epic. I've planned huge things for the series, but the first draft of the first book is not where I want it to be. It's not unique and only now I realise how much changes I'm going to have to make to it. Huge parts will be scrapped and I'll need to add in new content.

The thing is, I don't know what to put in. The fantasy element of the novel needs to be stronger, but at its core Honour Among Thieves is a heist novel and somehow what I already have doesn't work. It all seems to be a series of coincidences which just happen to get the characters where they need to be and I really dislike that.

I think a huge rewrite is in order, but the most daunting thing I need to do is reinvent the world. I want to make the magic system more unique and I want to really make this book into something that I'm proud of. I've even created an epic editing playlist on my iTunes which, unsurprisingly, features I'll Make a Man Out of You from Mulan (or, as I like to call it, I'll Make a Novel Out of You).

I know what needs to happen later on, but I think I'm back in the planning stage and that's a little terrifying.

Because I doubt that the world wants to hear about my attempts to write a novel, I'll leave you with a quote about revision that'll make me get off my backside and (re)write.

"I have rewritten - often several times- every word that I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers." - Vladimir Nabokov

A Year in Review

So I woke up at ten AM today which is completely normal for the school holidays, but I then decided to have a little bit of a lie in. I watched one or two or seven honest trailers on YouTube. Somehow it ended up being midday before I got out of bed and I literally have no idea where the hours went. I'm not very good at getting out of bed, especially when I tell myself that I will do homework that day and instead I spend it writing. I'm really getting into book two (I haven't named it yet. I really need to name it) of my series (I haven't given the series a name either, although the first one is called Honour Among Thieves) and out of nowhere I keep on getting ideas for characters and plot points that demand to be written.

Maybe that's why I've done no schoolwork all holidays and my exams are only a few months away. 

Shit. 

Anyway I'm kind of freaking out about New Years. I get SO nervous about it every year just because it reminds me how much of a lazy sod I am and how little I achieve in a year. I don't have plans this year so I'll probably end up sitting on the sofa and reflecting on 2014. Two days left, people. I've quite liked this year and I've been doing that dramatic thing in my head where I say 'this is the last Monday of 2014' or 'this will be the last Malteser I eat in 2014'. It's kind of pathetic when you think about it. 

This year I finished a first draft for the first time in my life. I have huge commitment issues when it comes to writing and I never finish anything... until now. Even though it was done for NaNo so it's kind of shit, I'm really proud of myself. I've even been editing it and writing a sequel so I think I deserve a pat on the back for that. Go me.

So far I've also read one hundred books, although I want to make it one hundred and one because the first book I read this year was The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken, so I want the last book I read to be In the Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken (the last book in the trilogy) because that would make my OCD mind very happy. I'm that sad. I've had a brilliant reading year, I've even found my all time favourite series alongside Harry Potter (which happens to be the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas), but again I'm a bit sad to let everything slide into January. In my eyes January is basically the same as December but without the singing and presents and OH WAIT it isn't the same as December. January is like the pathetic cousin of December and I hate it. 

(I don't mean to sound so pessimistic oh dear.)

I've visited three countries this year, all of them with school. I went skiing in Austria and I went on an exchange to Germany. I drove through France on both occasions and I did get out in a service station so I'm counting that. Whilst the German exchange was one of the most terrifying and rewarding things I've ever done, it's safe to say that skiing is not a talent of mine. My favourite part of the trip was the fancy dress party. I was a panda. 

This year also marked the one year anniversary of my Grandma's death, but it was also the year when I began to feel confident in myself and realise that I didn't need the approval of everyone else to be happy. 

Whilst 2014 is coming to a close and I'm just as hopeless as I was the year before, I am sad to see it go. I always am. The Christmas decorations go down and then the freezing weather comes along just like they do every year, and I'm filled with nostalgia for what has come and gone. 

I don't remember setting resolutions last year, but this year I want some. 2015 will be the year that I turn sixteen and the year I do my GCSE's. It will be the year that I start college and the year leave school behind. 

So this year, I resolve to:

1.  To be braver. I no longer want to be filled with self doubt. I want to embrace change and move out of my comfort zone, proving to myself that I can be more than I initially thought. 
2. To read more. I did read 100 books in 2014 but I never want to lose my love of reading. I want to find new favourites and immerse myself in words. I want to finish old series' and start new ones, possibly discovering things about myself that I didn't know existed. 
3. To revise Honour Among Thieves. No matter how many more novels I write this one will always be my first and I want it to be the best that it can be. If I need to take it apart and stitch it back together again I will do. I'll rewrite and edit and polish until it's something that I'm genuinely proud of. 
4. To study. I have GCSE's this year. This is pretty self explanatory. 
5. To finish/revise book two. I'm already 25K into it so I think I can do this, but I also want to edit it to an inch of its life. I want it to do the characters tales justice and I want to remain in this world which I have grown to love. 

As 2015 swiftly approaches I have to admit that I am a little nervous for the new year to come. I do wish that I had more time, and that I could slow down the world just a little. Before 2014 is just part of history I want to say THANK YOU for everyone in my life who made this year what it was. I want to thank friends and family and strangers just for being them. 

"I will not walk backward in life" - J.R.R Tolkien