Bre Faucheux's Blog, page 60

My Theory On Why Kids Hate To Read

And a little bit about why I hated to read as a kid, but WANTED to love it.

Reading, in truth, has always felt like a task to me. And that is mostly because of school over the years. I am a slow reader. Generally, it takes me about an hour to read 25-30 pages an hour. Which means when my teachers assigned reading that was 60 pages or more for one night’s worth of reading, I knew I was going to be up half the night. 2 1/2 hours of reading and then math always took at least 2-3 hours because my math skills are rather primate like. So basically, reading in school was more like eating force fed baby food than it was fun.

To top that off, the material was less than thrilling. I will always have a prolonged hatred for Charles Dickens and Nathaniel Hawthorne. And not because their material sucks, but because they are single handily responsible for the lowering of my GPA. I don’t care about Pip or a woman forced to wear the scarlet letter for adulteress or whatever it was. I find the story of how Jews were forced to swear the Jewish Star of David during WWII much more intriguing than the story of one woman and an accusation laid against her. (No pun intended).

If teachers bothered to teach material that was interesting to teens and the school boards realized that teens and kids are not taking anything away from these materials, the literature taught in schools could change entirely. These books have their place, their purpose, and are in fact masterpieces. But wouldn’t we be doing better by our students if we were to teach material they could actually relate to? There are plenty of YA genres out there that teens can get into and that should be taught on the syllabus. These classic pieces don’t resonate with kids and teens because we no longer live in a time where their significance if really relevant to their daily lives.

If that means teaching Harry Potter, or some dystopian material for YA, then so be it. As long as kids learn to enjoy reading rather than referring to it with slander because they are forced to retain all this 100 year old material. The main reason why I hated reading in school was because of testing and quizzes on the material I was reading. I wasn’t enjoying it, therefore I wasn’t retaining it. And if I don’t retain it, then I am not getting a good grade on the essay or the test. I used to associate reading with having to reiterate the deeper meaning inside the assignment, making reading always feel like work rather than play time. And I truly believe that this is why so many kids hate to read. Hell, it was why I hated to read and still sometimes struggle with being able to enjoy a book rather than feeling like I have to process every single word because there will be a pop quiz question asking what the name of the street was that the main character lives one. And yes, I had one such teacher ask that question on a pop quiz on George Orwell’s “1984″. Still a good book and relevant, but dystopian book for YA these days can say much more than it can through modern author’s usage of contemporary scenarios. Example: The Hunger Games, Divergent, Legend.

All the while, I wanted to love reading. And I am finally back in a place where I do and it relaxes me before bedtime. People who read are always associated as academic or nerds. And I fit into the category quite well. Not ashamed of it. How else would I have a masters in Museum Studies if I didn’t fully embrace my inner history nerd?

Did you run into anything of this nature is school? Please tell me I am not the only one out there who has to re-teach myself how to enjoy reading and not see it as a homework assignment?

Having A Writing Support System

There is one reason why I write as I do and why I am able to do so in any capacity. And that is my dad. He seems like my only support system at times and like the only one who truly believes in me and my writing.

For those of you who don’t know, I am a classic cliche, and the kind that I hoped never to become and did everything I possibly could to avoid. But given the economy, it couldn’t be avoided no matter how hard I tried. I am 26 years old, and having to live at home with my family. For more reasons than one, this has been a good and very bad thing. Good because I am fortunate to have a family that loves me and doesn’t mind in the slightest that I have to live at home right now due to the job marketing sucking so hard. Bad because family drama always ensues. But I think every family has that issue, in truth… Sometimes it just feels like my family gets the shit end of the stick ten times more often than others do. I talk to other people, and try to get a sneak peek into their life story only to realize that not even a fraction of the people I meet have been through anything like my family has. Often times growing up it felt like we were cursed.

But my dad has been that constant… the constant someone needs.

I know that a lot of people don’t have even that one person that they can really count on in that way and I am fortunate to have what I do. Which is why I guilt trip myself (on days like today) when I don’t get enough writing done. At least not enough to satisfy myself. I ask myself frightening questions, like: “Am I really doing everything that I can right now?” Gah!!! That is a question that I think everyone fears. And most of the time the answer is no. But it’s hard to motivate sometimes. Excruciatingly hard.

In the next year, I want to write two more “Elder Origins” books, (and get some good reviews on it DAMN IT)! I want to finish my current WIP and I want to see some real profits come from my books. Enough that maybe I can support myself. Long line of dreams given that practically EVERYONE knows that you can’t make a living out of writing, but I am hoping that I will be one such anomaly.

Never the less, I continue looking for a full-time job. That search seems never ending at times. Funny how someone with a Masters can’t get through the fucking door sometimes because HR has so many electronic firewalls in place to barricade new hires.

But I am fortunate to have my dad, who believed in my writing before I did, and continues to read every word that I write with great enthusiasm. Who told me that “The Elder Origins” was really good and that he wanted to read more short stories about Inazin (who he thinks is the most interesting character).

I would love to join a writing group at some time, but I have been a part of a few that were mainly about tearing others apart. So it’s hard for me to concede to joining one again. At least I have this one person in my life who believes in what I want to do with my life. And for now, that is all I need. Lord knows that I would have given up by now without him.

♥

Book Review – Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey

This is a Book Review for ‘Shattered Souls’ by Mary Lindsey.

When doing book reviews, (as I was taught in creative writing class) I go with the sandwich deal. You start out with what you liked, go into the bad nitty and gritty stuff, then end with something else positive so the author in question (during a writing review) would never feel attacked. The reviews end with something positive. So that is the strategy I plan to implement here.

Buy ‘Shattered Souls’ at: http://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Souls-Mary-Lindsey-ebook/dp/B0051GAWDI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1384197389&sr=8-3&keywords=Shattered+Souls

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When All Else Fails, Go Back to What Works

It underwhelms me to announce that I have rather given up on NaNoWriMo. I love the idea of it and I want to participate next year, but I found out about it way too late. Instead, I intend to go back to what I know works for me.

Part of the problem was that I was right in the middle of a work in progress when I found out about NaNoWriMo. I really needed to find out about it maybe in September or something so I would have plenty of time to figure things out and decide what to work on before it came. As it turned out, I like two days. I wanted to use it as a way to get more writing done on the ‘Elder Origins’ sequel, but I am still uncertain of the exact road I want to take that down anyway. So alas, I am back to the original plan that I know works for me.

I am writing between 1,500-2,000 words a day on my current work in progress and it’s going beautifully. I wish I could be like other writers and go for 5,000 or 10,000 words a day, but when I over reach like that I end up with complete garbage. I need to really think about a plot over the coming on weeks ahead, one day at a time, and take things slowly. If I have one day that is particularly inspiring, then I will go at it and write as much as I can or as much as my available time will allow. But most days, I find that writing 7-10 pages is just about right for me. Any more, and my brain gets overwhelmed.

I also want to stop thinking of writing based on the word count I achieve on a certain day, but more about the scene I want to create. I am doing something really different right now and enjoying it. I am writing the main character from 1st POV, and then the other character across the world from third point of view. This works better for the story I am writing because there are multiple players and multiple things happening at once that my main character is unaware of. Oh, how I hate to keep her in the dark like this. Poor girl. But it does make the end game a little more exciting when the one you are rooting for is as unaware as the audience is. Or worse, the audience knows what she is getting into and she doesn’t! *evil cackle*

I also found a new strategy that I read about, and it seems to be working for me. I have never been a morning person. I am a night owl. But due to recent schedule conflicts, I have been forced to write in the wee hours of the morning before anyone else wakes up. And surprisingly, this has been working wonders for me. If I write when I am hardly awake, still halfway into dream mode and sipping my morning tea, I don’t have time to doubt myself. I just sit there and write without any (or at least not a lot) of negative thoughts. I find that it has been working really well for my creative process.

In other news, I have a new blog layout. The other one was just a bit too dark and the colors distracted my eyes from the text. This one is much cleaner I find. *shrugs* One day I hope to make a fully operational website, but who knows when that day will come. I don’t even know how to go about doing that. I miss the old days when I knew how to create a full website from old school html code. It’s gotten all complicated since I was in high school and did website building. If I kept at it, I might have been able to make a stable living at such things. Maybe I should buy some website books and doing further investigating. Thoughts?

My First Bad Rating! Woohoo!

It is my duty and pleasure to announce, that after a period of writer’s block and a difficult time at home, I also received my first rating on GoodReads. And it sucked. Got two stars.

I have been waiting three months for someone even to pick the damn book up and take a look at it, so I guess I should be glad that this person potentially read at least a few sentences of it. (Even though I am defending myself by saying that he must not have read the whole thing cover to cover, MUST not have). That’s my rationalizing anyway.

More bad reviews to come, I am sure of it. And the first cut is the deepest, I have no doubt. So I am using this as fuel to write this morning. Then maybe some yoga. Or I could go to the old fall back we used in gymnastics. “It doesn’t matter what they score you because those judges only WISH they could do what we do in the gym.”

A job interview, a family crisis, writer’s block, and my first rating being a bad one all in a single day. FUN FUN FUN!

And don’t give me that nonsense about not reading your own reviews, because this early in the game, you know you do.

NaNoWriMo Vlog – I’m Falling Apart!!!

Title of the post pretty much explains it all. I think I jumped on the NaNoWriMo bandwagon too quickly. Didn’t have a plan or an approach in mind upon starting. Note for next year! Have an idea before leaping in.

Hope you enjoy!

♥♥♥

The Sunshine Award

I am thrilled to announce that I have been nominated by the lovely Jennifer Windram for the Sunshine Award. I have never been nominated for something pertaining to my blog before, so this is very exciting, and a great way to start out my morning. So thank you Jennifer! I appreciate it so much.

To accept the award, I must list 10 Things About Myself and then nominate other bloggers. So here it goes!

10 THINGS ABOUT MYSELF

1.) The first story I ever wrote was about an evil witch hiding out in the attic of a big castle in medieval times. She tries to lure the princess into her attic hideaway and teach her dark magic until her father slays here and saves the day. I was in elementary school (maybe 7 or 8 years old) and that was when my parents told me that I could write. I made my own illustrated cover and stapled it together at the ends to make it an official “book.” Oh such dreams I had…

2.) I like walking through really old cemeteries. o.O  I know, before you say anything, I know it’s really weird. I just have a fascination with old and dark cemeteries with people from hundreds of years ago. I made a trip to Massachusetts when I was in high school with a friend and made her walk through a few of the REALLY old colony style cemeteries, much to her displeasure. I did the same when I lived in London and Paris and Scotland. Cemeterie Monmarte was incredible. And Lafayette Cemetery in New Orleans remains one of my favs. Yeah, I’m a creep. I hate horror movies, hate gore, but I will walk through a graveyard (NOT AT NIGHT THOUGH). I think it has something to do with the histories and stories of people who lived and died in the area. Besides, does anyone else here know that J.K. Rowling got a lot of her names from Harry Potter characters from Greyfriars Cemetery in Edinburgh???

3.) I have an obsession for makeup. I have a YouTube channel (TribalFaerie) and a blog (tribalfaerie.wordpress.com) dedicated to my ventures with makeup. I consider it to be an art form and I adore it. And I own more makeup than should be legal. And I love love love cosmetic glitter!

4.) I am a slow reader. Annoyingly slow. It drives me crazy. I hear someone say how they read a book in one sitting and I just think “Grrr!! I hate you!” I can’t do that. I have tried every speed reading device/class/lesson out there and I can’t retain anything if I don’t read every word. Which made it a bitch in college because I spent hours do the necessary reading that others skimmed and retained first try. But I am working really hard to try to change this.

5.) I was a gymnast throughout school (even though I stopped competing at age 12). I had to stop the competitive circuit because I was seriously injured in a skiing accident. But I still did it for fun and love it to this day. I did it recreationally in college with a Gymnastics club (which my dad lovingly called the “Over the Hill Gymnastics Club” which was true. We were all over the hill by then for gymnastics because all those girls in the Olympics are either illegally young or teens). I also did figure skating, but my knees couldn’t take the falls. Had to quit that after a few years.

6.) I eat spaghetti once a week, if not more often. Ragu Mama’s Special Garden Sauce is like my kryptonite. Gah! I love noodles! If it’s got noodles, I’m gonna eat it! Monday Night Spaghetti Madness baby!

7.) I have been listening to Enya and Loreena McKinnett since I was a kid, along with Annie Lennox. Those women helped pave the way for my music tastes and can always change my mood no matter what. I went a bit hysterical when I was at the V&A in London with friends and found out that they had a special exhibit about Annie Lennox. They still bring it up and its a sore fucking topic.  Mainly because they tease me and just don’t get the epicness that is Annie Lennox. Their loss.

8.) My love of history started with a trip to London when I was a kid. My dad had a business trip there and the family got to tag along. They took me to the Tower of London, and that was it. I was hooked. Spent years trying to get back and finally did in 2011 for my studies and then a job. Most amazing year of my life.

9.) I still write letters. I have pen pals all over the world and I think that writing letters is a lost art form. So I try to keep it going. I even seal my letters with a signature wax seal, because I’m old school like that.

10.) I secretly like reading erotica books. Shh! You can’t tell anyone! I wish I could write it myself, but I don’t think I have the guts. And I don’t think that I could write it in the way that other people like it…because I hated ’50 Shades of Grey’. Although while writing a scene in ‘The Keeper’s Realm’, I ended up deleting some because it was a bit TOO steamy. I didn’t even realize that I had that in me until then. So…maybe one day. *shrugs*

Sad truth… I don’t know 10 other writing bloggers in order to nominate them, so here are the few that I have been following.

Now…drum roll…I nominate:

2UnpublishedGirls

Jennifer Windram (who actually nominated me, but I love her stuff, so I am re-nominating her).

Cristian Mihai

Rules behind the Sunshine Award:

1. Use the Sunshine Award logo in the post.

2. Link to whoever nominated you.

3. Write ten pieces of information about yourself.

4. Nominate up to ten fellow bloggers, “who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere”.

5. Leave a comment on the nominees’ blogs to tell them of the award

 

My New YouTube Channel!

I am excited to announce that I am starting a new YouTube channel featuring book reviews, book hauls, and vlogs about writing. I really enjoy watching BookTubers and decided to join in on the fun.

If you have any BookTuber channels that you enjoy and you think I should check out please let me know.

I hope you enjoy!

Sorry for the poor lighting. I should be getting a better set up in a few months time.

Books Mentioned:

Sirens – Tricia Rayburn

Witchstruck – Victoria Lamb

The American Heiress

Mrs. Poe – Lynn Cullen

The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

Starry Nights – Daisy Whitney

A Reliable Wife – Robert Goolrick

The Thieftaker – D.B. Jackson

*~*~*~*~*

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Check out my recent books: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Bre%20Faucheux&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank

NaNoWriMo Day 1

Day 1:  3,046 words.

One thing that has always come easy to me is getting up to a certain word count. This was a technique that I established in college. If there was a particular book that I had to have read or an essay I needed to write, I simply estimated the number of words/pages that I need to do each day by the number of days in which I had to complete it, and bam, there was my goal. I did the math and I have to write approximately 1,667 words a day to accomplish the goals set out by NaNoWriMo. But I am reaching for 2,000 because it just sounds like a much nicer and even number to me. Not that me doing math is a good idea, but you get the main focus.

The first day went well and I am ahead of schedule. But that is just day one talking. I imagine that around day 17 I will be in a total panic.

I have been talking about writing a sequel to “The Elder Origins” for a while, but I have been putting it back in pursuit of this other story that I have been working on. But I have hit a bit of a stall with that one. At first I thought that I might use NaNoWriMo to rewrite that one, but I think that starting something from scratch is much better since that is the gist behind NaNoWriMo to begin with.

I have had ideas going around in my head for the beginning of the Elders sequel since I finished writing the first one over six months ago. So here’s to new beginnings, yet again.

Speaking of which, “The Elder Origins” is finally free of my moronic decision to put it on the Amazon KDP program come November 20th. I plan to reformat it and put it on Smashwords as soon as that is done. Then hopefully, if I get done with the sequel by the end of the year, that will be up and running. Now… if only I could get some good reviews going. Humpf…

Then, onto getting both “The Elder Origins” and “The Keeper’s Realm” going in print format so I can do some GoodReads giveaways. Here’s to that! Woohoo!!!

NaNoWriMo??

Recently I have been getting into these awesome YouTubers who make book reviews online, and then I ran into a site called NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s a challenge to all writers to complete 50,000 words in a month. This sounded like fun and great motivation to me. I have been having trouble getting back on the writing wagon since starting complete rewrites on my latest story. And I desperately need to get moving on it and a sequel to Elder Origins. If I can get a sequel done in the next month to two months, I would be beyond thrilled. I believe in this book as a series and I want to dedicate more time to it.

Also, I think I am going to start my own YouTube channel for books reviews, book hauls, and NaNoWriMo vlogs. Or just writing blogs in general. Would anyone be interested in seeing that? Sounds like a good time to me and now I have all the equipment necessary to do so. Wee!!

So, I am DEFINITELY NaNoWriMo – ing this month for November, and I can’t wait to see what happens. I think getting back on a schedule will be really good for me. The forums seem so welcoming and helpful to people in my position.

Here’s to new beginnings!