Sarah Barra's Blog, page 83
April 29, 2014
"I write YA because a girl’s problems can be trivial, but she is not. And that’s something she should..."
- Kate Hart (kdhart) on “Why I Write YA” (via adventuresonpaper)
adventuresintimeandspace:
Here are some scientific facts about...
Here are some scientific facts about blood loss for all you psychopaths writers out there.
April 28, 2014
I’ve been thinking for a while how J.K. Rowling wanted to Harry and Hermione end up together...
I’ve been thinking for a while how J.K. Rowling wanted to Harry and Hermione end up together and how people was really angry (angry is not the feeling thou, it’s too strong i think) about that.
But then I remembered that most of the time, when you write, your characters doesn’t actually do what you want to do.
I know, it’s confusing, but it’s true. Sometimes you have an idea and your characters simply don’t do it and do other things instead!
For example, one of mine crushed a car and I didn’t plan that at all.
So yeah, maybe J.K. Rowling thought about Harry and Hermione together in the first place, but they didn’t do that.
Characters are powerful, and have their own minds sometimes.
teachingliteracy:
“Young writers should read books past bedtime...
“Young writers should read books past bedtime and write things down in notebooks when they are supposed to be doing something else.” @gabijaklara
April 17, 2014
Bookternet: Inspiration video
Reachel Fershleiser talk about how the internet make the books, authors and fans more connected than ever.
Very inspired vision of technology and the art of writing.
April 10, 2014
Dear family: This isn’t a hobby anymore.
Hello dear friends. I’m here to talk about how my life is changing and how I’m managing it to change in the way I want.
First of all: I didn’t study anything related with writing, narrative, history, art or design. Actually, I was more on the science field. Especially in the health area. But my passion has always been arts.
Obviously, like most of the young people that want to have a life as an artist, I had a bunch of people telling me not to do it. “You are gonna be poor the rest of your life”, “That’s cute, but art isn’t a real career”, were some of the comments I had at the time and, I mean, I was 15. At 15 you are full of hormones, you have no idea who you really are or what you really want. And when you have this strong feeling of liking something, there are always people telling you not to do it. Story short, when I was 16 I decided I want to be a PT. Again, my family said “why not medicine?” Yeah, why not medicine? Well I didn’t want medicine cause PT was more specific to movement, something I still like and will always like. So yeah, years go by and I finished University. Everything was fine until my last year, when I decided I want to write a story to release the stress I was having at my internship. This story grew up in my like poison ivy. Then I traveled to many places and met so many people that were amused by my art (not only writing, but also my drawings). I started to questioning myself, because I was enjoying more making people happy with my stories and drawings, than doing other jobs.
Finally, when I decided to do this for real (writing and more specific, drawing) I have my family again looking at me like: “oh, again drawing”, “My niece and her drawings, so nice, but do you have a job already?”, “Why you don’t get a life?” (that last one was my mom). But when I show them what I can do, they are really impress!
So now, I’m focusing myself on making my art career a real thing. Became a professional. Make this a business. But I need to clarify to my family that this isn’t a hobby anymore. This is going to become my life and I need support. Not judgmental faces and useless comments.
I know there are a lot of people that have been in the same situation as me (probably earlier too), but they could do it anyway.
Do any of you have this situation right now? Are you doing anything to change it? What are you doing?
Express you feelings here if you want. We can cry together.
March 29, 2014
Book Review: Divergent
Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Genre: Science Fiction / YA/ Dystopian
Book Series: Divergent Trilogy (book 1)
Summary: In a futuristic reality, Chicago city divided the society in five different factions. Each of them is associated with a particular virtue of each human: Abnegation, Amity, Erudite and Dauntless. Our young protagonist is a girl named Beatriz Prior, which later is called “Tris”. Tris grew up in Abnegation faction, where generosity is the most important thing in life, even more than themselves. That idea isn’t really part of Tris personality because most of the behavior she has had been taught by her parents. She feels trapped in that faction surrounded by people she isn’t comfortable with. But, at her 16th birthday, she must take a test which show in which faction she really belongs. She even can change faction if she really feels that she belongs to another faction. Or stay in her parent’s faction. The test consists in a simulation, where Tris need to take decisions based in her personality. The problem is that Tris is Divergent, a person capable of manipulate the simulation test, so she doesn’t belong to any faction per se. Tris did have affinity with three factions: Abnegation, Dauntless and Erudite. And that scares her because Divergents are a secret, they don’t suppose to exist. If someone finds out what she is, they’ll kill her.
Opinion:
For someone that love science fiction (and currently reading a lot of dystopian books), this book in particular caught my attention immediately. I was really interested in how the society and the futuristic city were shown. They did have some futuristic technology, but not spaceships or anything too far away from our reality. The characters were very complex. Each of them with their own problems and ways to behave against them, and most of the time in different ways you don’t expect. But I have to say I hated Beatriz at the beginning. She was a very extreme girl sometimes. She could go from being in total abnegation mode, protecting her friends, to a very cold person who can kill anything. She solved everything by punching people just to try to show she wasn’t weak. (Dude we get it. Stop acting like a brat, please). Four’s character was one of my favorites. He isn’t the Adonis we are used to read lately. The one every girl could melt for. (Yes Jace Wayland/Herondale/Lightwood, I’m talking about you). But he is someone you want to know more. His way of handle situations is very complex and sometimes secret, but at least isn’t just punching, like Tris. At least I understand when he is willing to sacrifice his life. He always has a sort of plan somewhere in his mind.
I wish I could know more about the secondary characters of this book, but as it’s written in first person I can’t actually know if Tris doesn’t know. I like Tris friends in Dauntless and I also like Caleb, her brother. But that’s all I got.
The things I didn’t like of this book were some of the topics expressed here where super heavy that I finished reading completely exhausted. Even though, the topics aren’t simple. They are complex and important and the book gave them a really good vision of them. But, as the way the book goes, it showed more about action, the war that’s coming and not so much on the details of the society where they live. Talking about the human personality as a way to choosing you future is a very interesting topic. It really asked the real questions: choosing your future based on a test. What you should choose and how you should behave. Sounds familiar?
**This review was written a year ago. Now that I got some time to reevaluate the book and comment with other fans, I can express another opinion about it. Now I understand Tris behavior at the beginning of the book (and why she wanted to attack everyone). Her biggest fear was being raped. And of course, being little and looking weak was one of the things she tried to change on herself so she will be never raped or take as less as a person. Although, she didn’t need to react so aggressive all the time.
Anyway, I liked the book enough to continuing reading the series. It was very easy to read too.
