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Hey guys! I know I've been absent for two weeks (which was completely unintentional, btw), and because of current events, I'm going to have to...

...change my schedule. *dun dun dun*

First things first, I will only be posting twice in May. Because of my heavy workload, I currently need to focus on school, but hopefully I'll be back to my normal pace starting in June.

Second, I will be changing my posting schedule from every Tuesday to every Friday or Thursday. Tuesday is my youth group night, and I've been kind of foolish thinking I can squeeze in a post between school, exercise, and church. Hopefully with this new schedule I will be more punctual in my posting! (Which you guys will probably appreciate.) ;)

I've also been trying to keep up with everyone's blogs, but am sort of failing. But here are some of my favorite posts from what I've been able to read over the past few weeks. I haven't had time to comment on every single one of them, which upsets me a bit because they are all pretty amazing and inspiring!

Ivie's post, Open Letter to You, was very touching because I go through this same thought process on and off and that's kind of why I disappear from the Internet sporadically. Thank you, Ivie, for sharing your thoughts because I could really connect with you in that moment and hearing what you said helped me realize what I want to do with my writing. :)

Abigayle Claire's post, Writing About Hardship from Inexperience, was also informative and insightful. I loved how she put everything so simply and straightforward. Recently I've been puzzling over what makes me qualified to write hardship, and this post put everything in perspective. Thank you, Abigayle!

And lastly, Madi Grace has had a whole slew of super-cool-helpful-pure-LOL posts that I've been enjoying immensely. She always says everything like it is and that's just refreshing in a world where people are always trying to skirt around the edges of basically everything. Thanks, Madi! Your posts are always so encouraging and awesome.

Aside from that, I don't think there's anything else? If there is, I will come back and add it here. For now, I will see you guys on May 10th!

It's time for another book review!! YAY!! I actually only finished this book barely a week ago, which is a record because I barely read anything in March. XD I managed to finish it in 1.5 days, which is also a record as of recent, so let's see what boggled my mind so.

Today's book on review is In 27 Days by Alison Gervais. Here are the details:




I've heard A LOT of good stuff about this book, so naturally I wanted to give it a try. The premise totally intrigued me, plus I wanted a taste of what Wattpad books are like. Last reason, I've never read a book that tackled the sensitive topic of suicide, and I was curious to see how this author handled it.



This book was surprisingly, and pleasantly, mostly clean! There wasn't a whole bunch of language, not that I can really remember any, and no explicit content. They did take the Lord's name in vain several times, which was a bit of a downer, but other than that, thumbs up for content-conscious readers!! Some passionate kissing that was somewhat detailed, but that didn't bother me too much since it only happened twice. (Or was it once? My brain isn't working too well today, guys. Sorry 'bout that. *grabs a wrench and hammer*)





So Hadley—let's talk about her first. She is one of the very few female main characters that I hard-core rooted for. She's just so sincere and caring, and basically she's obsessed with Archer, but in a good way that's sweet and over-protective. I COULD RELATE TO HER SO MUCH. Love that girl. Plus I'm pretty sure her personality is mine wrapped in a tortilla drizzled with honey mustard instead of vinegar, so ALMOST TWINSIES!! YAY!!

And now...Archer. The way Hadley tells the story, you can't help but be super concerned for him, but honestly he would have seriously ticked me off if it hadn't been for Hadley. He's sooooo rude. But I guess that's part of his personality?? Then again, he is a super contrasted character, because later you see his soft, fuzzy personality that's like, adorable, but then he goes back to being super rude and IT'S SO FRUSTRATING ARGHHHHH.

*SPOILERS*

DEATH—that dude is so cool and creepy I love him so much. XD Just the way he was portrayed, he's kind of like, "Dude, you failed. Wanna try again?" and then he's like, "LOL guess what, the contract actually had lots of loopholes so there's NO WAY you could have broken it." HAHAHAHA IT'S HILARIOUS. Basically, this is my Slytherin coming out and psst I'm actually not a death eater. So blunt, and he's not exactly bad, but he just does his job. I totally get that. *applauds*

*END OF SPOILERS*

All the other characters were wither amusing or lovable, so A+ for likable character development.





So this was NOT how I thought it would go, because, well, I thought maybe it would handle the suicide aspect a little more heavily. BUT despite my failed expectations, it was still good. I think I actually liked how it wasn't too deep that it scarred you but it wasn't so light that it didn't make an impression. I also love how it got straight to the roots—why Archer committed suicide, instead of focusing on the suicide itself. Of course, I still have questions, but I think it was handled well.

*SPOILERS*

I enjoyed how Hadley, in her efforts to stop him from committing suicide, actually stops him by just being his friend, and showing she cares, which is exactly the opposite of how she expected to stop him. I'm pretty sure she was thinking that just keeping her eye on him and finding out why he committed suicide would be the first step, and after that she would figure out a plan, but while doing that she just kind of accidentally fixed everything. *shrugs*

*END OF SPOILERS*

Overall, I found the story engaging, captivating, and suspenseful. Also tense. The tension was nice, more of like a fear-driven tense because I was always wondering if Archer would still commit suicide or not, and honestly I HAD TO PUT SO MUCH EFFORT INTO NOT READING THE END FIRST. I read it on a five-hour bus trip, and so basically the whole time I was like,

Me: *squeals quietly*
Passengers: *glares*
Me: *giggles hysterically and sounds like choking because trying to be quiet*
Passengers: *glares*
Me: *sobs quietly*
Passengers: *curious, concerned glares*
Me: *gawks and gasps and has a mini heart attack*
Passengers: *ignoring me at this point*
Me: GUYS SOMEONE READ THIS BOOK OR IMA LOSE IT HALP *makes weird bookwormy sound that my sister says sounds like a dying goat*
Passengers: *groans*

And then that plot twist at the end, and I was like, "well... x_________x okay. Didn't see that coming





There wasn't anything about the style that really stood out from the crowd, but it wasn't bad, either. I enjoyed it as much as the next person, but for the most part, I was more interested in the story. However, in regards to quality, there were a noticeable amount of typos in the ebook I checked out. Don't know if this is just ebooks?? Maybe the hardback copies are seamless. :/




So, contrary to me loving Hadley and not liking Archer much, I shipped them until my heart broke. Almost literally. They're soooooo stinkin' cute!! And I liked the way the romance was written too. It wasn't all, "Oh look, BOY ME LUVS" and then Hadley is obsessed with Archer for no reason other than he's good-looking. It was more of Hadley pushing aside her feelings and then focusing on how to save his life, and the first one to act is Archer. And weirdly she is so surprised. I found that funny. Maybe it's because she's hyper-focused on whether or not he's going to die or not. Idk, but when she finally admitted she liked him, it was cute because he freaked out a little bit and then at the end PENGUINS because he melts in a puddle of chocolate for her. *thumbs up* And Hadley is like "LOL I KNEW YOU LIKED ME!!"

However, I was so confused on whether he liked her or not but that's just Archer being Archer because he can be a jerk. I thought it was funny when Hadley yelled at him. And when she fell down the stairs. That was ironic because my friends and I had just been talking about falling down staircases, so lol. XD





A great, quick read for anyone who likes a clean YA books that tackle internal struggle and sensitive subjects with a side of balsamic vinegar romance. ;)

Time to blow some minds.

I enjoy writing nonfiction. *gasp*

'Tis true! And here's why: I love arguing to prove my point, describing people and places from a purely observant POV, and I love editing my papers to perfection. Heck, I even love blogging, which is a genre of nonfiction all together!

But, contrary to my anomaly of a personality, most fiction writers don't seem to enjoy writing nonfiction. I asked a bunch of my cabin-mates for Camp NaNo (ayyyyyy, frens! *finger guns*) how much they liked writing nonfiction, and for what reasons they disliked writing it. Here are some of the responses I got!

• It's hard to make [nonfiction] as interesting as fiction, it limits your creativity, and it's not as easy to find inspiration for nonfiction.
• It's harder...to come up with ideas; writing nonfiction sometimes feels more restricting than fiction, and I find it hard to stick to a structure.
• If it’s an essay—...they are more difficult to write, because you have to list the facts in an interesting but summarized way. 
• It can be dry and removed
• It can be cliche, especially if you are writing about someone famous 
• You have to research a lot!
• It's not as fun and creative as fiction,...and frankly I like to escape reality, not write about it.

Shout-out to my cabin mates!! You know who you are. ;) Thanks for responding to my questions! <3

So, obviously, there's a common thread here. Many young writers (and maybe even older, more experienced ones!) feel that nonfiction limits their creativity, and with that assumption, there's NO WAY that writing nonfiction can help you become a better novelist. Right? WRONG! In today's post I'm presenting you with all the ways writing nonfiction is helping me become a better novelist.

 

Nonfiction focuses more on craft rather than plot or story and characters. Even with a co-focus on the development of ideas, a good paper is all about how you word and present the material. If you have sloppy coherence and marred unity, then your readers will be confused. Writing nonfiction reminds me and enforces how I craft the lesson I want to teach my reader.



Speaking of lessons...

*cue screaming*

Yeah, let's talk about lessons for a minute. The purpose of any piece of literature is to teach you something that impacts your life. It can be empathy, or something practical like how to fix a bike, to the mystery behind black holes. You could even study how other people think and write! My point is that lessons, or themes, are so lost in today's fictional literature, that it's hard to find anything good to read nowadays. Some books are written for pure entertainment, but even then a good piece of entertainment will teach you something, usually emotional (think Pixar). By learning to write nonfiction you exercise your ability to focus on the lesson (theme) of your paper (or story).


By learning how to write nonfiction, you learn how to organize and develop concepts and ideas into something cohesive. This is very helpful because most of the time, in fiction, we tend to focus on our plot lines and build in theme later.  That's not exactly how it should go, since the theme of our story contains the lesson we are trying to teach. (^See Le point 2^) By handling concepts and ideas as a main thread, it becomes easier to develop habits that help keep us on the focus of our fictional stories.

Also, working with ideas is way different from working with characters. There's no ornery wills and personality-caused accidents!! You're forced to think a little differently about how to impress upon someone the idea you're trying to communicate. You exercise your voice, which in turn can influence how the voices of your characters affect your reader.

 


When you write in genres such as historic fiction or science fiction, you have limits to how much you can make up, and being reigned in by realism is difficult. However, learning to stretch creatively within a scope can you help you create impacting, lively stories.

When writing nonfiction, we train creatively to work within the box, which stretches our creativity to different levels. It's one thing to have a broad imagination, and it's another thing to have creative flexibility within a small scope. There are hundreds of ways to be creative within nonfiction, we just need to be open to how it works. Once we get the flow of being creative within constraints, we can implement that in our fiction and more easily work through writer's block and maybe come up with non-cliche plot twists!! Forget about love hexatangles—new plot twists are really what we need, guys. XD




Editing practice! I find it easier to edit my nonfiction papers for some reason. Go figure. Anyways, papers don't take as long to write as novels, and so the editing comes much sooner. Pros to this:

• the length is less daunting
• opportunity to exercise the few editing skills I possess 
• critical thinking, yo 
• no more pros because #EDITINGisPAIN

For some reason, I find that reality constraints make it much easier for me to be harsher on my writing and point out the many errors that I would probably rationalize and excuse in a novel. So, I also learn how to be a haRSH EDITING MEANIE WHO CRIES OVER HER OWN CHARRIES.

*obviously someone got bored with them headings
 




In nonfiction, you have to be as direct as possible. Your paper needs to pack a punch.  Let's apply this to stories. Who ever wants to read this hunk-a-junk?

There was a bush and there was a kid and the kid decided to beat around the bush because there was a bubble of emotion in his heart that prevented him from looking inside the bush and so he extended a limb and stretched five more appendages on the end of that limb and then all those appendages jerked back because of that bubble of emotion and inside the bush was a bright yellow thing surrounded by glass and metal and this kid is one of those people who just sits around in a cave and hates sunshine so reason for the bubble of emotion in his heart that prevented him from touching said bush.

I bet you're confused and hate that story. Aside from being one continuous sentence (my inner editor is trying to strangle me right now), the problem with this story is that it is so FREAKING LONG and INDIRECT. The kid is scared of touching a lantern inside a bush because he is a hermit. Boom. Mic drop. Moral of story: be direct or I wiLL EaT YOU ALIVE. Writing nonfiction teaches you to be direct and get your point across in only as many words as needed.


 


I've been working on this post for weeks, and so I don't even know if it makes sense? Maybe?? Hopefully?? Help reassure me in the comments. XD This was supposed to up last week, but HAHA I can't keep promises. Lol. *sobs* But I do have a book review coming at you later this week (dunno when), so stick around for ravings and some critiques. Thanks for reading!! I really appreciate the support y'all give me as a blogger, getting-there-novelist, and book nerd. :) Stay awesome!