Thursday, December 12, 2013

Death's Daughter

by Amber Benson

So ... remember how I said that Hilary Mantel was a study in minimalist writing? Well, I'm pretty sure this book was the antithesis of that. Seriously, there were a number of places where I could have deleted three paragraphs without losing anything. The main character took way too long to figure stuff out when I was way ahead of her and just wanted to get on with the story. Also, the big twist at the end, wasn't really such a big twist. I saw it coming way before it hit.



OK, now I have to talk about what I liked. Despite being overly chatty, I did like the main character. She was funny and tough, even though she didn't know how tough she was. Also, on a side note, what is with the recent fad of heroines who are tough but don't know that they're tough? Can we please bring back the heroines who know exactly what their strengths are and play to them? Thanks

I also really liked the side characters. Jarvis was my favorite, largely because I loved the main characters' reactions to and interactions with him. Clio was also a blast and I totally want to be her bff. I particularly liked the scene where she was trying to explain physics and magic to the main character because the main character's reaction was pretty much exactly how I would have reacted to that explanation.

Ultimately, it was a fun light read. It entertained me and definitely made me want to keep reading.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Shiloh

The Battle That Changed the Civil War

by Larry J. Daniel

The research for novel #2 continues, and yes, this is the novel I was working on during National Novel Writing Month last month. I must say I certainly wished I had done more research before then, because doing research while writing 1,666.67 words per day, not to mention holding down my day job, was quite the challenge. Obviously, I'm still not done, as I just finished reading this book about Shiloh over the weekend.

Overall, I really liked the book. It included a lot of "what ifs" which I didn't think I would like, but I ended up really enjoying. Every once in a while the author would discuss a decision that someone made and how things might have turned out drastically differently if that person had made a different decision. Given that I was merely looking for information on the battle so I could continue writing my novel, the "what ifs" weren't really what I was looking for, but as I said, I did find myself enjoying them.



In the end, though, I don't think any of those decisions significantly affected the battle. Historians can blame Confederate generals or credit Union generals all they want but the fact remains that the South was outnumbered. The Union army won that battle after receiving massive reinforcements. The South could never hope to match those reinforcements and the survivors of the battle were already exhausted. I had always thought it was settled that the North's superior numbers, funds, and technology made it so that the outcome of the war was inevitable. Yes, the war had turning points, but if the Union had lost those battles, they would not have lost the war. The turning point would simply have come later. In the end, the South could not overcome the sheer numbers of the North and the battle of Shiloh exemplifies that.

That being said, it does seem to be a miracle that the generals managed to accomplish anything at all. All of the generals and politicians of both sides were so busy bickering amongst themselves that I can't believe our country has come to revere such a bunch of babies!

Sunday, December 1, 2013

National Novel Writing Month 2014

I DID IT! 50,000 in 30 days! :D

I'm not sure how I feel about it, though. On the one hand yes, I got my 50,000 words. On the other hand, my story is no where near finished. I'm only half way, maybe two thirds of the way through. So, do I still win NaNoWriMo if I got the word count but didn't finish the story?

I don't know. Who cares? I didn't officially sign up anyway.



So, here I my thoughts on this little experiment. On the one hand, I learned how much I could do in one month. It took some practice and, obviously some days are better than others, but I learned that, on a good day, I can blow through 1,500 - 2,000 words in an hour. Lots of little bits of time, like half an hour, that I have throughout the day suddenly became an opportunity to cram out seven or eight hundred words. That is a really good frame of mind to get into and I'm hoping I can continue it.

On the other hand, I don't like feeling rushed. Yes, I got a lot done, but how much of that will I have to go back and rewrite or delete because it's so bad? There's something to be said for taking the time to do it right the first time. As far as I can tell, there's writing quickly, and then there's writing well. They're two different things, although I hesitate to call them mutually exclusive, they are certainly not mutually inclusive.

Whether or not I'll do this again next year has yet to be determined. I don't think I'll be able to make that decision until October 2014 rolls around. In the mean time, I am glad that I tried it and I certainly developed some good writing habits that I hope I won't lose over the holidays.