Plans...

 

    Hello again! Long time no see unfortunately but I have had a lot going off this past couple of months. First, NaNoWriMo took over my November (I did get 50,000 words though so it was a good sacrifice!), then it was end of unit tests (Sixth Form is soooooo difficult at the moment.) and then suddenly it was Christmas! But, I have been busy writing so I haven't been completely lazy on the creative front ;)

  My current project is a revamp. I've decided to develop my novella 'In Need of an Adventure' (which can be read on Movellas here) into a novel, so that's currently in the editing stage to change any mistakes and expand on the storyline. Hopefully this time round it'll become a more action-packed fantasy adventure plus it'll be fun meeting the characters and the world all over again :)

   My next blog post will be up shortly and it's all about the books I've read in 2013. The years almost over so it'll be nice to round it all off with all my reading list :)

  I hope you all enjoyed your year and looking forward to what 2014 brings :)


~White Ravens~
http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/10321725/white-ravens-writing

Useful Websites for Young Writers...

I've used many websites when writing my stories, either for research, character or place names, adding little Easter eggs, sharing my work and many other things as well! Google is our friend so here is six probably very well-known websites I find handy and use regularly when writing. Hopefully they'll help you too!

http://nanowrimo.org/

I mentioned this website in my last post and they have tons of helpful tips on writing and the publishing industry as well as push you to write a novel in a month. You can meet loads of new writers in your area as well as across the world so I find this website helpful every November :)

http://babynames.merschat.com/

This is the name meaning website I use but there are so many out there. This one is useful because you can find the meaning of a name you already want to use, find names of a particular meaning, pick gender and origins and find out lots of information on names you can use throughout your stories.

http://translate.google.co.uk/

Any online translator will do but I use this one usually because of the range of languages it has. This is useful for the hidden Easter eggs I was talking about, weaving meaning into place names, surnames, magic spells or anything really!

http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/

 Looking for writing prompts? Then this site is perfect! It has loads of writing prompts that can get your mind racing for the next best-seller!

http://www.movellas.com/

This is a website aimed at young writers aged 13+ to gain feedback as well as spread constructive criticism. It's a great way to gain feedback on your work, with a helpful community that are your age to tell you tips on how to improve. It really improves your confidence and your skills when you get your first comment and with competitions to keep you motivated it's a really great place to get started. There are other websites out there as well, such as Wattpad, but I always come back to this site because of the amount of feedback you get quite quickly.

http://www.goodreads.com/

What better way to increase your writing skill then by reading? By reading as many books as possible through many genres, you can learn all the tricks of what works and what doesn't within those genres and work towards originality in your own stories. Here, you can post reviews and find recommendations on many books and they have giveaways and quizzes. It's a great reading community.



~White Ravens~
http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/10321725/white-ravens-writing

NaNoWriMo 2013!

 National Novel Writing Month is coming up soon (this year's gone too fast!) and it's time to get prepping! I'm not sure whether I'll be able to compete this month due to AS levels but I'm going to try and write as much of my novel as I can :) It's an excellent way to motivate writers to get down your first draft.

   NaNoWriMo takes place over the month of November where your aim is to write 50,000 words. The accomplishment of actually writing a novel is immense! I remember still having 7,000 words to write on the last day and not feeling particularly well but I pushed through and finished with 20 minutes to spare! It's a great way to meet other writers too, with regular pep talks and prizes when you reach 50,000 to keep you going. Even if most of what you write is dribble from an ogre's mouth, editing will come later!

   It's fun, though I will warn you it can be quite stressful at times too, but it's nothing chocolate and a warm bath can't handle! ;D

   You can sign up here:

http://nanowrimo.org/

I hope to see some of you there! Find me under the name White Ravens:

http://nanowrimo.org/participants/white-ravens

~White Ravens~
http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/10321725/white-ravens-writing

'More Than This' by Patrick Ness Review

     AS levels have begun and I'm now a year 12 student so my reading time has been significantly reduced due to homework and revision unfortunately :( However, here is my review of Patrick Ness' 'More Than This'. This is done in a different style to what I usually do without subtitles but is still my opinions of the book. This is now one of my complete favourites and you don't understand how much you need to go out and read this! There's a teeny spoiler in this review so I've pointed it out if you want to avoid it.

   I received a review copy from Movellas in order to review this.

"Here is the boy, drowning."

   Seth awakens from death. But, he’s alive. Naked and alone in his old home back in England, he is haunted by vivid dreams of his life. He begins searching for answers in this ‘after-life’. Is he really alone? Or is there More Than This?

   I think Patrick Ness is a great author and this book proves this further. At first, I actually expected perhaps a paranormal story, which is quite popular within the YA genre, but it already started off with a twist and ended up being a suspenseful dystopian novel. It was a pleasant surprise.

   ‘Here is the boy, drowning.’ What a way to begin! Starting with the death of the main character really hooked me as well as indicating that this story takes place in the after-life, setting the scene without chunks of boring description. He is referred to as ‘the boy’, which I loved because it’s subtle but gives us readers an indication as to who to root for when reading, suggesting importance.

   However, the first chapters were quite slow for me, which kept up the suspense but did get a little boring after a while. Nevertheless, it quickly became more fast-paced that kept me wanting to read more. So stick with this story or you’ll regret it!

   The middle was exciting, introducing more flashbacks (which are perfectly placed without getting too long that we forget the actual storyline, dripping in more information about our protagonist’s past.) and introducing more interesting characters.

   Each character stood out because, although they are very different, they felt real. They contrast nicely with appropriate reactions to their situations. They have different stories, with different backgrounds but they unite in something they all have in common; finding out if there is ‘more than this’. They experience many real issues we do today, like murder, poverty, abuse and the world seeming to try and reject who you are. It’s so realistic it’s scary, with the internet taking over too. This really could happen in our future! It is really amazing for an author to create a new world and make it appear so vivid to the reader.

   The twists kept on coming and the final turn I loved. 

(SPOILER AHEAD: When The Driver “dies” SPOILER END), 

I really wanted another obstacle to appear in the way of our protagonists because I didn’t feel that the story should end just yet, but I wasn’t expecting what did happen and was almost shouting at the book to let there be a happy ending!

   Then, the impossible happens and the final flashback is beautifully carried out, rounding our knowledge off. It was a miracle that seems impossible, but is actually probable, and everyone is left confused by the unexpected. But that is because that’s what life is; you don’t know what’s around the corner. I thought I might be over-thinking the plot after finishing this but I have come away satisfied with the cliff-hanger.

   Overall, Patrick Ness has done a brilliant job yet again. ‘More Than This’ is full of twists that keep you going until the very end. If you enjoy Sci-Fi/Dystopian YA novels then this is for you. I would not recommend it to anyone under the age of 14/15 because it contains swearing and mature issues. However, I’ll only be giving it 4.5/5 because it did take me a few chapters to really get into the story, but I loved reading this novel and I'd certainly like to read more books like this :)

~White Ravens~
 http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/10321725/white-ravens-writing

'The Perks of Being A Wallflower' by Stephen Chbosky Review

  

   Another review ready and waiting to read :)

Rating: 

   3/5 – I watched the film and thought it was a really good storyline so I was going in with high expectations but I was a little disappointed with the book. It addressed very sensitive but very real issues and I do appreciate that but it didn’t develop enough for me.

Who I think it's for:

   If you’re a fan of realism and young adult fiction, then this book fits those genres. It contains offensive language and mature/adult issues so I’d say it’s for 14 years + It’s also about the life of high school students, so obviously high school students easily relate to this.

"There's nothing like deep breaths after laughing that hard. Nothing in the world like a sore stomach for the right reasons.”

Plot Summary: 

   Charlie is a wallflower. Shy, clever, awkward, he starts his first high school year and has to deal with new friends, family problems and finding himself. In a world of new things, he is standing at the edge, observing rather than ‘participating’. However, at some time, he must try a different perspective from the centre of the stage.

The Character that stood out most:

   Charlie, the narrator, is unique and he tells the story through his eyes well. Though the use of letters he writes is also unique, I’d prefer it not to be in this form because it feels as though Charlie doesn’t interact with the other characters as much as it would if the story was told from a normal first person view. So, I think that the story doesn’t develop as much as I would like.

   Patrick, Charlie’s first friend when he starts high school, stood out the most to me because Charlie talks about him a lot in his letters and their experiences together. We find out that he is openly gay a little way in to the novel but not straight away. He appears carefree and friendly and supportive but we learn that he is also vulnerable and troubled, so he develops very well throughout the story and stands out as an interestingly complicated character.

Why I read it:

   I watched the film and thought it was very moving and relatable in how high school is about trying to find yourself in the world and prepare for your future. Some of my friends recommended the book as well, so I asked for it for Christmas and recently got round to reading it this summer (school gets in the way a lot!).

   I went in with high expectations, perhaps too high, but I think that I should have been neutral. Maybe this just wasn’t my type of genre, but I felt that some of the issues the book deals with could have been developed further along with some of the characters. (Alice was part of the ‘gang’ Charlie hung around with but she was hardly ever mentioned which annoyed me.)

 

Why you should read it:

 Overall, I think that it’s a good book and I would recommend it to anyone I knew who likes that genre. It is considered a must-read for high school students in YA fiction so I think that, if you like that genre and types of books, this book will suit you.

   Have you seen the film or read the book? Which one do you think is better? If you’ve done both, did you read the book before the film or the other way round? Did you think it affected your opinion at all? Share your thoughts in the comments! :)



~White Ravens~
http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/10321725/white-ravens-writing

Stung by Bethany Wiggins Review

   My review of Bethany Wiggins' Stung. These are all just my opinions so don't hesitate to share your own below. :)

Rating: 

   2/5 – This book has an exciting world premise and started off well, but I can’t give it more than two because I feel the plot was too fast, leaving me confused and the parts of the story not fully developed.

Who I think it's for:

   This contains a lot of violence with some reference to mature issues as well as being a young adult novel, so overall I think it’s aimed at 13 – 21 year olds. I wouldn’t let anyone younger read it because of the blood and references. This is a sci-fi novel and if you like the Hunger Games, which Stung is compared to, it is along those sorts of dystopian lines.

"There’s no cure for being Stung.”

Plot Summary: 

   Fiona doesn’t remember going to sleep. She has awakened to her house being abandoned, her neighbourhood being dead and her brother being changed into a beast. After running into the new, chaotic world, the strange tattoo on her hand makes her dangerous, so she is detained by soldiers dedicated to protecting the ‘uninfected’ inside the recently built wall from those branded as monsters. At any second, she could change into a mindless zombie, but how does the apocalypse all come down to something as small as bees?

The Characters:

  I found the main character, Fiona, very whiny and had to have men protect her and tell her what to do all the time. But, if you had just been flung into a world with no memory of how you got there or how it became so full of chaos, she seemed quite realistic and her reactions to her situation were too.

   Bowen was the character who struck me the most because he is strong and determined but has a softer side. He seems to be the traditional cliché hero but he starts off as on the side of the “bad guys” but changes after taking matters into his own hands, trying to make out that he’s doing it to save himself but really isn’t as inhumane as we first thought.

  Sadly, I did not like the romance between Fiona and Bowen. The story is quite fast-paced (which is a highlight) but sometimes leaves parts behind to catch up so the love appears very rushed and unnatural. I wasn’t really expecting them to become lovers, but it rather felt like they were friends trying to survive in the apocalypse.

Why I read it:

   This was on the top books shelf in the library and claimed to be the next Hunger Games, which I really enjoyed reading, so obviously Stung caught my attention. The blurb was interesting, the idea was original. However, the way the story was carried out was disappointing slightly, with a beginning that kept me going for a while but few holes were filled in my knowledge and I felt like the story could have slowed down a little at the end and let us give more. The main story line felt undeveloped and as if nothing had really happened. I forced myself not to abandon this book to see whether it got better by the end, but I was left confused with still many questions left unresolved. I don’t think I’ll be carrying on to read the sequel.

 

Why you should read it:

    It’s a very interesting concept, though I wouldn’t jump to recommending it to anyone. This is all just my opinion though, so if you like dystopian novels with a fast-pace leaving you behind, you might want to give this a try.


The sequel to Stung, Cured, is planned for release in 2014.

 

~White Ravens~ http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/10321725/white-ravens-writing

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo Review

My review of Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo; an award-winning children's book of war and innocence.

Rating: 

 

   5/5  

  My first 5/5 rating :) I really, really, really love this book and I’d recommend it to anyone.

Who I think it's for:

 

 Michael Morpurgo is a children’s author and this book is aimed at around 10 years + but I’m 16 and enjoyed it so much and I know adults will like it too. I would probably not recommend this book to those younger than 8-9 because it is a story about war and a tear-jerker so might upset more sensitive readers

  This is a historical fiction novel but I think no matter what genre you normally go for that you’ll like reading this book. I normally go for fantasy and there were no fairies or dragons in sight in this story but it’s now become one of my favourites :)

"I had to prove myself. I had to prove myself to myself.”

Plot Summary: 

 

 This story is told from the point of view of Private Thomas ‘Tommo’ Peaceful as he relives his life through memories of from his quiet village to the World War I battlefields. He remembers his childhood friendships, love, fears, innocence, and growing up when the war was just a distant fight. Brotherly love triumphs in many ways, but it won’t be enough to stand against the incoming military justice.

The Character that stood out most:

 

  Although each of the main characters in our hero’s family stands out with their lovable qualities, the main character Tommo was my favourite. When he retells his childhood, you feel so much for him when he laughs or cries or falls in love. Then, when the war hits his village, he goes to protect his brother despite being under-aged and his mother and best friend not wanting him to leave. He looks up to his brother so much but still had his own spotlight. I admire the love these two brothers, Tommo and Charlie, have and the war just strengthens their bond whilst trying to tear it apart.
  He shows many acts of bravery throughout the story that really makes him stand out as someone who would do anything for the ones he loves.  Such empathy was created with this character but he pulls through everything. I loved him so much that, although I was hooked, I didn’t want his story to finish and meet its inevitable unhappy end.

Why I read it:

 

  This is a very popular story that a lot of people I knew had read and recommended it so I asked for it as a present last Christmas and just got round to reading it. As I’ve said before, Michael Morpurgo is one of my favourite authors so I really wanted to read this book for many reasons. I enjoyed it so much that I’m re-reading it now.

 

Why you should read it:

 

  It really hooked me and I didn’t want the story to end because I loved the characters and their life stories and I’m sure that you’ll feel the same way about it too. This book is really popular with kids and adults alike so anyone will enjoy it. Also, the story really gives an insight into the lives of innocent but courageous men being pushed into war and having to go through so much. It shows the horrors of the battlefield but also the importance of love and friendship so you’ll learn a lot from this book as well as enjoy it.



   Well, as promised another book review with more to come soon :)


~White Ravens~
http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/10321725/white-ravens-writing

Camp NaNoWriMo!

    This July is the summer session of Camp NaNoWriMo and I am participating! For those unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, it is a website encouraging novelists to write 50,000 words over the month of November. During April and July, they hold a more relaxed session where you can set your own word count, meet other writers in your own cabin as well as many other camp-fire activities. It's really fun and rewarding.

   I completed NaNoWriMo last November and, although I felt like giving up towards the end when illness struck, I finished with an hour left to spare and was over the moon. Really, writing 50,000 words (even though it was most likely dribble with no editing or re-reading...) in a month is a great feeling. I'd recommend you all try it :)

   It's not too late to enter this July session. The weather is hot and you may be tempted to avoid it but the encouragement you gain and the results are immense. If you want to find out more, here is the camp homepage:

http://campnanowrimo.org/

   I look forward to seeing some of you there :) Until next time :)

~White Ravens~

The World Book Day YA App

    I know this was a long time ago (all the way back in March! This year's going by so quickly!) but World Book Day is the biggest celebration of books around the world. Readers, writers and illustrators come together and school children can pick up a voucher for a free book or £1 off any other book. :)

    This year, World Book Day brought out a new and exclusive app; the World Book Day YA app. This was powered by the online website Movellas, which is ideal for anyone aged 13+ for reading, writing and sharing stories online. The app stars many fantastic young adult authors along with forty nominations from the Movellas Community of thousands voted to be part of the app.

    I was lucky enough to have been nominated and have the privilege of having my short story ‘In Need of an Adventure’ featured alongside these great authors. I loved writing this story and I really grew to love the characters and the adventure :) It is finished and in the editing process so if you have any spare time and fancy a read, check it out here:

In Need of an Adventure

    I also created the cover which was incredibly fun :) I'd recommend Movellas to anyone willing to read and write and share their love for imagination and the app is up and running for you to download :)


~White Ravens~

Thinking of Character Names Part 2...

Hello again :) Another tip for thinking of character names for you. :) Translators are another good way to go:

2. Use a Translator:

 

  Whilst not the best for long passages for French essays, just think of a trait for your character or part of their history and translate it to think of an unusual first name or unique last name. Like if a character is a copycat of everyone without their own thoughts, then translate something like 'Clone' into another language such as Italian or Danish.

   Take Professor Lupin from J.K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter'. Many of you may already know that 'Lupin' is derived from 'Lupus', the latin for wolf. This indicates his darker side on a full moon. Also, Voldemort literally translates to 'Flight of Death' in French and this murderous character lives up to his name. J.K. Rowling thinks up so many amazing names that fit her characters perfectly as well as creating the most wonderful, magical world of all time! (Can you tell I'm a Potterhead ;) )


   Another fun way I use a translator for is to create a hidden message behind the character through their full name.

   For example, take the main character from my story 'Everto'. Her name is 'Ena
Intenebris'. I used a name meaning website to find 'Ena', which means 'bright and shining', and then a translator to combine 'in ténebris', which means 'in the dark', to create 'Ena Intenebris' - 'Bright and shining in the dark.' This leads on to different possibilities in the rest of the plot and the all important prophecy. Most people might not notice this but it's fun to add a little back story to a name that only you know.

   However, with this way you run the risk of translating wrong, but it's not much of a problem if you gain an interesting name from it :) 

  Another part in this series of tips up and running :) I hope they've been useful but there's three more to come if you're looking for something else :)

~White Ravens~