September 2011
22 posts
4 tags
Review: The Year of The Flood by Margaret Atwood
This book is the second in the MaddAdam Trilogy, following Oryx and Crake however easily able to be read as a stand-alone.
The story is told from the points of view from two survivors of the Great Flood, a civilisation-destroying event that is the basis for the plot but never actually explained to the reader.
The survivors Toby and Ren are members of a religious group who are now isolated and...
Review: Catch-22
A tale of a young US bombardier based with his squadron in Italy in WWII, Catch-22 is considered a modern classic and is on many people’s must-read list (perhaps because the term is in our everyday lexicon).
The main character Yossarian is tired of flying missions and has been plotting various schemes to get himself sent home.
The author Joseph Heller was an advertising copywriter and his...
Five People I Admire Most (writing exercise)
Five people I admire most - and why (in note form).
1. Michael (friend) - web and gaming designer
His drive to constantly learn new things about his craft.
His family is the most important thing in his life.
He’s always positive and optimistic in a generally tough art/field.
He’s able to problem-solve and think on his feet.
He’s kind at heart.
The example that Michael...
3 tags
Reading Sad Books
Do you avoid books you know are going to be sad?
I have watched movies that I’ve known beforehand will be sad or depressing but I find movies don’t affect me as much as books.
With a movie you are watching the characters experience the story in front of you, and while you may sympathise with them for those few viewing hours (and sometimes a little more if it got you thinking), the...
3 tags
“People say, ‘I’m going to sleep now,’ as if it were nothing. But it’s really a...”
– George Carlin (via suzywire)
Very cool.
Writing: Finding the Time and Place
Taking part in this writing challenge has been not only a matter of pushing myself to write but also an activity in discovering how best I write. I’ve never really had a routine – I’ve simply scribbled things down as they’ve come to me. Occasionally I have set aside time to write which on the whole I have found an unsuccessful technique.
When working part time at my previous job I had a fairly...
creative writing
I’ve just finished reading a book that initially I thought was ok but a bit dry. Just pulp. I did enjoy one of the characters.
In my creative writing I’ve discovered I’ve started writing my female lead with similar characteristics as the one in the book. I guess it had more of an impact on me than I realised. This is why I keep reading books to the end, and why I read books I...
I was all set to send off my final journalism course assessment as an on-spec pitch to a few gaming publications (one at a time, pending the outcomes of the pitches of course) but it occurred to me that at 38 weeks pregnant it probably wasn’t the best thing to do.
My plan was to send it off, get it accepted and sorted over the next few weeks and possibly in print by the end of the year or...
Journalist
I received confirmation today that I have completed my journalism course.
*celebrate*
Courage
‘Courage is the absence of fear.’ Sandy Mitchell, Innocence Proves Nothing
It takes courage to tackle that writing project. To schedule time; to avoid distractions; to keep writing when you’re unconfident with your ideas or characters or where they’re going. To tell people you are working on a story. To tell them it’s going well and you’re enthusiastic about...
I’m hoping that all this reading and writing and thinking about literature that I’m doing whilst pregnant will be somehow passed onto my baby, and my child will grow up with the passion for words that I have.
September Writing Challenge
Seven minutes a day. Just write, don’t think, don’t stop, just write.
Go.
August 2011
8 posts
Novel Progress
I have only just discovered Dystopian August (on 31 Aug unfortunately but at least that means there is plenty of reading to do!) and it has sent me into a flurry of creativity.
I have had a novel concept brewing in my head and on paper since last year’s NaNoWriMo however it hasn’t progressed much further than a few thousand words, stuck somewhat due to a motivational lull and creative...