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I could honestly read stories about the same cute idiots falling in love in 1000 different universes, 1000 different scenarios, 1000 different times, 1000 different ways and never get tired of it.

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Where did you last see it?

Writer’s Block

In one sentence is the spark of a story. Ignite. Mission: Write a story, a description, a poem, a metaphor, a commentary, or a memory about this sentence. Write something about this sentence. Be sure to tag writeworld in your block!

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My thoughts on 'City of Bones' by Cassandra Clare

I have been having real difficulty articulating my feelings towards this book (and what I have read of the series as a whole). On the one hand, I really do like the world Clare has created and I have been sucked in, but on the other, I do find problems with the text. I know that every book has its flaws, but there are a few that really do bug me.

So here is my kind-of-review for this book. Although mostly a critique but hopefully I've explained myself. 

I’ll start with some nice stuff. Some of the lines did make we laugh – there’s some witty dialogue between the characters, which I enjoyed. I am happy that Jace wasn’t as angsty as I thought he would be (I had read Clockwork Angel first and heard that Will was similar to him) which was nice.  I liked Jace, in spite of some inconsistencies with him. He was a dick, but there are plenty of guys out there who are like him at that age: reckless, arrogant and too pretty for their own good. He wasn’t too much of a dick either. I liked Magnus. He was sassy and glittery. I also quite liked Isabelle, even though there wasn’t much to her. I liked how she was a badass fighter but still liked dresses and high heels and even managed to use those heels in battle. Clary really hated her. However: I do feel that I like a lot of the characters. I like them, but nothing more than that, which is a shame.

Quite often, Clare tried to foreshadow (or hint at things) but I often found myself cringing at how much she tried to beat the audience over the heads with it instead of weaving it in subtly. Leaving people with half sentences of things they’re ‘not supposed to say’ or give away part of a secret just wouldn’t happen and is so obvious that I feel as if I’m being treated like an idiot and need everything spelt out for me. I’ll also point out that first scene when Clary finds out about Jace’s past. Who would tell someone you barely know all of that and why would you? Info-dump is a bad thing.

Having known that TMI was originally a Harry Potter fanfiction also made the characters they were originally based on so much easier to spot. Red-headed, fiery Clary is Ginny. Angsty, snarky blond with daddy issues Jace is Malfoy. The Inquisitor – the high inquisitor Umbrige. Luke the werewolf is Lupin. I even thought to myself that Magnus was a camp, young Dumbledore and laughed when Clare directly compared them in one scene. Oh and Valentine is Voldemort- even down to his high school group of followers. As a fanfiction reader, I don’t see anything wrong with fanfiction but now I notice it, it kind of distracts me now.

Also because this is bothering me: what type of blond is Jace? Is he white blond or a brassy blond? In the same page she’s referred to them as white gold and brassy blond, so I have no idea. Oh and golden as well. Often. 

I’m sorry for another thing but Clare also needs to stop using the same words and description over and over again. Every time anyone passes out or dies, they crumple to the ground. She even used one particular phrasing (it’s completely slipped my mind) to describe her hands and then someone’s shoulders in the space of three pages. Oh and Clare needs to stop using similes. We get what sharp means. Oh and I’m pretty sure she said that an apple tasted ‘green’ once.

I really wish I could say some more positive things about this book and the series as a whole. I know how much work it takes to put a book together and as a fanfiction lover, I would love to cite this to people as an example of how good fanfiction can be.  But alas, I’ll have to wait for the next one to come along.

-

Since starting this review, I will be honest and say that I gobbled up the rest of the series. I will also say that in spite of all the flaws I’ve mentioned before this point and for the others I found in the subsequent books, I did enjoy them. I enjoyed the world and how they all interacted in them – and they also didn’t take too long to read. I finished City of Glass in about 3 days (only really reading on the tube on the way to and from work) so they were great just to pass the time. I’ve found that I need to read lighter books on the tube and I’m definitely on a YA kick (add me as a friend on goodreads and you’ll see just how much of a YA kick I’ve been on) but I’ve had fun with it. I’ve sort of gone backwards – as a teenager I refused to read YA books as I wanted to read all the classics and adult fiction – but now as an adult, I want to read all the YA books.  Go figure. 

Anyway, if anyone has any answers to my questions, please do let me know. Sorry for being so negative.

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Writing a series takes a lot of hard work and dedication. In fact, writing a SINGLE book takes hard work and dedication. However, if you’re planning a series there are a few things you need to keep in mind. A series should not be thought of as one really long novel that...

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I've been wondering how I could expand the content on this blog and this is something I thought I would try. I am going to start mentioning a few recipes that I've liked!

Some people out there might find it useful and I'd love to hear any recommendations from anyone else. So I'll start with this one: the basic chocolate chip cookie. 

I've tried a few different recipes to make chocolate chip cookies, but I must admit - this is my favourite. It's easy and the cookies come out nice and big and gorgeous. The recipe calls for a lot more chocolate chips than I tend to add -  I've put in 1/3 of the amount before and they've still come out chocolatey enough. In fact, these cookies rarely last longer than the evening in my house! I've been making these for about 3/4 years now, so it's pretty reliable...

If anyone comes across this and tries it out, please let me know what you think of it!

(Besides, this might be a good way for me to keep a hold of any recipes. My computer went funny a year ago and I lost an oreo cake recipe that I loved so much. I still miss it.)

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Another one of my book reviews. I really should branch out and have a go at getting book reviews published elsewhere. But until then, I'll keep sharing what I have.

It's quite fitting, posting this today. It just got nominated for a Guardian book award...

I should also mention: I mentioned the author when I tweeted about this review and she retweeted it. It was a proud moment. 

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I'm back with another book review!

I am thinking of doing these sorts of book reviews for all the books I read. Even if they don't go up on the website.

So this is my book review of Hilary Mantel's novel, Bring Up the Bodies. This is one of my longer reviews, so that was a surprise for me. 

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TLM Book Club

I should have updated this a couple of weeks ago, but it slipped my mind. 

I wrote another book for The London Magazine's Book Club!

This time, it was on The Kingmakers Daughter by Phillippa Gregory.

If you want to check out the review, just click here.

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I actually have something to contribute to this blog!

I work for a literary magazine and we've recently set up a 'Book Club' Section. Ideally, we're planning to update this weekly, but we're a very small office so this may prove rather difficult. 

Anyway, this is my first book review for the book club. It's on Kat Zhang's novel, What's Left of Me. I would highly recommend it. 

Click here if you want to check it out. 

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Once again, I have left this blog rather bereft.

I am back just to see if my new username works. I've changed it to match with my Twitter one. 

Productive of me, right?

Currently reading Catcher in the Rye for the first time. May have got that mixed up with Lord of the Flies and spent quite a while wondering when he would get on an island. Bad, I know, but I never studied any of those books at school. I haven't read To Kill A Mockingbird either. It's awful, which is why I am now trying to rectify that situation.

If anyone was interested- one of the books we studied was Heroes by Robert Cormier. Ironically, it is the only Robert Cormier book that I haven't enjoyed and Cormier is one of my favourite authors.

I don't think I've really discovered the proper use of this blog yet. I don't do enough creative writing (that I'd also want to share online) to keep it up to date that way. I never really get round to writing any reviews on the numerous books I read. I only seem to come on here to rant. Would that be okay? To write some sort of life-musings? 

I'd like to write some of my thoughts about TV shows too. A bit of meta perhaps, and comparisons to structure. 

Perhaps this will be the next step for this blog.

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(as appropriated from this page)

Write regularly, whether you feel like writing or not, and whether you think what you’re writing is any good or not.

Give yourself short assignments. Keep it manageable so you don’t get overwhelmed.

Write shitty first…

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With that, you’ll get six issues of the magazine throughout the year. It’s filled with fantastic poetry, short stories, essays reviews and more.

You also get full access to the entire magazine online, as well as online access to past issues dating back to February-March 2010 (we’ll be adding more past issues soon). This includes the issue I was talking about the other day.

Do you know anyone who has a passion for literature and the arts? It would be an amazing gift, if you don’t fancy it yourself. 

This is a picture of the front cover of the latest issue. We ship worldwide (£35 for inside the European Union and £46 for elsewhere…)

If you think any of your followers would be interested in this, please reblog this and share this wonderful offer. 

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Just realised. 

I want to do this project called 100K in 100 days. 

And I want to do most of that on screenwriting. 

Which means about 1,000 pages of script. 

Oh god.

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Writing Confession 9

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Some of my reflections about NaNoWriMo this year. Sorry, I will stop banging on about NaNo soon. It's the last day, so I will probably stop after a few days. 

I may also start trying to write on here more. Perhaps mention the next book I start reading. 

I miss reading. Haven't read a book during NaNoWriMo. Anyway, I will stop rambling.

Read more for some reflections about NaNoWriMo so far.

So. I have come to the end of the road. The last day. 30 days of pain, where everyday my mind is consumed with this novel. Where my days have pretty much become- go to work, write on the tube on the way in, come home (writing on the tube on the way back), getting home, eating, writing the rest of my wordcount, counting it up and then going to bed.

  I haven’t met up with people for ages because of it. I called my dad the other day and he asked about NaNoWriMo (the only parent who has really understood it and let me rant and seems genuinely amazed about the whole thing) and asked when I was getting my life back.

  So, in this last day, I am feeling rather nostalgic.

  I couldn’t recommend NaNoWriMo more though. I am going to write a little about why.

  I procrastinate. I procrastinate hard. I procrastinate on my procrastination.

That’s why I’ve really loved NaNo. It’s forced me to write, even when I have no inspiration. When I feel like everything I’ve written is completely shit, that it’s all boring and uninspired. Because at least it means that I’ve written something. I have scenes in my head that have been there for ages- but have never transferred onto paper. This month I’ve had to do it. I’ve had to make up utter crap, written scenes I’ve been terrified to do, without abandon, without judgement (at least not much) all with the hopes that I’ll go back and edit it later.

  This is pretty much the perfect solution to my whole lack-of-writing thing.

  I didn’t feel ready when I started NaNo. I didn’t think that the plot was ready, that I had my characters properly, but by writing it, I’ve forced myself to be ready. If I have a scene I want to write, but have no lead up to, I’ve written it. I have a really random scene in the middle somewhere where my character almost drowns- I have no build up to it yet. But I’ll come back to that, I’ll edit later. Maybe I’ll even take it out. I can’t stress about that now.

  Instead, I just wrote. I will probably hate most of it in the New Year when I edit it, but that doesn’t matter. Let future-me worry about that, I tell myself everyday. December I am going to take a breather and I will re-read the novel in the new year where it will hopefully feel like a brand new novel. As terrible as it will be.

  But at least I’ve done it. I have a skeleton. I have plot points. I have characters and scenes… lines that may stick around until the end. I can see it all so much more clearly, it’s not all a blurry half-dream, its real words on a page. I’ve written it, as poor as it is.

  So yeah. I am not entirely sure what the point of this little convo here, just that… well. I’d recommend NaNoWriMo wholeheartedly. It’s been a fantastic experience. Even if you feel like you don’t have the time, make a smaller deadline. Write wherever you can. I’ve learnt how to write standing up on a very busy tube (doesn’t mean I enjoy it and my handwriting suffered immensely). I could have perhaps pushed past writing block and written more each day, but I got a bit lazy after I really pushed it at the beginning with a minimum of 2,000 words a day. If I didn’t do that at the beginning, I wouldn’t be in the position that I am in at the moment.

  Only 3,000 words to go.

  I will get there. I will force myself to cross the finishing line when I get home from work.

  And yes, I have written this at work. On the work computer. What? Sue me. I’m waiting for responses to emails etc. Perhaps I should use this time to write this last bit of wordcount, but that means writing by hand and I could probably not get away with

that as well as typing.

  And well, I am lazy.

  Anyway, I will probably write another post once I’ve finished writing. At least, that’s what I am telling myself. If I don’t reappear, it means I am in a mad rush to write any old crap just to finish the wordcount.

  Fortunately, I’ve found that when I put together my family (they’ve all been separated for the majority of the novel) that they get rather chatty. Particularly my youngest. So I am hoping that the rest of todays writing will go nicely and I will be back to you all in like 9 hours having crossed the finish line.

  Bring the vodka. I would have said champagne, but I don’t really drink the stuff.

  Also, I haven’t really re-read this. May come back to it later, but I better go back to work…

  I will write something else about NaNoWriMo later!

    Jess

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I keep on trying to sign up for that NaNoWriMo website and each time I click the sign up button, it keeps saying that I need to accept the terms and conditions event though I have already checked the box. How on earth do I sign up for it?

Hi Anon! :)

Erm, I'm not sure why you're having that problem. I signed up for the website about 5 years ago, so I can't really remember the process too well. 

I am just looking at the website now- is everything in the above spaces filled in? Perhaps someone else already has the username you're trying to use?

Also, just to check, you know that NaNoWriMo ends in a few days? I think that camp NaNoWriMo starts in July, but until then, the site won't really have anything going on. It's a little late to sign up... I assume that you can still sign up for an account though. 

Either way, good luck and I'm glad that you're checking it out at least- are you going to start planning for next year? NaNoWriMo is a brilliant experience, I hope that you will enjoy it! <3