Day 49: Life is (possibly) Under Control

Apparently I haven't blogged in over two weeks. Whoops.... I have a good excuse (two essays and the bothersome vocab test) but I still should have updated a little more frequently.

To that end, I think I'll start allowing myself to write some shorter posts from time to time. Often enough there are little topics I want to mention but they're really not important enough to expand into a five hundred word blog post, so they don't get written about at all. Also, when I force myself to write a lengthy post each time, I end up not blogging whenever I get busy... So, all that to say that you may get shorter posts more frequently. :)

At the moment I'm down in south-west Scotland, visiting Hannah again. We haven't done a whole lot, but tonight Hannah's hosting a fancy dress party (that's British for 'costume party') where everyone comes as one of their favourite fictional characters. It's also going to be a murder mystery... I'm going as Eowyn, despite the fact that I look nothing like her. She's just such an awesome character that I wasn't going to let my short dark hair stop me...

In other news, as the title of this post suggests, my busiest time of term has ended. I handed in my essays last Monday and wrote the vocab test on Thursday. I can't really relax, because other deadlines are coming up all too quickly, but I can ease out of panic mode.

If there's one thing the past few weeks have taught me, it's the importance of time management. I hadn't realized how much time I wasted every day just puttering around the house or on my computer. I'd get back home from rehearsal at 9pm and then spend the rest of the evening on facebook without even noticing. However, when crunch time came, I realized that the hour before bed could be used for doing half of my readings for the week, leaving the next morning much freer.

I want to start making time for people. Yes, I've been going to plenty of events, but whenever someone asked me to hang out I'd tell them I was too busy. I want to be able to get my school work done on time so I can actually invest in people's lives. Procrastination hasn't just been hurting me-- it's been ruining my ability to be a friend.

My half term goal, then, is to be more efficient in my work so that I can focus on relationships. I don't want to look back on this year and see all the times I pressed the snooze button rather than heading off to early morning prayer meeting, or the hours I scrolled through instagram rather than going for a walk with friends. I want this to be a year where I make connections, with friends, with professors, with God...  and I'm going to start by taking back my wasted time.

Summer Goals: An Update

So. About three weeks ago I wrote a lovely little post about my summer goals, full of optimism and hope for a productive summer. Now, over a quarter of the way into my vacation, it’s time to ‘fess up to what I haven’t accomplished… and maybe celebrate a little about what I have.

The most obvious goal I haven’t met is that I definitely haven’t been blogging twice a week. I’ve got a number of excuses (poor internet connection, over-enthusiastic inner editor, lack of time, etc….) but the fact remains that this is only the fourth blog post in three weeks, so I’m a few behind. I’ve decided to start publishing my backlog of book reviews twice a week, so at least that will be something, and I’ve got another couple ideas for posts on writing. Basically, I can almost guarantee that this blog will see more activity in the coming weeks.

Secondly, I definitely haven’t been writing as much as I wanted. For the first week, my 15-minutes-a-day goal worked wonderfully, but when Saturday hit and I was nowhere near my 5 hours for the week, discouragement hit and I haven’t written since. I definitely need to find a better way to get myself writing, since I have a few projects that I would love to work on. It’s just so difficult to get in the writing groove after coming home from work.

But, enough with the negativity. My PEI goals have been coming along nicely; I’ve already seen three shows and discovered an awesome beach I didn’t know existed. I’ve also visited several old favourite places of mine, like Canoe Cove beach, Brackley beach, and Avonlea village. The weather here has been wonderful recently, and I’ve spent a lot of time swimming and lying on sand pretending to tan.

Finally, my reading projects have been going well. I’ve finished three Shakespeare plays and am halfway through a fourth, (Coriolanus, Richard II,  A Winter’s Tale, and Henry IV) and I’ve read a number of YA novels (Entwined, Ophelia, The Power of Six, Looking for Alaska, Hate List, Never Have I Ever, Two Truths and a Lie, and Insignia). What’s wonderful is that I’ve really enjoyed all the novels I read and have found a few new favourites (which I’ll be blogging about soon).

In short, I’m feeling a little down that my writing goals haven’t really helped me to actually write, but everything else is going to plan. And, most of all, I’m enjoying my summer, and that’s what really counts. 

A Little Bit of News

First of all, I just wanted to explain why I posted a First Impression Friday post when it's actually a Tuesday. Basically, I forgot to post last Friday and Saturday, so now that I have internet on my laptop I'm going to schedule a whole bunch of posts. The School Suggestion post that should have been last Saturday will actually be posted on Thursday, I think.

The other bit of news is that, as far as I know, the Catch-Up-Readathon has been cancelled because we didn't get enough participants. I'm still up for reading as much as possible over those weeks, but I don't think it's fair to the authors to make them give away swag packs when we only have three participants.

I think that's all for now. I'm going to start scheduling some posts now so that you'll have something to read here, even when I'm away at camp.

Ash 2 Nash Virtual Book Tour

I just thought I should mention quickly... there's a pretty awesome contest going on at THIS blog. You can win signed books like Across the Universe, Hourglass, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Anna and the French Kiss and Between Shades of Gray. While I've only read one of those books I've heard good things about all the others and I thought that some of you might like to enter the contest or just buy some of the books yourselves. :)

New posting Schedule, and awesome new blog!

Since my old posting schedule hasn't been doing too well (mainly due to the fact that my laptop's internet has been spazzy over the past weeks) I've decided to start a new posting schedule that I might be able to keep up with better.

Monday- IMM (a list of the books I picked up that week, along with a short description of what the book's about and why I decided to read it.)
Wednesday- Book Reviews (self explanatory....)
Friday- First-impression Friday (I'll take a book and post its cover, the pitch and the first sentence/paragraph and talk about how the various elements either drew me into the story or turned me away.)
Saturday- School Suggestions Saturday (This is for anyone starting university who doesn't know what to expect, or someone who struggled in their first year or two at university, or highschool students who are just interested.)

I'll also probably do some random writing posts which will appear either on Tuesdays or Thursdays. The reason that I haven't scheduled these is that they take a fair amount of time and I don't want to feel pressured to write them on a specific schedule.

Oh, and please note that this schedule will probably change again whenever I head out to school. I'll be staring University for real so I'll be super busy and I'll be living away from home. I know it'll be awesome, but it also means that I won't have as much time for this blog.

Now, I need to tell you about another awesome blog you really should be reading. My good friend Alex, who goes to musical theatre classes with me and is a fellow Doctor Who, Narnia, and Lord of the Rings geek, has started up a blog called Triple Threat PhilosoGEEK. She talks about random things, from her favourite music, to incidents in her life, to short inspirational posts. All in all, Alex is a lovely person and her blog is certainly worth reading.

My first blog award!

 A huge thank you to Kelly of Ink and Green Tea for giving me the 'Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award.' I think what I'm supposed to do for this award is give seven facts about myself... let's see how this goes.


1- I just chose my courses for the fall in university, and they include one on fantasy and one on totalitarianism. I'm just that cool.

2- I've just decided to read 20 of Shakespeare's best-known plays over the summer. Supposedly, it's because I love Shakespeare. The real reason is because I'm trying to read a hundred books this year and Shakespeare is nice and short.

3- I'm really not Irresistibly Sweet at all. In fact, I'm probably a fair bit nicer online than I am in person.

4- I absolutely love Lord of the Rings and Doctor Who. Fantasy and Sci-fi for the win!

5-  In contrast to the previous fact, I have never read or watched Harry Potter, and I'm not a huge fan of Star Wars.

6- My novel, SIMULATE (formerly called The Web) is currently at 56k, but I haven't written in at least a week. *gasp!*

6- I am a total geek/nerd/super-cool-person, just so you know. :P

7- Yes, there were two '6' facts. But there are only seven facts because this one doesn't count.

June Review

Wow... I can't believe it's July already! Canada Day has come and gone and it's already the 4th. Happy Independence Day to all my American blogger friends! I spent the day out in town, watching Prince William and Kate arrive. It was so tiring, and I ended up standing for two hours before they arrived and didn't even get the best view, but it was still worth it. My first royal sighting! If you're interested, I have some pics on twitter: William close-up, Kate and William by Province House, Kate and William under an umbrella.

That's my interesting news. Now, since it's July, I'm going to do a quick June Review:

Followers: 63 (up from 53)

Pageviews: 2700 (Up from 1200, but a lot of these were google images searches)

Day with the most pageviews: June 12

Most viewed page: How to get Published 3: Revisions

Website that referred the most views: Google

Country with the most views: US with 1000 (Canada was next with 500)

This is kind of a big change from last month. Inkpop.com wasn't even on the list of top referring urls since I haven't been advertising there because they just redid the site. I really like the new look and the new top fives, but it's taking me a little while to get used to it. I plan to become active on the site again soon. It's just been a really busy summer so far.

And on that note, I owe all of you an apology. I've been super busy recently, what with starting a new job, and all the excitement over Canada Day and the royal visit, as well as working on my novel and trying to have some kind of social life, so I've really neglected my blog. This wasn't helped by the fact that I've just lost internet in my room, so now I have to post everything using my family's super slow computer. So, I'm sorry that I haven't been posting much, but I can't guarantee that things will get much better soon. I'll try to work out a new posting schedule that's a little bit more manageable.

P.S. I should point out that I'm just 37 followers away from my promised giveaway.... (and yes, you will get extra points for following early and for spreading the word about my blog even before the contest.) 

An Explanation

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to say sorry for not posting the past couple days. I've been really busy with the end of the first summer term, since it came at the same time as a lot of other random business, so I really didn't have time to post. Since it's now officially summer and I have nothing to do but work and write my novel (35K now, guys. Be proud of me!) I should be able to get back on track with this blog.

Upcoming series should include:
1- Help with beginning your novel
2- University tips (for those of you starting in the fall)
3- Anything you'd like. :)

See that last one there? If there's anything you'd like to see more of, be that writing tips or book reviews or updates on my WIP or just random posts about what happens on this wonderful little Island that I call home, then just leave a comment and I'll do my best to get to it.

New Posting Schedule and IMM

Since it's summer for me, and my posting has been so much more frequent already, I decided I might as well start a new schedule. Here it is: 


Sun- ------
Mon- IMM
Tues- Random writing tip
Wed- Spotlight on a Classic
Thurs- Book Review
Fri- -----
Sat- How to get published


And since today is a Monday, that means it's time for IMM. Nothing physically arrived in my mailbox this week, but I visited the library, and I have a friend who's lending me a book.

I actually just finished it last night. Let's just say that I have really mixed feeling about this book, and a really long review is coming soon. 

I'm currently reading this. It's a book on teen pregnancy, which is normally not the sort of thing I'd read, but it's based on the song Scarborough Fair, which I've always loved, so it intrigued me.

This is a sequel to a companion novel of Ender's Game, which, if you haven't read it already, you really should. Orson Scott Card writes extremely good Sci-Fi.

This is a mystery set in a remote part of Canada, both of which make me really hope it's good. I love mysteries, and stories set in Canada are more relateable to me. I've read some not so positive reviews for it, though, so I'm not sure if I'll care for it. 

Over to you... is there anything you'd like to see more of on my blog? Any books you'd like me to review, or writing issues I should address? Have you read any of the books IMM? And what's on your reading list this week?

Why Book Reviews are Useless (and how to make them less so)

This isn’t exactly a post on writing, but I thought it needed to be said, and I just finished my six-part series, so now’s the time for it.

I assume that all of you have a favourite book, or at least a book that you really, really like. I’m also guessing that you have some books you really dislike, ones you think aren’t worth reading and you can’t imagine how anyone could like it. For instance, I absolutely love The Hunger Games and I hated Shiver, and I really don’t get how anyone could dislike The Hunger Games or like Shiver. But lo and behold, if you go on Goodreads, they’ll be a lot of people who disagree with me.

On the whole, people do agree with me on those two books. The Goodreads rating for The Hunger Games is 4.54 (quite high for Goodreads) while Shiver is rated 3.96 (fairly average). When you average it out, The Hunger Games is ‘better.’ However, if you look at individual reviews, Shiver is going to have some five stars (I just check, and some of my friends gave it four or five), and The Hunger Games will have some one-stars (a couple of my friends gave it three). Some individuals will drastically disagree with me.

If that’s the case, why should you bother reading my reviews? Why read reviews at all? I can tell you a book if awful, but then you could go and read it and love it. I’ve read books that people have told me they loved, but I couldn’t stand them. Is there any reason to pay attention to goodreads/amazon ratings?

The thing that a good book review does is give you a sense of why the reviewer (dis)liked the book. My review of Shiver makes clear that I am not a werewolf fan, so that could well be why I didn’t like it. When I read reviews on Amazon for I Am Number Four, I saw that most of them talked about how terrible the characterization was. When I got the book, I had to agree, the characters were boring (though I have had some people say they loved them). If you’re more interested in a fast-paced action story than in riveting characters, then I Am Number Four would be great. If you like characters better, then you probably won’t enjoy it.

Basically, a good book review should do three things:

1-      Make clear that this is only one opinion (Don’t say ‘The only people who would like this book are ones who think Twilight is great literature’)

2-      Show how the reviewer’s personality affected the review (For instance, ‘I don’t normally like Paranormal/Romance, but I loved Paranormalcy’)

3-      Showcase both the books strengths and weaknesses (even the best book has some bad things, and even the worst has some strengths)

I’m not sure if my book reviews always fulfill those criteria, but I try to include them all. It may feel egoistic, but it’s essential to let your readers know what kind of reader you are, so that they know if their tastes are similar or not. You also need to temper that with a fair bit of humility, admitting that yours is only one opinion and even your favourite books have bad parts and even the ones you hate have good points. Basically, think about how your book reviews can be of the most help to your blog readers.

As for you, my loyal followers, is there anything I could be doing with my book reviews to help you out? Do you have any tips, either for me, or for other book bloggers out there? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment! 

New Layout!

Stop.

Look at this layout.

Isn't it gorgeous? Don't you just love it?

I didn't make it myself; if I did, there's no way I'd be gloating about it. And there's no way it would be anywhere near as pretty. This blog design was made by the amazing Qui. Let's give her a big round of applause!

If you want a blog design of your own, check out Fine and Dandy Blog Designs. And, since Qui is so awesome, you should go check out here blog, Dancing Through Life.

Enough from me. I'm going to go back staring at my blog. :)

Other Writing Blogs You'll Enjoy

There’s just so much good stuff out in the blogging world for writers. I thought I’d write an extra post today advertising some other blogs which you might enjoy.

YAtopia

This blog, run by eight YA writers, is currently hosting an agent pitch contest. What does this mean? Basically, you give them a two-sentence pitch of your novel, along with the first sentence of the book, and an agent will pick the best one. The winner will have their complete manuscript read by this agent. If you have a finished manuscript ready for submission, this is a great chance to have your story read without spending all that time querying agents.

Even supposing they weren’t running this contest, YAtopia is a great resource for YA writers, with helpful posts on all aspects of writing.

Inkpop Blog

This blog is run by the team at inkpop.com and contains regular posts about all things in the publishing world. There’s news about books being made into movies, new books coming out, author interviews and all sorts of contests (I recently won I Am Number Four, Beastly and the first two Pretty Little Liars for just commenting!) I recently read a really useful interview with Lauren Oliver, author of Delirium, on how to create interesting main characters. Considering I’m working on a series about the same thing, I thought it was worth a look.

EmilyisSmiling

People on the site inkpop may remember Emily from her engaging novel Before You, which made top five back in August. Since then Emily hasn’t been on inkpop much, but she’s been busy blogging. It isn’t a blog about writing (though she does have regular book reviews), but it’s bound to bring a smile to your day. Emily talks about a variety of topics, from helping sponsor children, to pranks she played on her friends, to fashion, to her little terrier puppy. This may sound simple, but her friendly, non-judgemental outlook on life draws in 1000-2000 visitors daily. Emily’s blog is one that I make sure to keep up on.