The verdict

Different blog post.
Different sunset.

So I read the damn book that I talked about (in a lot of detail) here.

This post is split between mine and my mum's opinion of it as we have now both finished.

My mum is the only person who knows I want to be a writer and not only do I live with her, but she is the one person I can rely on to give me her honest opinion, whether it be my fashion choices or what she thinks of my work. She has been there from the beginning of it all, offering me her time and help.

I am not going to divulge any information about the book itself but I will say that it has 71,319 words (SPOILER).

MY OPINION:

One word to describe the book? BLURGH!

The good 

• It read like a very promising first draft. Structurally, it is pretty sound and most of the plot won't be touched.
• It has potential, definitely, and a lot of it. 
• I really liked most of the characters and felt they were well-rounded.

The bad 

• It read more like a seventy thousand word outline than an actual novel. 
• It was an exposition nightmare.
• Two characters need to just stop what they are doing and sort it out pronto and another character needs to be less of a stereotype and the plot surrounding him needs to be subtler.

THE UGLY

• Within minutes of reading it, due to the worlds most iffy third person voice, I realised that the whole blasted thing would have to be COMPLETELY REWRITTEN in the first person.
• Because of the aforementioned iffy third person voice, my protagonist thought or talked out loud to herself an unnatural amount.
• I have never seen so many people change the subject in a single novel. It's a wonder anyone got a word in edgeways.
• If the Stephen King quote 'I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops', is true, then I am burning in an eternal fire. 

Anything else to mention?

It has really shown me what a difference a year makes and that the more you write (and read), the better you get. Not only has my writing improved since I wrote this last year but my vocabulary and the breadth of words I now use is quite amazing. I still have so much to learn though.

While reading it, I felt quite daunted and, to be honest, a little despondent as I think I realised just how much work it needed but after really thinking about it, on Friday afternoon, I started to feel excited about the challenge of making it the best it can be. I am passionate about my characters and the journey they go through in the book.

Overall, I think I would be mad not to at least try to do something with this. It needs time, a lot of thought and planning plus the willpower to not throw my laptop out of the window in the process.

Marks out of ten? 5

MUM'S OPINION:

One word to describe my book? Exciting.

Mum completely agreed with me that the voice needs to change to the first person as she also thought it read more like a plot than a novel ... but on the whole, she was definitely more positive about it than I was. She loved the story, the action and said that the characters were likable and real.

Marks out of ten? 7 


Where do I go from here?

After a couple of days spent digesting everything, this is my tentative plan for the book:

On Monday, I am going to read it again and mark down every single plot issue and problem that needs to be sorted and worked on plus write a breakdown of each chapter and everything that happens to make it easier for me in the future. After that, I am going to spend the next couple of months working on what I am sure will be a very long list of plot issues and problems THEN in November, do NaNoWriMo again and rewrite the whole blooming book in a month. GAH!

Help me?

Until next time.