Category: Let’s Talk

Likability in heroines

Likability in heroines

by RefinedMind ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

When I read, I try to sympathize with the main character as much as I can, as long as they’re not a brat, stuck up, or not self-aware. If the character is like this, I love when there’s character development but if there isn’t, I can’t say I’m a fan.

There are some books where I’ll understand where the heroine is coming from, understand the thought process, the stress and anxiety that would play into her making a certain decision, no matter how stupid it is, but there are other times where I kind of wish she just used her brain.
For example, in a recent book I read, “Passion & Venom”, the heroine was kidnapped and held in the basement. Down there, she is with another prisoner and at one point, she expresses her need to pee but the bathroom door is locked. He advises her to just piss in the corner but instead, she called down one of the mafia members and proceeds to ask if they could open the door for her. *Spoiler* he doesn’t unlock the door and does something worse.

Shouldn’t she be trying her best to stay out of their way and not attract any attention to her? These are the same men who killed her husband after all. Throughout the books, there’s little character development.

She is, in fact, a very strong female lead but it just comes off as…snobby.
And oh my goodness, don’t get me started on suddenly forgiving the completely horrible hero who is such a shitty person all around but suddenly, his backstory is revealed for sympathy point and all his previous actions are forgiven because, boohoo, he has such a bad past. That does not give anyone a pass to be a horrible person, especially if they refused to change. In Passion & Venom, it’s to be expected as he is a mob leader and while we weren’t exposed to his back story in book one, it was hinted at and I know it will be revealed in book 2 but I can’t be bothered to find out because I know he’s going to continue to be a shitty person and the heroine is going to fall in love. Bonus, he’ll continue to be a horrible person to everyone but her. Go figure.

But there have been books where I understood where the heroine was coming from and despite the stupid mistakes, they were understandable. The character themselves were likable too but after I’ve finished and gone onto Goodreads to see what other fellow readers had to say, only to be disappointed in what I read. Some readers absolutely despised the heroine but the funny part is, they would love the hero (who’s an absolute jerk, mind you).

A mild example I can give is ‘The Stand-In’ by Lauren Campbell. I loved this book with all my heart and soul. I couldn’t stop reading, recommended it to everyone I know, and had a good laugh while reading it. When I opened Goodreads, expecting that there couldn’t possibly be people who didn’t like it, I was disappointing. Of course, in my moment of excitement for this book, I forgot that not everyone has the same opinion as me. The heroine was great; she was funny, a little crazy, made questionable choices, and even had me frustrated a few times but I did try to see where she came from. After all, what would a book be if the hero/heroine was perfect? There were a few comments I read that say they found her to be self-absorbed and selfish (understandably) but I never considered that perspective until I read that review.

I consider this a mild example because I’ve seen way worse on other books that I can’t remember at the moment.

Is there a book you’ve read where you’ve found yourself criticizing the heroine a little too harshly and giving the hero one too many passes?

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E-book vs Paperback

E-book vs Paperback

by RefinedMind ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Which do you prefer?

E-book

For the most part, I tend to read on my phone. Ever since i started reading, which was in middle school, i would always be on my phone, reading obsessively, especially past bed time. I ended up with glasses 😦

There’s just something so simple and easy about reading on my phone whenever and wherever I want that makes it so great.

  • It’s anywhere and everywhere as long as you have your small cellular device, charged and ready to be used
  • It cost a lot less than a tangible book does!
  • You can adjust font size, background color, lighting, etc
  • You’re not wasting trees!
  • You can stack them up all you want and don’t have to worry about lack of storage!
  • If you don’t know a work, all you have to do is press on the word and it’ll take you to the dictionary
  • Links can be attached and convenient to open up

Paperback

Who doesn’t love a good, classic paperback? Seeing them on your shelves and having those wonderful memories of reading it, staining the pages with food, gripping the edge with anxious fingers and white knuckles in anticipation of what will happen next…ahh, can’t be beat.

  • You know that feeling of cracking opening a fresh new book, softening the spine, and breathing in that fresh new-book smell? – can’t be beat
  • Getting to have your own mini library, if you buy it of course
  • Can be free! Just go to the library!
  • Getting to buy a cute book mark and using it relentlessly
  • Admiring the book design – some are even 3D
  • Easier on the eyes
  • It’s different when someone seems you actually holding a book and reading rather than looking like your just on social media
  • Sharing! – ‘You have to read this book. Here, take it!’ – Your own little book club
  • Second hand books! – there’s a story written in ink and another story written between the folds and cracks that the previous owner left behind (maybe it isn’t always for the best but the written in side connects can be great!)
  • Doesn’t it feel amazing when your done reading for the time being so you put your bookmark in and close the book – now you can see the progress you made and how much you have left. I feel satisfied

Despite these differences, i think we can all agree that reading overall is just an amazing thing and isn’t it so great that we have multiple options? Each have their own benefits and drawbacks but at the end of the day, reading is reading.

Overwriting vs Underwriting | Writing Struggles

Overwriting vs Underwriting | Writing Struggles

by RefinedMind ♥ 4 Comments

At least when you overwrite, you can go back and delete the unnecessary.

I recently got told that I tend to underwrite scenes in my story, which threw me in a loop. They say that I summarize the chapters and the readers won’t be able to feel submerged into the reading unless i add more details and I could not comprehend this information.

All this time, I’ve been reading online about not writing too much details because it gets boring and I took that to the next level. I just cover the surface when my characters are going through something, which doesn’t allow the readers to really get it. It just seems like their watching two characters from a third person point of view rather than actually feeling it. Do you get what i mean?

So now, i’m putting off writing my fifth draft until I can get my emotions under control and prepare myself to go in and change up nearly all the chapters to add more feel too it. It’s dreadful and exhausting but it must be done.

At least when you overwrite, you’re able to go back and delete what you feel may be dragging the conversation or chapter on but when you underwrite, you have to go back in and actually rewrite and add in details, which takes a lot longer than highlighting and backspacing.

I’m still writing to find middle ground so i don’t bore the readers half to death while also making sure they can feel the scene and understand to their cores how my character is feeling, even if it isn’t the best thing.

How do you overcome this? Because i’m going to need a lot of advice to get through this next round of editing.

Guilt| Motivation?

Guilt| Motivation?

by RefinedMind ♥ 2 Comments

What’s the worst mistake you’ve ever made?

Do you think when a person murders someone, they feel intense guilt? Assuming they’re not a psychopath of course.

Yes, I think they do feel guilt. Why doesn’t that stop them from murdering again?

Over time, the guilt over our mistake lessens the often we do it until we no longer feel guilty. It just becomes apart of us. Do we feel guilty for letting ourselves get that far?

For example, lying.

We start as horrible liars with shifting eyes and mumbled words. Some of us try our best to tell the truth as we get older because honesty is the best policy (Unless your 6ix9ine…once he’s out of jail, the gangs are after him). Some of us continue to lie and over time, we perfect it, while no longer feeling guilty and being able to carefully manoeuvre our way around the consequences.

Point is, it’s okay to lie now and again.

For real though, try to right your wrong and cross that threshold where you no longer care.

Write What You Want, Then What You Need

Write What You Want, Then What You Need

by RefinedMind ♥ 2 Comments

I don’t know about you but my fingers have a mind of their own. I’ll get halfway through a sentence and think ‘brilliant!’ mostly because I didn’t realize I’d write that.

The same things go for my plot. I’ll be minding my own business, typing words and hoping they form coherent sentences and then eventually, I’ll be 30 pages in and realize where the story is heading. Granted, this is usually when I just want to stretch my fingers and write with no general direction but with the novel, I’m currently working on, I made sure I had an outline.

Does and outline work?

It’d different for every person. Personally, outlines are great to get the general plot down and get a sense of your character’s personality. I also noted down what would happen in each chapter, allowing me to also know how many chapters the book will have and a general idea of how long it will be.

Granted, I strayed from the chapter-to-chapter run down because i had additional ideas that just flowed better with what I previously wrote. I also ended up having three outlines, which I will get into in a bit.

I know another person who was writing a play or screenwriting (something along those lines. I’m sorry if you’re reading this), she said she became a slave to the outline, writing everything to perfection.

I can see how that can be helpful and for some, that may work perfectly! I think you should give both options a try: loosely outlining your story vs being a slave to your outline.

Of course, you can also find the middle ground.

Outline One!

I wrote outline one a while ago (as in years ago) and when I finally decided to work on the book, I looked back on the outline and realized I didn’t like it very much, so I wrote outline two.

Outline Two! 

For outline two, I took a few ideas out of outline one and rewrote it fit my up-to-date idea of what I wanted my story to be. Then I worked endlessly on the novel.

Outline Three! 

I never planned on outline three. Two was more than enough but it turns out, it wasn’t. After my third draft, I realize I needed to add a subplot because it would help engage the reader and keep them flipping so I wrote down exactly what happened in each chapter, and then what I planned to additionally add about the subplot. It was a few words jot notes, but it was enough for me since I already had ideas flowing through my mind (this is dangerous if you plan on writing a month later after you write the outline because you may forget what you planned. Proceed with caution.) Then, I got to work on draft 4.

Moral of my story: Allow your mind to run wild and your fingers to aimlessly fly across the keyboard. Write anything and everything and maybe even nothing, as long as you go back and edit mercilessly (I have yet to reach that stage.)

Can’t be Motivated

Can’t be Motivated

by RefinedMind ♥ 2 Comments

This semester, I’m taking a motivation class that is mandatory for my degree. It’s either that or Sensation and Perception, which is harder that it looks (get it? because sensation and perception is mainly learning about the eyes. I think…i dropped the class after a month).

Anyways, word around town (or between my friend and I) is that the prof for motivation isn’t great but i’m taking the risk and i’ll keep you updated.

Motivation Posts

You can find them all over Twitter, Pintrest, Instagram, Reddit…WordPress. There motivation post about eating right, getting fit, doing your homework, achieving your dreams but how often does that actually motivate us?

For me, it’s usually for a few minutes and them i’m back to watching YouTube videos.

The only ones that really stick with me is hearing personal stories, such as J.K Rowling, or Oprah, you know? They really hit you. These women were motivated to get out of the terrible spot they were in and they worked hard for a better life for themselves.

Me

I am boring. I can hardly motivate myself, what makes me think i can motivate you?

The class I’m taking will help with that and maybe i’ll take you along the journey of watching me struggle the whole semester and maybe, just maybe, get a good enough mark to continue in honors.

Stick around?

What is blogging?

What is blogging?

by RefinedMind ♥ 2 Comments

Alright, i understand the tone i set with my first post does not give this page a good look but hey, look at it from a funny standpoint and you might smile a little.

A famous author once said:

Smile.

Me. I am that author that said that. No, i have not published a book.

Truth be told, i’ve been sitting on this blog for about half a year with no direction in which this should head. I know i want to talk about writing and share my struggle but every time i write something, it almost feels like a joke so i’m laying off it for now and just posting…jokes.

WordPress is a lot harder than it looks. It’s one thing to just read what toher post and another to actaully navigate the sight and figure out how to make the post only slightly visiable so it makes my feed like nicer rather than just a dump of the whole post.

Anyways, stick around to see where this heads because i don’t know either.