Discussion Time: Does Your Opinion on Books Change Over Time, and Does This Affect Your Reviews?

Nine times out of ten when I finish a book the first thing I do is head over to Goodreads so I can mark it as ‘read’ and add my rating. I don’t give myself a lot of time to think about it, I normally go with whatever my instinct is telling me to rate it. I’m not sure if that what’s most people do, but over the nearly three years I’ve been blogging I’ve noticed sometimes my opinion has changed.

There have been books where, the more I think about them after I’ve finished, the more I’ve realised they weren’t as good as I remember them being. Once the high of finishing a book has gone I started remembering some of the little things I didn’t really enjoy that much, the plot holes which, while reading I may have been able to brush past, but looking back I’ve realised bugged me more than I thought.

Does Your Opinion on Books Change Over Time, and Does This Affect Your Reviews?

Discussion Time: What Do You Do When Your Favourite Genre Becomes “Tired”?

A poor girl from a broken family finds a job working for royalty, but she soon finds herself in grave danger when a power she didn’t know she had emerges. Add in a love triangle between two brothers, a murderous queen, and potentially a rebellion and what book am I describing? If you said Red Queen you’re correct, but if you said Evermore you’re also correct.

There are probably more books out there which follow that same template, and after whole it gets boring. While everyone has one favourite genre, one they keep going back to over and over again, when you read the same stories and the same generic tropes just with different character names you can get a little tired.

What Do You Do When Your Favourite Genre Becomes “Tired”?

Discussion Time: The Benefits of Re-Reading

My to-read list is a mixture of books already released that I want to read, books still to be released that I can’t wait for, and books I loved that I want to re-read. Granted it’s more the former two than the latter one, but I think we all have books on our TBR lists which are re-reads and which probably keep getting passed over in favour of books we haven’t already read.

This year I made a resolution to re-read more of my old favourites, books I’ve been saying I want to re-read for years, and honestly it’s made me wonder why I haven’t made it an aim to do more re-reading before. (That’s kind of a lie, I know why and it’s because of all the shiny new releases I’ve been swayed by).

The Benefits of Re-Reading

Discussion Time: Why Are Reviews So Hard to Write and So Unpopular in the Blogging Community?

Book review are the main part of being a book blogger, and for most of us they’re probably connected in some way to the reason why we started blogging. I started blogging so I could talk to other people about the books I loved, and the best way to do that is through book reviews, but of all the posts people publish on their sites book reviews have the least traffic.

They’re also hard to write. If you’re anything like me you’ll leave your reviews to the very last minute when drafting new posts; you’ll write book tags, discussions and weekly memes first, or comment and blog hop before finally opening that blank document to write a review. Then before you know it your un-reviewed books have piled up and there’s a whole list you need to get through.

Why Are Reviews So Hard to Write and So Unpopular in the Blogging Community?

Discussion Time: NaNoWriMo Update and Introducing my Characters

So, as I mentioned last week, instead of doing normal discussion posts this month I’m going to talk about my NaNoWriMo progress and my current WIP.

If you’re not aware NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s only once a year (if you’re anything like me and don’t take part in the Camp NaNo events in April and July) but the goal is to write 50K words in one month. It’s insane, 50K is more than I’ve wrote this whole year in the other ten months combined, but now I’m trying to do it in one month.

Slowly the end of November is creeping up on us all. I shouldn’t be surprised by how quickly this month has gone based on how quickly this year and every other month has gone, but I’m still freaking out a little because of how far I’ve fallen behind!

NaNoWriMo Update and Introducing my Characters

Discussion Time: NaNoWriMo Update and Introducing my WIP

Instead of doing normal discussion posts this month I’m going to talk about my NaNoWriMo progress and my current WIP.

If you’re not aware NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. For the whole of November people taking part try and write 50K words before the month is over. It’s completely insane, for one month I try to write more words than I normally would throughout the remaining eleven months of the year, but it’s so much fun.

This is the second year that I’m taking part in NaNoWriMo and keeping up with blogging at the same time, working on writing 50K while still publishing posts and blog hopping. So far it’s going well, but there’s still a lot more of the month to go and anything could happen.

NaNoWriMo Update and Introducing my WIP

Discussion Time: How to Set Aside Time for Your WIP (and Not Get Distracted)

If you’re anything like me then you know how much of a b***h procrastination can be, even when it comes to something I love as much as writing and as much as my current WIP there’s always that small voice in the back of my mind saying; “you still have plenty of time left, you can get around to that later”. But “later” never comes.

I’ve always been this way, and it seems like blogging has been the only aspect of my life that’s escaped my procrastination tendencies because in the run up to the start of a November and the start of NaNoWriMo when I should be working on my WIP plan I’m consistently putting it off.

How to Set Aside Time for Your WIP (and Not Get Distracted)

Discussion Time: Plotting and Planning a WIP

There’s no right or wrong way to write a book (OK maybe that’s not true because I think what I’m doing now, which is not writing at all, is the wrong way to write a book) but everyone has a different way of going about it. There are people who plan every chapter and character, and people who start writing with nothing more than an idea and a blank Word document.

Those are the two extremes, you may be a mix of the two (which is where I think I am). This post isn’t to discuss the right and wrong ways to plan a WIP (like I said I don’t think there is a wrong way), but in the run up to NaNoWriMo I want to talk more about writing and WIPs to help me get my head back in the game.

Plotting and Planning a WIP

Discussion Time: Why I Love Bookish Tropes

I’ve spoken a lot (a lot a lot) in the past about all the bookish tropes I hate. In fact if you’ve been following me long enough you’re probably already aware of a few of the tropes I can’t stand; insta-love, love triangles (unless they’re done right and honestly how often does that happen?), and girl hate are the main three.

However while there are tropes I can’t stand, and it’s the same for everyone, there are plenty of tropes out there I can’t get enough of. I talk so much about the tropes I can’t stand but I rarely talk about the tropes I love and why it is I love them so much.

Why I Love Bookish Tropes.

Discussion Time: Why Trigger Warnings are Really Important

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the best at including trigger warnings in my reviews, but I’m trying to be better at it because it’s so important that readers are aware of the dangerous parts of certain books that could make their reading experience an uncomfortable one. Granted I don’t know if it’s possible to encompass everything that could be a trigger, but I guess that’s what the rest of the review is for.

The only thing is, how do you include trigger warnings that count as spoilers? Sometimes the part of the book that could trigger someone happens at the end, or it’s what the story and character development have been building up to, and for someone who isn’t triggered it would ruin the book. How do you navigate that dilemma?

Why Trigger Warnings are Really Important

Fair warning; I talk a fair bit about topics that could be considered triggering in this post, mainly suicide.