Right, I'll make this quick since I have five minutes until I've got to get ready for work *sighs* Monday mornings...
Whilst reading How I Live Now I noticed there were a few grammar rules the writer managed to look. I.e. Writing extremely long sentences with many, many ands and ands and ands and also writing capitals half way through when usually you wouldn't as the words generally aren't nouns, like writing The Feeling Of Hating Money Mornings and the writer would just make it its own noun worthy of capitals.
This is a good example of someone breaking the oh so precious rules people debate about over and over again. And also a reason people invent the phrase "learn the rules, follow the rules, break the rules". It is so true its not funny!
Most of the times it is best to follow the rules, but if you can break them, and break them well go for it! It can make you stand out from the crowd and get your book noticed. Hell How I Live Now was shortlisted for an Orange Award for New Writers, the author must have done something right.
That isn't to say you shouldn't started speaking in txt font, just 2 b diff. That would be plain annoying and would get you an instant rejection (its just horrible to read!), but don't be afraid to bend the rules. Write for yourself not to get published. If you're convinced you need to break the rules to make your novel awesome do it!
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
I've started to read How I Live Now
Hey guys! I think now would be the appropriate time to apologise for my lack in posting even if I've only even done two posts and one of those two I just completed about five seconds ago. Since I sound crazily determined in my first post it's only just to recap what has actually happened between February and July.
I completely forgot ALL about the Penguin competition that I posted about. I can't even understand what I was on about in that post - which knowing me I wrote at a time when I should have been sleeping for work. I think it means that they are doing a romance competition next V-day, which I'm up for if I'm done in time...if work allows it.
Which brings me to my excuse for lacking in this blog and taking forEVER to get my novel up and ready. Work. I have a fully fledged, completely 100%, 30+ (I do overtime on a regular basis) hours a week job. Monday to Friday, which yes I know nearly everyone else on the planet has, but it combined with a fairly hectic social life makes it hard to write much, blogs included.
I shall try to make more of an effort!
Anyhoo! Back to why I titled my post what I did. I went out for dinner with friends last night and left my bag in my friend's car which had the book I was reading in it Burned by PC & Kristin Cast, the 7th novel in the House of Night Series. I couldn't exactly spend lunch time without a book to read so I picked up How I Live Now By Meg Rosoff which my sister has been nagging me to read.
I must say it is quite refreshing! to read this book after reading half of Burned. Don't get me wrong, I like the HON series, the story lines are usually pretty cool and there are yummy hunks in them to droll over, but I'm seriously getting sick of the dialogue.
When one of the main characters are talking their friends or even sometimes the older vamps they are so f-ing immature. I.e. The Twins. Guys, seriously, when one says something the other doesn't have to follow. The dialogue that the other comes up with after the first that has spoken is pure crap. Yes we get that they are twins and all without being related but they don't have to talk one after the other especially when the follower has NOTHING OF USE to say. *Big sigh* And I guess it just pisses me off that they still refer to Aphrodite as hateful. Jesus guys get out in the real world, she is not hateful. She was a total queen bitch like years and years ago! Not now... She is on your side. And how exactly do they expect her to not be hateful, when they keep calling her hateful. She gets on with Darius and Zoey so well because they aren't horrible to her. *sighs*
Yes I still will be reading the rest of the HON series. I do like them and I'm keen to see where Stevie Rae and the Raven Mocker go - I can't seem to think of the Raven Mocker as gross like all of the characters do, maybe because with the wings he reminds me of an angel... ha!
Anyways... Its just nice to read How I Live Now as a sort of refresher, maybe the universe knew I was getting sick of the HON dialogue and made me forget my bag. Now I just need an excuse for the other million times I forget things...
I'm pretty keen to see how How I Live Now is going to evolve into an amazing book. My sister is pretty keen on it. It's just with how close Daisy/Elizabeth is getting with Edmond and how she mentions him heaps makes me wonder whether they are going to have some weird cousin incest thing... I hope not, I don't want to read about that topic for a while since reading Flower In The Attic and The City Of Bones.
I'll let ya's know in a few days (apparently my sister read it in two, though I highly doubt that is attainable with my boyfriend's nineteenth this Saturday).
Oh and by the way, the picture up there is the lovely copy I got at the Bega Book Fair and to the left is the plain Penguin copy my sister bought because she's poor uni student and it only cost $10.00 (mine was still cheaper. At the book fair I got five books for $20 that included. Bargain!)
I completely forgot ALL about the Penguin competition that I posted about. I can't even understand what I was on about in that post - which knowing me I wrote at a time when I should have been sleeping for work. I think it means that they are doing a romance competition next V-day, which I'm up for if I'm done in time...if work allows it.
Which brings me to my excuse for lacking in this blog and taking forEVER to get my novel up and ready. Work. I have a fully fledged, completely 100%, 30+ (I do overtime on a regular basis) hours a week job. Monday to Friday, which yes I know nearly everyone else on the planet has, but it combined with a fairly hectic social life makes it hard to write much, blogs included.
I shall try to make more of an effort!
I must say it is quite refreshing! to read this book after reading half of Burned. Don't get me wrong, I like the HON series, the story lines are usually pretty cool and there are yummy hunks in them to droll over, but I'm seriously getting sick of the dialogue.
When one of the main characters are talking their friends or even sometimes the older vamps they are so f-ing immature. I.e. The Twins. Guys, seriously, when one says something the other doesn't have to follow. The dialogue that the other comes up with after the first that has spoken is pure crap. Yes we get that they are twins and all without being related but they don't have to talk one after the other especially when the follower has NOTHING OF USE to say. *Big sigh* And I guess it just pisses me off that they still refer to Aphrodite as hateful. Jesus guys get out in the real world, she is not hateful. She was a total queen bitch like years and years ago! Not now... She is on your side. And how exactly do they expect her to not be hateful, when they keep calling her hateful. She gets on with Darius and Zoey so well because they aren't horrible to her. *sighs*
Yes I still will be reading the rest of the HON series. I do like them and I'm keen to see where Stevie Rae and the Raven Mocker go - I can't seem to think of the Raven Mocker as gross like all of the characters do, maybe because with the wings he reminds me of an angel... ha!
Anyways... Its just nice to read How I Live Now as a sort of refresher, maybe the universe knew I was getting sick of the HON dialogue and made me forget my bag. Now I just need an excuse for the other million times I forget things...
I'm pretty keen to see how How I Live Now is going to evolve into an amazing book. My sister is pretty keen on it. It's just with how close Daisy/Elizabeth is getting with Edmond and how she mentions him heaps makes me wonder whether they are going to have some weird cousin incest thing... I hope not, I don't want to read about that topic for a while since reading Flower In The Attic and The City Of Bones.
I'll let ya's know in a few days (apparently my sister read it in two, though I highly doubt that is attainable with my boyfriend's nineteenth this Saturday).
Oh and by the way, the picture up there is the lovely copy I got at the Bega Book Fair and to the left is the plain Penguin copy my sister bought because she's poor uni student and it only cost $10.00 (mine was still cheaper. At the book fair I got five books for $20 that included. Bargain!)Realisation
I'm starting to realise more and more that I've gone the hard way about writing my book. I wrote the first half without a clear indication of the plot, when I was fourtee. Which has resulted in a multitude of gobbly goop that just shouldn't be there.
When people ask "how's your novel going?" I always have to reply "I'm at the painful editing/revising/rewriting stage where I want to claw my eyes out". Writing my book would have been a much simpler and quicker task if I wrote my outline and then the content. At least I would have spared my father the surprise of telling him I've finally nearly finished writing the outline for the first half of my novel, which I've already written.
It it a bit painful going back and reading it off, summarising the chapters allowing me to compare them to my new chapter outlines and change things, but then again sometimes it's really like a blessing. If I'm reading something and it's super duper boring I know that I REALLY need to rewrite it or cut it altogether otherwise my readers will never ever enjoy it and will put my novel in the boring-as-bat-shit-never-read-again-only-recommend-to-people-I-hate-box. Which is not the outcome I want for my novel.