Journey Through Pen And Paper

Here comes a bit of a controversial post to celebrate the new year, 2017. I've read many books in 2016, and while I have loved majority of them, it is no lie that there have been a few that I disliked. Greatly. I mean no offense to the writers, or to the people who love these books. It's great that you enjoy them, and by all means continue doing so. This is just my opinion. I hope you will respect that. In no order whatsoever:

My wattpad account may not be as interesting as this blog (not like this blog is that interesting, but hey, a little self promotion never hurt anyone), but it would mean a lot to me if you guys would check it out nevertheless. Wattpad Account :  TheAnonAlien I've written a few stories, and I'm working on my novel, When The Little One Speaks, so I can use all the support I get. Thank you so much.  Keep writing :)

NO SPOILERS. This is by far one of the absolute best psychological thrillers I have ever read. I love psychological thrillers, and this book is definitely on my top 5. It is so, so well written, I could cry.  Lisa Gardner has written a deep, disturbing story about a family with a secret. Maybe not A secret, quite a lot of secrets. The entire story line is so well developed. You suspect one person from the start, and it ends up being someone else entirely. I love it so much.  This is what I wrote on goodreads: The first page doesn't plunge into action. It drags you in slowly, and keeps you hanging by the last line of the first chapter. What you expect is never what is real.  Every character in this book is amazing. Ree, Jason, Sandra; they are all so unbelievably real. Each person is so torn, like broken china dolls put hastily together by white glue; each piece ready to fall apart with one touch. I loved every one of them.  I really can't write a spo...

One of the first things we notice about a book is, whether you agree or not, the cover. I personally find myself only half as interested in a book with an uninteresting cover than in a book with an interesting one. I have rounded up my recently favorite book covers into the best five. So here, in no particular order, goes my top 5 book covers of March. 1. The Martian (Andy Weir) The Martian really captures my eye, with the beautiful orange faded design. I love it's simplicity. The book itself is about an astronaut who gets left behind on Mars, and has to survive on the utilities available and find a way to get back to Earth. Haven't read it yet, but am looking forward to.

Another brilliant video from Jenna Moreci (can you tell I'm obsessed with her? I hope not) explaining how to evoke emotion through your writing. One of the many complaints I got from beta readers was that my writing failed to touch them. It is a serious issue. Readers will get bored of a book that they can't connect with. Jenna explained it in an easy-to-understand way, and I hope this helps other writers as much as it helped me. ALSO check out the prologue and first two chapters to Jenna's new book, The Savior's Champion, on her blog here :  http://jennamoreci.tumblr.com/

I HAD TO SHARE THIS. It's absolutely perfect. Almost all writers go through the bullying phase where no one believes that they are capable, or that writing is even a career choice. This video is for all those who have been told that writing is going to make you a 'homeless failure' one day.  All the thanks in the world to Jenna Moreci for making this. You go, girl. 

Recently, I have been having some problems staying confident about the novel I’m working on. I kept thinking that every line I wrote was not good enough. These insecurities have always been with me, ever since I started to write, but over the last few weeks, they had become much too difficult to handle. Yesterday, these insecurities became too problematic, and in a moment of desperation and impulse, I posted a question on Jenna Moreci’s blog. She is a talented writer, who has written a book called 'Eve : The Awakening' (I'd recommend it, it's awesome). I wrote about how I’ve been having confidence problems for some time, and I asked her how to get over it.  This is what she told me: How do you stay confident? You don’t. Who said writers are confident? Moments of doubt and insecurity kinda come with the territory. The only thing that separates a published author from an unpublished writer is the fact that the author had the courage to get the book done. If you’re...

Writing is hard. Sitting at the laptop, your butt numb from being pressed against the hard chair for too long, your fingers cramped, and your eyes bloodshot - writing is probably the most painful thing I have ever put upon myself. Both physically and mentally. All us aspiring writers are almost the same. We like the same things (preferably Netflix, coffee, books, and sweatpants), and we hate the same things (mostly bras, parties, social gatherings, family reunions, anything with any kind of socializing whatsoever). Most importantly, we LOVE writing. It’s a lust that was probably instilled in us since the youngest ages possible, followed shortly after the new found passion for reading. Now, it’s not as if all writers are exactly the same. First of all, no two books are exact replicas of each other. The English alphabet consists of 26 letters (would you believe I actually had to take a minute to count that?), and we are just one mass civilization using those letters in completel...