Personally I think it dragged in the first half, started to get a bit better, then had a wierd-ass bit at the end, and then just an ending. Its like things almost got explained, but then the story moved on to something else.
I dunno. I think I'm just a bit annoyed because I expected to be blown away. Dont get me wrong, the actual writing was really really good (and made me feel inadequate!), its just the plot etc that annoyed me. That whole falling to Earth thing in Ruth's body just made me screw my face up, and not in a good way.
This sucks. I dont want to write or think badly of a book. I'm not a reviewer, and I dont ever plan on being one. I think if I'm really honest with myself I'm not angry at this book at all, I'm angry at myself because I feel like I dont have the vocabulary to be able to pull together enough threads to weave a satisfying, cloaking book. I feel like that even with all the words in the English language stuffed in my head, its like they're stuffed in too tight.. or stuffed into separate rooms that I've forgotten about and I can seem to pull them out.
I'm going to try to write this NaNoWriMo novel using simple words to start with. Just so that I can get the story down. Someone once told me that that was how Hemmingway wrote, and that its really a lot more difficult than it sounds. I tried it once when I was particularly fired up about my Epic Fantasy, Arkedhar, and although it was difficult it wasn't difficult in the way I thought it would be.
In order to strip down a story to its barest bones you have to fight all the creativity in your head to stay back, like putting up a dam. That was the difficult part. I decided, though, to let through any creative descriptions/words that came easily to me. If I had to pause and try to think up the perfect adjective for a certain scene, then I stopped myself and just moved on with simplistic words. It was my sort of compromise, and I think it will work perfectly for my Nano book.
I'm hoping to start November with a few days of solid outlining and planning, plus a bit of research etc. Then have about 25-20 days of solid writing. I figure that if I do at least 3000 words a day then I should be able to cover it. Then the remainder of the month is for editing and adding in more creativity. I worry that this part is actually going to take the longest, but to be honest, the idea behind Nano is to write 50,000 words in a month. It doesn't state that it has to be perfectly edited and ready to send. If I finish the editing process within November, then thats fantastic, if I dont then I can still continue to work on it after November but the point is I actually achieved the 50,000 in that month. I hope thats right. It sounds right in my head.
I'm also hoping that I blitz the 50,000 and even go way overboard. Fingers crossed on that one.
Time will tell, I guess.
Other books I've read...
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