Little Read Writing Hood

Rating: 6/10  Overview:  This twisted, something-in-the-woods tale captures the story of two sisters and their struggling relationship, which only worsens after one goes missing and one is left to choose between the worlds of real and make-believe. Skye and Deirdre have always loved playing with homemade monsters in their imaginary kingdoms, but when Skye decides it's time to grow up and begins pulling away from Deirdre to trade her life of pretend with new highschool friends, Deirdre starts to change too. Disappearing further into herself, the monster playmates she crafts take on a darker note as the time she spends in the woods grows longer and longer, until one night, Deirdre simply doesn't come home. When the night stretches into days and the police come up empty-handed, Skye realizes finding Deirdre is her responsibility and dutifully begins slicing away pieces of her new, normal life to offer up as sacrifices to the whispering voices who pulled her sister into the swamp.

If you're one of those lucky people who currently find yourself with more free time than you know what to do with thanks to this unfortunate virus, keep reading. I have generously compiled a list of challenges for your reading/writing pleasure. Use this list as you best see fit during these trying times and feel free to post any challenges of your own in the comments. 1. Read a book that is entirely out of your realm of interest and write down a list of 10 things you learned from the experience. You might pick up some writing dos and don'ts or just learn something new about a topic you've never explored before. 2. Write down the first sentence someone says to you today (or it could be the first sentence of an email since, you know, social distancing) and make it the first sentence of a new story. See how far you go from there. You could write a whole page, a whole chapter, or a whole novel! 3. Find a book that has been turned into a movie. Read the book, then watch the movi

Today I would like to briefly discuss something I've dubbed "Genre Hopping." Basically, Genre Hopping means reading or writing different books in different genres. In case you're new and not familiar with how book genres work, here are a few examples I grabbed from a list online. Fantasy Adventure Romance Contemporary Dystopian Mystery Horror Thriller Paranormal Historical fiction Science Fiction Memoir Cooking Art Self-help / Personal Development Motivational Health History Travel Guide / How-to Families & Relationships Humor Children’s Okay, that was more than a few examples, but you get the idea. Genres are just a way readers and writers and everybody else organize books into categories.  Now sometimes people can fall into a "genre rut," meaning they either only read or only write one specific genre. There are various reasons for doing this. Some authors write in a certain genre because that genre is particularly marketable. Some readers will stick t

Now I know what you're thinking. Seriously, a new book? Shouldn't you finish the one you've been working on FOR YEARS before just randomly swerving into a whole other lane? Well, the surprising answer is, no, you shouldn't. And can I just say that this was an incredibly painful realization for me to come to. I've always been the kind of person that will not, under any circumstances, walk away from an unfinished project. It just eats away at me, sitting there in all its unfinishedness, until I can't take it anymore and get it done regardless of whether I have time or not. Apparently, you can't always have that approach with books. I've mentioned my biggest project a few times before, but for those of you who are new to the scene, I've been working on a four-book fantasy series for about four years now. For the most part, those four years of writing were amazing. Writing is truly my passion, and nothing makes me happier than creating thro

I am here today to speak to everyone suffering through my least favorite part of the writing process: Editing. We all know about this accursed task, and I'm willing to bet we've all participated in it more than once.  Unfortunately, editing is important. We'll get into why later. First, let's look at the different types of editing real quick, just for some background. I tried googling the different types of editing and got WAY too many results (like nine or something), so I'm going to be original and try to explain it to you in my own words, without using the official internet definition as a jumping-off point like I usually do.  When I think of editing, I break it up into these three types.  Type One: Editing for Content This basically means I read through my fully written book and mark plot holes, confusing situations, or just things I need to double-check (like a character's eye color or something). Notice I said the book should be ful

Rating:  7/10  Overview:   Days of Blood and Starlight is the second book in Laini Taylor's trilogy, which tells of an endless war between the angels and the chimaera. The first book, Daughter of Smoke and Bone , introduced us to Karou, a blue-haired girl who turns out to be much more than a girl, and Akiva, an angel soldier who falls in love with her despite everything he was raised to believe. (Find my book review for Daughter of Smoke and Bone here .) In Days of Blood and Starlight , the weight of so much hatred between their people has finally cracked the bond between Karou and Akiva, and now both struggle to find their place in a war they want no part of. With each grisly task they perform, supposedly for the good of their people, they find the truth has been kept from both of them, in more ways than one.  As a Reader:   Taylor totally pulled me in with Daughter of Smoke and Bone , so I had high expectations for Days of Blood and Starlight . As you can probably

Today's Random Writing Tip is dedicated to Ken Keever, who requested I talk a bit about staying motivated. I think this is a great topic because it's something I'm sure everyone struggles with at least once during their writing adventure. P.S. If you want a shoutout in one of my blog posts, it's super easy! Just send me a topic you'd like me to write on (it could be literally anything reading or writing related) and I'll do my best to tackle it. You can either contact me in the blog comments below, or on any of my social media accounts like Pinterest , Facebook , or Instagram . I'd love to hear from you! So, Motivation . What is it? After HOURS of research, I found two definitions for motivation: "the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving (or writing!) in a particular way" and "the general desire or willingness of someone to do something" Now I'm wondering, which one of these do writers struggle with the mo