how to conquer the evil villian WRITERS BLOCK

I never thought writing a query letter would be this annoying. Though it's not the actual letter itself that's giving me problems. It's the last paragraph. The one where I'm supposed to be like HEY MY NAME IS CAROLINE I'M COOL CHOOSE MY BOOK. Not that easy when I'm a TEENAGER writing and have NO qualifications whatsoever! Urgh. But on a bright note, I think I'm sending out my first submission or whatever to an agent today. I would send out more, but the rest of them require a query letter. Which I'm not done with.

Anyway today's topic of discussion is HOW TO CONQUER MY MOST EVIL NEMESIS MISTER WRITERS BLOCK!!!!!!!! Since of course he's not only MY nemesis, but basically every single human being who has ever tried to write something ever's evil nemesis as well. Ahem anyway.

Here are a few tips of mine that I'd like to share when someone who is writing a novel or a story or something has a run in with the evil demon.

1. Write something else. It doesn't matter what it is. Another story, an entry in your diary, poetry, WHATEVER. The more you write, the better you'll get at it. And writing other things can help teach you about your writing, which can help you with your story or book. As long as you're writing something.

2. Maybe the reason you're having writer's block is because you don't know what's going to happen next from the particular scene you're at. I mean, you know what's happening EVENTUALLY, but you don't know how to get out of THIS SCENE. Happens to me all the time. And you know what I do when that happens? I skip ahead. Yeah I know, some people hate skipping ahead. They think they have to write every single thing in order. But sometimes it helps. It'll soothe your nerves, because at least you're writing your book. And honestly, you can fill in the blanks later. My story had sooooo many blanks that I would just go back and fill in. And believe me, it's so much easier to fill in blanks than to stare at the wide expanse of emptiness and wish the damn thing would write itself.

3. Breathe fresh air! Don't watch tv for 4 hours or go on facebook for the whole night. Go outside! Take a walk! Clear your head! I know it sounds stupid, but clearing your head is really, really helpful, for just about any problem you might be having. If it's winter and it's cold so you don't want to take a walk, which I can understand since I live in New York, a very confused city whose weather got mixed up with Canada's this year, then meditate or something. And if you're not a meditating type of person or you don't feel like braving the cold, then do something else that will help you clear your head. Take a bubble bath! Just do something else!

4. Read! Because according to Captain Obvious, reading helps you with writing. And let's be honest. Almost all writers are inspired in some way at some point in time by something they have READ.

I'm sure there are other ways to combat writer's block. If you can think of anything else you should COMMENT. Of course I doubt anyone WILL comment, but I might as well suggest it, because we all must band together so we can defeat the evil demon of writer's block!!!!!!!! JOIN THE CAUSE!

but which of you can embody both swans? the white and the black.

So I saw Black Swan yesterday. And I have to admit. It was very very good. I liked it a lot. My heart was poundingggggg at the end of it. Like when the credits started rolling, my friend and I just looked at each other like WHAT JUST HAPPENED.

Basically, the premise is that this girl Nina is a ballet dancer, and upon getting chosen as the lead for her troupe's production of Swan Lake, gets so overwhelmed with the pressure, that she goes crazy. Literally. But there were a lot of things going on in it besides that. The big thing with Nina playing the lead role, is that although she plays the white swan perfectly, she can't seem to get the black swan just right. As Thomas (pronounced To-ma), the ballet director says, "The truth is, when I look at you all I see is the white swan. Yes, you're beautiful, fearful, and fragile. Ideal casting. But the black swan? It's a hard f*cking job to dance both." So also in this movie you really see Nina evolving from the white swan to the black swan. And at the same time as this, Lily, a new dancer from San Francisco, also comes into play. Lily's personality is like the black swan, so at first the image is Nina as the white swan and Lily as the black swan. They even have Nina wearing white all the time, and Lily wearing black. But as the movie progresses, this obviously changes because Nina too, with Lily's influence, becomes like the black swan herself.

There was just so much going on in this movie, and I don't really want to spoil anything for anyone. But there is just so much that I would love to say. Like my theories for what really set Nina off, what really made her break down. Obviously in the beginning she wasn't entirely normal, but she REALLY went off on the deep end by the end.

So here are the many things I think came into play. This won't spoil the ending, at all, but you might not want to read it anyway, because it does go into specifics for certain things. It's not that big of a deal in any case. I would read it if I were you, but if you're one of those people that can't have ANYTHING given away, then don't read the next paragraph.

Okay. The first component to Nina-going-crazy is obviously the career she's in. Being a ballet dancer isn't easy. There's a LOT of pressure. Also, Nina doesn't really have a life. She's sexually repressed, and it only makes it worse when Thomas basically starts hitting on her. Because he keeps like kissing her and feeling her up and saying stuff to her, and even though some of it actually might be to make her a better dancer (I know that sounds crazy, but you have to see it to understand), it kind of screws with her head, because she actually starts becoming very attracted to him, but she doesn't know how to express it. There's also this weird thing with Lily. Nina gets deluded into thinking Lily is after her role, but actually Lily seems to be a pretty nice person. But even before that, well let's just say it seems like Nina has a little crush on Lily, but again this might just be her being sexually repressed, so she's confused about her feelings. The final thing that sends Nina off into the deep end is her mother. Now, Nina's mother seems to be a very nice lady, but the problem is that she really babies her. I'm pretty sure Nina is supposed to be about college age (obviously she doesn't go to college because she's a ballerina), so why should her mother be cutting her fingernails for her? I mean Nina still calls her Mommy. Come on. So put all of these things together, and you get the delusional crazy person that Nina becomes. It's really too bad though, because she was a nice person in the beginning.

In conclusion, Black Swan was a very good movie. And though I love Inception to DEATH, I think it might beat it to win the Oscar.

how to publish your book

This is a post that I like to call HOW TO PUBLISH YOUR BOOK.

Unfortunately, no one should take any advice from me because I have no yet published my book. But I am trying. Oh so hard.

Well I don't know if you could say I'm trying just yet. Because I haven't submitted anything. But I can only imagine the torture and pain this will cause me as I get REJECTION AFTER REJECTION.

But here's how it's supposed to go.

Step 1: Sign up for Writer's Market. That is the only way to get a literary agent. And if you wanna get published, you gotta get a literary agent.

Step 2: Search Writer's Market for Agents. Make sure you read their stuff very carefully, and make sure you're doing the right thing. You don't wanna submit your epic romance to an agent who only reads nonfiction cook books. Just saying.

Step 3: Write Your Query. That's what I'm doing now. It's kind of fun. But also very nervewracking because this is what you will send to agents!

Step 4: Send Query To Agents. Make sure you follow their directions.

Step 5: Wait. They have a lot of stuff to read, so it'll take a month at the very least. And that's if you're lucky.

Step 6: Get Rejected. Either that or they just won't respond at all. Sometimes you'll just have to assume that you were rejected. I know, life's tough.

Step 7: Do It All Over Again. And again. And again. Until you get someone who says HEY GIMME YOUR BOOK I WANT TO SEE IF I CAN GET IT PUBLISHED. And then they will help you.

Step 8: Wait. See step 5 for further instruction.

Step 9: Get Fired By Agent Because No One Wants Your Book. It happens, and well the agent doesn't want to put effort into something that isn't going to make them money.

Step 10: Start Again From Step One. Isn't it terrible? That you have to start all the way from the beginning if your agent drops you?

Step 11: Get An Agent That Finds Someone To Publish Your Book. I'm just going to assume you succeeded the second time around. Because otherwise this would be a neverending loop of REJECTION.

Step 12: ...I don't know I haven't gotten this far. Actually, I'm still on Step 3. But I'll keep you posted on what happens.

If you think I'm being negative, I am, but unfortunately, this is just the way it is. Even if you're the next JK Rowling it might be difficult for you. I'm pretty sure she got rejected many many times. Good luck. Wish me luck too. I'll need it.

Mockingjay

1. I found out about the final Hunger Games book because I read the other two. Funny story about that, though I didn't think it was funny at the time, was that at the time I was reading the series, so were all of my friends for book club. One of my friends, Hayley, hadn't read any of them yet, and obviously she really wanted to, so she kept asking if me or our other friend Becca would let her read it since we were done. But the problem with that was that Becca and I really felt we needed more time with the book. I mean I know for me, I had read it SO fast that I needed to read it again, just to let it all sink in. (Plus I didn't actually have the book with me, it was at home). Anyway, there were only 2 copies of the book in the library, and Becca had the first, so I asked Hayley if she could get the second for me, because I was afraid someone else was going to grab it, and I had class. So she got it for me, but when I meet up with her she's like "I'm not giving it to you unless you give me the Hunger Games." Which was totally unfair because I didn't even have it with me! So I was all "You're evil" and she was all "Whatever" so I went to the library, told our awesome-cool librarian the story and she was like "well we actually have a copy of the Hunger Games right now!" So I took it out! And then Hayley and I made this big trade. Yeah so that's the crazy reactions people have when they don't have their copy of the Hunger Games! And you know, I'm not entirely sure I have forgiven Hayley yet. I mean that was pretty cold.

2. Just like Catching Fire was the aftermath of HG, Mockingjay is the aftermath of Catching Fire. Do you remember the last sentence of Catching Fire? Yeah so it's about that. And I'm gonna give you a little spoiler but its not really a spoiler because you find out about it within a few pages of Mockingjay. District 13 does exist. And they have plans. Plans of rebellion. No more Hunger Games events anymore. This book is about rebellion, and what part Katniss plays in that rebellion.

3. Katniss is of course, amazing as usual. She's kind of conflicted through the book though about what to do and who to trust. But she's still the same Katniss to me, and I still love her for it all!

4. This book was depressing, I gotta be honest, so its hard to say what's really amazing about it. Lotsa heartbreaking things happened. The one thing I did love though, was the epilogue. Without spoiling anything, I will say that the epilogue was perfect. It was very fitting. I know lotsa people don't like the epilogue, just like they didn't like the epilogue to Harry Potter 7, but again I disagree. It fit. It made sense. And come on, cut the author some slack. Sometimes you just gotta do it. Sometimes you just need to give that one thing to your characters. You need to show their future. And that's what Suzanne Collins did. Even though it wasn't a very happy future, per se, it was a future.

catching fire

1. I found out about this book because its the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy, and I already reviewed Hunger Games, so you know all about that. Actually though, what I failed to mention last time because I forgot, that I REALLY first heard about it because my brother read it, but I didn't think of reading it, I don't know why. And then for Christmas or his birthday he got the second one, which is THIS ONE. So then I wanted to read it but I realized it was the second one. So YEAH.

2. Catching Fire is the sequel to Hunger Games, so it is basically the aftermath of what happened there. AKA this post has spoilers regarding Hunger Games, but not Catching Fire, just saying. So since its the aftermath, obviously if you read Hunger Games, you know that Katniss and Peeta are the winners. The winners have to travel around the districts to basically rub it in everyones faces that they won. Plus, Peeta and Kat didn't exactly leave it off so well. So there's that. And finally, you know that at the end Katniss was told that the government isn't too happy with the "stunt" she pulled with the berries. So they want revenge. And that is NOT a good thing.

3. Do I have to go over how much I loooooove Katniss again? Well she's completely awesome. And in this book it is just really shown over and over again how much she and Peeta BELONG TOGETHER no matter WHAT happens with Gale! What? Did I just say that? You must have imagined it.

4. Katniss+Peeta forever. That's the top most awesome thing. Plus all the tricks they pull. Well one specific trick right before the Quarter Quell. And the Quarter Quell, lemme tell ya, it was pretty awesome. But I'm not gonna tell you what it is. Only that it made this book. Which you will see. I also love how many new characters are introduced.

So I guess this book review kinda sucked in comparison to my normal ones. But that's because its very difficult to talk about a sequel without spoiling it, because even though I can freely spoil the one before it, you already know the whole premise of the story, so what can I say without spoiling? So I did my best. Hopefully my review of Mockingjay (the third HG book) is better.

from books to tv

Even though I am sick and was just trying to take a nice long nap, I felt the pressing urge to blog, and couldn't seem to fall asleep, because I kept thinking about what exactly I would write.



So here I am.



Today's topic of discussion: books that are made into tv shows. There are 4 that I know of and shall discuss, but hey, there might be more that I am unaware of. It's in chronological order :)



1. Gossip Girl (CW). I only read about one and a half of the books. One as in the first one, and the half because I had probably been reading it in the library so my mom wouldn't find out, and just never got around to finishing it. So obviously I cannot speak much about how successful they were going from book to movie. Plus I haven't seen it all. I think I watched most of the second season and very small bits and pieces of the other three seasons. It got a little monotonous, and its boring when they're in college. The one major change I am aware they made was that in the books Chuck is just a perv, not too major of a character, whereas in the tv show, Chuck isn't a perv, per se, and ends up being Blair's match because he's the one person who can actually beat her at her games. As anyone who has been paying attention knows, Blair and Chuck are in my Top 10 best couples. Since neither the books nor the episodes made much of an impression on me, that's all I have to say.



2. The Vampire Diaires (CW). BEST SHOW EVER. No seriously, this is my favorite show. It is amazing. Do not insult it, I will take it to heart. The books though....EHH. Okay, that's putting it lightly. What I actually want to say, but didn't because I have no wish to insult anyone, is that THEY SUCKED. What? I didn't say that. No really though, in a Hunger Games-style fight to the death, the show will murder the series in a matter of seconds. Why? The writing was terrible, for one thing. Not to be mean but...no LJ Smith. Just no. This woman could not create characters. None of them were realistic at ALL. They were just...no. Also, the books just kept coming. On and on, and after a while, I was just like REALLY? All of this crazy stuff happening to the same group of people? Yeah, no. The tv show on the other hand makes sense, because the tv writers basically took the initial storyline and some character names and made something entirely their own. Everything that happens happens for a reason, and its all connected, in a very believable way. Seriously. You should watch it. Even my mom watches it, and she's quite critical of tv shows that aren't about solving crime or made in Britain.



3. Pretty Little Liars (abc family). Speaking of things not being believable. Although I do enjoy this show, and love the main characters very dearly, I have to say, some of the minor storylines have my rolling my eyes. The main storyline though keeps my attention. As for the books, SORRY didn't read them. But I DID look up the articles on wikipedia because I wanted to know who A was. And then I just kept reading. And as I read, I just continued to hope that the tv show would go in a completely different direction, just as vampire diaires had, because the storyline was just so unrealistic to me. So I'll cross my fingers the script writers make the right choice. (Though I do agree on the author's original choice of A. Just saying).



4. The Nine Lives of Chloe King (abc family). Sorry I'm cheating with this one, because it hasn't come out yet. It's set for the summer of 2011. I know about it because somehow it popped up in my newsfeed on Facebook. Yay another abc family show to watch over the summer! I only read the first two or three books, because that was all my library had. I definitely remember them being good. And its sorta fantasy-ish. I mean, the main character is kinda sorta a cat. Well not exactly. I can't remember the exact details. But I remember the books to be at least halfway decent, so I hope abc family does a good job.

Okay so that's all. And yes, I am well aware of the fact that True Blood is based on books. However, I did not read the books, nor do I watch the show, because I do not have HBO. I'm aware that there are other shows based on books, but these are the only ones I can talk about. And I am sorry if I insulted anyone, especially with what I said about the Vampire Diaries books. I'm sick, so that doesn't equal a good mood. Okay goodbye. Now I really should try to nap.

youtube wars

Have you ever been in the mood for one type of music? I go through that ALL the time. Most of the time all I want to listen to is techno, but SOMETIMES I'll be craving my TSwift or the Veronicas. Or even classical. Yes, I love classical music. Actually, one of my favorite songs is Clair de Lune by Debussy, and very sadly I don't have it on my ipod, so I decided to look it up on youtube.

Well well well. Oh youtube. Oh youtube users. You couldn't possibly just leave a beautiful song like Clair de Lune alone, could you? You just HAD to come in and bring up Twilight. How Twilight and Justin Bieber end up in every single youtube video in some form is BEYOND ME. Oh, you know what I'm talking about. "Thumbs up if this is better than Twilight" or "obviously those 600 people who pressed thumbs down were listening to Justin Beiber." The usual.

But Twilight was brought up in Clair de Lune for a very different reason. See, I hadn't remembered that apparently in the first book or movie or whatever, Edward or Bella, can't remember which, brought up Clair de Lune. So obviously all the Twihards went and looked it up on youtube and became obsessed over it because it is AWESOME. And that made all those people like myself, who knew Clair de Lune and Debussy before Twilight, very angry. They were all, "I KNEW THIS BEFORE THAT CRAPPY MOVIE CAME OUT" and "YOU DON'T DESERVE TO LIKE THIS BECAUSE YOU HEARD OF IT FROM TWILIGHT." Really guys?

Okay, I get that you want to let everyone know that you knew about this before Twilight, but come on! You're worrying about the wrong thing! You should be happy that so many people now can appreciate this music, instead of being all pissed because it now has a connection to Twilight! If you really thought about it, you'd be ECSTATIC. Now people can finally see the awesomeness that is Debussy and this song! In what other circumstance would thousands (or millions?) of preteen girls love classical music like this? I can't think of any, unless you are really special (like me!).

The same goes for Yiruma, who is a modern composer/pianist, and also has created some really beautiful songs. One of these songs is called River Flows in You. It is a really breathtaking song, so one day, some Twilight fan decided that it would be the perfect Bella's Lullaby. And it stuck. So now all of these girls consider River Flows in You to be the perfect alternative to the Bella's Lullaby in the movie. And then what happened? All of these fans of Yiruma got mad, and started bashing Twilight. What else is new?

To these people I have the same thing to say to what I said to the Debussy people. Get over it. You should be happy that these girls can appreciate good music. Because it is really great music. No matter where you heard it from.