Sharing Thursdays! 5/8/14

Welcome back to this weekly post of random stuff for me to share from around the internet!

I got a Twitter! 
So follow me for everything interesting, randomness, and for the fun of it and I'll probably follow you back!

https://twitter.com/SarehLovasen

Web Posts To Take a Look At!

• This Contently Post introduced me to this new thing Facebook is trying called Facebook Newswire. Apparently its trying to compete with Twitter as a place for breaking news and the like, and wants to attract more companies to it. 
• This post  discusses the if Buzzfeed really knows the secret to getting things viral and other ways that Buzzfeed is changing the way we see news and media. 
• And as much as I all know we don't like taking finals at school, don't be like these college students who ordered a hit on themselves in order to avoid their finals! 

Music and Media to Think about and Listen To

• These Ted Talks for you to enjoy!
• The Way We Think about Charity is Wrong
• Does the Media have a "Duty of Care"?
• How to Seperate Fact from Fiction Online
• If you haven't heard of Lindsey Stirling, check out her youtube channel now! She's an awesome violinist who can dance and play the violin at the same time! Wow!
• Here's a new song by her that I just discovered! "Shatter Me"! 

Websites and Other Randomness to Look at

• Wasn't exactly sure if this counts as a website yet or not, but there's a kickstarter program called Storium that kinda reminds me of a role playing game or Dungeons and Dragons. But either way, you can check it out for yourself by clicking here.
• If you're a graphic designer or an artist, check out AIGA- the professional organization for artists and designers! 
• There's a website devoted to books that work on paper and wouldn't work well as ebooks. You can check out Wink-Books by clicking on its name (<---). 
• This picture about the opening ceremony of Woodstock! Wow, that's a lot of people!

Opening ceremony of Woodstock, 1969 pic.twitter.com/VGhEg8ACuv
— Historical Pics (@HistoricalPics) May 8, 2014

Story Time!
So I also recently posted a revamped story on Wattpad, called Those Crazy Years, that I'm really excited about! Its an exciting story about an alternative universe of the 1920s filled with magic, international intrigue, mobsters, spies, and mystery!

It was fashionable, you see, to kill.

In high style of the day, the Skylarks of New Haven have taken the city by storm. They were the bee’s knees, the big cheese, and everyone wanted to be just like them. They could sing, dance, act, anything they set their mind to, these girls could do. Everyone loved them and no one dared breathed a bad word about them. They seduced everyone and were called the “It” girls. Sexy, smart, fashionable.

But like everyone, they each had their own secrets. And sometimes secrets have a nasty way of revealing themselves. Its been over a year since James Royston disappeared while on a mission to save his kidnapped bride, and now his sister Juliet is determined to find them no matter the cost. But it could very much cost her life.

Thrown into a dangerous game of international intrigue, lies, forbidden romances, magic, and crime lords, Juliet will have to keep her wits about her if she’s to save her brother. But Juliet’s new friends have dug themselves into a deeper hole then anyone could imagine, and it might just take an outsider to save them. In those days it might have been fashionable, but now they call it, those crazy years.

You can check out the story here on Wattpad and take a look at my Pinterest Board for it.

Well that's all today! If you have more you'd like to share (whether its a new book you just discover, got published, music you want to share, an article, pictures, whatever) just let me know either in the comments or through the contact form underneath the author page!

Sincerely,
Sareh

Game Night! Fill in the Blanks!

Once upon a time (add name) went to/on a (place/ activity) and while doing so (name) met (another name) who was (adj.) with (adj.). (Name) loved (object/place/etc) and would often (verb) while running his (animal). One day (2nd person) decided that (he/she) would (verb) to (person). (Person) was (emotion) and (always/never) spoke to (name) again.

Really bad fill-in-the-blank, but hey, fill in the blanks and posted your responses in the comments! Or if you have your own fill in the blank story, let us know!

Writing Tips- How to Not Write a Good Pitch

Book pitches (or blurbs, but I like to call them pitches) are very important. One could argue that they're the most important factor in whether or not someone will buy your book. I'm sure everyone here could say that they've bought or picked up a book because those 250 or some words on the inside flap or back cover sounded interesting. But I think that most authors end up having pitches that ends up sounding like a bunch of other pitches. So what does and what doesn't make a good pitch?

This has been annoying me a lot lately. Mostly because it seems like I see it on almost every book pitch I read. And I'm sure you've seen lots of these too. And guess what, they're not unique or exciting anymore. Here's what I mean:

1. (Insert character name here) was a normal (girl/boy) who just wanted a normal life. Or something like that. Guess what, people don't read books because they want to read about someone who's life is probably just as boring as their's. And characters who may have had a normal life in the beginning, their lives usually end up never being normal ever again. So why have it? 
2. And nothing is as it seems... Blah, blah, blah. Yeah I get it, in every book nothing is as it seems. And do I really care? Probably not unless it's something really good. My advice: don't even put that in the pitch. It's boring and used way too much. In the book I'm writing, Night Lies, literally nothing is what it seems, but I say that no where in the pitch. Because I want it to be a surprise, something that my readers weren't suspecting. 
3. Nothing will ever be the same... We got that already. Especially when you began the pitch with (Insert character name here) was a normal (girl/boy) who just wanted a normal life. In what story please tell me, is anything ever the same afterwards?
4. (Character name) will learn some startling truths but not only everything else, but him/herself...Really? I had no idea that was going to happen! *sarcasm* 
5. (Main Character) will have to choose between two men/women. Something like that. I've already had this talk about love triangles. They aren't cool anymore. 
6. In a race against time...Doesn't everything end up being a race against time?

Now I'm not saying that you can't put these in your pitch, but when you're writing one, try to be original and not use the same thing we've seen over and over. People want something exciting and fresh, and while these are certainly exciting, they're just used all the time. 

But let's face it. Trying to fit your whole book into 250 (more or less) words is hard. And I'm sure every writer will tell you that. Sure some have it easier than others and some books have easier pitches than others. I've written several pitches for my unpublished books where I came up with a great one in a day while others took me a long time to get it right. 

Oh and the best way to make an especially bad pitch is to write a really good one, but then have the book be something totally different. 

Yeah I saw that once. 

No lie.

Well it wasn't in anything published, but I saw it once on Inkpop. There was this awesome pitch but when I went to read the story, it ended up being something totally different. I wasn't sure if the author meant to do that on purpose or if it was an accident. Because for all I know, the author could have just uploaded the wrong story and have not noticed. Although whatever the case was, it story wasn't all that good anyways. 

The point of that was, if you're going to write an awesome pitch, make sure it has something to do with the story. Because your readers will know that you lied and they will tell all their friends and you'll have lost what could have been a great book. 

Another tip, don't copy another book's pitch just because it's similar to yours and it sounds awesome. You'll most likely be found out and sued for all your worth because you stole some one else's work. That or people will assume that your book is a rip off of another great book and won't read yours. 

So what other things about pitches annoys you? Have you seen any other common pitch sentences? And have you ever read a book where the pitch was different from the story? 

Sincerely,

Peony

Book Review- Wings

Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. They were terrifyingly beautiful—too beautiful for words.

Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head. They looked almost like wings.

In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.

I've seen this book for a while and I've heard lots about it. I saw an interview of Aprilynne Pike on Inkpop and I saw that she said her Faeries were different from other ones. She said that she thought that she was the only one to make Faeries into pure plants. Well I remember thinking that she was wrong because I made Faeries like that in one of my own books...only they are not fully plants like hers. 

What I liked: I loved her idea of Faeries and how they are pure plant like creatures. While the idea is kinda orginal, I've seen it in other books but it just wasn't as explained as this book. You could tell that she did her research and I thought that was really cool. 

All the characters were very good, although at times David seemed the Mr. Perfect we've seen one too many times. And sometimes Laurel seemed like she wasn't a girl who could take care of herself. I found myself partly crying when we found out that Laurel's dad may not make it and when her mom was about to sell their old house. But then I was really glad when that Jamison guy came and gave her stuff to help her out. The only part I didn't like that him was that I have no idea who he actually is! He seems like he must be some kind of gate keeper to me.

I thought that while I like Tamani (his name is cool too) was cute and stuff, I thought it was kinda creepy the way he likes her. It seems to me that he's more of a stalker-ish guy who doesn't really like her for who she is but just wants her body or whatever. David was cute, I really hope Laurel ends up with David. 

The plot was good, I enjoyed how Laurel knew that there wasn't something right about the guy who wanted to buy their old house and how in the end she kinda helped fight then trolls off. I hope that in the next couple of books we'll see more of Avalon or whatever it was called and I hope that we learn even more about faeries. 

One of the things about this book that I didn't like was that I thought that the book took a while to get to the action and that it started out really slowly.  Overall I really liked this book and I hope to read the next two books. Hopefully, they will be even more exciting. 

So have you ever read a book where the author took a different look at something that's been done lots of times before? Did you like it or not?

Sincerely,

Peony

Writing Tips- Stories With a Love Triangle.

Note: Sorry about the past couple of weeks with messed up posting on Saturdays. We're taking care of it this week. And I'm posting this Saturday tip on today because I saw that no writing tip was posted yesterday. Jessika if you see this, post your post today anyways. Thanks everyone!


In this post I''m going to talk about something that Im sure all of us have noticed by now: love triangles. And for those of us who have noticed them, I'm sure it is driving us nuts because there is just so many in books these days. Especially YA books.

I could list many books with love triangles (Twilight saga, Prophecy of the Sisters series, The Summoning books, The Iron Fey [maybe, we all know Meghan loves Ash but Puck is still in love with her anyways], The Hunger Games, The Infernal Devices series, Eona: The Last Dragoneye, Matched, etc).

Now while I'll say that writers love to use love triangles because for a couple reasons, 1) it adds to the story because while there may be something bigger going on we know that in most cases the MC will have to end up with one of the characters and 2) the writers might have their own reasons. And if you're going to add a love triangle to your story, I dearly hope that it's not just because you think there needs to be something more exciting.

And if there has to be a love triangle in the story I think there has to be a certain way to pull it off (at least in my point of view) I think that no matter who the MC or whoever ends up with whoever, that you cannot just randomly kill off a character or make them disappear so that the girl/boy ends up with the one you liked most or even the one they're suppose to be with. (I.e What happened to Gale in the Hunger Games?)

Plus then there's the thought, if you're trying to display a character realistically, how many of us actually have been or are in a love triangle? Not many girls I know have been loved or whatever by two different guys. Okay well one of my cousins once kinda was but it was complicated.

If you're going to have a girl be loved by two guys (or a guy loved by two girls) remember that you can't throw in some perfect, gary-sue character to be a love interest because we'll know. Make sure that both love interests actually have something to do with the plot. And make sure there's a reason the girl may be in love with both, and not just because one of them is super hot and the other is the sweetest guy ever.

Meeting random guys/girls and almost instantly falling in love with them is bogus, at least I don't like it at all. Like in Guardian of the Gate, Lia just seems to randomly fall in love with Dimitri even though they just met. And "I feel like I've known you forever" is not a good excuse unless there's a really good reason and not "I've been watching you or guarding you secretly". That's just borderline creepy and stalker-ish. 


But meeting a guy (or another guy/girl) and having them learn about the character first and then having them say that they may or may not be in love with them is a way to do it. And if you have to have two guys/girls in the story, they don't always have to be in love with the same person. One can be a friend, brother, sibling, or in love with another person. 


So let's sum this all up, shall we? 

• Don't add a love triangle to your story just because you think there needs to be something else to make it interesting. 
• If you have a love triangle, don't randomly kill off one of the love interests so the MC or whoever ends with the the one you want. 
• Make sure each love interest actually has something to do with the story.
• Don't embody one of them as your version of the perfect man; save those for your daydreams and not your books. 
• Try to change it up; try not to have one of them be the bad guy and the other the good guy. 
• Don't have an instant "love". If you can, gradually have the character fall in love with them or have a good reason for the character to love them when we meet the love interests. 
• You don't always have to have a love triangle if there's two leading guys/girls and the MC. One can be friends or be in love with another while the other guy/girl is in love with the MC or whoever. 
• If you're going for realistic or somewhat believable, remember how many people actually have ever been in a love triangle. 
• Also, not that I've seen this done, but try to not have more than two love interests. Then it tends to get confusing and messy. Just saying.

So, do you hate it when there's a love triangle or do you not mind them? Is there a reason why you do or do not like them? What's the best love triangle you've ever seen and the worst? Did a MC or character ever end up with the person you didn't think they should have? Why or why not?  

Sincerely,
Peony