The Importance of a Thrilling Plot

I have been reading extensively during the past few weeks - wonderfully great and truly horrible books, I'm disappointed to say.

So what is it that makes a novel great?
How important are the twists and turns of the plot?

Of course, the answer isn't simple.

I'll take a few examples.

I have recently read the paranormal romance novel Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick.
The first thing that struck me about it was simply that while there were no obvious grammar errors, it suffered from other major problems that had me wondering if I should laugh or cry (so most of the time I chose to just roll my eyes and swear a lot). One of these problems was character development, where we see teachers behaving as if they're middle-grade bullies, a best friend who's so stupid and simply evil towards her supposed best friend that we wonder why the MC sticks with her, and the always-so-lovable damsel-in-distress, I-should-go-into-a-dark-alley-by-myself MC, who makes the reader want to rip one's hair out of one's scalp.

Yeah. I'm not being nice. I'm trying to make a point.

So why did I read it in one day and craved for the sequel?
For the simple reason that it had a very hooking plot. I just had to know what happened next.

I have also recently read Fallen (in the same category) by Lauren Kate.
The idea was one I worked with for a while last year, without my knowing that it already existed in some form, so the idea had every opportunity to deliver - but it never did.
It had all the same problems as Hush, Hush, with the addition of never feeling like you 'lived' it at all - you were a spectator watching it happen from above. No characters intruiged me; not even the boy she's supposed to love, and that seldom happens. And we got all these mysterious clues, which were the only ones that kept me reading, and then - for some reason - the author decided that no, we were not going to learn about these things until in later novels. Major downer. The plot wasn't even exciting.
So no. I refused to read any of those sequels. Her novel gave me a headache.

The only clear difference between the two is the plot.
Which leads me to the conclusion that plot is more important than anything - even more so than character development (sometimes). Hmm. I'm not sure I agree with myself here.
Ah, well.
Plot is important, let's leave it at that (but we all knew that already, so what was the point...)

Now I'm off to write a plot twist!
(No, I'm actually not kidding!)

Short update

It was a while since I visited my blog - and I'm sorry for that.

I've been back to Sweden for the summer, and since I returned, many things have happened. Excuses, I know, but I'm only human, right?

I'm currently writing two novels simultaneously.
It allows me to write what I feel like writing, instead of forcing myself to write when I just don't feel like it. I change between the two when I'm tired of the one I've been writing for a few days, when my motivation or ideas drain, and when I again change back, the ideas come more easily. I know, it sounds weird, but it's true!
I thought writing two novels at the same time would make me confused, but it's actually helped me develop a writing routine, for which I'm grateful.

But there's also a website that's helped me with some motivation problems - authonomy.com

If you're a writer, and you struggle with motivation or just want feedback on your writing, then I can highly recommend the site! It's helped me a lot, and the fact that they pick the five best novels each month for a reading from an editorial board definitely helps the motivation. At least for me.

Now I'm off to write the ninth chapter of my fantasy children's/YA novel - Rebirth.
With my boyfriend playing videogames in the same room - so much for concentration, hah!

Weather's impact on Writing

Have you ever felt "Today is the perfect day to write, I just feel it in my bones"?

If you have, what has the weather been like? Summer sunshine? Snowy winter? Cloudy? Stormy? Rainy?

The weather has actually already been proven to have an impact on people's moods. So I would say it does also affect our mood to write.

In Scandinavia, where I grew up, we have three summer months and between five and six winter months. These winter months are dark and extremely cold; we have about four hours of sunlight every day and about 20 degrees minus, mostly with heeps of snow that doesn't disappear until late April.

Sounds fun?
Not really.

My point is, it has been proven that these dark months greatly affect our mood. During these months, we are one of the most depressed people on Earth. We have even given it a name: "winter depression". So imagine how happy the Swedish people are during our few summer months.

Pretty darn happy.

Nothing can depress us during the summer - not even rain - because in the summers the sun hardly ever disappears.

That's right people - we have midnight sun.

Where I come from, the sun disappears maybe at 10pm, but if you stay up, you'll see it rise again at about 2am. Up in the northern part of Sweden, it doesn't even set. Ever. For three whole months.

So what has this to do with writing?

Well, first of all, I just wanted to make you aware of the seasons in Sweden. But second, I wanted to point out that seasons affect our mood. Even our mood to write.

Today I woke up at 5am by the howling wind outside the window and the rain that threw itself against it, and I just knew, right then, that I would face a writing-day. When the weather is bad and you have no intention of going out whatsoever, it becomes a writing day. I mean, when the sun is out, you want to go out and enjoy it while it lasts. Maybe that's just me, being from Sweden.

Anyway. I'm going to write as much as I can today. It's storm outside (where did the summer weather disappear to?!), and I admit that I haven't been writing that much lately. Nanowrimo had me write 50.000 words in one month, but since then I've only managed about 40.000 - in 4 months. At least I'm finished soon! 10.000 to go!

*typing away*

The importance of reading

I must admit that when it comes to reading, I'm very picky. If something doesn't already have good reviews, I'm not probable to pick it up. As a writer, I know, this is NOT good. I wish I wasn't so picky. I know that reading is very important when it comes to honing one's writing skills. You read something good to learn how to apply successful techniques, and you read something bad to learn what techniques you should avoid.

Simple.

And with that in mind, I have recently forced myself to read whatever I can get my hands on. With my limited student budget, I refrain from buying anything unless I know I will love the novel, but I'm using the university library as well as borrow from friends, and this has turned out to be a good thing. Not only have I read things that significantly differ from my own writing preferences, but I have come to realise that I am a hell of a fast reader! I've never really thought about it before, but after I finished the trilogy of the Hunger Games in less than three days, my friend pointed out, and I quote: "How fast do you read?!"

Right now, I'm in the middle of the ten-novels-long series A Princess' Diaries (which seriously annoys me, I might add, although I've always loved the film adaptation), and I have borrowed Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice from the library, seeing as I have yet to read that classic.

Do you have any recommendations? 

Whatever you recommend, I will read it! (I might even write reviews of them here on the blog!)

So keep writing and reading, folks!

Write for YOU

It may seem obvious, but I don't think people realise it - you can write whatever you like, however you like, and no one can stop you from putting whatever it is YOU want in your story. 

Yes, I write so that I can someday become published, but I also write what I would want to read. If others don't have the same preferences, that's fine. 

My fiction teacher recently said that J.K. Rowling - my absolute favourite author of all time - is not a good writer; she said that she was just lucky to have published her book at the perfect time. 

My blood boiled when I heard her say that. 

Who decides what makes a good writer anyway? If Rowling can't be said to be a genius writer, then who can?

Ok, so this is just random ranting on my part, but some people just make me so angry...

Your story matters, people!

And don't ever forget that.

Homesick

Okay, I know I haven't been posting much - at all. But I guess that blogging isn't my thing. I think I've realised it a while now. For me it's more of a diary, of things that happen to me and what I think about it... but that doesn't draw many viewers, I'm afraid.

The first semester of my creative writing course is done, anyway! Wohoo! And in a few days I'm going HOME, back to my preciousss Sweden (which I've only started appreciating once I've been away from it, I might add...). 

It's going to be so nice to go home, gosh, how I miss it! I'm not going to love the cold, though, and the snow and ice, but to be able to speak Swedish with people, to drive a car again, to eat Swedish food - even Swedish fast-food! Oh, I miss our delicious pizzas!! - and most of all to see my family again, to walk into my room, to hug my wonderful cat so tightly that I'll probably never let go and she'll probably scratch my face... It's right, what people say: you never know what you have until you're away from it - 'home sweet home'.

Have you guys ever felt so homesick that you've started to miss the strangest little things? Would love to hear it!

NaNoWriMo

Okay. As I'm sure most of you already know, November is the National Novel Writing Month - 30 days of literary abandon in which participants, such as myself, will have to finish a 50.000 word novel. It's tough, I must admit, but it's gone pretty well for me during these past eleven days. I'm at 21.000 words and have barely even finished writing the beginning of my novel (suggesting that I actually have quite a long, outlined, "full" novel to write!). For those who are interested in keeping track of my progress, I've added a word count widget to the right side of the screen. Green means I'm well over the necessary word count; yellow means I'm where I'm supposed to be; and red naturally means I'm slacking off.

Tonight I'm going to a Weekly Write-In, meeting other NaNo'ers for two hours, sitting together in a room with our laptops and cups of tea, and just writing. I don't think I've ever written as much during one month as I'm doing now, and I LOVE it (although it's very tiring).

Anyhoo, now you guys know why I'm not updating my blog very often. I'm too busy with other things, unfortunately. ^^' But by the end of the month, I'll tell you all how NaNo went and I'll try to write more interesting posts - and more often. (Depending on when I finish the novel)

I'd love to hear from you!

In a slump

I know, I haven't posted in a while, but I'm here now. I just don't have anything specific to say.

It's been raining non-stop for a week, but now - finally - the sun is shining, the sky is blue and cloudless, and it's Saturday. Yay!

My family came to visit from Sweden last weekend. We had two days of shopping and our feet hurt badly afterwards, but I was just so happy to see them again! School is not as hard as I thought it would be - I have mixed feelings about it in that I both enjoy it and am frightened by it. I enjoy having so much free time because I didn't want another "IB" course, and because in the four months I've had summer vacation, I've become very lazy. I'm frightened, however, because it feels like I should learn more by having more homework, and because I'm actually paying for this course, and of course I want it to teach me everything so that I don't come out of it in three years wondering what I took the course for... So there you have it, mixed feelings.

At the same time, I work with my novel, of course. It's not going very well, though. I have like a hundred pages of scrapped chapters, while I haven't even a word on the real novel. I'm in some kind of slump where I hate everything I write and it hurts my inspiration. I came up with several new details yesterday, but I'm not moving forward on the actual writing. I hate it. And in school, it feels like every other person in the room are more talented than me - especially since I'm the only non-native English speaker. I want to be able to control the language as good as they do. I try so hard. I really do. Then my mom reminded me that I've only been here for a month and a half and that I'll get better. I sincerely hope so.

Have any of you ever felt like you aren't cut out for being a writer? Like there are so many talenter writers in the world that you would never get a second glance, that you can't ever compare to those writers? What do you do when such a period occurs?Any idea how I can get out of it and believe in myself again?

Some more ranting

I've come up with something to help me write - a daily writing challenge. I have to write at least 500 words every day, or I'm forbidden to eat anything sugary! (So either I get the writing going or I'm going to lose some weight - it's a win-win situation!)

So this morning, I sat down to write and I got about 800 words before I managed to finish a very long chapter, and that's where I stopped. Thus, I've munched on some cookies to reward myself. ^^

Anyhoo, I read some blog posts today by one of the blogs I'm following. She's a Harry Potter-analysist. I just can't get enough of it. I've sat for two and a half hours just reading her blog posts. However, it makes me compare myself to Rowling and that's not good for my self-esteem... How can anyone write like that? How do you become such a genius? Every detail is plotted, every word is carefully planned, every character stands out... I have no idea how she does it. No one can ever compare to her!

I start my Creative Writing course on Tuesday, by the way. Or rather, we start induction week then.
But the week after that, I'm going to learn some writing! I'm so excited! :D I'll try to post the lessons I learn here on the blog, both for myself to never forget them and to share the knowledge. So hopefully I'll have some better posts than the constant rambling on how my novel is going. 

So keep reading! ;)

The perfect idea?

My writing goes slow again, so today I've just tried to do some character development and continued reading The Host by Stephenie Meyer. I must say, it's not in the same league as the Twilight-series. It took me more than half the novel to actually find it the least interesting, but when I did, I couldn't stop laughing.

 She's truly an amazing writer.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the greatest authors get that one perfect idea that has every reader in the whole world adore them, but what happens when that idea is finished? I haven't read anything new by my idol J.K. Rowling lately? And the novel that I'm reading now... it just doesn't grab me. So what is it exactly that makes their perfect idea so perfect, and the other ideas not? Is it just the idea? Or it is something else that doesn't really follow through to the next idea?

Don't get me wrong, I suppose that many authors have written series that are all phenomenal... I just can't think of anyone right now, and that slightly bothers me :S

It's a good day

Today I woke up by 10am - and the first thing in my mind were new, fresh ideas for my book! Luckyy! :D I had no notebook by the bed, though, so I took my phone and pinned it down in there.

I had such a bad writing-day yesterday (a little bit of depressing thoughts, some tears, some "I'll never be good at this!" lines in my head, etc, etc) that I decided to read a new book while I ate my breakfast. I recently bought Stephenie Meyer's Eclipse novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, so I read it from start to finish for a few hours (two or three). Then, just like that - boom! - my inspiration came back and I started my computer, and to applause (inside my head) I could finally write again, and I LIKED what I wrote! It's a miracle! I couldn't move from my computer for 6 hours straight (meaning that my planned solo-shopping trip had to be cancelled) and when rising, after having finished a 3500 word chapter, I had (still has) such neck pains that I could hardly move my head - yes, it was that bad. After dinner we were about to watch a movie, and I still couldn't move my head properly, but oh well, what don't you do for your little baby (the book)... ^^

Now I'm flowing with energy and inspiration, but I have to sleep too, so I'll continue tomorrow - and if the inspiration is gone when I wake up, I'll probably read a little more to get it back. :)

Keep reading, folks!

I'm back!

Okay, so now most things are in place in our new apartment and I can write again! Wohoo! I've had like three full-writing days in a row now because of bad weather and stuff. I still, however, can't seem to make the story go very much forward. I have the outline still in mind, but I just can't put it the way I want to on paper; I just can't. It's like something's stopping me - like there's some wall I have to pass before I can make it flow. You know what I mean?

Anyway, I talked to my boyfriend about some ideas yesterday, and he confirmed what I already knew; that I had to make some changes to the story to make it more realistic. On the other hand, he also gave me an idea, so I'm starting to derive from the original idea a little bit, but on the whole it's the same, don't worry! I'm just trying to make it work better! To make it a little more intriguing... At first, it was just a story of eternal love and they were their own enemies, but the idea yesterday changed that - now, it's forbidden love.

I'm struggling with a new title, though, and it frustrates me. I don't like the current title, The Angel of Faith, because it's not very chatching and it doesn't apply as much with the new idea as it did before. I've tried to come up with something using themes, colours, etc, but it's just not working. A friend of mine tried to help, but after thinking about it I figured I don't want something too symbolic, or people won't understand the title without me explaining it first. I'd like something perfect in just one or maximum two words, like Twilight (I know what you're thinking, but no, I'm not trying to copy Twilight in any way, I just see it as an inspiration). I mean, what does Twilight really have to do with love between a human and a vampire? I get the other titles in her series, but not the first, actually (maybe it's just me ^^'). However, the title is catchy and easy to remember, and the word Twilight is just so beautiful... I don't know if you get my point, but anyway ^^'

Progress is slow on my part. I've edited my first chapter like five times and only just finished the second chapter (trying not to edit any more before I've written the whole story now, but we'll see about that. As soon as I'm stuck, I go back and read everything through, and that's usually when I edit a lot).

So here's a question for you guys: how much should you edit before you've written everything, even if you know where the story is heading?You'll probably say, 'just write for now and edit later', but that's not always the way to go. What if something needs to be cut or put into the first chapters to make it work, and you have to change something major? Then you have to write the whole thing over from scratch, won't you?

Well, keep checking in, folks!

Sorry everyone!

I've not have time to blog or do any writing for a while now. :( I have the cravings to write all the time, but I just don't have the time right now. Me and my boyfriend are moving to the UK tomorrow so there have been much packing and such stuff going on for a while. I'm so nervous, but at the same time excited, of course. I don't start the Creative Writing course until September 19th so I have decided to finish my novel by that time - I have about a month to do it (going to be tough!).

I'll update the progress as soon as I've settled down in the new apartment and started writing again! So keep checking in please! :) I appreciate anyone who reads my rantings. :P

Surprise, surprise for me

I've just found out - I've got serious grammar problems!
When I think about it, I feel all hollow inside... I've dedicated my life to the English language by going to the International English School (here in my country) and I've finished the International Baccaleaureate course and I only read books in English and I only write novels in English and I never have subtitles when watching movies and no one around has ever said I have grammar problems, etc, etc, and suddenly the thing most commenters on my newest novel have said is that I HAVE GRAMMAR PROBLEMS and pointed out every little grammar problem in the text and some things I've agreed on and some I've not, and here comes the question - why haven't anybody ever told me about this and why haven't any teachers taught me to spot these things?!

:(

Now I'm sad... I'm going to stop blogging now so I don't upset more people...

Not much writing done this weekend...

It's now two weeks left until me and my boyfriend move to the UK! Excited and nervous! That means, however, that I've not had time to write much this weekend. Saturday we went to a friend to sell the computer and today we've cleaned the apartment, packed, sold a lot of other stuff, and will soon book our flying tickets. So there's a lot on my mind right now... I just wish I'd have someone to spend my time with in the UK while my boyfriend is working. I'll have a whole month there until I start university.

Well, anyway, I'll keep you guys updated with the writing tomorrow! :)

Jealousy

Okay, so today I signed up on inkspot.com which is a community for writers where you can give each other comments on your works. Two novels have actually even been recognised there by agents and become published! Further, the top five (highest rated) novels each month get to be edited by an actual professional literary agency, for free!

This far, I've critiqued two very good novels which I'll continue to follow. The problem is that reading other's works always gets me jealous... :/ I don't want to be, but they are just so good writers and have such good ideas that I start to wonder what's wrong with me? Why I am not as good? What they do that I don't?

I know it's normal for a young, unpublished author to have periods of low self-confidence, but still, I wish it didn't have to be that way. I wish I could say, I have written something that I am really proud of! - But I can't.

Right now I really look forward to starting my Creative Writing course. My hopes are high that I'll improve there and learn things that will help me accomplish what I want to. Of course, I'm equally scared that everyone in class will be so much better than me, especially since I'm not even a native english speaker which they will be. It will be so much tougher for me...

Well, I'll stop my ranting before you get too bored.

As always, please leave a comment (doesn't have to be anything specific, I'm just curious to know who actually reads this)! And if that's too tiring, please at least check one of the answers to who you are at the question poll to the right. Thanks!