Hey all!
This week's reviews will put two trilogies (one realistic fantasy and one epic fantasy) into their crosshairs. The trilogies are:
Godblind by Anna Stephens (@AnnaSmithWrites) and Winternight by Katherine Arden (@arden_katherine). I've decided to review the two of them because they were both unique in their own way. They captured my attention and didn't let it go and I even missed some video gaming time to read them.
I'll talk about Winternight first.
The Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden:
Winternight starts with The Bear and the Nightingale. This came out in 2011 and it has taken Katherine Arden about seven years to finish the trilogy. The Bear and the Nightingale. I'm reasonably sure you've all heard of it by now. If not - this is your chance. Buy the book. Read it. It's definitely worth it. Then buy the other two and read them as well.
The story of Winternight begins with some background (but it's by no means boring) about how a witch girl was born and the first few years of her wild life in 14th century Russia.
As the rest of Rus starts believing in a God and the monks who tend to this God the (hearth-)spirits/devils/demons (called chyerti in plural) of old Rus are forgotten more and more... which makes them fade and become powerless. But not in Vasya's family. Vasya (the descendant of an ancient line of witches) has the sight and makes it a point to deal with chyerti just as she would with any human ally. They are her friends.
Trouble arrives in the form of the Bear - the king of chaos - and Morozko - the winter king and king of death. I don't want to go too deeply into either of the storylines but suffice to say they divide into a really beautiful romance (albeit not so much in the first book) and a harrowing and uncaring enemy. In the second and third books (The Girl in the Tower and The Winter of the Witch) these villains and lovers are elaborated on and more dangers are introduced. Rus has to fight foes both religious/spiritual and worldly if it is going to survive.
Let me first of all say I'm not into romance. At all. I dislike the cringey YA romances where everything is perfect and a kiss is treated as if someone found the holy grail and I also despise the usually epic fantasy romance which is a) overdone and b) smarmy and rather fucked-up most of the time. However. I really enjoyed the romance in the Winternight trilogy. It's not obvious (at first) and it's subtle throughout. It doesn't make the (female) main character go crazy with besottedness. It is a partnership between two strong people and neither one takes crap from the other.
The second reason this trilogy is so beautiful is the story itself. You could say it meanders a bit - but at the same time the plot is razor-sharp without fluff. It meanders in the way that you're sucked into a magical kingdom and neither want to nor can leave. It's beautifully written and 100% worth the hours you'll spend on it. (And I don't say this about many books). It is truly a masterpiece of combined Russian folklore with... beauty.
Heck. I don't even like horses (at all! I'm serious!) but I really loved the horse-characters in this book. THAT is saying something considering all other books I've started that had talking horses were swiftly dropped.
Don't believe me still what a masterpiece this is? Buy it and see for yourself.
The next books we're taking a look at is Anna Stephen's Godblind trilogy.
The Godblind trilogy by Anna Stephens:
I'm not usually someone who likes 'THIS IS ALL PROPHECY' kind of storylines, and I still don't, but Anna Stephens must have done something right. I could put neither book down while reading them and it's still in my mind two weeks later.
The story was just incredibly well-written (with several POVs) and I just really wanted to know what happens (and what will happen in the third installment) at all times in the book. That being said... I disliked a lot of the characters. There are some whose only purpose seems to be to 'be there' (prophecy) and others who just change their personality in the blink of an eye. Then again this isn't really a problem per se. It's just how it is and my preference (and nothing is 100% perfect). I'm sure there are people who like Dom.
This trilogy then is completely different to Katherine Arden's Winternight. It's an epic fantasy whereas Winternight is more historical fantasy set in the 'real' world. The only reason they're in the same post is because they're both fantasy and I really enjoyed both of them in the last two-three weeks (and none of the other books I read was as good).
A bit more about the Godblind prophecy:
A lot of Godblind and Darksoul relies on it. Prophecy here, prophecy there, and one of the main characters is a prophet, and another (ok, more than one others) the CHOSEN ONE. As a result, a lot of the events in the book are caused by prophecy (at some point in Godblind even inexplicably, as in, it didn't make a lot of sense to happen this way), and yet, while reading it, it doesn't feel bad/like 'book explains everything because of prophecy' (cough Harry Potter). Indeed, the characters are very headstrong, and each have their own will, goals, and desires, and the prophecy part... Is not actually very very relevant at all. I'm guessing there might be another series after this is completed to make sense of the prophecy, or the prophecy itself is some kind of... 'It could apply to anyone'/'There are multiple peolpe it could apply to' plot.
Anyway. Godblind and Darksoul were the first really cool books I've read since Tim Pratt's The Dreaming Stars. I can guarantee you'll be sucked in and not let go once you start. In this case, the sucked in part also comes from the writing style itself. Anna Stephens doesn't muck around with endless description and boring fluff, but goes straight into action every single scene. It reads almost like a thriller, but it's definitely epic fantasy, and I'm really hoping the author will write more books in this world because I'm curious about all those countries mentioned which doesn't feature in these books.
The only caveat of the amazingness of these books I'd have to mention is the gore. The author's writing style makes it easy to read even when someone's getting nailed to a cross BUT the violence/blood/gore IS there. If you're a bit twitchy or faint-hearted this might not be the good for you. Then again. I usually don't read this kind of stuff and GOT was too much for me (I had to skip over a lot of writing/chapters while reading it) but as I've said above Anna Stephens has a very clean writing style which can put some distance between you and the book. It's almost sterile sometimes and definitely not as raw as GRRM's GOT but still quite immersive.
Does this sound like something you'd like? Read it and let me know in the comments what you thought! I'd love to get some input!
WriteBot.
Friday, February 22, 2019
Sunday, February 3, 2019
Reviews of three aquatic horror/sci-fi books
Hey everyone!
This week's reviews will focus on aquatic horror! I've always loved the ocean and water and therefore wanted to read something scary connected to it. I wanted horror... I got sci-fi and stories that mostly just fizzled out. Here are three ocean-themed books in short review:
(Note: I'm not going to include blurbs. Those are easy to find on google or if you click on the titles of the books in this post.)
The Swarm by Frank Schätzing: This was arguably the best aquatic horror/sci-fi I've read in the last few weeks. There is a reason it's a bestseller even though it's about 900 pages long all in all. This book is set in the real world although with sci-fi elements (in the form of intelligent bacteria) who are making a mess of the planet. It's not creepy and horror-ish per se but has a sort of slowly building 'terrible tension' instead. A lot of characters die - and all of their deaths are justified. There isn't much needless information (or red-shirt death) in the book and everything serves a purpose. The writing is sometimes a bit too philosophical for me (I'm not into long monologues about the state of the world, ethics, and morals) but for most of the book incredibly sharp with no words wasted. However, there are a lot of explanation scenes, where one character will be ignorant, and another the 'teacher'. These are quite obviously included to clue in the reader... which would be fine if it weren't so obvious and always handled the same way.
Character A: 'Do you know about this?'
Character B: 'Uh... no...'/'Uh... it would be good if you refreshed my knowledge!'/'Uh... I only know the basics.'
Character A: 'Here we go! A three-page tirade on THIS VERY SPECIFIC SCIENTIFIC SUBJECT.'
It's not terrible and a lot of it is useful but I'd still argue it isn't strictly needed to advance the story. Of course... if you're a science buff then this is right up your alley.
All in all the book was amazing and the whole of the 900 pages only took me some three days (not even reading the whole day) to finish simply because it was well written (I should probably say translated because I read it in English and it's a German book) and without fluff. I definitely recommend reading this!
Sphere by Michael Crichton: Here is a book that started well and ended disappointing. In a lot of instances Sphere is marketed as horror - but it's really not unless you're already afraid of the ocean and the creatures living in it. It actually is almost pure thriller with some sci-fi (could have guessed that by Crichton's other work). And because it is a thriller the writing drew me in immediately and didn't let me go until the end. I even did more than thrice my usual 30 minutes of stationary bike exercise while reading it. Hello 100 minutes of hard biking!
The actual story started out great as well. There's something at the bottom of the ocean and it's presumedly alien in origin. How cool is that! I'm sure there are more books with the premise (The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham comes to mind... but that was also a disappointment) but let's give Crichton a try! It was good until about 70% in. I'm beginning to think a lot of books are. Then it became weird in a bad way. The premise of the alien spaceship crashing into Earth's oceans (with perhaps an alien prisoner trapped in the prison 'sphere' of the book's title) and weird/creepy shit happening while people are trapped in a submarine station at the bottom of the ocean is really cool... But then it turns out that while the sphere might be alien the spaceship really isn't. Instead it's human and from the future. Huh? A first red flag. Time travel stories usually don't work. But this is time travel PLUS some weird alien junk being deposited in 'the past' (the book's present). It gets more disappointing from then on. There are no aliens. The prison sphere doesn't have a prisoner. The predator who's been hunting the trapped-undersea people and killing a lot of them is the figment of one human's imagination. The prison sphere isn't a prison but some sort of voodoo ayurevedic The Alchemist -style 'you can make anything true if you just believe in it' yogi shit. It gives people the power to make THINGS true! And some people just have creepy horror ideas in their heads that haunt the whole expedition.
Zzz...
And then comes the ending... which is neither logical nor reasonable. The main characters (including a power-hungry woman) agree to 'forget' about the power they've found which in effect makes the power cease to exist. That would be ok all in all (since the book's disappointing conclusion has already been established) but doesn't make sense. Why would forgetting you have the power to do something remove all the physical evidence of the source of that power (as the book suggests)? Well. It doesn't. And there are hints that at least one of the characters retains the power anyway. Anyway. I don't recommend this book. It simply doesn't live up to its awesome premise and all you'll feel after reading it is let down.
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire): The book started out well. The beginning was creepy and tense like a proper horror and had me all high-strung with anticipation. I was very excited for the rest of the book. The first two thirds of ItDD lived up to that promise. Things became direr and direr the more words were read. The horror premise of face-eating mermaids in the Mariana Trench was paying off! Then suddenly around the 75% mark everything... fizzled out. The plot became boring and gratuitous. The main characters were in no danger whatsoever. Of a whole of six main characters all six survived. The rest of the cast (supporting characters and red shirts) were dying in troves and getting their faces eaten off but the main characters had so much plot armour (I'm guessing because the author really really wanted to have a happy ending to the book) the whole book was ruined. The only characters who died were the assholes every reader wants to die anyway. The story lost approximately all of its credibility when ALL the good main characters survived and ALL the bad guys died. Had the author not been trying so hard to keep her darlings alive the stakes might have been higher and tension up until the end of the book. As it was it was quite evident McGuire was afraid of killing her darlings (even though at least a few out of the six should have died) and therefore this book doesn't get a recommendation from me.
Have you read any of these books? Let me know what you think! I'd love to know your opinion on these books!
WriteBot.
This week's reviews will focus on aquatic horror! I've always loved the ocean and water and therefore wanted to read something scary connected to it. I wanted horror... I got sci-fi and stories that mostly just fizzled out. Here are three ocean-themed books in short review:
(Note: I'm not going to include blurbs. Those are easy to find on google or if you click on the titles of the books in this post.)
The Swarm by Frank Schätzing: This was arguably the best aquatic horror/sci-fi I've read in the last few weeks. There is a reason it's a bestseller even though it's about 900 pages long all in all. This book is set in the real world although with sci-fi elements (in the form of intelligent bacteria) who are making a mess of the planet. It's not creepy and horror-ish per se but has a sort of slowly building 'terrible tension' instead. A lot of characters die - and all of their deaths are justified. There isn't much needless information (or red-shirt death) in the book and everything serves a purpose. The writing is sometimes a bit too philosophical for me (I'm not into long monologues about the state of the world, ethics, and morals) but for most of the book incredibly sharp with no words wasted. However, there are a lot of explanation scenes, where one character will be ignorant, and another the 'teacher'. These are quite obviously included to clue in the reader... which would be fine if it weren't so obvious and always handled the same way.
Character A: 'Do you know about this?'
Character B: 'Uh... no...'/'Uh... it would be good if you refreshed my knowledge!'/'Uh... I only know the basics.'
Character A: 'Here we go! A three-page tirade on THIS VERY SPECIFIC SCIENTIFIC SUBJECT.'
It's not terrible and a lot of it is useful but I'd still argue it isn't strictly needed to advance the story. Of course... if you're a science buff then this is right up your alley.
All in all the book was amazing and the whole of the 900 pages only took me some three days (not even reading the whole day) to finish simply because it was well written (I should probably say translated because I read it in English and it's a German book) and without fluff. I definitely recommend reading this!
Sphere by Michael Crichton: Here is a book that started well and ended disappointing. In a lot of instances Sphere is marketed as horror - but it's really not unless you're already afraid of the ocean and the creatures living in it. It actually is almost pure thriller with some sci-fi (could have guessed that by Crichton's other work). And because it is a thriller the writing drew me in immediately and didn't let me go until the end. I even did more than thrice my usual 30 minutes of stationary bike exercise while reading it. Hello 100 minutes of hard biking!
The actual story started out great as well. There's something at the bottom of the ocean and it's presumedly alien in origin. How cool is that! I'm sure there are more books with the premise (The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham comes to mind... but that was also a disappointment) but let's give Crichton a try! It was good until about 70% in. I'm beginning to think a lot of books are. Then it became weird in a bad way. The premise of the alien spaceship crashing into Earth's oceans (with perhaps an alien prisoner trapped in the prison 'sphere' of the book's title) and weird/creepy shit happening while people are trapped in a submarine station at the bottom of the ocean is really cool... But then it turns out that while the sphere might be alien the spaceship really isn't. Instead it's human and from the future. Huh? A first red flag. Time travel stories usually don't work. But this is time travel PLUS some weird alien junk being deposited in 'the past' (the book's present). It gets more disappointing from then on. There are no aliens. The prison sphere doesn't have a prisoner. The predator who's been hunting the trapped-undersea people and killing a lot of them is the figment of one human's imagination. The prison sphere isn't a prison but some sort of voodoo ayurevedic The Alchemist -style 'you can make anything true if you just believe in it' yogi shit. It gives people the power to make THINGS true! And some people just have creepy horror ideas in their heads that haunt the whole expedition.
Zzz...
And then comes the ending... which is neither logical nor reasonable. The main characters (including a power-hungry woman) agree to 'forget' about the power they've found which in effect makes the power cease to exist. That would be ok all in all (since the book's disappointing conclusion has already been established) but doesn't make sense. Why would forgetting you have the power to do something remove all the physical evidence of the source of that power (as the book suggests)? Well. It doesn't. And there are hints that at least one of the characters retains the power anyway. Anyway. I don't recommend this book. It simply doesn't live up to its awesome premise and all you'll feel after reading it is let down.
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire): The book started out well. The beginning was creepy and tense like a proper horror and had me all high-strung with anticipation. I was very excited for the rest of the book. The first two thirds of ItDD lived up to that promise. Things became direr and direr the more words were read. The horror premise of face-eating mermaids in the Mariana Trench was paying off! Then suddenly around the 75% mark everything... fizzled out. The plot became boring and gratuitous. The main characters were in no danger whatsoever. Of a whole of six main characters all six survived. The rest of the cast (supporting characters and red shirts) were dying in troves and getting their faces eaten off but the main characters had so much plot armour (I'm guessing because the author really really wanted to have a happy ending to the book) the whole book was ruined. The only characters who died were the assholes every reader wants to die anyway. The story lost approximately all of its credibility when ALL the good main characters survived and ALL the bad guys died. Had the author not been trying so hard to keep her darlings alive the stakes might have been higher and tension up until the end of the book. As it was it was quite evident McGuire was afraid of killing her darlings (even though at least a few out of the six should have died) and therefore this book doesn't get a recommendation from me.
Have you read any of these books? Let me know what you think! I'd love to know your opinion on these books!
WriteBot.
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
FAQ: How do you know if you're good at writing?
How do you know if your writing's any good?
The first step to answering this question is to determine what 'writing' we're talking about.
Writing processes?
Your writing style (prose/words on the page) or your ability to put together a coherent story (plot/reader excitement)?
The Ability to obtain an Agent and a Publisher?
In this case we'll be talking mainly about two things:
1. your ability to write well (prose/words on page)
2. your ability to tell a story (plot/reader excitement)
Let's briefly go back to the question.
How do you know if your writing's any good?
I don't know. It's hard to tell. I've been writing stories since age 9 (although perhaps not as seriously then as now). This means about twenty (frequently) interrupted years of experience (= perhaps five consecutive 'serious' years all in all if it comes down to it). And I still struggle.
Proposition! Writing can often not be quantified. You can read a book and immediately know it's well written (prose) or not. Or you can get 70% into an exciting new read only to be let down by the ending and realize how much the author squandered their story's potential in order to keep their darlings protected (plot) and have a happy ending.
(Case in point! The horror novel 'Into the Drowning Deep' by Mira Grant. It started out with a really cool horror premise including aquatic beings ripping apart people and then progressively became worse because the author wanted a happy ending and none of the main characters could die because then the happy ending would have failed. It's simply not realistic when the alien horde is ripping off every other characters' faces but all six main characters are left alone BECAUSE.)
Let's try another author:
Is Stephen King good at writing (prose)? I don't know. His style isn't something I'd usually read and neither is his content. This doesn't mean it's good or bad. It's simply not something for me personally. BUT I can tell you one thing for sure: He's an incredibly strong story-teller. If he weren't then people wouldn't buy his books.
Another:
Is Stephenie Meyer a good writer (prose)? Is the Twilight series well written? I want to say HELL NO! The first chapter had my eyelids drooping and the second actually made me doze off. Twilight was the first book I couldn't even force myself to finish (a common practice when you want to read widely and even read crap sometimes to know what to avoid) and had to put aside! BUT! At the same time there are a lot of people who enjoy her style and with several millions books sold you can't fault her storytelling towards her audience. It's impossible to deny her ability to tell a story people want to read.
What follows out of these examples is perhaps that one must ask oneself not if one is good at the writing process - at putting words on the page - but perhaps whether one has the ability to tell a good story. Don't get me wrong here either. I say a good story and I mean a good story (such as the most of The Drowning Deep and all of The Swarm by Frank Schätzing) and not just 'a story'. Anyone can write a story. That doesn't mean it'll be any good.
(Case in point! My own first stories - and probably everyone's first stories - written at 9-14 years old were messy and usually went unfinished. The next batch of stories 14-21 years old steadily improved in content/ideas/prose if not in the finishing part. At the age of 21 then I finally finished my first novel-length work. It is a good book but of course has some flaws. These days? I like to write short fiction and fiction that makes people think more than the simple - often YA - adventures stories that were my focus during the ages of 21-25. But with the goal of 'making people think' comes another challenge. You can't get by any more with a good story. You need a superb story. And that requires a totally different skillset than a good story.)
So.
How do you know if you're good at writing at all? There are two rules:
1. You're bound to get better if you practice a lot. This means if you've written 100 short stories in your life and you try to practice whenever you can you're already much better than the shmuck who hasn't written a single story or even ten (including your former self). There is no way you can write 100 stories and not get better.
2. If you like it and it makes sense then it's usually good. I know. This goes against most of the advice you hear around the writer's water cooler. That's usually more like: 'if you think it's good then it sucks'. But I don't buy into that theory. I believe everyone has their own compass within themselves that'll tell them 'This sucks' or 'This is great'. Writing - like any art - comes down to personal preference. If you like what you've written then there are bound to be other people who will like it as well.
Does this last part mean your prose or story structure is objectively good? It might be or it might not. The only relevant question you should ask yourself is: Does this story tell what I wanted it to tell? If the answer is no (and believe me you'll spend the magical 10.000 hours and write the magical 1.000.000 words and still say no occasionally) then there's only one thing to do to get better: Back to the drawing board.
WriteBot.
PS: If you'd like to chat with me about this aspect (or any other) of the writing craft please write a comment in the section below! If you want more of this kind of content follow me on Twitter (@Jasmingelinck) and subscribe to my e-mail list through the short form on the right!
The first step to answering this question is to determine what 'writing' we're talking about.
Writing processes?
Your writing style (prose/words on the page) or your ability to put together a coherent story (plot/reader excitement)?
The Ability to obtain an Agent and a Publisher?
In this case we'll be talking mainly about two things:
1. your ability to write well (prose/words on page)
2. your ability to tell a story (plot/reader excitement)
Let's briefly go back to the question.
How do you know if your writing's any good?
I don't know. It's hard to tell. I've been writing stories since age 9 (although perhaps not as seriously then as now). This means about twenty (frequently) interrupted years of experience (= perhaps five consecutive 'serious' years all in all if it comes down to it). And I still struggle.
Proposition! Writing can often not be quantified. You can read a book and immediately know it's well written (prose) or not. Or you can get 70% into an exciting new read only to be let down by the ending and realize how much the author squandered their story's potential in order to keep their darlings protected (plot) and have a happy ending.
(Case in point! The horror novel 'Into the Drowning Deep' by Mira Grant. It started out with a really cool horror premise including aquatic beings ripping apart people and then progressively became worse because the author wanted a happy ending and none of the main characters could die because then the happy ending would have failed. It's simply not realistic when the alien horde is ripping off every other characters' faces but all six main characters are left alone BECAUSE.)
Let's try another author:
Is Stephen King good at writing (prose)? I don't know. His style isn't something I'd usually read and neither is his content. This doesn't mean it's good or bad. It's simply not something for me personally. BUT I can tell you one thing for sure: He's an incredibly strong story-teller. If he weren't then people wouldn't buy his books.
Another:
Is Stephenie Meyer a good writer (prose)? Is the Twilight series well written? I want to say HELL NO! The first chapter had my eyelids drooping and the second actually made me doze off. Twilight was the first book I couldn't even force myself to finish (a common practice when you want to read widely and even read crap sometimes to know what to avoid) and had to put aside! BUT! At the same time there are a lot of people who enjoy her style and with several millions books sold you can't fault her storytelling towards her audience. It's impossible to deny her ability to tell a story people want to read.
What follows out of these examples is perhaps that one must ask oneself not if one is good at the writing process - at putting words on the page - but perhaps whether one has the ability to tell a good story. Don't get me wrong here either. I say a good story and I mean a good story (such as the most of The Drowning Deep and all of The Swarm by Frank Schätzing) and not just 'a story'. Anyone can write a story. That doesn't mean it'll be any good.
(Case in point! My own first stories - and probably everyone's first stories - written at 9-14 years old were messy and usually went unfinished. The next batch of stories 14-21 years old steadily improved in content/ideas/prose if not in the finishing part. At the age of 21 then I finally finished my first novel-length work. It is a good book but of course has some flaws. These days? I like to write short fiction and fiction that makes people think more than the simple - often YA - adventures stories that were my focus during the ages of 21-25. But with the goal of 'making people think' comes another challenge. You can't get by any more with a good story. You need a superb story. And that requires a totally different skillset than a good story.)
So.
How do you know if you're good at writing at all? There are two rules:
1. You're bound to get better if you practice a lot. This means if you've written 100 short stories in your life and you try to practice whenever you can you're already much better than the shmuck who hasn't written a single story or even ten (including your former self). There is no way you can write 100 stories and not get better.
2. If you like it and it makes sense then it's usually good. I know. This goes against most of the advice you hear around the writer's water cooler. That's usually more like: 'if you think it's good then it sucks'. But I don't buy into that theory. I believe everyone has their own compass within themselves that'll tell them 'This sucks' or 'This is great'. Writing - like any art - comes down to personal preference. If you like what you've written then there are bound to be other people who will like it as well.
Does this last part mean your prose or story structure is objectively good? It might be or it might not. The only relevant question you should ask yourself is: Does this story tell what I wanted it to tell? If the answer is no (and believe me you'll spend the magical 10.000 hours and write the magical 1.000.000 words and still say no occasionally) then there's only one thing to do to get better: Back to the drawing board.
WriteBot.
PS: If you'd like to chat with me about this aspect (or any other) of the writing craft please write a comment in the section below! If you want more of this kind of content follow me on Twitter (@Jasmingelinck) and subscribe to my e-mail list through the short form on the right!
The Future Trajectory of this Blog
The Future of this Blog
I'm sorry to have been absent. I had to re-think the approach of this blog (and I'm not sure I'm done with it!). I've however come to and come to the conclusion that the blog as it was didn't work. There was nothing of real interest in the there (except the book reviews, which a lot of you liked!), so it has to change track. The new blog will focus a lot more on two specific things: 1.) MY thoughts on writing and 2.) Reviews/Analyses of books
The changes in style mentioned above will be tagged in each post. There will be three primary tags used:
FAQ: This is the 'my thoughts on writing' part. I'll be taking questions writers frequently ask and answer them with my opinion.
Review: non-fiction and fiction reviews of books I liked and think might be worth your while as well
Update/Current WIP/WIP: This is where everything related to my own stories goes.
This in turn means that there are really only three things this blog will focus on:
1. Writing-related craft questions
2. Book reviews
3. Updates on new stories I plan to publish
I expect the writing craft questions to be published once a week and the book reviews whenever it's relevant. I don't always read good books (unfortunately some turn out to suck after I'm 70% in - Hello Into the Drowning Deep!) and won't waste your time reviewing something useless.
The updates on my own stories as well are not really quantifiable at this point. I have a vague schedule with vague deadlines and that's the system that works best for me - but it also means it's hard to tell when something new will be out UNLESS I'm working on an edit right then and there. (For example: Once I start editing The Torn Planet I can be certain it'll be done in about two weeks. This also means the publishing schedule - taking account as well the time it will take my cover artists to create a cover - will be about fixed.)
As another effect of this re-structuring of the blog I'll also be cutting out a lot of the filler and make this a Busy Bee's Writing Blog (because who the heck has time to read through 2k words of blabla before the blogger gets to the point?). This means I'll stop wasting words just to make the blog post long enough to 'count' (in whatever arbitrary fashion). Instead the posts will be concise and details can always be added later should any of them come up - just like editing any book!
Today we'll start with a post on How you can know if you're good at the writing process. It should be up by day's end so check back here soon or follow me on Twitter (@jasmingelinck) or subscribe to my e-mail list (on the right-side sidebar) to receive direct and immediate updates!
WriteBot.
I'm sorry to have been absent. I had to re-think the approach of this blog (and I'm not sure I'm done with it!). I've however come to and come to the conclusion that the blog as it was didn't work. There was nothing of real interest in the there (except the book reviews, which a lot of you liked!), so it has to change track. The new blog will focus a lot more on two specific things: 1.) MY thoughts on writing and 2.) Reviews/Analyses of books
The changes in style mentioned above will be tagged in each post. There will be three primary tags used:
FAQ: This is the 'my thoughts on writing' part. I'll be taking questions writers frequently ask and answer them with my opinion.
Review: non-fiction and fiction reviews of books I liked and think might be worth your while as well
Update/Current WIP/WIP: This is where everything related to my own stories goes.
This in turn means that there are really only three things this blog will focus on:
1. Writing-related craft questions
2. Book reviews
3. Updates on new stories I plan to publish
I expect the writing craft questions to be published once a week and the book reviews whenever it's relevant. I don't always read good books (unfortunately some turn out to suck after I'm 70% in - Hello Into the Drowning Deep!) and won't waste your time reviewing something useless.
The updates on my own stories as well are not really quantifiable at this point. I have a vague schedule with vague deadlines and that's the system that works best for me - but it also means it's hard to tell when something new will be out UNLESS I'm working on an edit right then and there. (For example: Once I start editing The Torn Planet I can be certain it'll be done in about two weeks. This also means the publishing schedule - taking account as well the time it will take my cover artists to create a cover - will be about fixed.)
As another effect of this re-structuring of the blog I'll also be cutting out a lot of the filler and make this a Busy Bee's Writing Blog (because who the heck has time to read through 2k words of blabla before the blogger gets to the point?). This means I'll stop wasting words just to make the blog post long enough to 'count' (in whatever arbitrary fashion). Instead the posts will be concise and details can always be added later should any of them come up - just like editing any book!
Today we'll start with a post on How you can know if you're good at the writing process. It should be up by day's end so check back here soon or follow me on Twitter (@jasmingelinck) or subscribe to my e-mail list (on the right-side sidebar) to receive direct and immediate updates!
WriteBot.
Friday, January 11, 2019
Review of Succeed by Heidi Grant Halvorson
Hey folks
As you can probably guess by the title this post will be about Heidi Grant Halvorson's book 'Succeed'. (Or so I thought until it turned out my own experiences could become a prime example of why Grant Halvorson makes such a good point in her book). Succeed is one of the quickest and most useful reads (at least in the first third) I've read in the past few weeks (and if you're following my blog you'll know I've been reading a lot. This read at least 1 hour a day thing is working out well for me).
It's my fourth finished book in 2019. (Yes I'm just showing off with this statement.)
Anyway. I never thought I'd relate to someone who uses their children in examples as much as Grant Halvorson does. Seriously. There is something about them in almost every chapter post the one-third mark of the book. This doesn't so much offend me (no matter what that first line might sound like) as it actually intrigues me because this author (as opposed to other self-help book writers) brings almost as many day-to-day examples from her own life than just random laboratory situations into the book. That is enjoyable and reads a bit like a memoir rather than strictly aloof science.
I digress with the examples though. We want to get to the meat of the story.
Let's start with the most important message of the book: It is better to be someone who wants to learn and improve rather than someone who just wants to be good. Why? Because being good leaves you in a huge depression if at some point it gets so hard you're no longer incredibly good or find your work easy.
Case in point: WriteBot.
WriteBot has a history of finding things very easy and not challenging enough. WriteBot does... a little less than its best and still passes every test and project and problem with flying colours. Until it doesn't. And if it doesn't it gets depressed and can't work for months. Story of my life. You'd think a mechanical entity that lives only to write would do great at writing... and yet often there are problems not pre-configured in WriteBot's algorithms. These make WriteBot insanely unhappy when they cannot be solved as near-instantly as all other problems.
A lot of these effects (depression or feeling unmotivated or like a failure) come from what Grant Halvorson calls 'be-good' goals - which are essentially there to allow you to show off. In fact this 'be-good' mindset is a concept she talks about a lot - you have a certain skillset and you're good and you strive to show everyone how good you are. This works when you're trying to hit deadlines maybe or when you want quick results. Any results in these cases is often better than none. Not so in other areas of life/work.
Grant Halvorson then goes on to reinforce (for me) what I've learned after I realized being-good (her label for the kind of thinking described above) just didn't work. The only way to continue after you're somewhat successful and want to reach that HUNDRED MILE ALL IMPORTANT GOAL is to change your mindset to a learning mindset. This, Grant Halvorson calls getting-better mindset, as opposed to the be-good show off mindset mentioned above.
The rest of the book basically builds on those two concepts. There are optimists who often rush rush rush through tasks and do them well but maybe not excellent (be-good mindset). They won't put much thought into what they are doing because they believe they will succeed either way. And on the other side of the spectrum you have pessimists. The ones who think of everything that could go wrong and work much more conservatively. Those are often the people who take their time and try to get-better at things.
Of course it's not that simple. There are other factors to take into consideration as well but this post is simply an overview of the most important point in the book.
That being said... I do recommend you read it. It's short. It's written in an easy-to-understand way (while still being backed by scientific data of Grant Halvorson's and her colleagues' experiments) and the first third in which she explains why be-good can sometimes have disadvantages to getting-better goals is really worth it. The last two thirds are somewhat vague and perhaps a bit rushed for the pages they are given but all in all the book has given me some good information with which to work on my own goal setting skills. I hope it might do the same for you!
Have a good night/day!
WriteBot.
PS: tomorrow I'ma make Kimchi. I'm hyped.
As you can probably guess by the title this post will be about Heidi Grant Halvorson's book 'Succeed'. (Or so I thought until it turned out my own experiences could become a prime example of why Grant Halvorson makes such a good point in her book). Succeed is one of the quickest and most useful reads (at least in the first third) I've read in the past few weeks (and if you're following my blog you'll know I've been reading a lot. This read at least 1 hour a day thing is working out well for me).
It's my fourth finished book in 2019. (Yes I'm just showing off with this statement.)
Anyway. I never thought I'd relate to someone who uses their children in examples as much as Grant Halvorson does. Seriously. There is something about them in almost every chapter post the one-third mark of the book. This doesn't so much offend me (no matter what that first line might sound like) as it actually intrigues me because this author (as opposed to other self-help book writers) brings almost as many day-to-day examples from her own life than just random laboratory situations into the book. That is enjoyable and reads a bit like a memoir rather than strictly aloof science.
I digress with the examples though. We want to get to the meat of the story.
Let's start with the most important message of the book: It is better to be someone who wants to learn and improve rather than someone who just wants to be good. Why? Because being good leaves you in a huge depression if at some point it gets so hard you're no longer incredibly good or find your work easy.
Case in point: WriteBot.
WriteBot has a history of finding things very easy and not challenging enough. WriteBot does... a little less than its best and still passes every test and project and problem with flying colours. Until it doesn't. And if it doesn't it gets depressed and can't work for months. Story of my life. You'd think a mechanical entity that lives only to write would do great at writing... and yet often there are problems not pre-configured in WriteBot's algorithms. These make WriteBot insanely unhappy when they cannot be solved as near-instantly as all other problems.
A lot of these effects (depression or feeling unmotivated or like a failure) come from what Grant Halvorson calls 'be-good' goals - which are essentially there to allow you to show off. In fact this 'be-good' mindset is a concept she talks about a lot - you have a certain skillset and you're good and you strive to show everyone how good you are. This works when you're trying to hit deadlines maybe or when you want quick results. Any results in these cases is often better than none. Not so in other areas of life/work.
Grant Halvorson then goes on to reinforce (for me) what I've learned after I realized being-good (her label for the kind of thinking described above) just didn't work. The only way to continue after you're somewhat successful and want to reach that HUNDRED MILE ALL IMPORTANT GOAL is to change your mindset to a learning mindset. This, Grant Halvorson calls getting-better mindset, as opposed to the be-good show off mindset mentioned above.
The rest of the book basically builds on those two concepts. There are optimists who often rush rush rush through tasks and do them well but maybe not excellent (be-good mindset). They won't put much thought into what they are doing because they believe they will succeed either way. And on the other side of the spectrum you have pessimists. The ones who think of everything that could go wrong and work much more conservatively. Those are often the people who take their time and try to get-better at things.
Of course it's not that simple. There are other factors to take into consideration as well but this post is simply an overview of the most important point in the book.
That being said... I do recommend you read it. It's short. It's written in an easy-to-understand way (while still being backed by scientific data of Grant Halvorson's and her colleagues' experiments) and the first third in which she explains why be-good can sometimes have disadvantages to getting-better goals is really worth it. The last two thirds are somewhat vague and perhaps a bit rushed for the pages they are given but all in all the book has given me some good information with which to work on my own goal setting skills. I hope it might do the same for you!
Have a good night/day!
WriteBot.
PS: tomorrow I'ma make Kimchi. I'm hyped.
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
H1 2019: An overview of WIPs
Hey folks!
This year is busy! I've made a plan on my publishing schedule for the first half (H1) which I'd like to share with you (both for accountability and to keep you in the loop! Heh.)
There won't be any new stories published until March as far as the schedule is planned out.
In March we will have one novella (at least). A few of you will have heard of this before (especially if you follow me on Twitter or regularly check my blog)
The Torn Planet is set to be published on the 2nd of March 2019.
I am also working on a story called Heart of Askelion which is brand new and deals with the premise of lovers separated by time BUT not in a cheesy way. These two guys are true soldiers (knights actually) born into two different worlds (times) who only get to know each other when one of them (called Lorne Lionheart at this point) is sent to the other's (Captain Ash's) time to retrieve a catalyst that started a rupture in time which has now gone out of hand and is causing them to be overrun by an age-old race of warriors.
The tentative publishing date of this will probably be around May. But that's not certain yet. It depends largely on how my bigger project (Hourglass) is going by then.
The fourth project is another WIP currently in the editing stage. The working title is Mimicry and you can find more information on it by clicking on this LINK. There are also details about beta-reading opportunities in this post if you're so inclined!
This is of course only what's planned for the first half of the year. The second half is still a bit shadowy in my mind but once it sorts itself out there will be an update!
I hope this was informative and you're excited to hear more about all the projects soon!
Cheers!
WriteBot.
This year is busy! I've made a plan on my publishing schedule for the first half (H1) which I'd like to share with you (both for accountability and to keep you in the loop! Heh.)
There won't be any new stories published until March as far as the schedule is planned out.
In March we will have one novella (at least). A few of you will have heard of this before (especially if you follow me on Twitter or regularly check my blog)
The Torn Planet is set to be published on the 2nd of March 2019.
I am also working on a story called Heart of Askelion which is brand new and deals with the premise of lovers separated by time BUT not in a cheesy way. These two guys are true soldiers (knights actually) born into two different worlds (times) who only get to know each other when one of them (called Lorne Lionheart at this point) is sent to the other's (Captain Ash's) time to retrieve a catalyst that started a rupture in time which has now gone out of hand and is causing them to be overrun by an age-old race of warriors.
The tentative publishing date of this will probably be around May. But that's not certain yet. It depends largely on how my bigger project (Hourglass) is going by then.
The fourth project is another WIP currently in the editing stage. The working title is Mimicry and you can find more information on it by clicking on this LINK. There are also details about beta-reading opportunities in this post if you're so inclined!
This is of course only what's planned for the first half of the year. The second half is still a bit shadowy in my mind but once it sorts itself out there will be an update!
I hope this was informative and you're excited to hear more about all the projects soon!
Cheers!
WriteBot.
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Do you like magic?
Hey everyone!
I'm currently in the midst of HARD EDITS. They're really hard. I've been fiddling around with this particular project so long it's... not that fun any more to say the least.
But you know what is fun?
MAGIC!
It's actually great fun... and even better when you can visit the unique magic of many different worlds. This can be done in one of my anthologies - Worlds of Magic.
This short story contains the following stories:
Seafarer (How did the princess fall in love with the pirate queen?)
Lucy and the Magician (A lonely young girl's acquaintance with a magician leads to many gifts of friendship)
Catching Fireflies (A young kelpie has to convince his prey to join him in the depths of the lake. At the bottom, the prey's dangerous task will be revealed)
The Hungry Worlds (A thief steals a sword, but in exchange, she tries to save the village she stole it from from a danger that encompasses more than one world)
Into the Still Places (Two races who've been at war for aeons. A rogue soldier. Two princes intent on saving their worlds. They will have to work together to save their citizens)
The Path of Lost Souls (In a world far from our own, one becomes an adult by completing the Path of Lost Souls. It's one young man's turn to prove himself, even though his half-brother will sabotage his journey)
More than half of Worlds of Magic's stories happen off-world (in worlds that aren't our own). Lucy and the Magician and Catching Fireflies alone are set in the real world although it has been enhanced with... strange kinds of magic.
Half of Worlds of Magic's stories can also be read to children! Worlds of Magic provides three amazing bedtime stories and six exciting stories of adventure and strange worlds for the day.
Are you excited yet? Do you want to be taken to six magical worlds? If you have a subscription to Kindle Unlimited you can now read Worlds of Magic for free. If not... $2.99 will buy me a whole box of tea for the next two weeks! :)
And if you leave a review once you're done reading it? Well that'll just make my whole month!
Cheers!
WriteBot.
I'm currently in the midst of HARD EDITS. They're really hard. I've been fiddling around with this particular project so long it's... not that fun any more to say the least.
But you know what is fun?
MAGIC!
It's actually great fun... and even better when you can visit the unique magic of many different worlds. This can be done in one of my anthologies - Worlds of Magic.
This short story contains the following stories:
Seafarer (How did the princess fall in love with the pirate queen?)
Lucy and the Magician (A lonely young girl's acquaintance with a magician leads to many gifts of friendship)
Catching Fireflies (A young kelpie has to convince his prey to join him in the depths of the lake. At the bottom, the prey's dangerous task will be revealed)
The Hungry Worlds (A thief steals a sword, but in exchange, she tries to save the village she stole it from from a danger that encompasses more than one world)
Into the Still Places (Two races who've been at war for aeons. A rogue soldier. Two princes intent on saving their worlds. They will have to work together to save their citizens)
The Path of Lost Souls (In a world far from our own, one becomes an adult by completing the Path of Lost Souls. It's one young man's turn to prove himself, even though his half-brother will sabotage his journey)
More than half of Worlds of Magic's stories happen off-world (in worlds that aren't our own). Lucy and the Magician and Catching Fireflies alone are set in the real world although it has been enhanced with... strange kinds of magic.
Half of Worlds of Magic's stories can also be read to children! Worlds of Magic provides three amazing bedtime stories and six exciting stories of adventure and strange worlds for the day.
Are you excited yet? Do you want to be taken to six magical worlds? If you have a subscription to Kindle Unlimited you can now read Worlds of Magic for free. If not... $2.99 will buy me a whole box of tea for the next two weeks! :)
And if you leave a review once you're done reading it? Well that'll just make my whole month!
Cheers!
WriteBot.
Monday, January 7, 2019
2019: future WIP needs Beta-Readers!
Hey everyone!
I'd love to introduce you to another one of my projects: working title Mimicry. Mimicry one is a bit more YA than most of what I've written but I'm trying to make it less so (nothing against YA - it's just not my genre beyond reading entertainment). It is (of course) science fiction and deals with an alien invasion of Earth. It's also a bit of an older project I'm trying to clean up at the moment (when not working on... others)!
Here's a blurb!
The first chapter can be found here: (google docs link as always)
Do you think this is something you'd like to beta? Please let me know! I'd love some input. You can also just edit directly on the google docs document itself and leave a quick note requesting access to the full document if you want to continue! (This note has to include your e-mail as otherwise I won't be able to add you. Don't worry though! I'll never spam you with anything or give away your e-mail to third parties.)
Cheers!
WriteBot.
I'd love to introduce you to another one of my projects: working title Mimicry. Mimicry one is a bit more YA than most of what I've written but I'm trying to make it less so (nothing against YA - it's just not my genre beyond reading entertainment). It is (of course) science fiction and deals with an alien invasion of Earth. It's also a bit of an older project I'm trying to clean up at the moment (when not working on... others)!
Here's a blurb!
17-year
old Dalta Rim, a sentinel of the last human outpost, the city of
America, lives to put bullets through the heads of Others – the
extraterrestrials that invaded Earth thirteen years ago – but when
she finds a strange transmitter on one of her missions in the Sonoran
desert, she realizes the aliens are neither the only nor the worst
threat to humanity's continued existence.
The
Council, the post-Invasion government, is hiding something about the
Others that might be crucial to the survival of America and her
citizens, and they're prepared to go to any length to keep it secret.
Her life and that of her adopted brother, Jack, threatened, Dalta
joins the conspiracy of medic Owen Early and soldier Logan Pendray to
uncover the secret and find out what makes it so horrible it cannot
be allowed to unravel.
Their
investigation leads them to the religious cult that worships the
Others as messengers of God and believes they're the harbingers of
Judgement Day, and pitches them into a tangle of clues left by Owen's
late parents, the genetic scientists, Logan's father, one of the four
Generals of the military, and Dalta's own dead mother, who provides a
single hint written on the back of her pilot license. In the
meantime, the Others seem to be preparing for a last, devastating
attack on America, designed to end all of humanity, and the Council
is hard on Dalta and her friends' trail.
When
Dalta finally matches up the pieces of the puzzle and learns the
world as she knows it is a lie, she must choose between forgetting
the secret and keeping her life and loyalties safe, or exposing the
secret and forfeiting her life and beliefs in to save the humans and
humaneness of her nation alike.
The first chapter can be found here: (google docs link as always)
Do you think this is something you'd like to beta? Please let me know! I'd love some input. You can also just edit directly on the google docs document itself and leave a quick note requesting access to the full document if you want to continue! (This note has to include your e-mail as otherwise I won't be able to add you. Don't worry though! I'll never spam you with anything or give away your e-mail to third parties.)
Cheers!
WriteBot.
Saturday, January 5, 2019
2019: current sci-fi WIP: The Torn Planet
Hey everyone!
I want to introduce you briefly to another world I've been working on since late 2018. This currently has the working title 'The Torn Planet' and is (as the title suggests) science fiction. The first draft is complete at ~25.000 words - which makes it a novella.
It's one of my best stories if I'm any judge of this myself. It has a clear outline considering plot and the characters stand independently in the story. Although they are only three (five if you count the aliens) main characters their actions are clear and truly do speak louder than words.
The Torn Planet is about a time in the future when Earth has been entirely depleted of its resources and become toxic to human life. Those who had the money (big corporations and governments) built orbital stations (think ISS but much bigger) in order to preserve the human race. And since station life is difficult most of the people are in cryo-stasis. They have been frozen to be thawed when a.) a solution arises to Earth's toxicity problems (spoilers: it's not likely) or b.) a new planet is found to inhabit.
The company Ad Astra is one of those corporations that managed to build a station in time and saved a lot of people with it. They represent both a company and part of the United Arabian government. Their goal is simple: They want to get away from Earth before it gets WORSE. They know humanity cannot survive as it is at that moment (frozen and non-living by any most standards). They want to find a new planet to settle on but do not have the means to travel to it.
Enter Zinnia. Zinnia is the main character of The Torn Planet. Zinnia is a woman who wants to build a family (children are a big topic for her) and live a peaceful life on the station supporting her husband Beni's research into the science of wormholes. This is her duty as well as her desire even though she was 'built' for more: In the past her father (director Muhammed of the Ad Astra company/government) chose to give her genes (enhancements) that would aid in wormhole research but because she chose Beni and her family over going into science herself these enhancements have been neglected. Beni however refuses to have children as long as they are stuck around Earth. He promises instead that they will have them as soon as he has opened a wormhole.
But then Beni dies and without him Zinnia is momentarily lost. Her father implores her to pick up where Beni left off. With his death the way for Zinnia to unravel the mysteries of wormholes is cleared. On top of that she is promised a batch of Beni's genes to still have his children even though he is dead. IF she manages to create a wormhole and bring the Ad Astra ship called the Tree of Life to safety in a new galaxy with a new planet.
That's the setup of The Torn Planet in a nutshell. What happens next is (hi)story. It involves space travel and aliens. It involves betrayal. It involves irreparably broken hearts and damaged minds and the revenge of a super-human mind against those who have committed the greatest crime of humanity. And all that in only 25.000 words!
Are you excited? You should be! I aim to publish The Torn Planet before May. The exact date isn't yet certain but in a couple of weeks I'll be looking for beta readers and shortly after will update you on the fixes publishing date.
Stay tuned!
WriteBot.
I want to introduce you briefly to another world I've been working on since late 2018. This currently has the working title 'The Torn Planet' and is (as the title suggests) science fiction. The first draft is complete at ~25.000 words - which makes it a novella.
It's one of my best stories if I'm any judge of this myself. It has a clear outline considering plot and the characters stand independently in the story. Although they are only three (five if you count the aliens) main characters their actions are clear and truly do speak louder than words.
The Torn Planet is about a time in the future when Earth has been entirely depleted of its resources and become toxic to human life. Those who had the money (big corporations and governments) built orbital stations (think ISS but much bigger) in order to preserve the human race. And since station life is difficult most of the people are in cryo-stasis. They have been frozen to be thawed when a.) a solution arises to Earth's toxicity problems (spoilers: it's not likely) or b.) a new planet is found to inhabit.
The company Ad Astra is one of those corporations that managed to build a station in time and saved a lot of people with it. They represent both a company and part of the United Arabian government. Their goal is simple: They want to get away from Earth before it gets WORSE. They know humanity cannot survive as it is at that moment (frozen and non-living by any most standards). They want to find a new planet to settle on but do not have the means to travel to it.
Enter Zinnia. Zinnia is the main character of The Torn Planet. Zinnia is a woman who wants to build a family (children are a big topic for her) and live a peaceful life on the station supporting her husband Beni's research into the science of wormholes. This is her duty as well as her desire even though she was 'built' for more: In the past her father (director Muhammed of the Ad Astra company/government) chose to give her genes (enhancements) that would aid in wormhole research but because she chose Beni and her family over going into science herself these enhancements have been neglected. Beni however refuses to have children as long as they are stuck around Earth. He promises instead that they will have them as soon as he has opened a wormhole.
But then Beni dies and without him Zinnia is momentarily lost. Her father implores her to pick up where Beni left off. With his death the way for Zinnia to unravel the mysteries of wormholes is cleared. On top of that she is promised a batch of Beni's genes to still have his children even though he is dead. IF she manages to create a wormhole and bring the Ad Astra ship called the Tree of Life to safety in a new galaxy with a new planet.
That's the setup of The Torn Planet in a nutshell. What happens next is (hi)story. It involves space travel and aliens. It involves betrayal. It involves irreparably broken hearts and damaged minds and the revenge of a super-human mind against those who have committed the greatest crime of humanity. And all that in only 25.000 words!
Are you excited? You should be! I aim to publish The Torn Planet before May. The exact date isn't yet certain but in a couple of weeks I'll be looking for beta readers and shortly after will update you on the fixes publishing date.
Stay tuned!
WriteBot.
The Best of Non-Fiction 2018 (complete list)
Hey folks
This is a complete list of the two posts The Best Non-Fiction of 2018 Part I and The Best Non-Fiction of 2018 Part II combined and sorted by best book in each category (also sorted by best category) for your convenience.
Top Tier:
The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi: I love this book. There has been no better book in my life ever before. I actually loved it enough to buy a paper copy after reading it on my Kindle just to have it on my shelf (and that doesn't happen very often at all). This book (not 12 Rules) IS the Holy Grail of learning to live with yourself and working through/DESPITE your past traumas in a non-pretentious way. It refers heavily to the philosophy of Alfred Adler and I promise you it is impactful. If you read any book from my list at all then it should be this one.
The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz: Another book right up there with The Courage to be Disliked and How to Win Friends and Influence People. It's on an entirely different topic (The 10X Rule was inspired by it) but so so worth it! If you read two books from my list it should be The Courage to be Disliked and this one. It's so much more accessible than the somewhat reckless airy-fairy tips of The 10X Rule and written so much more humanly relatable. In essence it's a simple guide on how to improve your life by dreaming well (however without any affirmation or visualization crap like you find in some of the more etheric self-help books) and by working on bigger and more fulfilling projects than you believed yourself capable of/could even conceive of.
Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy: This one was great and definitely deserves the light red colour. In fact it should probably be pink to do it justice.
The title of the book refers to its content: Do your most important task (the biggest frog) first. I wrote a full blog post about it here: Review of Eat That Frog but for the sake of this list the gist of why it is so impactful is that:
a.) Brian Tracy does not waste words. He starts with relevant information and sticks to it. He does not add any fluff to his text and stays fully on course throughout. This is why the book is only 100 pages long (depending of course on your format) but it's so densely packed with information on how to get started and finish your most important projects it's 100+% worth the money spent on it.
b.) Tracy's tips are practical and can be used immediately. Do you want to become more productive in your most important work (your biggest frog)? Then read this book.
12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson: This was the first non-fiction of 2018 I actually LOVED. You can say what you want about JP as a person (and I'll not join that particular debate) but 12 Rules is highly relevant to everyone who wants to improve themselves/their outlook on life and the world. Of course, not all Peterson writes is Holy Grail material, and I would argue not much actually is, BUT in every chapter, there are nuggets you can pick up to improve your life and relationships. You can pick and choose what you wish to incorporate in your life or not. As such, the book is definitely worth a read.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: It took me a long time to get to this book. I knew it existed for almost a decade but couldn't bring myself to read it because the title sounds pretentious and fake as all heck. However... after hundreds and hundreds of recommendations I decided to give it a try... and it's great! It truly is an amazing book and not in the least pretentious or fake. A lot of people think 'But it will teach me to be false in order to make friends' but FAR FROM IT! The main body of the books deals with no-brainer tips everyone knows (such as smiling at people to lift both of your spirits and taking care of yourself) but needs to be reminded of because they are so easily overlooked. It also teaches you that when you are fake people will know and they won't respond to you at all - so it's the opposite of what a lot of people fear the book will try to make them do. I'll add my voice to this particular book's value: It's definitely worth it.
Second Tier:
Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande: This book is great! It talks a lot about the day-to-day business of writing and the fears you might encounter (and how to conquer them!). I recommend this for anyone who wants to be an artist.
Wake Up and Live by Dorothea Brande: The same as above but not focused on writing alone. It's a great book for everyone who feels slightly lost in life (I know I do...)
The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone: I've written a longer post about this one here. It's quite good if you want to have an overview of how much work you will be required to do in order to get ahead. It tells you basically to multiply every effort by 10 if you truly want to succeed. If you plan to contact 10 customers in order to sell your product, instead make it 100. If you plan to make 100,000 extra money the next year, plan to make 1,000,000 instead. In essence, it is better to fall short of HUGE goals than small goals. I believe this should be read once simply so you get the concept (and possibly change your working style for the better).
Give and Take by Adam Grant: A great book about leadership and becoming successful. The most important message of this book is (obviously) the importance of giving - not just in order to get, but simply to enhance your life. The book attempts to give you a blueprint on how much giving you should do and when/how to expect something back (to take).
Undoing Depression by Richard O'Connor: Highly useful/relevant if you struggle with mental health issues. You'll have to read it yourself to see the value of it. I simply can't sum it up well enough. Suffice to say it shows you how to deal with your dark thoughts and how to improve your life even if your depression cannot be entirely cured.
Atomic Habits by James Clear: A long review can be found here. This book is definitely worth the buy and read. It will reach you to REALLY improve your life - and in a sustainable way rather than all those 'just change/just do it' books. Any change happens gradually and in increments. Atomic Habits drives home that point and shows you how you can make habit changes permanent. It's really a useful book!
The Hungry Brain by Stephan J. Guyenet: This is a bit more in the health niche - specifically how the brain regulates how hungry we feel at any given point and what drives people to overeat. About 60% of it are incredibly useful and highly informative but the last three or so chapters drag. Here's a complete Review of The Hungry Brain. I personally read this book because I tend to stuff my face if there's something tasty around. It's gotten much better in recent years (after I started focusing on my health) but I notice that when there's something really tasty it's often very difficult to stop myself eating more than my stomach feels comfortable with. This book then was a way for me to understand why this happens (when consciously I don't want/need any more food but I still feel the urge to eat) and it did it's job! Recommended also if you're trying to lose weight!
The Runner-Ups:
Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker: This one is actually good! It looks at what successful people do different than most (spoiler: the most important difference as Simon Sinek says: They have a WHY that affects other people) that leads to them being successful in the first place. It shows you how many of your learned mantras about success (just imagine yourself being successful already!) are wrong and do not help you in any way. You should rather look at your own skills and/or weaknesses to find things you excel at.
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy: On the coattails of James Clear's Atomic Habits. A longer review again here. I would not read The Compound Effect without having first read Atomic Habits. All the concepts of TCE are related to (and mostly the same as) Atomic Habits - but it's not explained or written as well by Darren Hardy as by James Clear. This book is best read to deepen your understanding of atomic habits after you've read James Clear. I sort-of recommend it but it's not a necessary read if you've read Atomic Habits.
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron: This book was very hyped... but I found it mediocre at best. It has some good ideas but isn't in any way exceptional. It's a good read, still, and I do recommend at least looking at it to see if the content speaks to you, but don't force it if you don't like it.
A Handbook for the Productive Writer by Bryan Collins: Meh. I wouldn't recommend this. It's just a whole lot of blabla you can actually get for free on the Internet (and concisely from my writing tips page: http://jasmingelinck.com/resources).
The Science of Rapid Skill Acquisition by Peter Hollins: I don't actually remember this book at all. I think it's just one of those publish-as-many-as-you-can-to-make-money life-advice craps. Not recommended.
As you might notice there is one book (The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F****) that I left out. This is intentional. I did not like this book and found it useless. That's why it doesn't even get a spot on the runner-ups.
WriteBot.
This is a complete list of the two posts The Best Non-Fiction of 2018 Part I and The Best Non-Fiction of 2018 Part II combined and sorted by best book in each category (also sorted by best category) for your convenience.
Top Tier:
The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi: I love this book. There has been no better book in my life ever before. I actually loved it enough to buy a paper copy after reading it on my Kindle just to have it on my shelf (and that doesn't happen very often at all). This book (not 12 Rules) IS the Holy Grail of learning to live with yourself and working through/DESPITE your past traumas in a non-pretentious way. It refers heavily to the philosophy of Alfred Adler and I promise you it is impactful. If you read any book from my list at all then it should be this one.
The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz: Another book right up there with The Courage to be Disliked and How to Win Friends and Influence People. It's on an entirely different topic (The 10X Rule was inspired by it) but so so worth it! If you read two books from my list it should be The Courage to be Disliked and this one. It's so much more accessible than the somewhat reckless airy-fairy tips of The 10X Rule and written so much more humanly relatable. In essence it's a simple guide on how to improve your life by dreaming well (however without any affirmation or visualization crap like you find in some of the more etheric self-help books) and by working on bigger and more fulfilling projects than you believed yourself capable of/could even conceive of.
Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy: This one was great and definitely deserves the light red colour. In fact it should probably be pink to do it justice.
The title of the book refers to its content: Do your most important task (the biggest frog) first. I wrote a full blog post about it here: Review of Eat That Frog but for the sake of this list the gist of why it is so impactful is that:
a.) Brian Tracy does not waste words. He starts with relevant information and sticks to it. He does not add any fluff to his text and stays fully on course throughout. This is why the book is only 100 pages long (depending of course on your format) but it's so densely packed with information on how to get started and finish your most important projects it's 100+% worth the money spent on it.
b.) Tracy's tips are practical and can be used immediately. Do you want to become more productive in your most important work (your biggest frog)? Then read this book.
12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson: This was the first non-fiction of 2018 I actually LOVED. You can say what you want about JP as a person (and I'll not join that particular debate) but 12 Rules is highly relevant to everyone who wants to improve themselves/their outlook on life and the world. Of course, not all Peterson writes is Holy Grail material, and I would argue not much actually is, BUT in every chapter, there are nuggets you can pick up to improve your life and relationships. You can pick and choose what you wish to incorporate in your life or not. As such, the book is definitely worth a read.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: It took me a long time to get to this book. I knew it existed for almost a decade but couldn't bring myself to read it because the title sounds pretentious and fake as all heck. However... after hundreds and hundreds of recommendations I decided to give it a try... and it's great! It truly is an amazing book and not in the least pretentious or fake. A lot of people think 'But it will teach me to be false in order to make friends' but FAR FROM IT! The main body of the books deals with no-brainer tips everyone knows (such as smiling at people to lift both of your spirits and taking care of yourself) but needs to be reminded of because they are so easily overlooked. It also teaches you that when you are fake people will know and they won't respond to you at all - so it's the opposite of what a lot of people fear the book will try to make them do. I'll add my voice to this particular book's value: It's definitely worth it.
Second Tier:
Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande: This book is great! It talks a lot about the day-to-day business of writing and the fears you might encounter (and how to conquer them!). I recommend this for anyone who wants to be an artist.
Wake Up and Live by Dorothea Brande: The same as above but not focused on writing alone. It's a great book for everyone who feels slightly lost in life (I know I do...)
The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone: I've written a longer post about this one here. It's quite good if you want to have an overview of how much work you will be required to do in order to get ahead. It tells you basically to multiply every effort by 10 if you truly want to succeed. If you plan to contact 10 customers in order to sell your product, instead make it 100. If you plan to make 100,000 extra money the next year, plan to make 1,000,000 instead. In essence, it is better to fall short of HUGE goals than small goals. I believe this should be read once simply so you get the concept (and possibly change your working style for the better).
Give and Take by Adam Grant: A great book about leadership and becoming successful. The most important message of this book is (obviously) the importance of giving - not just in order to get, but simply to enhance your life. The book attempts to give you a blueprint on how much giving you should do and when/how to expect something back (to take).
Undoing Depression by Richard O'Connor: Highly useful/relevant if you struggle with mental health issues. You'll have to read it yourself to see the value of it. I simply can't sum it up well enough. Suffice to say it shows you how to deal with your dark thoughts and how to improve your life even if your depression cannot be entirely cured.
Atomic Habits by James Clear: A long review can be found here. This book is definitely worth the buy and read. It will reach you to REALLY improve your life - and in a sustainable way rather than all those 'just change/just do it' books. Any change happens gradually and in increments. Atomic Habits drives home that point and shows you how you can make habit changes permanent. It's really a useful book!
The Hungry Brain by Stephan J. Guyenet: This is a bit more in the health niche - specifically how the brain regulates how hungry we feel at any given point and what drives people to overeat. About 60% of it are incredibly useful and highly informative but the last three or so chapters drag. Here's a complete Review of The Hungry Brain. I personally read this book because I tend to stuff my face if there's something tasty around. It's gotten much better in recent years (after I started focusing on my health) but I notice that when there's something really tasty it's often very difficult to stop myself eating more than my stomach feels comfortable with. This book then was a way for me to understand why this happens (when consciously I don't want/need any more food but I still feel the urge to eat) and it did it's job! Recommended also if you're trying to lose weight!
The Runner-Ups:
Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker: This one is actually good! It looks at what successful people do different than most (spoiler: the most important difference as Simon Sinek says: They have a WHY that affects other people) that leads to them being successful in the first place. It shows you how many of your learned mantras about success (just imagine yourself being successful already!) are wrong and do not help you in any way. You should rather look at your own skills and/or weaknesses to find things you excel at.
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy: On the coattails of James Clear's Atomic Habits. A longer review again here. I would not read The Compound Effect without having first read Atomic Habits. All the concepts of TCE are related to (and mostly the same as) Atomic Habits - but it's not explained or written as well by Darren Hardy as by James Clear. This book is best read to deepen your understanding of atomic habits after you've read James Clear. I sort-of recommend it but it's not a necessary read if you've read Atomic Habits.
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron: This book was very hyped... but I found it mediocre at best. It has some good ideas but isn't in any way exceptional. It's a good read, still, and I do recommend at least looking at it to see if the content speaks to you, but don't force it if you don't like it.
A Handbook for the Productive Writer by Bryan Collins: Meh. I wouldn't recommend this. It's just a whole lot of blabla you can actually get for free on the Internet (and concisely from my writing tips page: http://jasmingelinck.com/resources).
The Science of Rapid Skill Acquisition by Peter Hollins: I don't actually remember this book at all. I think it's just one of those publish-as-many-as-you-can-to-make-money life-advice craps. Not recommended.
As you might notice there is one book (The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F****) that I left out. This is intentional. I did not like this book and found it useless. That's why it doesn't even get a spot on the runner-ups.
WriteBot.
The Best of Non-Fiction 2018 (Part II)
Hey folks!
Today's entry is an addition to my recent The Best Non-Fiction Books of 2018 post. I wrote the other on December 20 so there was still plenty of time to read more - which I did. This one is supposed to simply serve as an update to highlight the last three non-fiction books I managed to finish in 2018 still.
Here we go - starting with the most useful book first.
(Note: the key to this list is as before the colour. Red = good. Light red = amazing. Black = don't bother with this one.)
Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy: This one was great and definitely deserves the light red colour. In fact it should probably be pink to do it justice.
The title of the book refers to its content: Do your most important task (the biggest frog) first. I wrote a full blog post about it here: Review of Eat That Frog but for the sake of this list the gist of why it is so impactful is that:
a.) Brian Tracy does not waste words. He starts with relevant information and sticks to it. He does not add any fluff to his text and stays fully on course throughout. This is why the book is only 100 pages long (depending of course on your format) but it's so densely packed with information on how to get started and finish your most important projects it's 100+% worth the money spent on it.
b.) Tracy's tips are practical and can be used immediately. Do you want to become more productive in your most important work (your biggest frog)? Then read this book.
The Hungry Brain by Stephan J. Guyenet: This is a bit more in the health niche - specifically how the brain regulates how hungry we feel at any given point and what drives people to overeat. About 60% of it are incredibly useful and highly informative but the last three or so chapters drag. Here's a complete Review of The Hungry Brain. I personally read this book because I tend to stuff my face if there's something tasty around. It's gotten much better in recent years (after I started focusing on my health) but I notice that when there's something really tasty it's often very difficult to stop myself eating more than my stomach feels comfortable with. This book then was a way for me to understand why this happens (when consciously I don't want/need any more food but I still feel the urge to eat) and it did it's job! Recommended also if you're trying to lose weight!
The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F**** by Mark Manson: I'm not going to say much about this. I already did a whole review and my opinion hasn't changed. This book is definitely overrated. It's not 'cool' or useful simply because it has a swear word in the title and foul language throughout. It simply re-chews and re-chews what other people have said much better already. Don't buy it. (Or do if you think you'll like it. It's your money!)
These three books about sum up my reading in the last two weeks of 2018 (good bye good year!). I read a fourth non-fiction book actually but it's even less worth talking about than The Subtle Art. It was so generic and yada yada (with the author actually recommending things like neurolinguistic programming (which is not scientifically backed to be effective at all) and psychosynthesis (which deals with personality and the human soul - the soul as if it's a scientific thing one can measure)).
Anyway! That about sums up my experience with non-fiction in 2018. I've recently read another non-fiction (my first this year!) which was Seth Godin's This is Marketing (The colour key doesn't count for this one!). It's not as good as The Dip but there will be a blog post about it on Monday where I'll be explaining my opinion on it in more detail.
What have you been reading so far? Do you have any suggestions as to books I might like considering what I've read in the last year? I'm always happy to receive suggestions! (Although my reading list is already chock-full.)
I hope you had a great first week of 2019!
WriteBot.
Today's entry is an addition to my recent The Best Non-Fiction Books of 2018 post. I wrote the other on December 20 so there was still plenty of time to read more - which I did. This one is supposed to simply serve as an update to highlight the last three non-fiction books I managed to finish in 2018 still.
Here we go - starting with the most useful book first.
(Note: the key to this list is as before the colour. Red = good. Light red = amazing. Black = don't bother with this one.)
Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy: This one was great and definitely deserves the light red colour. In fact it should probably be pink to do it justice.
The title of the book refers to its content: Do your most important task (the biggest frog) first. I wrote a full blog post about it here: Review of Eat That Frog but for the sake of this list the gist of why it is so impactful is that:
a.) Brian Tracy does not waste words. He starts with relevant information and sticks to it. He does not add any fluff to his text and stays fully on course throughout. This is why the book is only 100 pages long (depending of course on your format) but it's so densely packed with information on how to get started and finish your most important projects it's 100+% worth the money spent on it.
b.) Tracy's tips are practical and can be used immediately. Do you want to become more productive in your most important work (your biggest frog)? Then read this book.
The Hungry Brain by Stephan J. Guyenet: This is a bit more in the health niche - specifically how the brain regulates how hungry we feel at any given point and what drives people to overeat. About 60% of it are incredibly useful and highly informative but the last three or so chapters drag. Here's a complete Review of The Hungry Brain. I personally read this book because I tend to stuff my face if there's something tasty around. It's gotten much better in recent years (after I started focusing on my health) but I notice that when there's something really tasty it's often very difficult to stop myself eating more than my stomach feels comfortable with. This book then was a way for me to understand why this happens (when consciously I don't want/need any more food but I still feel the urge to eat) and it did it's job! Recommended also if you're trying to lose weight!
The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F**** by Mark Manson: I'm not going to say much about this. I already did a whole review and my opinion hasn't changed. This book is definitely overrated. It's not 'cool' or useful simply because it has a swear word in the title and foul language throughout. It simply re-chews and re-chews what other people have said much better already. Don't buy it. (Or do if you think you'll like it. It's your money!)
These three books about sum up my reading in the last two weeks of 2018 (good bye good year!). I read a fourth non-fiction book actually but it's even less worth talking about than The Subtle Art. It was so generic and yada yada (with the author actually recommending things like neurolinguistic programming (which is not scientifically backed to be effective at all) and psychosynthesis (which deals with personality and the human soul - the soul as if it's a scientific thing one can measure)).
Anyway! That about sums up my experience with non-fiction in 2018. I've recently read another non-fiction (my first this year!) which was Seth Godin's This is Marketing (The colour key doesn't count for this one!). It's not as good as The Dip but there will be a blog post about it on Monday where I'll be explaining my opinion on it in more detail.
What have you been reading so far? Do you have any suggestions as to books I might like considering what I've read in the last year? I'm always happy to receive suggestions! (Although my reading list is already chock-full.)
I hope you had a great first week of 2019!
WriteBot.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
Hourglass editing progress
Hey folks!
I just wanted to give you all an update on Hourglass. A lot of you have made some edits in the early Google Docs chapters. Thank you for that! I really appreciate it. At this point however I've decided to take the manuscript off Google docs to work on it by myself. It's been a long time since I did an edit on it and I realized after your first few comments that it simply needs to be updated. That's what I'm currently doing and I'm at the moment on chapter two.
It has been going quite well. The first ten pages were easier than the most recent six pages. I couldn't even do more than six because it was just really hard. However I finished them and updated most of the manuscript on my PC (I edit on paper). They will need another edit (desperately!) but for now it's time to focus on the next few pages instead. If I get bogged down here, then I'll never finish it, and that's what this draft is for. To finish a recent edit of Hourglass.
I've also considered how to best keep you folks in the loop and decided it's probably best to upload a chapter weekly once they are publishable. This is what I aim to do from January 10 onwards. A chapter a week will be posted on Google docs (link shall be revealed on January 10) and you can leave as many comments as you'd like! I appreciate every feedback you have!
Does this sound good? Great! I look forward to seeing your comments on the new draft soon!
See you again tomorrow! Enjoy your day/night.
WriteBot.
I just wanted to give you all an update on Hourglass. A lot of you have made some edits in the early Google Docs chapters. Thank you for that! I really appreciate it. At this point however I've decided to take the manuscript off Google docs to work on it by myself. It's been a long time since I did an edit on it and I realized after your first few comments that it simply needs to be updated. That's what I'm currently doing and I'm at the moment on chapter two.
It has been going quite well. The first ten pages were easier than the most recent six pages. I couldn't even do more than six because it was just really hard. However I finished them and updated most of the manuscript on my PC (I edit on paper). They will need another edit (desperately!) but for now it's time to focus on the next few pages instead. If I get bogged down here, then I'll never finish it, and that's what this draft is for. To finish a recent edit of Hourglass.
I've also considered how to best keep you folks in the loop and decided it's probably best to upload a chapter weekly once they are publishable. This is what I aim to do from January 10 onwards. A chapter a week will be posted on Google docs (link shall be revealed on January 10) and you can leave as many comments as you'd like! I appreciate every feedback you have!
Does this sound good? Great! I look forward to seeing your comments on the new draft soon!
See you again tomorrow! Enjoy your day/night.
WriteBot.
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