Red Queen: Book Review

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard is a book I've had on my to-read list for quite some time. Set in a kingdom called Norta, where people with silver blood and supernatural powers rule over people with red blood, Red Queen is the first in a series of four books. The story centres on sixteen-year-old Mare, a seventeen-year-old Red from a poverty-stricken village who is doomed for conscription into a war she is sure to die in until she makes a very public discovery that she has a power much like those the Silvers possess. Unable to ignore the scandal Mare has caused, the Silver royalty decide to take her in and claim she is a long-lost Silver to cover up what they can't explain. From within the Silver court, Mare has the perfect opportunity to take down the Silvers from the inside and get the Reds the equality they deserve.

When I picked up Red Queen, I was very much expecting a high fantasy - perhaps something similar to A Game Of Thrones, though with less characters. So what I found surprised me. Despite being part of a fantasy universe, Norta has all the technologies of the modern day, including guns, television, electric lights, and security cameras. This gave the book more of a dystopian feel, which is certainly not what I was expecting, and it wasn't really what I'd been wanting either. Nonetheless, I tried not to let my personal tastes get in the way of my judgement of the book. After all, I would say it makes Red Queen a little more unique, with a world similar to that of The Hunger Games, but with the Silvers' abilities bringing more of a fantasy element to it. So if that's the sort of thing you're looking for, definitely give Red Queen a go.

As for the rest of the book, I found myself a little bored at times, and had to force myself to continue reading it. I didn't find Mare to be particularly likable and if you asked me to describe her personality, I'm not sure I could, at least not without thinking about it quite hard first. But maybe that's just because I wasn't paying close enough attention. Unfortunately, my disconnect with the narrator and protagonist wasn't an isolated issue; it meant that, in places where Aveyard built up suspense, I just didn't feel it because I didn't care about Mare and her situation enough. I didn't feel immersed in her world. Also, I found it a little too political for my personal tastes: there's terrorism, war, manipulative royals, detailed plots... It's quite a serious book (and slow in parts), but at least that means that nothing is romanticised. And speaking of romance, I at first found this subplot to be quite annoying because it seemed so predictable...

Except it didn't turn out to be predictable at all. In fact, by the end of the book I really liked how the romantic subplot seemed to be turning out (obviously, this arc is not finished; I imagine it will take many more twists and turns throughout the rest of the series).

And I'm very pleased to say that the other plotlines improved towards the end of the book too. By the last hundred or so pages, I was finally hooked; I finally cared about the characters and what happened to them. The suspense also increased hugely and, though I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, get ready for some major plot twists. Do not expect to see any of them coming.

In the end, I'd say that most of my problems with Red Queen are down only to personal preference: it's a good book, and I feel bad publicly discussing the bits I didn't like about it. But those last hundred or so pages made the last few weeks I've spent reading this book truly worth it, and I'll definitely be picking up both the sequel and the prequel (which actually sounds more to my taste than the original). I would highly recommend Red Queen to anyone looking for something similar to The Hunger Games, but if a high fantasy is what comes to mind when you read the blurb, I'd suggest trying a different book instead.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Week 3 and Week 4 Summary

So, this July's Camp NaNoWriMo is over. Done. Finished. This year, I worked on the second draft of my novel, The Secrets The Dead Keep, with the goal of writing 50,000 words throughout the month. But how did I do? Did I manage to complete the challenge?

Yes! I did! :D

Though I managed to keep up and even get ahead during week 3, I was unfortunately unable to do the same in the final week, which was a little worrying. Life got in the way, which included two days of travelling right before the last day. I didn't think I'd be able to write anything while in the car on those two days, but it turns out I can, in fact, fit my laptop on my knee, so I managed to write 2,600 words in the end. Which meant that, on the very last day, I only had to catch up 5,000 words rather than over 7,000.

Five thousand words may sound like a lot (probably because it is), but I know from experience that it is a manageable amount to write in one day (though any more would not be), so even when I had no desire to write in the morning, I still wasn't worried. By late afternoon, at which point I'd already written over 2,000 words, I'd found my motivation, and the rest wasn't too difficult.

What a satisfying sight this is:

However, completing my 50,000 word goal does not mean that I have completed the second draft of my novel. After 2014's July Camp NaNo, I spent all of August finishing the first draft, which amounted to approximately 84,000 words in the end. I intend to do the same thing this year: keep writing until it's done.

I'm not entirely sure how far through the story I am, as a last-minute plot change has messed up my novel outline a bit, though a little rearranging should sort it out. I've been writing my novel in Microsoft Word, with the sections written during July's Camp NaNoWriMo all in one very long document, but I now intend to transfer it all the yWriter5. As yWriter5 separates all the chapters from each other and all scenes within those chapters from each other too, it makes organising and planning a lot easier, though I found during 2014's Camp NaNoWriMo that it can stifle creativity in favour of a rigid plan. That is why I opted this year to use it only in editing and not in the original writing. Hopefully once this draft is finished, no more original writing should be needed: so far I'm happy with how my plot's going, so only minor changes should be needed. Fingers crossed that minor changes don't require as much rewriting as major ones do!

One of the prizes for winners of Camp NaNoWriMo is a (previously free, now discounted) proof copy of your book. Back in 2014, the deadline for sending off your manuscript for printing was the end of August, and, as I mentioned earlier, I spent all of August 2014 finishing the manuscript, never mind editing it. Formatting it to send off for printing the night before the deadline was a bit of a nightmare! So I'm very relieved that this year, the deadline is at the end of December, which should give me time to not only finish the story but edit it too. Maybe I'll even be able to place my order before the last day of the offer this time!

Congratulations to everyone who reached their word count goals in this July's Camp NaNoWriMo, and better luck next time for those who didn't! It's been a great month for writing and I hope you've all enjoyed it as much as I have. :)

Camp NaNoWriMo: Week 2 Summary

It's pretty much halfway point in this year's Camp NaNoWriMo, so that should mean that I'm halfway through both my novel and my word count, right? Wrong. Despite trying to get ahead so that I have less writing to do at the end of the month, I've mostly been playing catch up this week. After a couple of days with less than 500 words, I only just got back on track yesterday. Here's how my word count graph is currently looking:

So, we've established that I'm not quite halfway through my word count yet... But what about my plot?

Unfortunately, that's even further from the halfway point. But that's to be expected. Back in 2012 when I first attempted this story, I got to 41,000 words before giving up - because I wasn't even halfway through the story (and I was busy). When I finally completed a draft in 2014, the total word count was about 85,000 words. So I'm neither surprised nor concerned that I'm only on the fifth of my planned twenty chapters at almost 23,000 words.

On the bright side, I am happy with this draft so far. Sure, I'm writing it thinking "I'll need to seriously edit this later", but I haven't had any doubts about this version of the plot, so this may be the last complete rewrite. That thought is a very nice one indeed.

Also, I made a Spotify playlist of songs that inspire me and help me build up the atmosphere specific to my story and setting. You can find it here.

Find me on Camp NaNoWriMo here, or find out more about NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo here and here.

Happy writing!

Camp NaNoWriMo: Week 1 Summary

It's July! For me, this only means one thing: Camp NaNoWriMo. Being in the middle of my summer holiday and with no exams or deadlines looming, July is the perfect time for me to write. This July's Camp NaNo marks the fourth year I've been working on my novel, The Secrets The Dead Keep, and I'm really excited to be working on the second draft this month, after finishing the first draft during July 2014's event. Here's how it's going so far.

But first, for anyone who hasn't heard of NaNoWriMo (short for National Novel Writing Month, even though it's actually international... don't ask me, it wasn't my idea), it's a month-long online event which challenges participants to write 50,000 words within 30 days. The original NaNoWriMo is held in November, but a few years ago, the Office Of Letters And Light (the organisation responsible for the event) introduced Camp NaNoWriMo, which is held twice yearly - in April and July. For more information on NaNoWriMo, follow this link, and for more information on Camp NaNoWriMo, follow this link.

The first week of this July's Camp NaNo has been pretty good; so far, I've managed to stay pretty on-track. At this particular moment in time, I'm about 800 words ahead of my current target word count. I only missed the word count on one day, but I made up for my measly 500 words by writing 3,000 (!!!) the day after.

There are generally two strategies for completing: planning and 'pantsing' - i.e., whether or not you plot/outline your project beforehand, or whether you just start writing on the 1st of July and see what happens. Back in July 2014, when I finished my first draft, I planned. I planned out every single scene and... it felt like following Ikea instructions. The finished product was very functional (my mum loved it), but to me it lacked a certain something. It lacked that passion that was obvious in every line of the unfinished first attempt from way back in 2012's Camp NaNo.

This year I'm... neither planning nor 'pantsing'. That is to say, I made a plan more extensive than I did in 2014 (this one actually had an ending before the beginning of July; in 2014 I planned up to the middle of the story before I started writing, and then updated my plan when I actually thought of a suitable ending). But the difference is that this year I'm trying to look at my plan as little as possible. It gives me the confidence of knowing exactly where my story is going while simultaneously giving me the freedom and spontaneity of having absolutely no idea where it's going. It makes me feel creative even when I'm actually just ticking scenes off a checklist as I write them. It's bringing life back to my story and characters. At least, I hope it is!

The other thing that's making me more excited about this draft that the previous one is the plot changes. As I said, I only finished my 2014 scene-by-scene plan halfway through the month. This is because, despite having already been working on this novel for two years by this point, I had no idea how I was going to build up to my conclusion - or even what my conclusion was going to be. Eventually I found something that worked and slapped that in place. It was very obvious that it needed improvement. Plus, when you've been writing the same story for four years, you do need to keep it interesting for yourself. The changes I've made and the new aspects I've added mean I'm currently much happier with my plot. Let's just hope I'm still as happy with it once I've written it!

Find me (and my novel!) on Camp NaNoWriMo here.

Good luck to anyone else doing Camp NaNoWriMo this July! :)

Making Cheesecake (Student Style)

I’ve been unable to post much since Easter thanks to university obligations (apparently you actually have to study to get a degree), which is a shame because I’ve had two posts in my head waiting to be written since then; one about making Danish pastries, and one about the Creative Writing Society’s trip to Wales. But in the meantime, here’s one about making cheesecake with approximately half the equipment needed (and this recipe (and I’ll be writing as if you’ve read it)).

The first problem was that neither I nor my housemates own a rolling pin. The second problem was that we don’t own any scales. The third problem was that I very much doubted that the digestive biscuits I guessed to be about 250g would fit in one of our plastic food bags.

My first solution was to break the guessed quantity of biscuits up and sandwich them between two sheets of cling film and crush them with a flat dish. This didn’t go too well. The top layer of cling film kept sticking to the bottom of the dish and I didn’t use enough cling film so I still had to separate my broken biscuits into two halves to crush them. Plus, if I’d have carried on trying to crush the biscuits with the dish, it would have taken forever.

My second solution was to put the biscuits in the dish and use a tin can as a substitute rolling pin. This worked much better.

It was much easier to get the right amount of butter, thanks to the labelling on its packaging.

Melting the butter and making the base. The recipe suggests a round loose-bottomed tin and baking parchment, neither of which we had, so I used a rectangular tin and tin foil instead. I do not recommend using tin foil as it creases and tears very easily, which means your cheesecake will end up in odd shapes and will be very difficult to remove.

While the base was chilling in the fridge, I started on the filling. I had never seen a vanilla pod before! Also I forgot that, while we don’t own scales, we do actually own a measuring jug, so I ended up guessing the amount of cream.

Vanilla pods

WHAT A LOT OF SOFT CHEESE

Before and after mixing the filling:

Once the filling is spread on top of the base

In the end, I didn’t unmould the cheesecake as the recipe suggests, but instead topped it while still in the tin. Tesco didn’t have any strawberries when I went in for ingredients so I used raspberries instead. Rather than blending some of the raspberries and putting the rest on top, I blended all of them and then grated chocolate over it.

It’s been about two months since I made this recipe so it’s a little hard to remember the verdict. It was nice, although I would’ve preferred having more base compared to filling and strawberries probably would’ve been nicer than raspberries, which were slightly sour. Also I would definitely recommend having the right equipment – it would’ve been much easier!

Book Cover

Camp NaNoWriMo is around the corner so I thought I'd get ready by making a book cover for the project I'll be working on this summer!

It started off like this...

Then I added the bridges so that I didn't paint sea where they were supposed to be there, shaded the bridge and filled in light base colours for the sea and the city.

This is what it looked like when I'd finished painting the sea. Also note that I'd added the first harbour.

The city's beginning to take shape! I spent an entire afternoon painting tiny rooftops and even tinier windows and doors. If you think that sounds dull, you're right.

The finished painting!

Some details: the Central Clocktower, the Northern Harbour, and the bridges (Guard Bridge to the south, and an as yet unnamed bridge)

And finally - the finished product! It depicts the city that my story takes place in, Ivec Warra, which you may notice by the colour of the buildings and the bodies of water inside the city is inspired by Venice. It's not quite accurate to how I envision it but I'm by no means an accomplished artist so I'll forgive myself for that. Maybe one day when I've been painting longer I'll redo it, but for now I'm pretty happy with it.
I tweaked it a bit once I had it on my laptop, and then of course added the title and my name.

Find me - and my novel - on Camp NaNoWriMo here!

University Life, Part Two: The Cons

Previously, I've written about how great an experience university is (you can find that post here) - but that doesn't mean it's for everyone. Not everyone is cut out for studying. And good Lord, do you have to do a lot of studying.

Besides studying, university can be tough - in terms of organisation, mental health, and a whole load of other things. So here are all the things I've found that aren't so great about uni life.