Saturday 30 January 2016

On Writing: Creating Ideas

So, for part 2 of my On Writing Series, I thought I would share with you the things I do to try and generate ideas to write about. For me, I tend to use my Writers Notebook. If you look on writing websites, pretty much everyone is agreed that a writer should have a notebook to write down their ideas in. But, if you're anything like me, I have 50,000 gorgeous notebooks that I can write in - but they're so pretty that I don't want to ruin them with my scrawls! My solution? I made my own. My notebook is pretty messy. I've filled it with dialogue prompts, picture prompts, I have lists of possible title ideas that could spark a story idea, conversation that I've overheard, a list of my favourite books and movies, quotes on writing. I think there's a review that I got from a Fanfiction that I've written in there somewhere. Anything that will inspire an idea, or just get me writing is in the notebook.

I also have an envelope that contains a pile of one word writing prompts. With these, I like to play a game. I'll shake the envelope and then randomly pull four or five little slips of paper out. I then have to use these words somewhere in my piece. Doing this forces me to think outside of the box and be creative. Another thing that I use is paint cards. You know when you somewhere that sells paint, (supermarkets, home improvement warehouses) you have those racks of paint colour cards? If you're like me, you have an obsession with collecting these things. Why I do this, I have no idea, but I've been doing it since I was a kid. It wasn't until a writing activity that I did in college though, that I found a (kind of) useful thing to do with my collection. All of these paint cards have amazing, creative names and so I decided to use them to inspire a piece. If I'm stuck for something to write, or want to write something different, I simply close my eyes, and pick a paint card. Whatever that paint colour is called, inspires a piece in some way and it's amazing how many different ideas you can come up with, simply from a paint card.
My Writer's Notebook, Picture Prompts, Writing Prompt Envelope,
Paint Cards, My pile of one word prompts!
I have two plastic folders to keep all of these things in. One holds my notebook, the paint cards, the prompt envelope and some writing tips that I've found online and printed off for reference. The other, is substantially larger. This one holds a plastic wallet for my partial first draft (and by first draft I mean, less than a quarter of the book) as well as outlines, character arcs, world building - anything that I noted down on a scrap piece of paper when I was writing it, is in that wallet. In another, is some of my old college work and the subsequent marking that went with it. I love a lot of the ideas I came up with in those classes so most of the work is now in this folder and finally, there's another plastic wallet of newspaper clippings which could spark an idea. I have all sorts of articles in there - crimes committed in a way I've never heard of, new scientific discoveries, destination articles, funny articles (if you search hard enough, there are usually some in the paper!) all sorts.
My Writer's Notebook and my two folders - I think the pink
one is full to capacity right now!
Now, since this is a book review blog, I thought I would end with two of the writing books that I own and use a lot. The Writer's Digest: Guide to Good Writing, is full of articles from various authors with the earliest dating back to the 1920's! There are helpful hints and tips, and some ideas that you could use to generate your own writing ideas. It really is useful. The other book I use a lot is Writing Fiction for Dummies by Randy Ingermanson. I have also had the Writing YA Fiction for Dummies book from the library, but I own the Writing Fiction for Dummies book and, although you can't really tell from the picture, it has seen a lot of love! Now I know people have mixed thoughts on the Dummy books but I think this one is great and has been really helpful to me. It walks you through everything, from preparation to writing to editing and revising the first draft.

The Writer's Digest: Guide to Good Writing
Writing Fiction for Dummies by Randy Ingermanson
I hope you've enjoyed having a look into some of the ways I come up with and store ideas for my writing and let me know if you've enjoyed this post!

Sunday 24 January 2016

Fairy tale Book Tag

So I've just finished the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer (which was incredible and if you haven't read this series then you need to!), and rather than doing a review for them, I thought I'd try and find a book tag to do instead, just to keep things interesting. So, because this series is made up of fairy tale retellings, what better tag to do than a fairy tale book tag? I found this one from The Daily Prophecy and all credit goes to her for creating this tag ~ my brain is definitely not functioning well enough to create a wonderful tag like this - I'm simply borrowing it for a while!

PART 1 - CLASSIC PRINCESSES
Pinocchio - The boy whose nose grows when he lies
Is there a book you lie about because you feel ashamed for liking it?

Probably Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I think this is the series that introduced me to YA and I fell in love with them. It wasn't until the films came out that I started hearing negative things about them and a few years after that when I think a lot of people maybe started to feel a little self-conscious about admitting they like the series.

Beauty and the Beast - The girl who fell in love with personality
Which book do you love that has a hideous cover?
The Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead is a great spin off series from Richelle's Vampire Academy series but I hate the covers for them. They could be so much nicer and more representative of the series itself.

Snow White - Hunted down for her beauty
Do you ever buy a book based on the cover alone and if so, what is the last one?
I tend to order books from the library before I buy them, and even then I usually buy them on my Kindle because I don't have enough room! The last book I bought was Winter by Marissa Meyer although that was because it's the last book in the series but I love the covers for all of those books - they're so pretty!

Sleeping Beauty - Cursed to sleep, awakened by true loves kiss
What is your favourite book couple?

Daemon & Katy from the Lux series. Although, I have now developed a fondness for Cress and Thorne from the Lunar Chronicles series. I think I'm attracted to sarcasm and sass, which both couples have in abundance!

Little Mermaid - Gave up on her old life for love
Do you ever branch out into new genres or do you like to stick with the ones you know and love? If you try new things out, what is the latest book?

I do read Young Adult with a mix of genres under that umbrella. However I do sometimes read crime books, particularly Tess Gerritsen books and my favourite of hers is Gravity, which is set in space and had me hooked from beginning to end. I also love Cecelia Ahern books - Where Rainbows End and One Hundred Names are both amazing books. It's quite rare now that I do pick those kind of books up though - YA is more relatable to me I suppose.

Cinderella - Who lost her shoe after midnight
What is the last book that made you stay up all night?
Probably Winter again to be honest - I needed to know how that series ended!

Rapunzel - Locked in a tower
What is the worst book you read last month?
It's actually been a while since I read a book I really didn't like, but the most recent one that springs to mind is The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin. I so wanted to like this book and I just really didn't like it at all.

PART 2 - MIX AND MATCH

Aladdin - The poor boy who found a genie
What is the latest book treasure/gem that you've found?
For me this is probably the Infernal Devices series. I love the Shadowhunter world that Cassandra Clare created in the Mortal Instrument series and the characters in this prequel series are as equally amazing at the ones in TMI. Action packed, full of witty lines and sarcasm this series is brilliant in about a hundred different ways.

Alice in Wonderland - The girl who fell through a rabbit's hole
Which book made you feel like you'd landed in a different world?
The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa. The way that she incorporated well known characters such as Puck and Oberon and Mab and mixed them into both our modern world and a completely different one is amazing and it's a world I go back to again and again.

The Frog Prince - Where an enchanted prince becomes human again
What is a book you thought you would hate, but ended up loving?
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. I thought I'd hate this series, it never really appealed to me, but I was in a reading rut and wanted to push myself and I ended up loving the series.

Hansel and Gretel - Left alone in the woods and captured by a witch
Which duo (brother/sister sister/sister) is your favourite and why?
It's got to be the same answer as my favourite couple, Dee and Daemon from the Lux series are so sweet. Daemon really loves his sister and will do anything to protect her. I've always kind of wanted a big brother like that.

Little Red Riding Hood - Almost eaten by a wolf dressed as her grandmother
What book disappointed you after falling in love with the cover and blurb?
Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce, which is an appropriate choice for this question. The cover was gorgeous and the blurb intrigued me and I finished the book a little disappointed.

Rumpelstilskin - Nobody knows his name
What book do you love that doesn't get enough attention?
Argh so many. Lux and Iron Fey obviously. But then The Glimpse & The Fall (duology) by Claire Merle, City of Halves by Lucy Inglis, Clarity and Perception by Kim Harrington (duology) - all of these are amazing books or series that need way more recognition!

I hope you enjoyed this tag - what books would you answer with?

Monday 11 January 2016

The Books I Got for Christmas!

So this year I was incredibly lucky and got a whole lotta books from Santa. This is actually quite a rare thing for me because I use my Kindle quite a lot (as much as I love a physical book, I don't really have the room to store them), but this year, I got a shed load. Just a quick note, this is not me showing off or bragging - I love watching and reading videos and posts like these and I'm so excited about all the books I got this year and I wanted to share them with you.


All of these books came from a list I'd written down during the summer and forgotten about. Luckily, my parents found the list and decided to be amazing and buy me some of them!

So, first up, is the Infernal Devices trilogy box set. I have Book 1, Clockwork Angel on my Kindle (and was actually reading it over Christmas) and I'd bought Book 2 Clockwork Prince in a physical copy on my holiday in the summer. Despite this, I love having a series all in one form - either as e-books or physical copies and to get the box set made me so happy.

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige is probably the one I was most excited about getting. I've been eyeing up this series for a while now and with book 3 coming out this year, now is the perfect time to start this series.

All Fall Down by Ally Carter is a book that, when I looked at the cover in the shop I wasn't too sure about it but the premise of the book sounds so intriguing and, the one that I got also comes with a free mascara so I got a little bonus present!

The Rule of 3 by Eric Walters is another first book in a series and again, sounds really intriguing. An apocalyptic type story which seems to be popular right now with the new 5th Wave movie about to premiere so I'm excited to get to this.

Gone by Michael Grant is a series I've been dying to read for such a long time but, every time I've looked at the library (which is my main source of books that I want to try before buying) they haven't had it in stock. Now I've finally got my own copy so I can start reading this series. I love the green edged pages on this book - it really makes it stand out.

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson. I love a good angel book and this looks like it's going to be an amazing series that puts a slightly different spin on YA angel stories like Fallen by Lauren Kate and the Angel trilogy by L.A Weatherly.

Finally, we have Uglies and Pretties by Scott Westerfield and this is a book that comes in a close second to Dorothy Must Die I think. I've got the bind up edition of both Book 1 and Book 2 which means I can marathon them both at once without stopping.

I've already finished the Infernal Devices and I'm hoping to have a review up on the series soon and I can't wait to get started on the rest of the books. I'm so thankful that my family know exactly what makes me happy - a pile of books and I'm sorted! I hope you all had a great Christmas and got what you wanted and I'll have another post up soon!

Wednesday 6 January 2016

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Rating: 4.5 stars

Synopsis: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the centre of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.


Review: I finally got around to picking up this book and I'm so glad that I did. I've only heard good things about this series and they're all true! I loved this book and I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of the series - especially since the final book in the series Winter has just come out.

This is Cinderella as you've never seen her before. Cinder is a cyborg and, in order to pay her way, she must work at the market as a mechanic. What I loved about Cinder is that she's so strong and feisty. She's not a pushover or a half-soaked character, she sticks to her guns and doesn't back down from them. She gives as good as she gets, despite being looked down on in society because she's a cyborg. I love a confident heroine and Cinder definitely didn't disappoint.

In the same way, Kai was also a relatively strong and confident character, who didn't let his advisers or Queens from other planets tell him what to do. I was upset at the very end when he rejected Cinder because of who she was (why? Seriously - you were doing so well Kai, why did you have to ruin it at the end?) but I'm confident he'll rectify his mistake at the end of the series, (he better anyway)!

I loved Marissa's take on the classic Cinderella story. Setting it in a futuristic world gave her a lot of scope to tweak the story slightly. For example, the introduction of the plague that is killing citizens off left, right and centre was a really interesting addition to the tale. It gave all the characters something to fight for, Cinder was fighting to save her sister, Kai his father and the legacy he had left behind him...all the characters had someone to fight for and to motivate them in tough times because of the plague which made it really interesting. Talking of Cinder's sisters, I loved the idea that Cinder had one sister she could talk to. Yes the step mother was as awful as ever, as was the older sister but Peony captured my heart from the very beginning and I loved that Marissa gave Cinder one sister who loved her whole heartedly and would do anything for her.

The world was amazing. The futuristic setting of New Beijing intrigued me when I first heard about this book because I wasn't sure it would work. I love a good fairy tale retelling but this seemed a little bit out there. BUT, Marissa really made it work and the world complemented the story beautifully. The futuristic tech, the idea of cyborgs being a part of the world's population but that they were looked down on and were even being sacrificed in order to try and find a cure for the plague. The world was just beautiful and I can't wait to get back to it and find out more about it, now that we're moving away from New Beijing.

The only reason this book didn't get the whole five stars is because I guessed the major plot point fairly early on the novel, so it wasn't really a surprise when it was revealed. That really didn't spoil the book for me though. I loved this book and, now that Winter (the final book in the series) has been released I can now marathon the entire series and I can't wait. Exercise? Who needs to exercise when there are series like this that need reading??

Image from Goodreads - no Copyright Intended