Writing
As NaNo loomed on the horizon this year I knew I truly wanted to focus on Follow the Raven, but at the same time I felt the story was going nowhere, which is why I allowed myself to think of other ides for this November. But once the story hit a standstill and I had some time to think about it, I realized that if I ever, ever want to really get on the road towards publication, I have to put in the effort, even if there are times when I'd rather do anything else. In last month's wrap up I talked to you guys about the novel I'd been planning to write, Star Island. While it is a really fun idea that I hope to give life to later, I ultimately decided not to work on that project this year in favor of sticking to my 2017 New Year's Resolution of rewriting Follow the Raven, which is the novel I hope to have published first. I've done some rethinking and opened my mind up to a few new ideas, and I'm hoping to take those ideas and implement them in the 3.0 draft I'll be writing starting at midnight tonight.
I want Follow the Raven to take center stage until it is done. The biggest issue I've been struggling with recently is that I haven't been able to get through that rewrite. At the end of every November for the past three years, I've had a completed draft of a novel. This year, that draft will be Follow the Raven. After that I'll at least have something to work with, and I can focus more on revising and editing. I'm hoping I can use this year's NaNoWriMo as a springboard for my grander plans down the road.
Reading
In terms of reading, I did manage to finish three books this month and start two others, although that wasn't as much as I was hoping to finish - especially with the readathon that happened last week. My bookworm friend on Goodreads completely left me in the dust with that one, having finished almost three books over the course of seven days. She's awesome. But alas, my slow reading pace plagues me again. Here's what I was able to finish in October:
- A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
- The Hell-Hound of the Baskervilles by G.S. Denning
- One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
I can't even put into words how amazing A Monster Calls was. I really don't even remember why I picked it up; I think I was trying to be thematic with Halloween coming up and whatnot, searching for books about monsters and ghosts and things. "Monster" is literally in the title, and the synopsis was intriguing, so that's probably what did it. But oh, my goodness, this was so much more than just a monster story. It was so amazing, and so heartbreaking, and just so well done. I absolutely loved the dynamic between the Monster and Conor, and how their relationship grew over the course of the novel. I don't want to spoil too much, but I will say that this is the first book in a while that has made me cry in a good way.
The Hell-Hound of the Baskervilles was the second book in the Warlock Holmes series. You may recall last year at about this time how I was raving about the first book and couldn't wait for the second and so on. I was super excited for this second book because the case of the Baskervilles has always been my favorite Sherlock mystery, and I was curious to see how the author of Warlock Holmes would parody it. Ultimately, though, while I thought it definitely had its moments (Warlock's backstory was outstandingly well done), I feel like I was just hoping for...more. I mean, it was decent, but I feel like I trudged through the last 150 pages or so because there was just so much happening all at once and it was too difficult to try and keep up with. The hell-hound itself was a straight-up disappointment (although the way it came into being was brilliant), and all the smaller mysteries that came before the primary story seemed kind of pointless. I don't know. It was still a fun read, but when it came to the Baskervilles mystery I feel like I was left wanting more, and not in a good way. With that said, however, I am definitely going to read book three next year.
I'm not sure I can go into a lot of detail about One of Us Is Lying without also having to go on a rant/rave, so I'll try to keep this brief. I chose this audiobook for October because it was a murder mystery (again, I thought it was thematic). In short, this book was incredible. I could only read it in spurts because it made me so mad in all the best ways; the injustice of what was happening to the four main characters was just too much on top of all the personal crap each of them were going through. And when it all came together in the end...oh my goodness. I cannot recommend this book enough. It was absolutely, without a doubt, completely and 100% fantastic.
(Side Note: The narrators for this book were all pretty good; I was impressed with the voice of Cooper for not trying to go over-the-top with the Southern accent. And I actually just found out that the guy who voiced Nate also voices Olly's part in the audiobook for Everything, Everything which, coincidentally, is the next audiobook I've chosen to listen to. That was not planned! Haha!)
Now it's time to talk about the title of this blog post. I am sorry to say that for the first time this year (and longer, for that matter), I had to DNF a book that I'd planned to read this month. That book was The Farm by Emily McKay. The really sad part is I'd had my eye on this book for years - literally, years. The premise sounded really good, and I think if the right author had done it it would have been good. But Emily McKay simply could not pull it off. Not just because of how unbelievable a lot of things were, but because of the awful writing and how unlikeable the main character was. I cannot begin to describe to you how terrible the writing was. It was like reading a fanfiction that was trying too hard to be canon. The way the characters spoke to each other was cringeworthy at best, and the main character (I don't even remember her name now) would NEVER let anyone else talk. She'd interrupt them when they were trying to explain something important to her, asking a bunch of sarcastic questions, and then a few pages later she'd be all mad because "no one told me about this." Well DUH. She was just not a character I felt I could get behind. Also the author decided to write from multiple POVs, which is fine, but every time she got to Carter's POV she wrote in the third person. That doesn't even make sense! And having chapters from Carter's POV completely ruined the suspense of the novel, because everything was revealed right away, so there was no mystery as to why he was acting the way he was.
It was just bad writing all around, a really awful main character, and an unbelievable story. (Like, the Ticks invaded less than a year before the start of this novel, yet everyone is now suddenly calling the pre-invasion "The Before?" Not that fast, they wouldn't. Maybe five or six years down the line, but less than a year? No one would call it "The Before." They'd just say "before." Come on.) I was really sad about it, but I just did not feel like powering through something so poorly written, so I DNF-ed at 112 pages in. Better luck next time, McKay. (Also this book was published by an imprint of Penguin. HOW.)
As I said earlier, I started two other books in addition to the ones I actually finished this month. I just couldn't get to the 100 pages or less mark in time for them to count for October's wrap-up, so you'll see them next month. I am currently reading Too Many Ghosts by Paul Gallico and The Silver Eyes by Scott Cawthon. The former is kind of slow, but still interesting. I'm liking it so far. The latter is something I tried to get my hands on last year at this time but couldn't; I'm just over 100 pages in and it's just now getting to the part that may actually be scary. If you don't know, Scott Cawthon is the guy who created the Five Nights at Freddy's games, and this book is supposed to be based in that world / provide some extra story behind the animatronics being so hell-bent on murder. The FNAF series scared me when it came out initially, but now I'm kind of used to it. I hope the book will change my mind about that. We'll see!
It was just bad writing all around, a really awful main character, and an unbelievable story. (Like, the Ticks invaded less than a year before the start of this novel, yet everyone is now suddenly calling the pre-invasion "The Before?" Not that fast, they wouldn't. Maybe five or six years down the line, but less than a year? No one would call it "The Before." They'd just say "before." Come on.) I was really sad about it, but I just did not feel like powering through something so poorly written, so I DNF-ed at 112 pages in. Better luck next time, McKay. (Also this book was published by an imprint of Penguin. HOW.)
As I said earlier, I started two other books in addition to the ones I actually finished this month. I just couldn't get to the 100 pages or less mark in time for them to count for October's wrap-up, so you'll see them next month. I am currently reading Too Many Ghosts by Paul Gallico and The Silver Eyes by Scott Cawthon. The former is kind of slow, but still interesting. I'm liking it so far. The latter is something I tried to get my hands on last year at this time but couldn't; I'm just over 100 pages in and it's just now getting to the part that may actually be scary. If you don't know, Scott Cawthon is the guy who created the Five Nights at Freddy's games, and this book is supposed to be based in that world / provide some extra story behind the animatronics being so hell-bent on murder. The FNAF series scared me when it came out initially, but now I'm kind of used to it. I hope the book will change my mind about that. We'll see!
As for the readathon, I already mentioned above but despite my constant posting about it on Twitter and even here on my blog, only one other person joined me in my quest to read three horror novels in a week. And, as mentioned above, she blew me away. I didn't even touch the third book I had lined up, and I barely got started with the other two. Ah, well. It was fun to try, and I'll probably do it again next year just for the heck of it. Haha!
Now...on to National Novel Writing Month! :D
Note: I apologize if the format of this blog is wonky for some of you. I don't know what happened to Blogger as I was editing this but it suddenly decided to change the font and text size of certain paragraphs on me and I had to do some work to get it back to looking mostly normal. Technology, right?
Now...on to National Novel Writing Month! :D
Note: I apologize if the format of this blog is wonky for some of you. I don't know what happened to Blogger as I was editing this but it suddenly decided to change the font and text size of certain paragraphs on me and I had to do some work to get it back to looking mostly normal. Technology, right?
