Tim Learn's Blog, page 7

What I Learn about Illuminae

What I Learn about Illuminae

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Here is another book (series) that is driving everyone crazy. So many spout how it is so original and amazing. The characters, especially the AI—AIDAN—is so unique and interesting. However, again, I’m not amused.

The flaws—though there are many—mainly lies in two areas which seem to be the major distinctions of YA: horrible, hackneyed dialog and the overplayed computerized personality of the AI.

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Everywhere throughout this book, you can find useless, repetitive dialog. This is especially true in scenes where the two main characters keep dishing out their love for each other in quirky, snarky ways. Most of the time, it’s just banter, which makes it feel like filler, which makes me feel like I’m wasting my time. If I wanted to see horribly useless words traded back and forth in ever less and less creative ways, I’d sit on a subway and keep my ears open to the couple next to me. They might even be more interesting. This low level snark even seeps into their friends and the action dialog, and I don’t want a lollipop for it.

Secondly, AIDAN is annoying. He (or it) keeps acting so astounded by the humans’ humanity that he is to protect, while somehow becoming aware himself. Both ideas make no sense, as is easily seen in the horrible literalness with which he takes each overly scripted phrase from his human companions. Frankly, it feels like a three year old programmed him. After all, this is supposed to be much further into the future, yet they design their AI systems to have no flexibility in understanding. Even Siri has an edit system to adjust her understanding of not only phrases but also accents to better suit and fit the user. AIDAN is the 1980’s cellphone compared to today’s smartphones. He already feels used and ridiculous.

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So what did I learn? I learned that YA Sci-fi pretty much falls under the heading of a lot of other YA: unimaginative crap that many can’t wait to gobble up.

P.S. I’m obviously not going to read the rest of this horribly unintelligent series.

A Look Back at My Reading List (2016 Part 1: Adult Literature)

A Look Back at My Reading List (2016 Part 1: Adult Literature)

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This being my first year participating in Goodreads reading challenge, I have noticed I read much more and with a greater variety. Beforehand, I usually kept myself to certain genres, but as I’m writing in many different areas, I decided to branch out for those reason as well. With this in mind, I thought it would be good to breakdown my yearly reading to see the stats. I started with my usual reading choice: Adult Literature.

I separated this genre as best as I could from ‘Classic Lit.’ Some might squabble about what goes where, but that is the challenge with categories like the ones we have for books. Nevertheless, I end up with roughly 23 books in this list. Out of 81, that means I tend to read this area the most, bringing in roughly ¼ of the total.

What I can draw from this is, many of these books I enjoyed or spent probably a fair amount of my time reading. Adult books tend to take more time and they are richer and usual better quality. I don’t think my reading habits here will change.

Here they are:

 

End of December Review

End of December Review

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My motivation dragged a bit this month, but I hope it’ll pick up with the long break heading my way. Here’s what I’ve done.

Books Read and/or Reviewed

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First, I tackled the long and windy ‘It Can’t Happen Here.’ With Trump’s election, this book started popping up everywhere, and I can see why. The man gets pushed into office on a whirlwind with ridiculous promises that never pan out. As much as reality seems to be copying fiction, all the complaints against this oldie are true. Many parts are boring and trying, with longs sections rambling on about nothing to important to the main scope of things. All in all, not bad, but needs to be thoroughly edited to be prevalent.

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Next, I zoomed through ‘A Monster Calls.’ I was thinking of not reading it because I was not a huge fan of Ness’ Chaos Walking Trilogy, but where he sucks at YA, he glows in MG. Everything was believable without his trademark hackneyed lines. Even the small stories set within this tiny read were captivating. If he writes something besides YA fantasy or whatever it was, I might try it out. Definitely good.

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Then I went into Illuminae, and—ugh! So many people loved it for some reason. I will go into this more in a future post, but all in all, I hated this for the same reason I hated Ness’ series up above. Yuck!

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Getting away from that mess, I dived into ‘The Hand Maiden’s Tale.’ Though short, it was tough. The language was dry and too ornate, but it is expected for books like this. The one rewarding thing about it was that it was a thousand times better than her other read, ‘Cat’s Eyes.’ That book was egregiously boring. I did begin to enjoy this book later on and finding out it will be a Netflix show soon piqued my interest. Better than expected.

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While roaming my local bookstore, I came upon my fifth read of the month: Let the Right One In. I had heard about the movie and it seemed good, so I picked it up. Although it wasn’t as tightly written and amazing as other Swedish authors, I liked the easiness of the writing and the flow of the story. I did agree with many complaints that too many useless characters meandered in and out of the story’s focus, but it was a fun and easy read.

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Lastly, I finally got around to ‘Cloud Atlas.’ I mainly wanted to read this because a friend had recommend it—though he had done so roughly ten years ago. Also, hearing about the movie, I thought I’d finally get to it. It deserves a lot of the accolades thrown upon it for just the plotting and the writing. Comprised of six stories, I’d have to say all but one were scintillating and catching for the beginning. The language is taut and abstruse making it slower reading, but well worth it. A good read, but not classic caliber as some contend.

Book Reviews Received

I have a feeling after this year this section of my monthly reports will be non-existent. Oh well!

Progress on 2016 goals

Finish Chewy 5: Done!—75,000 words
Read ‘The Recognitions’: Done!
Compiling my Editing book: Done!—30,000 words
Finish ‘All the Things in the Unknown World’: Done!—85,000 words
Send ATTITUW out to publishers: Sent out to 10 publishers—still!
Start ‘Crasher’: 30,000 words (only 5,000 extra words—pathetic!)

Next Month’s Agenda

Everything changes next month! New year, new goals! I’m sad to let the old list go. It’s been with me for so long and I’ve come so far. I wish I could just keep adding, but starting a fresh is needed. In a way, I’m looking forward to it.

Top Three Plans for 2017

Top 3 Plans for 2017

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There are a few things I’d like to achieve in the next year. True, the list is always growing, but one must narrow things down to get anything done.

1) Finish my ‘Crasher’ book

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I’ve had this idea in my head for a while and have let it sit and foment. Finally, I’ve gotten around to setting a nice little amount of words for it down. Now I’d like to finish it and get it out there.

I got the idea for it originally because of the bad driving I see here in Korea. Then I saw news that certain areas of America are becoming the same because of a certain way patrolling and driving ordinance are enforced. Ever since high school econ, I’ve wondered why more things haven’t been privatized if that is the ideal for capitalists—though I know that’s not ideal for humans, in general. This book stretches that playfulness to the road.

2) Get another big tome crossed off my book list

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This year I’m thinking of reading either Gaddis’ ‘J.R.,’ especially after reading his ‘The Recognitions’ last year. Although I’m not sure I’m quite up to jumping into his thick prose so soon. I have heard, however, that J.R. is where he perfects his ‘talking head’ dialogue I’ve heard so much about, so I am tempted.

Otherwise, I do have Perec’s ‘Life: a manual.’ I’ve heard it’s quite thick—plot and character wise—as well. The book may not be a behemoth like some others I’ve read in the past, but it definitely will be trying. I read his ‘A Void’ earlier this year and found daunting, but do-able with its roughly 300 pages. This book, however, is much longer. I believe 800 or so. This could make it harder. We’ll see.

3) Read 50 books

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My Goodreads goal last year was 50 and then I upped it to 75. I consumed more than I expected, pushing myself at a breakneck pace in the beginning. But this time around, I think I’ll be going slower, though, I’ll have to wait and see. I still have many books I want to clear off my shelf, not to mention my e-book shelf, so I may up it again this year.

Year in Review (Reading) 2016

Year in Review (Reading) 2016

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Having just completed my year-end review for writing, I can also see why I may’ve not produced as much this year: I’ve read a whole helluva lot more. Compared to last year’s count—52 books, pretty much one a week—this year I’ve already put down 75 and by the time this post comes up I’ll probably be at 80 or more.

At first, I was saddened by even this count. 80 books—what’s to be sad at? Well, if you look around at other people’s counts, they have a lot more. Some are at 200. That is beyond reasoning for me, but then I thought about it. If you look at their reading list, there’s a lot of the same old themes and genres, not a lot of variation. So in that way, I’m not too disheartened with my list.

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With that in mind—genre and all—my list this year shifted quite a bit. In the beginning, I dove straight into a lot of YA. Here is where I saw how some bloggers are able to rake up such large numbers. Even when the books ranged in close to the 500-page mark, I was swallowing them down within two days. How? They stories were weak and easily predictable. Frankly, my brain didn’t have to work hard. Theses stories are bubble gum for thoughts, and for this reason, very few rank high in my regard.

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Out of all the horrible YA I read this year the one author I have become a fan of is Rainbow Rowell. Her ‘Eleanor and Park’ and then ‘Fan Girl’ were simply written but unbelievably endearing. In her own way, she’s made YA tolerable, and if not for the Harry Potter like premise of her new one, ‘Carry On,’ I’d be more tempted to read it. Who knows? Maybe in 2017.

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Out of the other books I’ve read, I tackled my large tome this year: Gaddis’ Recognitions. It was quite a piece of work. I started it in late March, just after the start of the semester, and got it done mid-June, just in time for the semester to end. It was exhausting, and like Jonathon Frazen said about it—and I would have to agree—it is one of the hardest books I’ve had to read. It is so thick with details and overrun with characters, but still many parts were scintillating.

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I also tackled quite a bit on my TBR—both the real and electronic forms. I have roughly 9 left and growing on my actual shelf, while about a dozen are on my kindle. I hope to tackle them and add some new ones this upcoming year.

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I think the biggest thing that has come out of my reading is that I’ve seen what books are out there. I don’t know if this is a good thing. Many of today’s options don’t rile my feathers, really. They seem lacking and weak. I read a few award winners and all-time favorites from fellow readers and could not understand what all the adoration was about. Some had beautiful writing, but suck for story. In fact, that was the best I could hope for. Others didn’t even have the writing.

I’m not sure what this malaise says about me or about the modern fare when it comes to stories. Sometimes I think there is less demand for quality from readers and watchers. We’ve become complacent with the same stories masqueraded before us, or quite possibly any writer now worthy of a name had made it there by pure chance—the luck of catching the world’s attention. Or maybe I am asking for too much. There are some fundamentals that never change. Either way, there’s this eerie, blurry disillusionment that comes with it all. From there, I don’t know where to go. I hope eventually it will be easier to see.

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Year in Review (Writing) 2016

Year in Review (Writing) 2016

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I’ve accomplished quite a bit this year when it comes to writing. Last year, I produced many more blog posts and wrote three of the Chewy books, so in this way, it may look like I was less productive, but maybe not.

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First, I finished ‘Chewy Noh and the Jamais Vu,’ the last of the series. Compared to the first four, it was relatively easy to write as I knew where everything was going and had a good layout to start with. All in all, it took me roughly three months to get down in its entirety. In the end, it came to about 75,000 words—the largest Chewy to date.

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Next, I wrote a project I’ve been brooding over for a while. When my daughter was younger, I would push her around in a stroller and later a bike, and I would always come upon poorly parked cars and drivers who dashed through lights regardless if they were red or not. That’s when, in my anger, I dreamed of what would happen if one hit me with my daughter along. It wasn’t far-fetched. And I said I would want revenge, but I wished there was another way of living. And that’s where the Myarabhati came from, and so too the idea for ‘All the Things in the Unknown World.’ I took me also three months to get it down on, ending at almost 90,000 words, and after editing, it landed firmly at 85,000 words.

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If that were all, then it still would’ve been a well-done year, but now I’ve already put down another 25,000 words into my new work, Crasher, about a man who causes car accidents on purpose and the way technology and bureaucracy shapes our lives.

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Also, I’ve edited and helped rewrite a book and a few stories for a couple of my students. Doing this, I found it quite fun and rewarding to do so. In many instances, I had to retool and reshape the arc of the plot, telling them where scenes were weak or didn’t make sense. If I have the pieces in front of me, I can easily play with them and see a tighter, better story. I liked it and learned from it a lot.

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However, on the down side of things, I came to a conclusion early on in the year, that being, blogging does little to help me. For one, it wastes valuable writing time that I could use on developing and reworking my stories. Though the weekly and daily production of posts helped my writing as a whole, I don’t get much from small vignettes aimed at pleasing the slightest of discerning eyes. Second, I read a post from another blogger that point out how ineffective blogging is if you desire to be a writer or to get better at story writing. It made a lot of sense, especially when I turned that eye upon some of the blogs I read and follow. They blog instead of produce, and have not much more to show for it. If they love doing, great for them, but that’s not what I want.

Top Three Self Published Books of 2016

Top Three Self Published Books of 2016

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As for self-published books, 2016 has been quite impressive as last year where I got through over 30 books. This year’s tally runs at a shallow 8, though I did a lot of editing and critiquing of works in progress. From this short list, it is hard to compile a top three. In 2015, I was barely able to scrape one together but found them and a notable mention. This year is tougher.

1) Shizzle Inc.

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By far the most intriguing indie book I read this year had to deal with Isabella Maxwell. I found the writing enjoyable and flawless, not to mention the character’s voice unique and quirky. Still now, I recall there were many line and description points that popped out. Ultimately, I didn’t like the overall arc of the story because it was hard to relate to the character—a person very much different from myself with her vapid, conceited ways—but nonetheless, it was a neat read.

2) Echo 1: Approaching Shatter

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I remember liking many aspects of this little book, which is one of the detracting points. It doesn’t run to a full length. In fact, it drops dead as soon as a lot of cool stuff is purportedly about to happen. But up until that point, you get a nice world grafted around you. My particularly favorite part was the strange religion—very Buddha / Star Wars-like—and the mentality that goes with living on another planet. The parts that drew away from the book are the long, boring beginning / info dump, and the sometimes too highly detailed descriptions of all the gear these bad asses use. All in all, it was one of the more exciting reads, if it didn’t need a little chopping first.

3) And…that’s about all.

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Like I said, I didn’t have the luxury to read a lot of them this year. My energy for dry dialog, massive info dumps, and poor editing was very thin after the first four months of 2016. Maybe I wiped out all my good intentions last year. I hope to do more next year…but I have a feeling that’s not going to happen. Still you never know?

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Here’s the list of the other books that didn’t make the list:

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Root Bound

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Fantastic Fable of Peter Able

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Falcon Boy

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Super Nobody

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Fireflies

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Bumbling Bea

Top Three Rules for Descriptions

Top Three Rules for Descriptions

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When it comes to descriptions, most newbie writers—and even some vets—go way overboard. To some degree, I understand why. When I started, I did the same thing. In part, it was due to all those exquisite books I read and loved. Their words flowed through my head, and getting an image, I tried to capture it in the same way some of my favorite classic writers had done. The only problem with this is: that’s not how things work now. Styles change. What worked for Pope, Dickens, or even Doestovesky, won’t work now. The grandiose verbiage and overly wrought paragraph of physical description are no longer chic. In fact, they’re out right shunned, and for good reason. They slow the story down. Why do you think it is that so many modern readers dread reading classics? Not everyone has an ear for them, no less the patience. So here I’ve outlined some guidelines to keep the story moving, with less speed bumps of description along the way.

Scenery 

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Now, don’t get me wrong—scenery description is a must. I’m not telling you to shirk your authorial duties altogether and throw this aspect away. Yet, it does seem this area of description has quite a dichotomy. Some give none; others, too much.

To address the former, we need it to now where our characters are and to ground them in our heads. Don’t deny us this.

To the latter, please remember the rule of three. Far too often writers delve into every little detail, categorizing it in long lists and in hyper spatial depictions. This is not necessary. Instead, give us the three key elements to the scene. And when describing something specific, limit yourself to three as well. Three adjectives are much better than a page. Trust me!

The staircase wound upwards like a snake in the dusty library. In fact, the dust was so prevalent hardly anyone entered without sneezing. But that didn’t mean people didn’t enter, as it clearly was the best room in the house with all the windows letting in glorious amounts of natural light. In essence it was a reader’s sanctuary, filled with old tomes and warmth. Even the bumpy floors brought a delicate ‘lived-in’ feel that couldn’t help but invite even the most hesitant guest from taking a seat for a breather, if it weren’t for the dust. And after sitting for a while, that said guest would soon notice the woodwork surrounding the shelves—handcrafted with ornate gargoyles along the top. Dropping their eyes to the ground, one would also see the gold trim that lined the floor, framing the room as if it were a masterpiece, which truly it was with its stark maroon ceiling and turquoise walls, each with their own lamp glowing gently. If anyone ever actually cleaned the place, the room’s true beauty would be much easier to spot, but as it was the dust suffocated everything.

A bad paragraph? Maybe not. Is it a useful paragraph? Decidedly no. Though it characterizes a room, it would be much better to show characters sneezing as they enter the room, and leave the extra wordage on the floor. The problem with these paragraphs particularly is that if you start describing one thing this way, all your paragraphs end up this way, and then where are you?

2) People

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Again, when it comes to the characters in their work, certain writers go crazy, defining all the astounding aspects and qualities their beloved protagonist or antagonist may have. However, most of us find this boring. Instead, the best thing I’ve noticed to do is to pick one or two defining traits so we get an idea of what the characters looks like. Along with this, make sure to identify these characteristics in relation to an action they are performing or in contrast to something in their environment. The last thing you want to do is to show the person standing up in the morning and then going into a long, windy production about how they look. Always tie it into the world around them.

3) Actions

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Here you may be confused, but what I want to point out is how a few people falter at appropriately describing the actions of their characters. Unlike scenery—where three is the magic number—here, leave it at one. If your character is doing something, don’t add extra words to depict the same thing again and again. In your head, you may think this sounds awesome or very ‘writerly.’ But it doesn’t come off that way. It just slows things down, and above all, could confuse your reader. Make sure their actions are different and not a repeat of the action before. Look below.

Hearing Tessa’s compliment, Tommy turned red, grew shy, and couldn’t speak. “Thanks,” he said.

Here we see the author showing us that Tommy is embarrassed by the compliment Tessa gave him, but it’s written in their twice—turning red, growing shy—and further more, made confusing by saying he couldn’t speak, despite him then issuing a “thanks.” Connecting the emotions to actual movements can sometimes help, like here:

Hearing Tessa’s compliment, Tommy turned his head shyly and swallowed hard out of embarrassment. “Thanks,” he said.

All in all, keeping things simple will win over the reader and keep the plot moving. Good luck!

Have Trouble with Grammar Nazis?

To Beat A Grammarian: A Book to Help Editing (and keep grammar Nazis off your back)

If you’ve ever had problems with picky readers that tear your self-published book apart, this book is for you. When I got my first reviews on the first Chewy Noh, ripped into the syntax mistakes and more. So I decided to never let it happen again, and collect as much info as possible. Now it’s in one easy to read book that you can buy below. Check it out!

Amazon

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A Reflection of Two Years

A Reflection of Two Years

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Two years ago, I self published the first Chewy Noh—Chewy Noh and the Fall of the Mu-dang. With the end of this year, it marks the end of the Chewy Noh series as well. I finished writing book five last spring, edited it in the following months, and sent it, as well as book four in the series, out into the world.

 

Chewy Noh and the Fall of the Mu-dang:             Dec.2014—51,410 words

Chewy Noh and the Phantasm of Winter:             May 2015—59,411 words

Chewy Noh and the March of Death:                      Jan. 2016—-62,761 words

Chewy Noh and the Legends of Spring:                Sept. 2016–66,267

Chewy Noh and the Jamais Vu:                                Oct. 2016—75,929 words

 

Unlike the first three books, I put no effort to get them seen. I’ve lost momentum in that way.

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Still, I’m a bit wistful thinking about it all. Chewy Noh and all the characters in the series have been with me for a while. Chewy is loosely based off many of my male students here in Korea, with his curiosity and playfulness. I wanted people to see the Asian stereotype is not true. Korean boys are as much troublemakers as their American counterparts.

Clint, the best friend, was my childhood best friend and whole lot more. He epitomized my shyness as a child and the frustration dealing with rowdy friends, like Chewy. Sometimes I felt the same way.

Su Bin was one of the dearest characters to me. She is the sweet, cute Asian girl I see in many of my classes—quiet, but strong, and far too often striving to be more like the Western images she sees in movies and magazines.

Kent, the school bully, is the bad guy who can be understood. I’ve always like humanized villains. Kent does this perfectly, turning around in the end but still staying true to himself.

I’ve learned a lot from these books and ending this year is saying good-bye to them. I hope they fare well in memory, and that a few readers out there will enjoy them. For now, I’m done.

 

Books 1,2,3 and 5 for free now!