The Red Queen

Posted on May 10, 2019 by 790558

Lately, my blogs have all been relating to books I read for school. I haven’t finished The Red Queen yet, but I’ve decided to briefly share my thoughts on it to create a variety amongst my recent blogs.

I really don’t like it. I got halfway through The Red Queen during spring break, but in the three weeks following it, I haven’t picked it up once. I’ll probably go back and finish it during the summer for the sake of finishing it. As of now, I would not recommend it. It’s a retelling of every other YA fantasy book that’s been published since 2010. I’m pretty sure I have the ending figured out already.

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The Alchemist

Posted on May 10, 2019 by 790558

If I was completely honest, I didn’t enjoy The Alchemist. However, I feel like that may be attributed to the translator. I found the writing to be dry, jarring, and rushed. The time felt off- months would pass by in just a couple of sentences.

I did enjoy the actual story however, which makes me inclined to think that the problem lies with the translation. There were times when I was a bit confused, and even now, I’m not exactly sure what was happening at points. On the bright side, The Alchemist is short and interesting enough to easily reread in two-ish hours. I would, 100%, read this book again.

Overall, The Alchemist was a quick and light read, which I’d recommend people read when they’re busy.

3/5 stars

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05.10.19

Posted on May 10, 2019 by 790558

Over spring break, I decided to completely restart. After rewriting my first chapter, I decided I didn’t like where the story was going. I’m still a bit iffy about what exactly it is I want. There’s a lot of elements I enjoy reading about and I feel like I’m forcing them into my own, which is making it really busy. Further, I feel as I’ve been very focused on just trying to finish. I tried doing the outline approach I mentioned a couple of blogs ago, but it felt rushed and I ended up deleting everything. Trying to find a method that works for me is causing a lot of confusion- I’ve always focused on detail when writing, so it’s definitely the method I’m most comfortable with, but the thing is, is it actually working? I have yet to get past chapter ten.

Currently, I am trying to rework the plot and structure, as well as change the setting up a bit. I feel like I need to go back and plan a bit more.

Thank you!

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The Joy Luck Club

Posted on April 22, 2019 by 790558

I really enjoyed The Joy Luck Club. I’d give it 5 out of 5 stars. Amy Tan wrote a series of vignettes and I felt that really enhanced the book- it revealed the perfect amount of information and allowed The Joy Luck Club to be read as a series of detailed snapshots. Further, the characters had flaws which never really went away, but they still changed and became more open-minded. I enjoyed Tan’s portrayal of the tumultuous relationship each mother and daughter had.

At times, the stories each mother shared similarities with the ones my grandparents and parents tell me and my siblings about India and immigrating and adjusting to life in a new country. I also understood, to an extent, how the daughters felt- within my family, the cultural differences have not created as big of a rift, but there are a lot of different expectations and, at times, it can be overwhelming.

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04.11

Posted on April 11, 2019 by 790558

P R O G R E S S (or the lack of)

Call me paranoid, but I’m always worried about losing the notebook I write in. It’s nothing special- college ruled, spiral bound, falling apart- but it literally contains everything I’ve written in the past couple of years. Maybe it’s out of procrastination, but I have started to transfer my outline to google docs. It’s lengthy and honestly not worth the time I’ve been sneaking in to write a couple of sentences every few days, but oh well. I feel like I’m trying to avoid writing at any cost, so I’m going to force myself to write a bit over spring break. I don’t know how much I’ll be able to because somehow I’ve ended up with packets of things that are due within a day or two of coming back to school. I’ve also seemed to lost my ability to spell. Fun 🙂

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03.21: Goal Setting

Posted on March 21, 2019 by 790558

P R O G R E S S

Hi! By some miracle, I managed to find the writing I mentioned last week that I had deleted. Turns out, there’s a revision history for your blog drafts. I also finished outlining my chapters.

Here’s a rough breakdown:

I’ve divided the story into three parts. Part one is about 24 chapters. Part two is about 32, and part three is about 22 chapters long. Given each chapter so far is around 2,000-3,ooo words, that puts me at about 222,000 words.

I would like to finish this before I graduate, so if I wrote about a chapter a week over the summer, and then dropping to a chapter a month during the school year, I would finish by next summer.

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03.14(159265359)

Posted on March 14, 2019 by 790558

P R O G R E S S

Hi! I didn’t realize today was March 14 until like a minute ago.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned I might sometimes blog about writing. This is going to be my first progress blog. I finished plotting last week, and, to be honest, it’s almost a relief. I’ve been working on the plot for almost three years at this point, and I just couldn’t wait to be past the planning stage and start writing.

I started working on Chapter 11 too, last week, but I’m an idiot and I deleted the first part. It was kind of disappointing, but oh well.

I’ve noticed a flaw in my work method as well. I’m very detail oriented, so doing things takes me twice as long. As things move along, I’m trying to change how I approach each chapter; I’m thinking about doing a outline for each chapter before I write, followed by a loose first draft, and then going back and polishing.

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Persepolis

Posted on February 15, 2019 by 790558

Image result for persepolis 5/5 stars

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a memoir- a recounting of her childhood which hooks and drags you in. While I was reading, I was very invested and Satrapi did an amazing job. I’m not going to lie- I was a bit teary-eyed at the end, and after finishing, I had no idea what I wanted to do.

Satrapi combined history with her own experiences, creating a nice balance. I really enjoyed Persepolis and it’s many themes of war, hope, childhood, and survival. I would recommend Persepolis.

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A Bit of a Change?

Posted on February 15, 2019 by 790558

When I was choosing a topic for this blog, the first thing that came to mind was writing.

I really, really like writing.

It’s therapeutic, you can incorporate your own experiences with your dreams and weave in other aspects of who you and your life. I feel like through writing I’ve discovered a lot about myself and my thought process.

I’ve started writing a lot of different types of stories, but I never got past the first or second chapter because I would lose interest or not know what to do. So, about two years ago, I decided I would plan out my next project. It’s been a really long process, but I’ve written about seventy pages. This is super exciting for me because I’ve never gone past twelve pages.

Going back to my blog, I’m thinking about tracking how much I write between each blog. That way, I can continue to write during the school year. I’m not 100% sure yet, but I’m really considering it.

Thank you

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