Heart Full of Ink

New Year's Resolutions

Reading Goal #1: I will read 35 books by Dec. 31st, 2016.

Reading Goal #2: I will read 4 nonfiction books by Dec. 31st, 2016.

Writing Goals

Writing Goal #1: Write 50,000 words of Cursed by June 30th, 2016.

Writing Goal #2: Write 50,000+ words of a novel by July 31st, 2016.

The Unpopular Opinions Book Tag

First off, thank you to Alyssa at The Devil Orders Takeout for the tag! Check out her blog for her answers.

Secondly, I found it difficult to find books for some of these "hate" prompts because, usually, if I don't like a book or a character, I won't finish the book. So, I felt it wouldn't be fair to include a book in this post which I haven't finished.

Now, on to my unpopular opinions!

1. A popular book or series you didn't like



The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

 All of the characters are selfish, self-centered and pretty much do not have any redeeming qualities. Why am I supposed to care about what happens to them? The Great Gatsby started off as a short story, and in my opinion, it should've stayed that way. I can handle reading a short story about awful people, but an entire book about them? No thanks.

2. A popular book/series everybody hates but you love


I don't know how many people "hate" Sarah Dessen books, but a colleague of mine did say Sarah Dessen books are bad and do the same thing over and over again. I respectfully disagree. I have a soft spot for Sarah Dessen books.

3. A love triangle where you didn't like who the main character ended up with


The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare.

I love The Infernal Devices books and think the love triangle is much better than the one in The Mortal Instruments series, but I think Clare took the chicken way out of the love triangle in The Infernal Devices.

4. A popular genre you hardly read

Contemporary Fiction. I'm more of a fantasy and paranormal type of gal, and I think I always will be.

5. A popular/beloved character you hate

I thought long and hard about this one, but I honestly couldn't think of a character everyone loves that I hate. As I said before, if I don't like a character, especially if it's the main character, I won't finish reading the book. All other characters that people like, I generally like as well.

6. A popular author you can't seem to get into



Alexandre Dumas. I bought a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo in Edinburgh over three years ago, and I have yet to get past the first chapter. I've heard people rave about The Count of Monte Cristo, but I just can't get into it. I do like classics, but I couldn't get into this story.

7. A popular trope you're tired of reading

Two words: love triangles. While Twilight didn't invent the idea of a love triangle, it certainly seemed to spark the flood of love triangles in which YA books are currently drowning. "Are you Team Boy A or Team Boy B?" I am pretty sick of books in which a female protagonist has to choose between two boys. Attention YA Authors: There are more obstacles to love besides having two boys competing for your love. Let's start writing about those instead. You can find a list of obstacles to love here.

8. A popular series you have no interest in reading



A Game of Thrones (A Song of Fire and Ice) series by George R. R. Martin

I read the first book and have no interest in reading the rest. George R. R. Martin's writing style doesn't float my boat. First, he spends way too much time on descriptions. Second, the book is told from multiple characters' points of views. Normally, I don't mind a story being told through different characters, but I was only interested in one or two of the characters' story lines and didn't really care about what was happening during the other characters' viewpoints. I couldn't care less about Jon Snow and the Wall storyline. Also, I found it annoying that Martin described a battle from one character's viewpoint and in the next chapter described the exact same battle from another character's viewpoint. The second description of the battle was completely unnecessary in my opinion. No real new information was revealed in the second chapter.

9. A movie you liked better than the book.



Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Sorry, Neil Gaiman. I love your books, but for some reason I liked the movie better than the book.

I tag S J Bouquet, Tash, B K Rivers, Aentee, and anyone else who feels so inclined.

Do you agree with my choices? Share some of your unpopular opinions in the comments below!

Summary of Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

It's 1943 and a British plane has just crash landed in Nazi occupied France. Both the pilot and the passenger, a female British spy, are best friends. When "Verity" is captured by the Gestapo, she is given two choices: reveal her mission or be executed. As she confesses her mission, Verity starts at the very beginning, detailing her past and how she came to be friends with the pilot Maddie. Verity will tell the Gestapo anything they want to know, but will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy?

Review

Have you ever read a book that was so well written, so masterfully plotted that when you finish reading it, you sit in a dazed stupor? That is exactly how I felt at the end of Code Name Verity. The two female main characters develop beautifully throughout the story and the plot twists in this book will play some serious mind games on you.

I haven't read much historical fiction, but what drew me to this book was the fact that it focuses on people history often overlooks. For hundreds and hundreds of years, women were ignored by history. Their stories weren't deemed worthy of being recorded. So, when I saw this book was about a female pilot and a female spy, I knew I had to read it. Before reading this book, I didn't even know there were female pilots during World War II! Elizabeth Wein definitely did her research. 

Wein also created strong female heroines who were strong in different ways. Maddie, a pilot, holds her own in a male dominated profession, while Verity's confidence in herself helps save lives and makes her an excellent spy.  The story of these two courageous young women encourages women to follow their passion even if the job isn't "normal" for a woman to do and tells them confidence is something to be celebrated. The friendship which blossoms between these two strong young women is natural and heartwarming. I also loved the fact that friendship is the main focus in this story. After reading so many YA books where romance is the focus, it was a nice change of pace to read about Maddie and Verity's friendship.

I don't want to spoil any of the plot twists which make Code Name Verity such a rollercoaster of a read; however, I will say that it is the type of story that will stay with you for a very long time. If you're looking to read a historical fiction book with strong female characters and a plot that will have you second guessing everything you know, read Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. 

Summary of Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella

Lottie knows her boyfriend is going to propose to her. He's been dropping none too subtle hints, and she is so ready to be engaged. When it turns out his "big question" had nothing to do with marriage, Lottie is completely crushed, and her sister, Fliss, is afraid Lottie is going to make one of her "Unfortunate Choices" again like getting a tattoo or going abroad for a year. Unfortunately for Fliss, this time Lottie's "Unfortunate Choice" is to marry an old flame she hasn't seen for fifteen years. No dates, no moving in together, they'll just get married. Fliss thinks Lottie is making a big mistake and will do anything to stop her. Lottie, on the other hand, is determined to tie the knot for better or for worse.

Review

Wedding Night is the second book by Sophie Kinsella that I've read. The first was I've Got Your Number. Both books are hilarious romantic comedies with characters you can't help but like. If you are looking for a fun romance Sophie Kinsella's books are definitely for you.

What I loved so much about Wedding Night was that it is essentially a modern day version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Emma. Fliss is one part Elizabeth Bennet and two parts Emma Woodhouse. Her sister Lottie is basically Lydia Bennet. While Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite classics, I never really cared for Emma which is why I am surprised to find I enjoyed reading Wedding Night so much.

Kinsella has a truly remarkable ability to make me like characters I normally wouldn't. For example, Lottie is so desperate to get married and is so in love with the idea of marriage that she is blinded to what's actually important in life. Normally, I strongly dislike characters (and people in real life) like Lottie. They are vapid and are only concerned with appearances. However, Kinsella makes Lottie so unbelievably human and relatable that I couldn't help but see her side of the story. The "Unfortunate Choices" (planning to get a Masters degree, getting a tattoo, getting a drastic haircut, losing weight, reading more) Lottie makes after going through a breakup are so realistic. When something bad happens in our lives, and we feel like we have very little control over what's happening, it's natural to want to make a change. We're not happy with the way things are, so obviously we need a change. While I don't think I would ever go to the extreme of planning to marry someone without truly getting to know them first, like Lottie did, I can understand wanting to make a big change in your life to be happier. Lottie is a less annoying version of Lydia Bennet from Pride and Prejudice.

Another Jane Austen character I never particularly liked was Emma Woodhouse. I found her poking her nose into other people's business distasteful, and I couldn't believe Knightley saw anything in her. In Wedding Night, Fliss shares a lot in common with Emma. She is constantly interfering in her sister's life, even going so far as to try to ruin Lottie's honeymoon so as to convince her to get an annulment. It is exactly the type of heavy-handed, cringeworthy action Emma would take. By rights, that means I should dislike Fliss as well, but I found the exact opposite to be true. I found myself rationalizing Fliss's actions by saying to myself "she just wants her sister to be happy."  It took another character pointing out to Fliss that it was Lottie's life, not hers, for me to realize I was buying into the Fliss/Emma crazy logic. I have been in similar situation as Fliss where a friend of mine was thinking of getting back together with her horrible ex-boyfriend who was emotionally abusive to her and basically made her life miserable. It is sorely tempting to want to stop someone from making what you think to be a horrible mistake. While I never went to the lengths Fliss goes to, I can definitely see why she does what she does. I applaud Kinsella for being able to make me relate to Fliss, something I never had been able to do with Emma.

Besides the well-rounded characters, Wedding Night is also chockfull of the normal romantic comedy shenanigans, misunderstandings, and grand declarations of love. It is the type of story which will make you laugh, shake your head, yell at the characters for being so stupid, and then make you believe that maybe there truly is someone out there for everyone. I stayed up way past my bedtime reading the book yet at the same time I didn't want it to end.

Hello! Today is December 1st which means a) NaNoWriMo is officially over and b) the holidays will soon be upon us.

*cue music*

Rocking around the Christmas tree
Let the Christmas spirit ring
Later we'll have some pumpkin pie
and we'll do some caroling

You will get a sentimental feeling
When you hear, voices singing
"Let's be jolly; Deck the halls with boughs of holly"

I certainly have a good reason to be jolly because I won NaNo! That's right, I wrote 50,000 words of my novel Cursed in only one month!!!



While my book is only about halfway written at this point, I still am ecstatic to have met the goal I set for myself.

Now that I have finished NaNo, I thought I would share with you the four lessons I learned through participating in NaNo 2015.

Lesson #1: You do not need to write every day.

You have probably read writing advice which says YOU NEED TO WRITE EVERY DAY (in all caps just like that too). This writing advice is well intentioned. It is important to set aside time for your writing; however, saying you need to write every day can also cause you to feel guilty when you don't write.

I didn't write every day in November. In fact, there was an entire week of NaNo when I didn't write a single word. My grandmother passed away at the beginning of NaNo, and I was a complete wreck. I needed time to grieve, so I gave it to myself.

Even though I lost a week of writing, I was still able to meet my goal of writing 50,000 words in one month. I simply put in 4k writing days for the last week or so of November.

Write when you have time. You will enjoy it so much more than when you stress yourself out trying to squeeze in writing sessions every day.  Because, let's face it, some days you have a lot of fires to put out in your life.

Lesson #2: Let your first draft suck.

Turning off your inner editor as you write can be a beastly task. As writers, we often love to waste several minutes trying to find exactly the right word or spend an entire day rewriting a chapter because we aren't satisfied with it. If people are going to read your book (hopefully lots of people), you want it to be the best it can be. While this is an admirable goal, you can't think this way when writing your first draft of a book. Save that mindset for when you've actually finished the book and are ready to go back to edit and revise.

I have to admit, I am still learning to let my first draft suck. (I seriously need to make this phrase into a poster and hang it up in my room.) At the beginning of NaNo, I spent way too much time reading over the chapters I had written and revising them. I could feel myself slipping into a revision loop. Read, revise, edit, read, revise, edit, read, revise, edit, and so on and so forth. Needless to say, at the rate I was going, I wouldn't hit 50k by the end of November. So, I stopped reading my past chapters and focused on keeping the story going. This was a big step for me as I am notorious for never finishing the stories I write, often because I have trapped myself in a revision loop.

Lesson #3: Small goals are more manageable.

When you are working on a big project, break it down into smaller parts. It is something I teach my students and something I'm sure many of you have heard before.

When I realized I had to write 4,000 words a day for the last week of NaNo in order to reach my goal by the end of November, I honestly didn't know if I would be able to do it. I am a slow writer and am not used to writing more than 1,000 words a day. The idea of writing 4,000 words in one day was pretty intimidating. So, I decided to break the 4,000 words into 500 word chunks. I concentrated on writing 500 words. Once I wrote 500 words, I started writing toward the next 500 words. I kept repeating the process, with some breaks sprinkled throughout, until I reached 4,000 words. I wholeheartedly believe that I was able to win NaNo because I decided to break my larger goals down into smaller goals.

Lesson #4: Don't put yourself down. Own your writing.

Every writer suffers from self-doubt. There are days you feel like a genius, and there are days you feel like a fraud. When you're trying to write 50,000 words in a month, most days you feel like a fraud. Or, at least I did.

When I told my friends and family I was participating in NaNo, I told them I was doing it "just for fun." I was too scared to admit that writing is anything more than a hobby to me. I didn't want them to think I was writing seriously because that would imply that I thought I was talented enough to become a published author. I am a realistic daydreamer. While I like to think about what it would be like to one day be an author, I know that the odds are stacked against me. It is extremely difficult to get published. When I was trying to decide on a major in college, I never once considered a degree in creative writing because I knew it wasn't practical. I wasn't brave enough to pursue a degree which didn't promise a good job outlook.

Once I told people I was writing a 50,000+ word novel in a month, a lot of them asked "When can I read it?" or "What's it about?" I would rattle off my story synopsis, and they'd say, "That sounds so interesting! I want to read it when you're finished." I'd usually then make some self-deprecating remark. I would downplay my writing, tell them the story probably wasn't going to be very good, that I was only writing it for fun. At the time, I told myself I was being humble, but the truth is that I am terrible at taking compliments.

So, my advice to you, fellow writers, is to own your writing. Don't tell people you are an "aspiring writer." If you write, you are a writer. When people ask you about your writing, don't belittle your work. Have confidence in yourself and your writing.



Though the past month has been crazy, I am so glad I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. I learned so much about writing and about myself.




Did you participate in NaNoWriMo? How did it go for you? Did you learn anything? Feel free to reflect on your experience in the comments below.

Reflection is the only way we grow. It's also a killer Disney song. Hit it, Mulan!