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March Reading Wrap Up

NEW BLOG POST | March Reading Wrap Up! #reading #books #tbrpile

I can’t believe it’s April already! I’ve been reading a real range of books in March, and I can’t wait to talk about my TBR for April! The first book I read in March was Now I Rise by Kiersten White. It’s the second in the Conqueror’s Trilogy – a retelling of Vlad the Impaler, but with Vlad as a girl. I raved about the first in the series last month, and the second was even better! The scope of…

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What Is A Writing Workshop?

NEW BLOG POST: What Is A Writing Workshop? #writing #editing #workshop

I’ve been tutoring students for quite a few years now, and something I always have to explain to them is the concept of a writing workshop. It’s something I was introduced to at university, and it’s the best way of getting support and feedback on your work. How does it work? You get roughly six people (you can do workshop with more, but it does take longer to cycle round that way) together, all…

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My Favourite Bookish Heroines

NEW BLOG POST: To celebrate #IWD2018 I've written all about my favourite YA heroines!

Happy International Women’s Day! To celebrate, I’m selecting some of my favourite book heroines that I have ever read. Ever! (Making this shortlist was haaaaaaaard…) Hermione Granger. I’m going straight in there with Harry Potter. Hermione was the first heroine I read that made me think ‘that character is just like me!’. I’m a bookish nerd, who hung out mostly with boys, getting eternally…

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How To Edit A First Draft

NEW BLOG POST: How To Edit A First Draft! #writing #editing #firstdraft

If any of you are in the same position as me, you have a first draft written. It’s been sat in the corner for a few months, stewing and maturing, and it’s finally time to look at it again. Except you have no idea what to do with this draft in front of you. How do you begin editing such a behemoth? Here are five easy steps to get you started on your editing journey: Read your novel from a…

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February Reading Round Up!

NEW BLOG POST: My February Reading Round Up! #reading #amreading #books #booklove

It’s that time of the month again, and time for another round-up of what I’ve been reading! This month I’m just going to split my reads into fiction, non-fiction, and audio, as I’ve only done one re-read this month (I know! What’s happened??). Fiction! Firstly, I was reading History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera. I was continuing this as I started it in January and… I DNF’d. This really…

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JANUARY: Reading Round Up

NEW BLOG POST: January Reading Round Up!

I’m going to try and do a Reading Round Up every month this year, to better log the books I’ve read. I’ve made it a New Year goal to read more of my TBR, so I thought a blog post commitment as well would help motor through my epic TBR! And I’ve read so many books this month! I’ve loved rediscovering old favourites, finally getting round to books I’ve been meaning to read for MONTHS, and I’ve even…

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Writing Diaries: Hiatus, Much?

It’s been a weird few months, and I didn’t think when I uploaded my blog post back in November that I then wouldn’t be blogging again for two months. NaNoWriMo happened, and it went pretty well. I started December with the best of intentions… And then the NaNo fatigue got me.  I was so exhausted that even though I was really enjoying my story, I just had to stop. Then I got ill at the end of…

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The Writing Diaries: NaNoWriMo 2017!

NANOWRIMO 2017! | I'm taking on the writing challenge... #writing #nanowrimo #editing

Yes. I’m joining the madness, and I’m doing NaNoWriMo. For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it is a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. (Yes, this idea is utter madness. Yet somehow, it keeps pulling me back…) I’ve only ever managed to ‘win’ NaNoWriMo once. I was at uni – so I had the time – and yet what I produced was so awful I…

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I inhaled this book today and absolutely adored it. So honest it hurt and a fantastic take-down of awful romantic movie tropes to boot. @hollybourneya is an absolute queen and you should all go and read this IMMEDIATELY. 🎥 💛 #book #booklove #ukya #itonlyhappensinthemovies #hollybourne #ya #bookgram #bookstagram #bookphoto #bookphotography #bookaddict #booknerd #newbook #newbookalert #bookworm #bookish #bookaholic

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Just finished reading this cosy novel after picking it up in the library at work! WINDFALL is the story of two friends and how their lives change when they realise they have a winning lottery ticket... This was a really light, cute story with a lot of heart and I loved the way Al and Teddy's relationship changed as they deal with having become (supposedly) the luckiest teenagers in the world. • #book #amreading #reading #ya #teen #windfall #bookgram #bookstagram #bookphoto #booklove #bookworm #bookcover #youngadult #youngadultbooks #contemporary #currentlyreading #currentread #library #librarybook #loveyourlibrary

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Reading Yourself

READING YOURSELF | What to do on your first read-through! #writing #writingproblems #editing

It’s time. You’ve gone back to the first draft of your WIP. How on earth are you meant to approach the mountainous task before you – the first read-through? 1. Read out loud. This might seem like an odd thing to put first, but you simply have to read your work aloud. By reading aloud you can figure out where your sentences run away from you, or where the words just don’t quite sit right. And, if…

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The Writing Diaries: Second Draft Blues

THE WRITING DIARIES | Experiencing the Second Draft Blues? #writing #editing #writingproblems

Claws deep into my second draft, I’ve realised something I’d been pretending wasn’t a thing is, in fact, horribly true. On draft two, you basically have to start again. When I first began editing this, about a year ago, it was an exercise in writing down every tiny little thing that was wrong with my novel as I reread it – on top of the notes of terrible things I’d noticed while I was writing. I…

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I Finished My Novel... Now What?

I FINISHED MY NOVEL - NOW WHAT? | I'm back and blogging! #writing #firstdraft #writingproblems

It’s been a while… but I did it! A few weeks on retreat / holiday and I’ve finally finished the first draft of this book. I couldn’t have done it without Camp NaNoWriMo, and I couldn’t have done it without the help of my amazing sprints squad on twitter – they’re the reason this draft is done. So now I’ve got 75k sat there, waiting. What am I going to do? I’m going to put it in a drawer – a…

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Female Characters to Avoid in your Writing:  An Illustrated Guide.

1.  The Bella Swan (i.e. the blank sheet of paper)

Who she is:

In Twilight, Bella has absolutely no qualities that make her interesting as a character.  She’s shown to have very little personality, in the books or onscreen, and is only made “interesting” (a relative term here) via the inclusion of her sparkly, abusive boyfriend.  It feeds into the harmful mentality of adolescent girls that you need a significant other in order to find fulfillment, particularly if he’s significantly older and likes to watch you sleep.  Yikes.

Examples:

Bella is welcomed to school by a friendly, extroverted girl and given a place to sit amongst her and her friends.  Despite this girl’s kindness, Bella shrugs her off as a stereotypical shallow cheerleader, and spends her time staring wistfully at the guy across the cafeteria from them.  Once Edward becomes her official boyfriend, she immediately loses interest in her new friends as her life shifts its orbit to revolve completely around him. 

How to avoid her:

Female characters are allowed to have lives outside of their significant others.  They’re allowed to have friends, quirks, hobbies, and interests.  Give them some. 

The best fictional relationships are based off of characters who compliment each other, not one character who revolves around the other.  Make sure your female character’s life does not centralize around her significant other.

Strong female characters don’t look down on other girls, even if they are outgoing cheerleaders.  Being pasty and introverted doesn’t make you a better person, y’all – if it did, I’d be a decorated hero by now.

Give them aspirations besides getting an obsessive, much-older boyfriend.  In fact, don’t give them an obsessive, much-older boyfriend at all – if you do want them to have a significant other, give them one who cares about their interests and accepts that they have lives and goals outside of them.

2.  The Molly Hooper (i.e. the starry-eyed punching bag)

Who she is:

 Like most things about BBC’s Sherlock, Molly was an amazing concept that went progressively downhill.  I used to love her quiet tenacity and emotional intelligence, and was sure that with her strong basis as a character, she would overcome her infatuation with the titular Sherlock and find self-fulfillment.  Nope!

Examples: 

She remained stubbornly infatuated over the course of five years with an ambiguously gay man who, en large, treated her badly, leading to her public humiliation with zero pertinence to the plot or resolution.  Moreover, her infatuation with Sherlock quickly usurped almost all of her other characteristics, leading her to an increasingly immature characterization that was difficult to relate to.

How to avoid her:

By all means, please write female characters who are quiet, kind, and unassuming (a female character does not, contrary to popular belief, need to be rambunctious, callous, or violent to be “strong��) but remember than none of these traits need to make the character a pushover.  Let them stand their ground.

Similarly, attraction to men (or anyone, for that matter) does not invalidate a female character’s strength.  Just be sure she values herself more than their attention.

As I said earlier, don’t be afraid to make characters who are gentle and soft-spoken, but be wary of making them “childlike,” or giving them an infantile, emotionally characterization.

My best advice for writing gentle, soft-spoken, unassuming women would actually to look to male characters in the media fitting this description; since male characters are rarely infantilized as much as women are by popular media, you’ll get a much better idea of what a well-rounded character looks like. 

3.  The Irene Adler (i.e. the defanged badass)  

Who she is: 

Yup, another one of the BBC Sherlock women, among whom only Mrs. Hudson seemed to come through with her dignity and characterization intact.  In the books, Irene and Sherlock have absolutely zero romantic connotations, only bonded via Sherlock’s irritation and respect with her substantial intelligence.  In the show, it’s a different story entirely. 

Examples:  

Irene is a badass character who’s turned into a teary-eyed Damsel in Distress via her uncontrollable love for the show’s male lead.  It doesn’t help matters that she’s a self-proclaimed lesbian who falls in love with a man, which, unless you’re a woman who loves women yourself and writing about a character realizing she’s bi/pansexual, I would recommend against doing under any circumstances.  She ends up being defeated and subsequently rescued by Sherlock – a far cry from her defeat of him in the books. 

How to avoid her:

If you’re writing a badass female character, allow her to actually be badass, and allow her to actually show it throughout your work as opposed to just hearing other characters say it.  And one punch or kick isn’t enough, either:  I want to see this chick jump out of planes.

That said, “badass” does not equal emotionally callous.  It doesn’t bother me that Moffat showed Irene having feelings for someone else, what bothers me is how he went about it. 

When writing a character who’s shown to be attracted to more than one gender, just say she’s bisexual.  Pansexual.  Whatever, just don’t call her straight/gay depending on the situation she’s in.  Jesus.

4.  The Becky (i.e. the comedic rapist) 

Who she is: 

Most people who know me can vouch for my adoration of Supernatural, but it definitely has its problems:  it’s not as diverse as it could be, its treatment of women is subpar, and yes, there is some thinly veiled sexual violence:  all three of its leading characters have dealt with it at one point of another (Dean is routinely groped by female demons, a virginal Castiel was sexually taken advantage of by a disguised reaper, and the whole concept of sex under demonic possession is iffy to say the least.)  It’s rarely ever addressed afterwards, and is commonly used for comedic fodder.  Possibly the most quintessential example of this is Becky.

Examples: 

Becky abducts Sam, ties him to the bed, and kisses him against his will.  She then drugs him, albeit with a love potion, and is implied to have had sex with him under its influence. 

How to avoid her:

Male rape isn’t funny, y’all.  Media still takes rape against women a lot more seriously than rape against men, particularly female-on-male rape, and I can assure you its not.

Educate yourself on statistics for male sexual assault:  approximately thirty-eight percent of sexual violence survivors are male, for example, and approximately one in sixteen male college students has reported to have experienced sexual assault. 

Moreover, be aware that forty-six percent of all instances of male rape have a female perpetrator.

Read more here in this amazing article: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/04/male_rape_in_america_a_new_study_reveals_that_men_are_sexually_assaulted.html

In other words, treat themes of sexual assault against men as seriously as you would treat themes of sexual assault against women.       

5.  The Movie Hermione (i.e. the flawless superhuman) 

Who she is: 

Okay, in and of herself, Movie Hermione is amazing:  she’s beautiful, intelligent, and heroic, as well as possibly the most useful character of the franchise.  She only bothers me in context of the fact that she takes away everything I loved most about Book Hermoine, and everything I loved about Book Ron, too.   

Examples: 

Book Hermione was beautiful, but not conventionally:  she had big, poofy curls, big teeth, and didn’t put a lot of effort into maintaining her appearance.  Movie Hermione looks effortlessly flawless, all the time.  Book Hermione was intelligent, but also loud, abrasive, and unintentionally annoying when talking about her interests (which meant a lot to me, because as a kid on the Asperger’s spectrum, I frequently was/am that way myself – it was nice to see a character struggling with the same traits).  She was also allowed to have flaws, such as struggling to keep up with academia, and being terrified of failure.  

Movie Hermione also took all of Ron’s redeeming qualities, and everything that made him compliment her as a couple:  his street smarts used to compliment her academic intelligence, for example, staying calm while she panicked in the Philosopher’s Stone when they were being overcome with vines.  He also stood up for her in the books against Snape, as opposed to the jerkish “he’s right, you know.”     

How to avoid her:

Allow your female characters to have flaws, as much so as any well-rounded male character.  Just be sure to counterbalance them with a suitable amount of redeeming qualities.  This will make your female character well-rounded, dynamic, and easy to get invested in.

There’s no reason for your female characters to always look perfect.  Sure, they can be stunningly gorgeous (particularly if their appearance is important to them), but it’s physical imperfections that make characters fun to imagine:  Harry’s scar and wild hair, for example.  Female characters are no different. 

If you’re writing a female character to have an eventual love interest, allow their personalities to compliment one another.  Allow the love interest to have qualities that the female character is lacking, so that they can compliment one another and have better chemistry. 

Basically, write your female characters as people. 

Check out my list of male characters to avoid here:   https://thecaffeinebookwarrior.tumblr.com/post/161184030785/male-protagonists-to-avoid-in-your-writing-an.

God willing, I will be publishing essays like this approximately every Friday, so be sure to follow my blog and stay tuned for future writing advice and observations!

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Happy #BookLoversDay ! Yesterday I read and loved this beautiful book from#zoellabookclub - The Start Of Me And You by @emerylord . It's such a wonderfully written story and, while I don't read a lot of contemporary, I love Emery Lord's writing. I loved When We Collided and knew I was in for a treat when I picked up this one. Highly recommend you all read this! Perfect holiday read ☺️ 💕 #bookgram #bookstagram #bookaddict #booklove #currentlyreading #amreading #tbr #reading #bookphoto #bookphotography #ya #summer #summerread #contemporary #bookworm #bookcover #thestartofmeandyou #zoellaandfriends #bookclub

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Tips for a Successful YALC!

TOP TIPS FOR YALC | Going to @yalc_uk for the first time? Herein lies wisdom... #YALC #blog

I am SO EXCITED for this Friday, which is the first day of YALC – the Young Adult Literature Convention at LFCC in London. It’s three days of books and authors and panels and signing queues and nerding out. It’s like my own personal heaven. And this year I am super excited because this is the first year when I’m not going by myself! While I don’t mind going alone, I am so much more excited that…

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Every now and again in my bullet journal, I let myself doodle whatever comes to mind. Today, it appears that Wuthering Heights is on my mind! 🖤 I'm going to take that as a sign to re-read Wuthering Heights again sooner rather than later - it's one of my all-time favourite books! What are your favourite books or classics that you return to time and again? #booklove #drawing #sketching #freehand #doodling #bulletjournal #bulletjournalling #bulletjournaladdict #bulletjournaling #bulletjournalinspiration #bujospread #bujodoodles #wutheringheights #bronte #emilybronte #moors #cathy #heathcliff #love #bookaddict #bookquote #quote #quoteoftheday