Review #3 - NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn't know much about horror novels until I discovered Joe Hill. The first book of his I read was Heart Shaped Box, which not only blew me away, but made me realise what my own stories had been lacking - that sliver of darkness to drag the reader down. I read Heart Shaped Box in a weekend, and was left breathless and a little shaky. Locke and Key was next, which was one of the greatest comic series I've read in years. After taking a break (and reading something that didn't evoke quite so many nightmares), I returned to Hill's world and read NOS4A2. On my second encounter with Hill, he did not disappoint.

Hill's characters are incredibly three dimensional. His settings are real, his use of the every day to evoke terror is beautiful in it's simplicity. The story, while slowing down in parts to a gentle simmer, never looses heat. You root for his heroes and you loathe his villains. It's a great romp, and at a hefty size it's worth the read. A brilliant one for a long weekend.

I think what I most love about his work, though, is his creation of one universe. His characters co-exist, even if they don't interract. So you feel, when reading his novels, that you are visiting his world again, to be told a story inside his universe, with his laws and histories. It's a place I want to visit again and again, and thankfully with two other novels and two short story collections to go, I can visit. Maybe once I can sleep with the light off again.

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Blog Post #3 - Immediate Thoughts on Writing

I'm a couple of days in to the frantic month that is Camp Nanowrimo. Since I've set a pretty high word count for myself (aiming for 100'000 by July 31st), I've been breaking up my writing time into three hour long chunks. So far so good, though I'm not going to start polishing that winners trophy just yet.

Now that I have a rather high word count goal, twice that of my usual Nanowrimo attempts, I’ve found that quite a few challenges are rearing their ugly heads earlier in the process than they typically have in the past. I thought I’d take a moment to break them down, in the hopes that naming and shaming them can help me combat them and push through to newer (and most likely more difficult) challenges that lie ahead.

I'M NOT WRITING ENOUGH

This one is a doozy. I’m what they call a ‘planner’, not a ‘pantser’. I’ve spent the last couple of months working on my outline, drafting the action, making notes on the different characters emotions and each action/reaction within the scene. Now that Camp has commenced, all I have to do is turn these pages and pages of notes into actual story. So, when a scene that took up roughly 2000 words to describe comes out just shy of 400, I start to get a little freaked out.

Solutions: Ignore the scene length! I’ll be taking the writing advice that most writers seem to provide, and push forward regardless. Expanding on the novel is what the second draft is for, this is all about getting it out into the world, a big misshapen blob of clay, and coming back later. When I reach the end of the scene just halfway through a 1000 word sprint, I’m just swallowing down the screaming voices, ignoring the plethora of notes I’ve taken and moving on to the next scene. It can all be added in later. I hope.

I'M WRITING TOO MUCH

A couple of times, I’ve encountered the opposite of the above problem. This usually happens when I come back to writing after a few hours of doing something else. I’ll start by saying something, then repeat it several times, trying to say it just right. All I end up doing is repeating it. The urge to go back and delete the meaningless paragraph and focusing on getting it right the first time can be pretty overwhelming. 

Solutions: Kill the inner editor! Not only am I trying really, really hard not to read anything that I’ve written, I’m also refusing to delete a word of it. Not because I’m trying to cheat at my word count, but I’m trying to show myself that rough drafts are just that - rough. Somewhere in this giant messy lump of clay will be a great looking sculpture. The same way I can add things in later, I can cut a whole lot out too. Besides, somewhere in that bout of word diarrhea is the perfect sentence. I just don’t know which bit it is yet.

I'M WATCHING THE CLOCK

Or specifically, the word count. When I start to flag with a scene, I find myself focusing on watching the words climbing, rather than what those words should be. This is a bit of a trap for planners - when a scene in your head doesn’t come out the way you wanted it to, and the whole thing feels forced, it becomes a chore, rather than a joy. It’s a little bit ‘kill your darlings’, except his is more realising they might have to be nipped in the bud before they see the light of day.

Solutions: Drop it and run. If a scene isn’t doing it for me, then I’m going to be plowing through it like a bull at a gate, trying to get to the other side so I can keep going. Sometimes scenes need reworking, or changing later on. Some of them I might even cut completely, and replace with something more interesting. Instead of trying to force them to work, I’m letting them drift in an embryonic state, and focusing on what does get my inspiration flowing. There will be plenty of time to focus on that scene later*. Onward and upward.

I’ll try to share other things as I encounter them, anyone else out there Camping this month? What have been your biggest hurdles so far?

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* I have no idea what I’m going to do if the entire plot hits this particular snag. I am adamantly not thinking about this possible scenario.

Blog Post #2 - Don't Do, Learn

Last week I posted about overcoming writers guilt, which is a big part of what holds me back as a writer. This week, I want to talk about another big obstacle I face – fear of failure. Like guilt, fear of failure isn’t limited to writing. There are thousands of articles, vlogs and self help books out there to help people overcome this particular fear, which if nothing else at least provides the comfort of knowing you aren’t alone in this way of thinking.

My partner, who has the self-discipline and personal drive of Batman, is great at pushing through his fears. The other night, I sat him down and poked him with a stick until he told me the secret to his success. His answer completely baffled me. He never tries to do anything. He just tries to learn something.

What the heck did he mean by this? To put it simply: instead of writing a novel, learn how to write a novel. Every day, when you sit down to work on your book, don’t think about how you have to finish a novel. Think of it as you learning how to write a finished novel, so one day you can. Sure, you are thinking to yourself, we’ve all been a student. Why is this such ground breaking advice? The trick, according to my partner, is to never set out to do. Only ever set out to learn how.

When you put yourself in the mindset of a student, the pressure melts away. A student is never expected to do, only to prepare for when they will actually do in the future. If you are learning how to write a novel, then you don’t feel the pressure of having to complete a novel. If you then take what you wrote, and use it to learn how to approach an agent, it’s OK if you don’t find one. You could learn how to self-publish. Learn how to promote a book. Learn how to write a series, or make a blog, or pitch a television pilot. Where normally all these things would feel completely overwhelming, simply setting out to learn all these things is much easier. The end goal isn’t to become a published author. The end goal is to learn. There’s no better way to learn than by doing.

Lots of motivational experts talk about finding your end goal, and working towards it. If your end goal shifts to ‘learning as much as I can’, then you are not only more flexible to take advantage of opportunities you may not have seen, but you are also reducing the pressure on yourself to perform. As long as you have learned from your experiences, then you have succeeded! If you keep learning, writing more books, submitting more queries, publishing more content, then you will be succeeding simply by doing.

This mind shift is subtle, and if you embrace it, you will find yourself changing your approach to everything you do with your writing. Focus on your end goal – learning something new, and you can’t fail! Who knows, you may even find yourself learning how to manage a successful writing career one day.

Review #2 - The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

*Spoilers Below*

I wanted to like the Raven Boys. I really did. The premise sounded great, there were so many people raving about it being wonderful, it's part of a series that is beloved, and Maggie Steifvater seems like a really cool woman. So I wanted to enjoy it, to fall for it, to be swept up by it. I just... wasn't. It wasn't because of the story. Sadly, it was because of the delivery. There were a lot of things wrong with it. I tried to breathe out, forgive the mistakes when I encountered them and focus on the story. By the end, I was so overwhelmed by everything wrong that I couldn't ignore them any more. I might get a lot of flack for this review, but... this book wasn't well written.

For starters, Steifvater told me everything, and showed me very little. The old adage 'show don't tell' is one that anyone who's taken a writing class has had drilled into their brain. The Raven Boys was so frequently a 'how not to' example of this, that it was just depressing. She told me about the boys financial situation over and over. She told me how rich Gansy was, how poor Adam was. She told me how much Gansey wanted to find the King. She told me that Ronan was a troubled bad boy. And for every fiftieth time she told me, she showed me a tiny little glimpse. I wasn't able to form a picture of any of these characters in my head, because every time she showed me something that allowed them to start taking shape, she told me more about them, and it all fell apart.

Then there was the head jumping. I like books written in third person. Particularly if they are limited P.O.V., but take turns moving from character to character. What I don't like, is when the third person narrator 'jumps' to another character head mid-scene. Now, Steifvater doesn't explicitly jump at any point, but she comes so damn close so many times it was uncomfortable. There were so many scenes with multiple characters, it felt like she forgot on occasion who she was supposed to be focusing on. Because of this, none of the characters had a clear narrative. After a while the only thing that differentiated them was what she told me made them different, which was disappointing.

Finally, there was the execution of the plot. There were too many things that seemed... unnecessary, only for me to later be told that they were vital to the plot. The reveal about Noah would have been more poignant if he hadn't spent the first half of the book feeling like a tacked on character that should have been removed in editing. Adam's insistence to do things 'his way' was just irritating and illogical, so his 'sacrifice' lacked any impact. The domestic violence story was so poorly explored it bordered on the offensive.

Normally, all these things would have made me toss the book away. What was really disappointing about this, is that there was a solid story there. It was just poorly executed. The conflict between best friends Gansy and Adam – one an obscenely wealthy boy, the other dirt poor and a victim of horrific domestic abuse, should have been the centre of this whole book. Ronan's grief and self destruction should have left me heartbroken for this fragile, brittle boy. Noah should have been more than just a weakly shaped plot device. Blue should have been coming to terms with her own power, her own fears, her own blossoming, confusing feelings towards the boys, instead of bordering on Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

The whole way through the Raven Boys, I couldn't help but feel there was a brilliant book in there, that needed a lot more work. This book could have been a game changer. I can see why people love it – the story has so much potential. Perhaps the series gets stronger, the writing better as things go on, though at this point this book doesn't make me want to continue. It's with a heavy heart I have to give this one just two and a half stars.

Sorry Raven fans. I tried, I really did.

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Blog Post #1 - Overcoming Writers Guilt

When it comes to my writing, one of the biggest obstacles I face happens well before I put pen to paper. It’s that little voice that makes an appearance every time my brain fires up. That nasty, shrill voice that chatters in my ear, listing all the reasons I can’t write today. As the list goes on and on, the flood gates open, and I find myself drowning in that way too familiar sensation – guilt.

Guilt is not unique to writers. Many of us are familiar with guilt, and have felt that squirm in the stomach at least once in their lives. Writers guilt, however, seems to be a pretty common affliction. Several of my wordsmith companions have shared with me their own struggles. With dishes to be done, garbage to put out and meetings to prep for, only a complete ass would waste time working on a novel. Right?

So here’s my attempt to impart wisdom. Things that have helped me get over my writers guilt, and thing that hopefully can help others overcome them as well. Because the world always needs more storytellers.

BE REALISTIC 

Are you able to write 24 hours a day, seven days a week? As much as we’d like to, you can’t dedicate every waking moment to your writing. Writing is a mentally exhausting process, and burnout happens to even the best of us. Therefore taking the time you need realistically won’t break the bank. Morning, evening, on your lunch break - whenever you feel your creative juices flowing, allow yourself to drop everything and focus, even if it’s just for half an hour. Those chores will still be there when you’re done, and you’ll still have plenty of time left in the day for things like cooking dinner and sleeping.

TALK TO YOUR FAMILY 

It’s important your family understands why writing is important to you. Not everyone wants to be a writer, but most people understand what it’s like to have a dream. I was surprised when I spoke to my partner, a mathematician, and he said he thinks writing a novel is a perfectly legitimate project. Don’t be afraid to also ask your family for help. Anything from watching the kids for a few hours a week, to becoming a private cheer squad can make a big difference. Make sure you compromise though – is there something they are passionate about but aren’t prioritising? Agreeing to help each other pursue your passions is a win for all involved.

FOCUS ON YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS 

At the end of your writing time, note down your achievements. Try not to focus on your shortcomings, instead focus on what you have created. This time of reflection each day lets you see how far you’ve come. Writing isn’t easy, especially when you’re just starting out. Authors who can finish a manuscript in just one month have years of experience under their belts. Let yourself feel proud of what you have created. After all, every word is one step closer to a finished book!

SUPPORT OTHER WRITERS 

Would you tell another writer to stop what they were doing? To spend less time on their work? If you validate other writers, it becomes easier to validate your own work. You may even help others through doubts just like your own. Writing is a solo endeavour, and it’s easy to forget that there are thousands of others riding the same emotional roller coaster every day. Writers meet-ups, online chat rooms and writers festivals are a great place to connect with other writers.

UNDERSTAND YOUR EMOTIONS 

What is hiding underneath your guilt? Is it fear of rejection? Jealousy of others success? A first grade teacher who told you writers were a drain on society? There are a lot of negative stereotypes around the creative arts that can make us feel like we are wasting our time. Talk to other writers, to your loved ones, even to trained professionals about your struggles. Fighting your emotions day in and day out leaves little energy to be creative. Discovering the source of your guilt can help you break those chains, and free you to focus on what you love - writing.

Review #1 - Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Uprooted by Naomi Novik
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read Uprooted because it was a Nebula award winner, and I trust the Nebulas. I didn’t know anything about it, only that it was inspired by Polish stories, and Baba Jaga was mentioned. Not knowing what to expect going in left me to be pleasantly surprised by the book, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Often in the book, Novik describes the flow of the Spindle, the river that winds through the valley and into the Wood. Novik’s prose is like this river; it flows easily, and with a strength that takes you easily along. Which is needed, as this is a book that doesn’t lose pace, going from action scene to action scene right until the ending.

What I loved about this book was the magic. Novik writes with confidence, but doesn’t feel the need to explain or describe the mechanics of what is happening. We trust her, as we trust the fairy tales we grew up with. She blurs the lines between metaphor and literal description so that we don’t see the magic, but we understand it. This is a skill; understanding enough without lecturing to a reader is a fine line to walk along.

There were a few hiccups along the way, things that jarred me out of the flow. A few times the characters (often male) would be all raw edges and bad behaviour, making me frown when they weren’t called out. Though, this was clearly a man’s world, so perhaps Novik made deliberate choices to excuse them. Even Agnieszka’s moving between bewilderment and unwavering certainty was at times a little disjointed. Her story of personal growth and discovery was strong, though felt a little muddy, and a few times I felt she slipped away into description without heart. However, these brief moments weren’t enough to make this a negative experience.

What did stand out with this book was the horror of the Wood. Novik is very good at creating an atmosphere of dread, and for the most is able to hold the thread steady – a high pitched whine that penetrates the story, leaving you feeling deeply unsettled and not entirely sure what you’ve imagined. True, underlying horror is something that lives at the heart of all the good traditional tales, and is often missing from young adult fiction. Books are a good way to be scared, without being hurt or corrupted. More authors should be willing to unsettle and even frighten their readers. Kudos to Novik for taking that step further into darkness.

Over all, I would recommend this to anyone who likes a strong, female led adventure, the mysterious logics of European fairy tales, and just a hint of horror.

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