Plot Number One, 2011 Style

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This post officially kicks off my NaNo posting extravaganza!

For all the work I’ve done, I still feel a little behind with my planning.  My idea is as formed as it’ll ever be. 

What is plot 1, you ask? 

It’s about a girl, Poppy, who discovers she’s a mermaid, and it goes terribly wrong.  Originally, I was going to have her die, but now I’m not so sure.  My novel is based on the whole idea that she dies, and I don’t really feel like changing it.  But for now, she dies.   

I had a list of potential creatures, and mermaids were the one group that really jumped out at me.  Plus, I loved the stories!  My favorite one is from One Thousand And One Arabian Nights, where mermaids are anatomically identical to humans, and their children are able to breathe and live underwater.  I found that was the one I could work with the most, and while I don’t have my own mythology for mermaids, and Poppy’s own origin story, I have an idea of what I want to do.

I like the idea of her dad being stationed in the Middle East and meeting her mom.  I have no idea how he’ll end up with her, but he’ll end up with her somehow- her mysteriously showing up at his doorstep seems cliché but I’m working on an inkling.   

As for my own mermaid mythology, mermaids definitely have their own underwater world, with underwater cities all over the world.  I don’t have anything further than that, or how she knows she’s a mermaid.  Or how the child of a human and a mermaid would look.  I mean, what happens when she takes a bath, or otherwise goes into water?  Besides the fact that she’d be a good swimmer- which would be a cliché thing to include- it might be hilarious for her to be afraid of the ocean, and either can’t swim or is really bad at it. 

Actually, that could be a sign that something is wrong with her mermaid side. 

I think for now, her tail could be something that starts to appear when she reaches 16, and only appears when she goes into the ocean, or some other body of water, but not when she’s in a pool or taking a bath. 

One of the big questions is how being a mermaid could kill her.  There are a couple things I settled on.  One- being half-mermaid, she’s really connected to nature.  Pollution is really bad, but for someone so connected to nature, it’s even more toxic, and the more she breathes in polluted air and all that, the more of an effect it has on her.  Being in an underwater city would definitely help her, and while the merfolk in these cities feel some effects, it’s not as bad as it would be if they were living on land like Poppy is.  And with all the processed food, and food recalls, it would not be a good thing for a mermaid.  Two- Something about the human side doesn’t react well with the mermaid side of her, and when combined with pollution and processed foods and everything…it’s disastrous and potentially lethal. 

I did get an interesting idea from Fablehaven that I really want to include.  Oh, and an idea I got from someone in my writer’s group, since they go pretty well together.  First, the Fablehaven inspiration.  There are magical sanctuaries all over the world, where all kinds of magical creatures and being go when their natural environment disappears.  And the idea from my writing group is this: a magical council, who decides on things like a common language for all magical creatures and who can be let in on all the secrets.  I might include some sort of registration system.  I do like someone who knows her- a teacher or neighbor- being on the magical council and suspecting that she’s a mermaid, and keeps asking her questions.  On a related note to how being a mermaid could kill her- if she had known about this magical council, they might have been able to save her.     

Character-wise, I have Poppy and Jordan.  And Poppy’s mom and dad, but I don’t know anything about them yet.  I’ll probably through in a couple friends, a couple neighbors, and maybe a teacher and a few others.  At this point, it’s too late to do complete profiles on everyone, but I only need profiles for her parents, the 2 friends, and the person who suspects she’s a mermaid.  Everyone else, I just need names for. 

Tomorrow’s post will be the novel’s soundtrack plus some other things that I’ll be listening to while I’m writing.

Thoughts on Books

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I’ve read a lot this year- an amazing 98 books.  I’ll definitely hit 100 next month- if I read anyway, which I probably will.  Knowing me, and my obsessively large (495 books and counting) to-read list, I’ll definitely read some number over 100.  I need to start making a dent in that to-read list after all.

A majority of the books I’ve read this year can be classified as either children’s books or young adult books, and there’s something I’ve noticed.

Why does everything seem to have at least a sequel?!  Some books have had a sequel, others are a part of some sort of series.  Some of the “Adult” books I’ve read have been a part of series too, so it’s not just children/young adult arena that’s guilty of this.  But children/young adult being the largest genre I’ve read…that’s probably why I’m noticing it.

*Random, but very important note: From here on out, a series will refer to books that have at least 2 books in it.

How hard is it to come up with an idea that’s contained in one book?  Why is there a need to have so many series?  It’s really overwhelming, especially since a lot of them don’t seem to have some kind of numbering or ordering system.  Like, the Vampire Academy Series or the Pretty Little Liars series.  There doesn’t seem to be any indication on the covers as to which number in the series it is.  At least there’s a “here’s what’s coming next” at the end of each Pretty Little Liars book.  But since I’m requesting a lot of books from other libraries, I’m utterly clueless as to which book is first and second and so on.  I seriously need to have a list of the order right next to me.  Google and Wikipedia help, since I can google the series to figure out the order.  It’s really not that much work, but it’s still frustrating.

But back to why everything I’m reading seems to be part of a series.  Is it because series are just insanely popular, or is it the types of books I’m reading?  I am reading a lot of historical fiction/fantasy/historical fantasy and supernatural/paranormal books.  Do these genres lend themselves to being a part of a series or are young adult authors really unable to wrap up their story in a few hundred pages?  Some of the authors I’ve read or want to read seem to have multiple series.  It’s like their mind works in series, and not in something that stands alone.  A combination of all of these questions seem likely- a mix of reading certain genres, series being popular, storylines that can’t be wrapped up in one book, and quite possibly marketing.  Honestly, I don’t want to think about the role marketing has.

And why is there a lot of title: a novel?  Is adding a novel after the title necessary?  I think not, because I feel like I’m pretty good at figuring what is a novel and isn’t a novel.  Is it a way of distinguishing themselves from all the series out there?  Or is there some other reason?  I just don’t understand!

I think that’s enough ranting and raving for now…I’ll need to save up my ranting and raving energy for November, when I’ll need it the most!

I Like Everything!

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Seriously, there’s some good tv on right now.  Pan Am is growing me, and so is Person of Interest and Revenge.  House is going to be interesting, America’s Next Top Model is full of drama and I’m not sure about Terra Nova, since it’s really starting to remind me of Lost. 

I love Lost, but as Terra Nova goes on, it’s really starting to remind me of Lost.  I think it’s a combination of the Sixers (hello, the Others!), the mysterious runes on the rocks near the waterfalls and the fact that there is some mysterious purpose to Terra Nova.  You know, something besides the fact that they’re trying to save humanity by going back in time.

I’m getting to used to watching tv online, and it’s really not as bad as I thought.  There are ads, of course, but either way there’s going to be commercials.  I don’t really mind commercials since they’re good for bathroom and snack breaks. 

Going back to Person of Interest for a moment, it did give me some ideas for NaNo this year, so even t.v. can be provide inspiration. 

There’s not much else to talk about t.v. wise, so I’m off, and have a great day!

Breadcrumbs

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Book: Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

Pages: 313 (Hardcover)

A Review: Breadcrumbs is about Jack and Hazel, 2 best friends from Minnesota.  One day, Jack stops talking to Hazel, and she knows something is wrong.  His heart is frozen by the White Witch, and is taken to her palace in the woods.  Hazel goes looking for him, and finds that the forest is nothing like what she imagined.  When they come out, they are completely different than when they went in.

I really liked Breadcrumbs.  There was something very magical and enchanting about the book, and the first half of the book had a lot of references to Narnia and Hogwarts that I just loved. 

The ending felt a little rushed and ended more abruptly than I thought it would.  Quite honestly, I expected something a little better, especially since it was obvious that Ursu put a lot of thought into the rest of the book.  Ending aside, it was enjoyable, and I loved seeing Hazel’s quirks, insecurities, and her sense of wonder and awe.  It really is a lovely story of growing up and growing apart from friends. 

I loved Hazel, who is a very imaginative, smart girl who doesn’t fit in.  There was a certain innocence about her, and while she had to step out of the fairy-tale world she loves to save Jack, I hope it’s something she doesn’t lose. 

Rating: 4 out of 5.  I really liked it, and there’s certainly something very enchanting and lovely about this book.

A Very Happy Birthday

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Today is a very special birthday.  Not mine.  Nope.  Not my birthday.

It is the one year anniversary of my blog!  I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for a year.  When I started my blog a year ago, I had no idea where it would take me.  I was honestly planning to blog just during NaNo, but I liked it so much that I wanted to keep blogging.

I thought I’d share some of my favorite posts of the last year, in no particular order.

  • Of course, my very first post.  A year and 300+ posts later…I still can’t believe it!  Who knew I’d still be at this?
  • My first NaNo post makes the list.  After all, if it weren’t for NaNo and my ridiculous idea of wanting to chronicle 3 novels, I probably wouldn’t be here.
  • Another NaNo post, where I write about the things that randomly ended up in my novels.
  • And one more NaNo post, with hilarious typos.
  • Actually, this is the last NaNo post I’m going to have: a general wrap-up.
  • The 100 book challenge.  I  am a mere 2 books away, and I’m sure I’ll keep reading anyway.  I wonder how many I can read next year?
  • An open letter to my muse.  It’s entertaining.
  • My finger!  How could we forget about the time that I thought it would be a good idea to stick my finger in a vegetable slicer?  Goodness, I’m never doing that again!
  • Month one of Camp NaNo.  It’s my winning post.  And month 2 of Camp NaNo.
  • Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows was a pretty big event.  My feelings, Part One And Part Two, as well as Part One And Part Two of my movie review.
  • And my final favorite post, where I talk about getting into Pottermore.

There are so many other posts I wanted to share, but I think those mentioned above are my favorites.  I skimmed over a years worth of blog posts, and I talked more about writing than I thought I did.  Hopefully I can get back into that once I start talking about NaNo again.  It’s been fun, and I’m hoping that I’ll have another great year of blogging!

Whistling In The Dark

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Book: Whistling In The Dark: A Novel by Lesley Kagen

Pages: 320 (Paperback)

A Review: Whistling In The Dark is about Troo and Sally O’Malley, and their summer in Milwaukee in 1959.  Their mother is in the hospital, and are left in the care of their older sister Nell and their stepfather Hall.  The 2 girls, 9 year-old Troo and 10 year-old Sally, are left to their own devices as their sister cares more about her boyfriend and their stepfather turns to drinking.  While all of this is going on a murderer/child molester is on the loose.

It was just okay for me.  I found that Troo and Sally were very unbelievable as kids who are 9 and 10 respectively.  For most of the book, I completely forgot how old they really were.  They acted far older than the ages mentioned in the book- I kept thinking Sally was in her teens as opposed to being 10.  As for the other characters…well, the entire book for that matter…I found it all too unbelievable.  On one street, in 1959, you have a molester/murderer, a gay priest, teenage pregnancy, and 2 neglected children?  It is possible, but I don’t know…it’s like Kagen just threw all these random people onto one street.  The kids just didn’t seem like kids.  They seemed more like adults in kids bodies.  It was hard to believe that all of the secrets and events happened on one street in the span of 3 months or so.

And how did no one notice 2 girls who were running wild on the streets?  The way Sally narrated it, Troo and herself were rarely at home, even at night.  They seemed to stay with neighbors more often than not.  And 2 girls, who are 9 and 10 visited their mother once or twice in the 3 months or so their mom was in the hospital.  At the end of it, I wondered what the whole point of the novel was.  It moved too slow, and had too many characters and issues crammed into one book.

Another issue I had was all of the characters she introduced.  I’ll be honest, the murderer on the loose isn’t who I thought it was, and I didn’t see it coming.  So in that sense, it really was a mystery.  But it was hard to keep up with the characters, who weren’t really developed, except on a very superficial level.  I couldn’t relate to the other characters, and the number of times their race/ethnicity came up was annoying.

And the ending!  Everything wrapped up a little too nicely for my tastes.  It started to pick up a little at the end, but at that point, it was too late.  I just didn’t care what happened to the characters in the end.

Rating: The only reason why I am giving this book a 2 out of 5 is because a few of the characters could have been interesting had there been less of them.  And some of the issues that popped up could have been interesting and had more of an impact if there hadn’t been so many of them.

Podcast Awards!!!

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We all know how much I love podcasts.  And it’s time for the Podcast Awards.  It’s now time for voting, and I’ve been voting almost everyday since voting opened.  Some of the podcasts I listen to didn’t get nominated but some of the ones I do listen to got nominated so I guess it all balances out.

I’ve been voting for Cocktails and Creampuffs under People’s choice, Greetings From Nowhere under General, and The History Chicks under Education.  They’re some of my favorites, and I hope they win!

One if my (new) favorite podcasts is Kevin And Ursula Eat Cheap.  They eat, rate and talk about different processed foods each week, and it’s always entertaining.  The episode titles are great too- my favorite one so far is “it should be banished to the bowels of the earth.”  It makes me giggle.

I really like the Colonial Williamsburg Podcast too.  It’s a short podcast, about 10 to 15 minutes long, and each episode focuses on a different aspect of Colonial Williamsburg.  Recent episodes include Benjamin Franklin, Blacksmiths, and Spies At Jamestown.  It’s pretty interesting, especially for people who like American History.

Another favorite, which I’ve been listening to since June, is Weird News Radio.  It’s completely dedicated to all the weird news out there, and it’s a funny, disturbing, and sometimes gross head-scratcher.

I think that’s it for the podcast talk, and thanks for reading!

Can’t Wait For Once Upon A Time

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I’ve settled into my “tv watching schedule” now, and I’m really enjoying everything so far.  Once Upon A Time is being pretty heavily advertised, and I can’t wait!  Jennifer Morrison on House was okay, but I can’t really tell whether her character is similar to Dr Cameron or not.  I guess I’ll find out in a week-ish, when it premieres. 

I really liked NCIS this week.  We learned Abby was adopted, and she meets her biological brother.  It was nice learning more about her and her family, and I hope we learn more about them.  First a McGee-centric episode, then an Abby one!  I wonder who’s next…I hope it’s Ducky or Jimmy.

Everything is going okay, but I’m behind on Person of Interest and Revenge.  I’m positive I’ll catch up, since it’s only the last couple episodes for each one that I need to watch.  I have to say, this watching tv online thing is really interesting, and the great thing is that it’s not hard to catch up.  My problem is that I like to sit and watch it on a tv, and it’s a little hard sometimes getting myself to sit down and watch it.  I have no idea why, since I’m (essentially) watching it on some sort of screen.  But there’s this part of me that’s insistent tv should be on a tv, and not a computer.  I’m sure in a few months I’ll be raving about how amazing watching tv online is…or maybe not.  Who knows?

But I really like everything so far, and it’s keeping me entertained.  Go good tv!

City Of Bones

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Book: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Pages: 485 (Hardcover)

Review: City of Bones is about Clary Fray, who witnesses a strange murder at Pandemonium Club.  She can’t go to the police because the body disappears into thin air.  Her mother disappears and Clary is attacked by a demon, and needs the help of Shadowhunters in order to find her mother.

It’s a really interesting book, a mundane girl who can suddenly see demons and shadow hunters.  And there are some really interesting ideas, like the stele, and using runes to fight and all.  But that was really underdeveloped, since I wasn’t quite sure what a stele was at the end of the book.  And the runes thing was fully explained either.  The characters were okay, and Clary was likeable enough…but I didn’t find them particularly interesting.  There was something about them that fell a little flat for me.

The Jace and Clary are siblings storyline was a bit obvious, and his father turning out to be the evil Valentine was also a little obvious.  It was also reminiscent of Star Wars.  “Luke, I am your father.”  Sorry, I just had to go there.  The big revelations weren’t that surprising.

The writing was just okay.  It was fast-paced, and the action starts right off the bat.  There were times when I wished Clare had slowed down the pace and explained a few things a little more.  They might be explained in the other books in the series, but if they weren’t, I would not be surprised.

I did like the history of the Shadowhunters, and how they came to be.  Clare clearly put some thought into it, and I liked the world she created.  It’s interesting, and there are all kinds of creatures and groups.  It was hard to keep track of them, though, and who was good and bad.  But still, the idea that there’s a whole world that “regular” people, or mundanes as they’re called in the book, don’t know about.  People that they can’t see, and a country that they don’t know exists.

I enjoyed the book, but I don’t know if I want to finish the series.  I have a lot of other books I’d like to read, so it’s not high up on my priority list.

Rating: 3 out of 5.  I liked it, and I liked the concept but it wasn’t spectactular or anything.

Outlines

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Outlines.

I try really hard to avoid them.  I am more of a panster, and by all appearances, outlines and winging it don’t seem to go together.  But is it possible to find a balance between winging it, and having an outline?

I think so.  My problem is that I would want to outline EVERYTHING.  I just need to find the right balance between outlining and giving myself enough freedom to keep things interesting.

In other words, I need to have enough wiggle room to pants it.  A general structure, you know?  Outlines were always this mysterious thing that happens in the distant future after I’ve written a first draft.  How could I be expected to write an outline when I don’t know what I want to happen?  It would be easier to outline after the first draft, when I have a better idea of what I want to keep and discard.

But maybe a very vague outline wouldn’t be such a bad idea.  A general idea of things that should happen.

Like that’s actually going to happen.  I can barely get myself to settle on plots and work on my characters.  How the hell am I supposed to motivate myself to do even a vague outline?

But this year, I think I’ll have an outline of some sort.  For both novels!

The one I’m doing about the family who only sees each other at funerals?  I have quite a few narrators. I think I might have more narrators than funerals…or maybe it’s more funerals than narrators…either way, one has more than the other.  I definitely need to figure out who goes in what order or who will be narrating which funeral.  I’m leaning towards the second one.  It’ll be a lot easier to go through it if I have groups.  There doesn’t need to be a specific order for each group, but as long as I know who’s narrating which funeral, I think I’ll be good.

As for the fairie mermaid girl who dies, I was thinking about shifting between letters/journal entries and the present time.  So it doesn’t need an outline or anything, not really.  But I should probably give it some thought.  You know, the progression of letters and journal entries, and what’s going on with her while seeing what’s going on after she dies.  I just got an idea!  Her journal could be a parallel story!  We see what happens to her while she’s alive and we also see what’s going on in the wake of her death.  I’ll have to get working on that.

I’ll have everything ready to go by the 24th, because that’s when my 8 day NaNo posting extravaganza starts.  I’m off to bed so I can be all rested up for a day of planning.