Note: This is a very random, thought-jumpy post. XD Because I needed a post and wanted to update people on how NaNo went.
Four days after NaNoWriMo, 2010 has ended… People thought it couldn’t – shouldn’t – be done. They were half right. I did it… But it probably wasn’t a smart thing to do.\
Novel number 1 is 50,283 words right now, and I just need to do some wrapping up… Okay, that’s an understatement. They’re just meeting the people from the Nation to the North. They still need to join up, help the people of the Tip to defeat the pirates, and then go home. But bottom line is, I’m definitely more than… eh… two-thirds of the way done with it?
Novel number 2 ended the month just a little more than 50,000 words long. It’s, in a word, awful. But it’s a NaNoWriMo novel. So that’s okay. Honestly, it’s so bad that I’m not sure I’ll ever dare to go back and salvage it… But who knows?
Altogether, I ended at 100,304 words. ^^ I don’t think I’ll ever write two NaNo novels at once again, though. XD It’s possible, but not really advisable.
Number 1 actually isn’t so bad. It’s definitely rough, but no worse than the novel that I’ll be attempting to revise just as soon as I finish Number 1’s ending. My “REVISE IT NAO! >8O” urges have dwindled a bit into a more manageable “Let’s get this done. >:)” kind of feeling. I’ve been making notes like crazy, and I feel like this time around I’m going to have a much better sense of what I’m doing and what my characters are thinking…
You know what amuses me? I was at the library today, and I saw a book where the premise was that two kids living in England find out they’re related to Sherlock Holmes and then they… I guess they solve mysteries or something?
But that’s impossible. Because Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character. XD It’s probably a perfectly lovely book, but after I saw that I just kind of smiled and put it back on the shelf.
Which was good because I already had three other books I was checking out. Among them, Mockingjay! Finally going to read it. ^^
I was looking at the cover of Mockingjay and noticed something… While the other birds on the covers had been in circles, this one had little fragments around it, like it was breaking free. I took a closer look, and realized for the first time what epic covers they are (I wanted to find a pic of all three covers lined up next to each other, but my computer apparently doesn’t want to let me do that. T-T).
The cover of the first book shows the mockingjay pin. The second shows a bird kind of in shadow, with a sort of glow around it as things begin to heat up. For the first time I noticed that the circle it was in wasn’t just a cool design thing… It was like a scope of a gun. And then, in the third book, the bird’s come to life, and it’s breaking free…
Maybe I’m just the last person to notice these things, but I think it’s really cool. :)
I love sequential covers like that… It’s my hope that the cover art for my books is as good. ^^
And yeah. That’s about it for this entry.
I really do want another screen name. Comments, please! Do y’all think ‘Silent Pages’ would be fine – at least for now? *glares at that awful title – the writer.* It’s a good title, but not a good username. Advice, por favor!
Showing posts with label suzanne collins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label suzanne collins. Show all posts
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Catching Fire -- Review/Musings/Contemplation
NOTE: Some vague-ish spoilers... If you haven't read the book yet and plan to... I leave it up to you.
Recently, I read “Catching Fire” – the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy - by Suzanne Collins. It’s one of those books that make me want to pick up a pen and work on my own novel. It has a lot of the things I love in a book: corrupt government, rebellion, uncertainty (in choosing sides of a battle AND in choosing a love…) and filled me with an irrepressible urge to squeal like an idiot at the end of each chapter.
That said, there were a few things I wasn’t… ‘ecstatic’ about. Things that made me remember other things I’d forgotten from the first book (which I also immensely enjoyed… Or I think I did. It’s been a while).
Mainly, I think, it’s Katniss. Although there may be a few other things I can’t really put a name to… She’s a strong character, she’s committed to her loved ones… And her witty sarcasm made me grin. But I kept hitting a snag; a burr in her character that made me, at least, cringe a bit.
Every so often, I couldn’t help but think to myself that Katniss seems kind of self-centered, selfish, etc. Using Peeta, wanting to keep Peeta but still wanting Gale, hurting both of them and others, making fun of her prep crew, and other things like that I can’t think of right now.
Not to mention that trait of hers where she takes the uncertainty I love and overdoes it like a Twilight Fan on premiere night of the newest movie.
Rebellion’s bad. She’ll help stop it. Rebellion’s good! She wants it to happen! She doesn’t want to help; she’ll run away. She’ll take Gale! She’ll leave Gale. She’ll stay, she’ll help rebellion. She’ll be with Gale forever and ever! She’ll marry Peeta, and be with him forever. Trust victors, don’t trust them, trust them again! This inner conflict is okay up to a certain extent, but I like the characters I read about to have some convictions, and Katniss was starting to come across as fickle and/or a push over, doing whatever she was told to.
Yet, she actually acknowledges most of these things. More than once, she expresses regrets about the way she treats people, thinks of herself as selfish and cruel, and in other ways bemoans what an awful person she is. I’m not sure if that makes her a stronger character, or a weaker one. :/
I’m rather indecisive about Katniss… Maybe I just feel like she’s annoying and selfish in comparison to the selfless, oft-strong characters around her. Haymitch, who’s a million times more deep and caring than you’d first guess. Cinna, who makes her shine and is so much more epic than the rest of her silly prep team. Peeta… Well, Peeta’s not my favorite character, either, with that tendency of his to drop bombshells unexpectedly. But he’s always so devoted to her… Gale, her mother and Prim, Madge, and all these other characters who surround her, try to keep her safe, help her… Everything seems to center around Katniss… And honestly I’m not sure she deserves it yet.
Well… Even with my misgivings about Katniss… I love the books so far. They inspire me, and captivate me, and perhaps Katniss can redeem herself in my eyes in Mockingjay, when it comes out.
For now… I should probably be focusing more on my own characters. T-T
What do you think of the book? Of Katniss? Of the other characters? Is it just me who thinks the two main characters are actually some of my least favorite ones? :(
Recently, I read “Catching Fire” – the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy - by Suzanne Collins. It’s one of those books that make me want to pick up a pen and work on my own novel. It has a lot of the things I love in a book: corrupt government, rebellion, uncertainty (in choosing sides of a battle AND in choosing a love…) and filled me with an irrepressible urge to squeal like an idiot at the end of each chapter.
That said, there were a few things I wasn’t… ‘ecstatic’ about. Things that made me remember other things I’d forgotten from the first book (which I also immensely enjoyed… Or I think I did. It’s been a while).
Mainly, I think, it’s Katniss. Although there may be a few other things I can’t really put a name to… She’s a strong character, she’s committed to her loved ones… And her witty sarcasm made me grin. But I kept hitting a snag; a burr in her character that made me, at least, cringe a bit.
Every so often, I couldn’t help but think to myself that Katniss seems kind of self-centered, selfish, etc. Using Peeta, wanting to keep Peeta but still wanting Gale, hurting both of them and others, making fun of her prep crew, and other things like that I can’t think of right now.
Not to mention that trait of hers where she takes the uncertainty I love and overdoes it like a Twilight Fan on premiere night of the newest movie.
Rebellion’s bad. She’ll help stop it. Rebellion’s good! She wants it to happen! She doesn’t want to help; she’ll run away. She’ll take Gale! She’ll leave Gale. She’ll stay, she’ll help rebellion. She’ll be with Gale forever and ever! She’ll marry Peeta, and be with him forever. Trust victors, don’t trust them, trust them again! This inner conflict is okay up to a certain extent, but I like the characters I read about to have some convictions, and Katniss was starting to come across as fickle and/or a push over, doing whatever she was told to.
Yet, she actually acknowledges most of these things. More than once, she expresses regrets about the way she treats people, thinks of herself as selfish and cruel, and in other ways bemoans what an awful person she is. I’m not sure if that makes her a stronger character, or a weaker one. :/
I’m rather indecisive about Katniss… Maybe I just feel like she’s annoying and selfish in comparison to the selfless, oft-strong characters around her. Haymitch, who’s a million times more deep and caring than you’d first guess. Cinna, who makes her shine and is so much more epic than the rest of her silly prep team. Peeta… Well, Peeta’s not my favorite character, either, with that tendency of his to drop bombshells unexpectedly. But he’s always so devoted to her… Gale, her mother and Prim, Madge, and all these other characters who surround her, try to keep her safe, help her… Everything seems to center around Katniss… And honestly I’m not sure she deserves it yet.
Well… Even with my misgivings about Katniss… I love the books so far. They inspire me, and captivate me, and perhaps Katniss can redeem herself in my eyes in Mockingjay, when it comes out.
For now… I should probably be focusing more on my own characters. T-T
What do you think of the book? Of Katniss? Of the other characters? Is it just me who thinks the two main characters are actually some of my least favorite ones? :(
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