Fanfiction

   Not too long ago, there was a Divergent Fanfiction competition on Movellas. I love Divergent but I've never tried fanfiction before, so this competition was a good way for me to try something new. I didn't win but nonetheless I had fun writing it (though I'll probably avoid fanfiction from now on - trying to do Roth's world justice was so hard!).

   Have you had a go at fanfiction? I know a lot of people who started writing fanfiction and then moved on to original fiction as well as quite a few who haven't tried it at all before. I'd say give it a go! As long as you're stretching yourself and enjoying it (fanfiction should not be used for financial gain or publication so you must state that the original ideas are from the original author and not your own.) then it's a great thing to try. It can push you through writer's block or just a fun exercise. Your fanfiction might even poke you in the right direction for your own original work!

   Here's the first part of my own fanfiction for the competition. I had to cut it down a lot for the 5,000 word limit of the competition so in that way I felt perhaps I would have liked to have developed the storyline a lot more but take a look and tell me what you think :)
  

   The Truth is Deadly

   This fanfiction is based on the Divergent series written solely for entertainment and is not part of the original storyline. All the original ideas and rights belong to Veronica Roth.

***

     “Andrew!” I hissed as a headlight trundled past our hiding place. As usual, he had a death wish. I tried to slow my heart as the engine died out.
     “This is so...” I spat out some words.
     “Dauntless?” He smirked, wiggling his eyebrow piercing.
     “Reckless.” I rolled my eyes, stopping as his gaze met mine. Even after all these months, I still can’t suppress a blush.
     The wind knocked a pine cone from a tree, landing on my foot, making me jump. I clutched Andrew’s hand, which had slithered through my fingers moments ago.
     “You’re not normally this jumpy...” his tone was strong like his grasp.
     “Well, we don’t normally go this far.” I sighed back. Hastily glancing over to the rails, all I could see was darkness. My breathing was still rather fast, increasing the more I thought about the dark. “Do we have to do this? It’s dangerous and it’s against the rules...”
     “Aren’t we against the rules?”
     “Frowned upon.” I pouted. He mimicked my expression.
     “It’s just to spice things up around here for us.”
     “What? Meeting up in secret isn’t enough for you?” I teased him by loosening my own grip and pulling back slightly. He pounced back, his face so close to mine I could lose myself in his chestnut eyes. Being so full of surety they scared me sometimes.
     “Come on, for me?” His gaze turned to match a puppy’s, “It’ll be fun.” He began pulling me back.
     I sighed, “Fine.”
     His lips quickly pecked my cheek, “That’s my Stiff.” And, before I had a chance to smack him, we began running again.

    My eyes were locked on the ground. You’d think with the amount of adrenaline in my veins at this point I’d turn into some sort of speedy super human, but still I was as slow as the minutes were ticking by today.
     I was desperate to ask where we were heading to, but the night was so still that my ragged breaths were disturbing it enough.
     Every dying bush seemed to lurk over our path. Every crack in the pavement seemed to be a hole into oblivion. My hands were tingling like they were on fire and my feet were howling.
     Andrew stopped. I slapped into the back of him before freezing my steps too. Pushing me backwards, we dropped down to the ground, hidden behind a broken wall as long as we remained flat.
     A man was on his knees, hands on top of his head in front of us. Someone with a gun in their hand was holding the victim in place whilst someone else stood back, observing the scene as a shadow. That’s all I saw, and all I wanted to see, before plunging down.
     Andrew dared a peek, his black clothing aiding his camouflage. This that kind of thing didn’t occur in the factions. Our way of life brings peace.
     This man must have disturbed that peace, but we were told that those who do this become factionless, not-
    My thoughts were interrupted by the dreaded shot shaking through the air.




The rest can be read by clicking here: http://www.movellas.com/book/read/201312292130085331-the-truth-is-deadly-divergent-fanfiction


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

Top Three Books of 2013!

   These are my top three books I have read this year. These are purely my opinions and I'd also love to hear your own in the comments below :) Enjoy!

 

1. Private Peaceful

   This is my all time favourite book and I know it's quite a few others' favourites too. Michael Morpurgo has been one of my favourite authors since I was a kid and the first story I read by him was The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips. Since then, I've always wanted to read Private Peaceful from the reviews and opinions I've heard from others who have already read it. However, because I had heard it's a tear jerker too, I'm not too big a fan of a story that makes you cry just because I don't like crying! This story did make me cry but it was a good cry because it was such a good book as to make me feel so much for the characters. It's amazingly written, accurate and though-provoking so that is why this was my top book read in 2013.

2. More Than This

   Patrick Ness became one of my favourite authors last year when I read A Monster Calls by him when it was up for, and consequently won, the Carnegie Medal for my English group. Ever since then I can't get enough of him. I was given More Than This to review by Movellas and loved every moment of it. The website also ran a competition based around this book's new release, which my short story was shortlisted for and I won a signed copy of it. The Knife of Never Letting Go, the first in his Chaos Walking Trilogy is next on my list to be read. More Than This was fast paced but, like Private Peaceful despite being on the complete opposite end of the genre spectrum, very thought-provoking. I loved the characters and the plotline and almost everything about this book was perfect and made me want to read on. It's a close second next to Private Peaceful.

3. Divergent

   This book got me hooked. I brought it with my book vouchers from last Christmas at the beginning of the year and began reading it around Easter time I think. It was fast-paced, original, full of action and suspense and twists and turns and, gosh, it was just amazing! Although I wasn't as impressed with the sequel, Divergent is a must-read to me for every teenage fan of dystopian and science fiction. The film comes out next year and the final instalment of the trilogy, Allegiant, is available to buy now. With its intriguing plotline, world and characters, Veronica Roth is an author to look out for and Divergent just had to nab the last place on my top three.

   And that's my top three books of 2013 in a nutshell :) What were your favourites read this year? Do you share any of my own opinions? Please let me know in the comments below and I look forward to more awesome reads in 2014 too!


   All reviews can be read on blog and you can be directed to them by clicking the links below:

Private Peaceful Review

More Than This Review

Divergent Review


~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

'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

Divergent by Veronica Roth Review

   My second review is of the book Divergent by Veronica Roth, a YA dystopian fiction :)
   I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post again. Thankfully exams are all over (FREEDOM!!!) and now I will probably have more time to myself to read, write and post :)

Rating: 

 

   4/5

  This book really keeps you on the edge and I love female leads kicking butt ;) I read it every day to try and finish it, but I've only given it four out of five because I didn't want to read it every second of everyday.Yes, I did finish it quite quickly but it didn't captivate me so much that I wanted to get to the end within an hour. I'm very picky with my 5/5s :)
   

Who I think it's for:

 

   Although it can get rather bloody and contains a few kissing scenes, there's no adult themes so I would say it's for 13+. It is a young adult book so, obviously, that is the main target market but I'm sure many adults would love it too, with it's strong and fresh characters, interesting plot and important themes. If you love sci-fi and dystopian fiction that this is for you. I'd say girl's would be drawn to it more but it has enough action to appeal to both genders.

"We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.” 

Plot Summary:  

 

   In a dystopian future where Chicago is split into five factions representing specific qualities important to their citizens: Amity for the peaceful; Abnegation for the selfless; Candor for the honest; Erudite for knowledge; Dauntless for bravery.

   It is sixteen year old Beatrice 'Tris' Prior's turn to choose. Torn between staying with her family or changing for her own future, she decides upon her faction, shocking all, and is hurtled into their grueling initiation trials. Juggling friends, love, having her life on the line as well as coming to terms with being 'Divergent', a secret underlying her city could change everything they ever knew.

The Character that stood out most:

 

   Caleb Prior, 'Tris Prior's brother, stood out a lot to me. He, too, makes a shock decision at the Choosing Ceremony, which he took at the same time as 'Tris, but appeared as a very determined character. However, what really made him stand out was how much he changed throughout the book.

   In the sequel, 'Insurgent', he is obviously easily manipulated by the 'Faction over Blood' message that every child has had drilled into them from birth. Under this manipulation, he does something completely unexpected, which really disappointed me about the book. I knew that the society had misled him, but I have my own sister so I don't understand why he would do what he did. (I don't want to give anything away so that is all I will say about the matter)

   We'll have to wait for the final book, 'Allegiant', to find out why Caleb took this abrupt turn.

Why I read it:

 

   Dystopian fiction for young adults are all the rage now so naturally I was drawn to the book. I remember one of my friends recommending Veronica Roth as a good author a while back, so when I saw the name in a book shop, I thought I'd give it a go :) It had gained good reviews and I also saw that it would become a film next year, so I wanted to read it before I saw it.
  

Why you should read it:

   

   It had me hooked from the beginning. It has something for everyone, with action, love, friendship and trying to find yourself in a difficult world, which everyone can relate to. It's great for teenagers and I would recommend it to anyone. If you want to see the film, I think you should read the book first because I like to know what's going on and how it differs :) It's a very popular book amongst YA readers too :)


   Well, that's my second review done :) I will get to writing the remainder of the character questions soon. Leave your thoughts in the comments :)


~White Ravens~


  The final installment of Veronica Roth's best-selling series, 'Allegiant', is out October 22nd, 2013 and the 'Divergent' film release is in 2014 - 21st March 2014 in the USA.

 

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown Review

 

   My first book review. I hope I'll cover all you want to know. :)

   The Da Vinci Code is one of my favourite books. It is an extremely captivating read and Dan Brown keeps you wanting more and more as you turn every page.

Rating: 

 

4.5/5 for epicness!

   Though I haven't given it 5/5 because it can be very complex and controversial at times, confusing the reader. Also, his writing style doesn't stand out as amazing but his plots are so gripping!

Who I think it's for:

   Due to it being quite complicated at times and containing adult themes, this is definitely not a book for children but more for adults, so I'd say about 15/16+. I will warn you that this book contains some very intellectually challenging riddles and occasional graphic images so do not read if you are easily upset. It's full of suspense so mystery and thriller genre lovers should definitely try this. This is a fiction book so the controversies and issues it mentions may or may not be real.

“By its very nature, history is always a one-sided account.” 

Plot Summary:  

 

   The Da Vinci Code is about Robert Langdon, an American Professor of Symbology, who is pulled into being the prime suspect of a murder which sets off a mysterious chain of events. A chain that could change the face of Christianity.

    Involving secret societies and legends, the mystery will keep you on your toes as Langdon, assisted by a cryptologist from the French Guards, Sophie Neveu, is hunted across France. Will he solve the clues left behind or will this treasure be lost

    This story isn't for the fainthearted and is for those who can keep up with a complicated trail and like to be surprised at every turn. It really leaves you breathless by the end! However, you must remember this book is a work of fiction and not a history textbook.

The Character that stood out most:

  Of course Langdon and his sidekick Neveu were good characters, but I would have liked a little more to be said about Langdon to make us empathize with him more.

   I couldn't help but be drawn to Silas, a monk involved in the secret society Opus Dei. This lost character was abused as a child but was saved and taken in by Bishop Aringarosa. However, throughout the story he is pushed in a certain direction by the strict teachings and his goal to serve the Bishop and Opus Dei. Some may see him as strange and crazy to be doing what he does, but I couldn't help but feel that he was just a poor boy who was lost because of his past and wanted to find peace in his religion. He may appear to be the villain, but I feel that it wasn't really his fault in a way...

Why I read it:

   My friend recommended it to me and I always wanted to read it so I just needed a kick up the backside to turn the first page and I was hooked until the end. :)

   There's also a film, which I was urged to watch, by others but you should definitely read the book first as it's so much better as always ;) 

Why you should read it:

  It's so memorable and Dan Brown's plots are gripping and fast-paced. He has many other books out including sequels to The Da Vinci Code, which apparently keep get better, and is recommended by many around the world. This novel really gets you thinking about different themes and feel for certain characters. A very interesting and intriguing read altogether. For those with an open mind willing to read something that will provoke your thoughts in many ways.

~White Ravens~