Monday, June 29, 2015

binge-read this book, and I'm still not over it



Read it.

That is all.

...

Okay, not quite. Of course that's not all. You need more reason to pick it up. Just know that if one of your areas of interest is abnormal psychology, then this book will move you to tears while giving you an honest insight of bipolar disorder.

Isabel and Connor are friends who met at summer camp, where they served as counselors to teach children art. Connor fell for the eccentric, irreverent, out-of-this-world Isabel, and even though they've gone back to their own lives in different states after camp has ended they remain in touch via email and instant messaging. They talk about everything, share every detail of their lives with each other, including Isabel's negligent boyfriend Trevor, Connor's new gay friend Jeremy, and their families.

However, Connor soon realises that the brilliant, smart, and funny girl he met at camp experiences extreme emotional highs and lows that are making her more and more self-destructive.

Many times, the book hit very close to home. It's upon reading books like this that you feel you're not so alone in your emotions. It's like it sneaked into you and listened to all your thoughts. I cried several times throughout the story, and swooned many more times at passages like these:

“Maybe there's a galaxy with a planet that's just a little more tilted, with a sun that shines just a little bit darker, and that's where I'm supposed to be, where it somehow makes sense to feel this broken.” 


“Your memories of me are part trees and part ocean and part magic, and I don't know if I will ever be that girl again. She was the best version of me.”  

Connor to Izzy:
“You never heard me tell you that I want everything, not just the perfect pieces, not just the sparkling, charming snapshots of you. You never let me tell you that I want every piece of you, even the broken ones, even the dark places where scary things hide.” 

“Even though I was crying harder than I ever remember crying, even though I was sick with fear that I lost you, something about being held like that made it bearable. Somehow just knowing that there was that space for my pain, I don't know, maybe it didn't hurt so much. 
Isabel. Come home. Someone needs to hold you like that. We all need to hold you like that. You don't have to carry all your pain alone.”


And my absolute favourite:



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Seriously, if you're into abnormal psych, and are a sucker for whimsical prose and some romance, drop everything and read this book now.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

(Belated) Friday 5: 5-Sentence Story Openings



 
The stag head loomed over her, mounted on the door like the beast had decided to peer out just seconds before it met its doom. Its glassy marble gaze reflected her tensed body, ready to lash out in a crackle of energy at the slightest sign of trouble.
She tried not to list out the ways this meeting could go wrong, but Althen’s voice played out in a loop, almost becoming a mantra that braced her for her first meeting with Death.
Avoiding the stag’s gaze, she pushed the heavy mahogany doors open. It couldn’t be an omen – the stag’s fate was not going to be hers.



She watched the last of the parachutists drift towards the beach, where a crowd was cheering and clapping even though the team was one short. Maybe no one had noticed yet. It wasn’t the first time the explorers had returned incomplete.
The sun was still hovering above the horizon, as though holding out for the last survivor. There was still time – one could hope.



He found the journal on the train, a black battered leather-bound volume stashed between the seat and the window. Whether it was meant for him to find, he didn’t know. But he worked it out of its hiding place and gingerly cracked it open. His grandfather had told him to stay out of other people’s thoughts. But then erring on the side of caution had landed him in the enemy’s hands anyway, so there was no reason to heed his advice.



Red was the colour of her hair, the flush in her cheeks when she laughed.
Red was her dress at the ball she had never wanted to attend – she preferred to wander in the forest with me instead. But I made her go, watching her from the shadowed bushes far from the bright lights of the palace.
Red was the bloodstained marble when she plunged to earth like a dying star, the pawn in a ruthless game of power and betrayal.
Red was the colour of the sky when she breathed her last in my arms.


The town of In Between hadn't had a visitor for as long any of its inhabitants could remember. It wasn’t a proper place, after all, just an afterthought squeezed between two warring colonies. But the town was blessed with an abundance of rainfall and a roaring underground trade – two unrelated reasons the visitor cited for settling down. That was the year the town of In Between broke the rules by taking him in. They were no longer invisible, not with a rain thief in their midst, and everything changed soon after.




(Images taken from Pinterest and Tumblr - none of them are mine.)



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Feel free to create your own story openings! Have a fruitful weekend :0)


 

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Neverland is DONE!!

One script, three drafts, and more than a year later, I am finally - FINALLY - done with the complete first draft of No Room in Neverland.

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*throws confetti*

*does a happy dance*

*spends a day taking a complete break from Neverland*

*reality sinks in*

Now for the even harder part - crafting a query letter and synopsis. Because, really, how are we supposed to condense a 79,000-word novel into approximately 250 words that will hook a literary agent to request for the complete manuscript and eventually sign you on (query letter), or 500 to 750 words that will cover all the salient characters, plots, sub-plots, complications, and resolution (synopsis)? HOW?

*bangs head on desk*

*stares blankly at page*

*writes a draft*

*visits Tumblr*

*rewrites*

*posts an Instagram photo*


*rewrites again*

*keeps rewriting*

Happy Tuesday! :0)

Tuesday, June 02, 2015

June reads, pink hair, and manuscripts that just. won't. end.


I couldn't blog last week because work was relentless (ZALORA's digital magazine community is going live soon!) and I was nursing a fever, sore throat, headache, and runny nose last week (doesn't rain, but it sure pours).

Buuuut I'm back - with bolder, brighter, and pinker hair! :0)


I was going to go with just the darker copper this time, but it felt a little too dull. So I went and doubled the pink streak! Here were some hairstyles and colours I considered:

Totally leapt up when I saw this - SOOOOOO GORGEOUS!!!!! *__*

I'd love to go this red, but I'm not as fair as pretty Ms Han Ji Min

So I settled for this slightly browner tone like Tiffany's

Not gonna lie - I wish I had the guts and freedom to go as nuts as Laini Taylor because look how fabulous that shade of pink is! But my dad will probably flip. Maybe someday, if I ever make it onto the NYT bestseller list, I'll do this to celebrate!

My dad shook his head at the expanding pink strip as soon as he saw it, but oh well I love it. EMBRACE THE PINK! :0)


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And as if my May reading list isn't long enough, here comes another one for June. But with more swoon-worthy tales of literary apothecaries, OCD romance, mysterious guardians, kidnappings, and magical guardians, the reading list just won't quit! I mean, just look at these drool-worthy tales:


1. Every Last Word, by Tamara Ireland Stone 


A girl with purely-obsessional OCD finds her place amongst a bunch of misfits, and falls in love with a guy who plays guitar and writes poetry. Sorry, but I'm a sucker for stories like this.


2. Emmy & Oliver, by Robin Benway


Touted as a book to satisfy Sarah Dessen fans (that's me!), a girl meets her childhood friend whose father kidnapped him years ago. Ever since The Snow Queen, I've loved the idea of childhood friends who become lovers. Plus, this one has got all the drama and tears, so I don't care if the plot seems cheesy. It's not cheesy if it's well written. And based on the reviews on Goodreads, it sounds like it might be!


3. The Library at Mount Char, by Scott Hawkins 


"Father could do strange things. He could call light from darkness. Sometimes he raised the dead. And when he was disobeyed, the consequences were terrible." Don't you want to read it already? I know I do!


4. The Little Paris Bookshop, by Nina George


Books to heal a myriad of ailments and undiagnosable woes, a literary apothecary - sounds like a delightfully magically realistic poignant read already!



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And finally, an update on the WIP that is No Room in Neverland. 

It feels like I am NEVER going to finish this story. The word count currently hovers close to 79K. 79K! This is the longest I've ever written. Granted, it has two stories in one (Neverland Chronicles, and current day), but come on. 339 pages for a YA contemporary, really Joyce??

I'm trying to convince myself that it's better to write too much than too little. But that just means you might end up cutting out a lot of scenes that drag down the story. And that's just as hard as trying to thicken the plot! Conclusions are just as hard as beginnings, if not possibly harder. You have too much to lose by the end of the story to mess it up, so the pressure is ON to tie up the story nicely without making everything too convenient or cheesy or draggy or rushed. 

My problem with the first draft of Neverland was that it didn't have enough of a plot. But this third draft feels like it has TOO MUCH of a plot, and there are so many loose ends I haven't finished tying up. And I don't want it to seem like I'm trying to end everything neatly because that's just lame. A story doesn't end just because a book does ... Am I making sense?

One more scene. Two more chapters. And I'll be done. And then I can go back and hack out all the extraneous parts. Come on, Joyce. You HAVE to see this through. You've spent way too much time and effort on this to stop now.

Writer friends, how do you when to end your story?