WiP Wednesday: NaNoWriMo 2022

For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. Every year in November, the organization challenges writers (be they published or aspiring authors) from all over the world to create a 50,000 word novel in just thirty days. If you’re curious to learn more about this challenge or sign up for an account, the website is NaNoWriMo.org

WiP Wednesday: Character Hobbies

One of the things you should know about a character is their hobbies. What do they like to do in their spare time, to relax or to let off steam? What a character likes to do will give the reader some insight into who they are as a person. Someone who races cars when they are upset will generally come across as quite different than someone who crochets on their lunch break.

WiP Wednesday: Character Development

All of the major characters in a book should be fully developed. You need to know the various aspects of their lives, past and present, to properly depict how they will act and speak in the future. Not everything that you come up with will make it in the book, and it shouldn’t because most of it is useless to the reader and bogs down the current story. Yet every move a character makes, every step they take, will be influenced by their history.

Readers are smart and, if your character acts out in an unexpected way, they want to know what caused such a reaction. They also pick up on anything that contradicts earlier behaviour and will call you on it. In real life, people change their minds all the time and grow as humans but a book’s characters need to have some consistency even if they transform to become their true selves.

Yet, that isn’t the only reason why character development is so important. You also want to ensure the reader can tell your characters apart. No one wants to be reading about a bunch of clones unless you are writing science fiction. Small things like appearance and speech patterns and behavioural ticks will keep a reader from being confused. The reader needs to be able to keep everyone straight in their head in order to enjoy a story.

WiP Wednesday: Writing Inspiration

I mentioned in a previous post that during my book shlump I became addicted to Kdramas. They weren’t something I ever considered getting into, but my streaming subscription kept recommending I watch one called Cinderella and the Four Knights until I finally gave in. The fact I am a sucker for anything inspired by fairytales probably had something to do with it, and the fact it was based on a book is probably why I liked it. I watched more international shows after that.

Then, when a classmate discovered we had similar taste in television programs, she suggested I try another show called Boys Over Flowers. This one is based on the Hana Yori Dango manga series. I have never read any sort of graphic novel before, unless you count those old Archie comics from the nineties, let alone one from another culture so I had no idea what to expect.

WiP Wednesday: Finding Your Why Not

Every year I say I will write a novel and every year I do not write a novel.

I will plan to write it and even create a schedule to add a block of time for writing in my daily or weekly routine. I may even start to write my latest literary genius. However, before long, my life gets overwhelming, my schedule goes out the window, my creative energy is sapped, and I do not make time for writing.

Once again, I made the new year’s resolution to write a novel. It was going well for two months and then a repeat of all the other years happened: my seasonal depression hit, even harder than usual, and everything around me went haywire shortly thereafter… such as finding out my mother’s tumor came back and she required another surgery. This meant my mother would need care and someone to take over her role as caretaker for my grandfather. Not hard to guess who got both jobs.

The story I had been working on up until then that had once filled me with excitement now held no interest for me. I thought if I just got back to it, reread what I’d written so far and sat down to continue writing, I’d get that old feeling of enthusiasm back. But I couldn’t work up the energy to so much as open the document on my computer.  

My Bookish Life: Not So Bookish

It has been a while, I know. I went to all the trouble of revamping my blog only to get so caught up in school and work and life that I stopped posting again. Part of it came down to mental health. I simply could not juggle everything and I was also struggling with a bit of depression. So many of the things I love doing were no longer interesting and, after I finished with my daily responsibilities, I became a couch potato binge-watching on Kdramas.

Book Review: Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian

Synopsis: Summer in Sand Lake isn’t complete without a trip to Meade Creamery—the local ice cream stand founded in 1944 by Molly Meade who started making ice cream to cheer up her lovesick girlfriends while all the boys were away at war. Since then, the stand has been owned and managed exclusively by local girls, who inevitably become the best of friends. Seventeen-year-old Amelia and her best friend Cate have worked at the stand every summer for the past three years, and Amelia is “Head Girl” at the stand this summer. When Molly passes away before Amelia even has her first day in charge, Amelia isn’t sure that the stand can go on. That is, until Molly’s grandnephew Grady arrives and asks Amelia to stay on to help continue the business…but Grady’s got some changes in mind.

Book Review: Control by Laura Marie Alton

Synopsis: Never again. Fleeing her hometown to escape an abusive marriage, Ella Patton swears she has surrendered to a man for the last time. But while living under a new name, she meets a kind, handsome stranger who seems different—and will be moving on soon, making Ella reckless enough to break her rules. With a kiss, the stranger opens the door to desires Ella believed she would never know. Then he makes an unexpected proposal.

A dot-com billionaire from humble beginnings, Liam Stone is a man whose past has made him compassionate yet guarded—much like the beautiful, secretive woman he stumbles upon in a remote Southern town. Though he intends only a dalliance, when the time comes to return home to San Francisco, Liam cannot bear the thought of leaving her behind. But when he tries to entice her to join him, he finds the tables turning dizzingly fast. Suddenly a little seduction becomes a huge battle for one thing: control.

Book Review: Words of Lust by Lise Horton

Synopsis: Serafina Luca, strait-laced Manhattan professor of erotic literature, isn’t one to blush at a few raunchy words, but her experience in the bedroom is hardly bestseller material. She’s not sure the passion in the books she teaches is possible in real life, let alone for her. But then she meets Nick Stellato and their sizzling chemistry is undeniable. What surprises him is how much he enjoys the time he spends with Serafina outside the bedroom—and how easily he can imagine a future together. Before long, Serafina is falling hard for Nick, too. But how can a timid academic with virtually no past fulfill his dreams of an adventurous future?

Book Review: Tempted By Her Boss by Scarlet Wilson

Synopsis: One second Dr. Grace Barclay is sitting at her desk, the next she’s naked in the decontamination showers with notorious doc and total sex god Donovan Reid! The chemistry between them is sizzling, so when Grace is assigned to Donovan’s team it’s all she can do to remain cool, calm and professional with her new boss. But with her career at stake Grace must impress for the right reasons. And surrendering to the temptation of Donovan would be oh-so-wrong…wouldn’t it?