Why do you read?

           Why do you read books?

           Some people read to learn. Generally, when I think of these people I think of people who read nonfiction. Textbook stuff. You know, like blogs about the different types of alpaca fur (because there's a crying need for it).

          Then some people read to relax. They get called escapists. They read to get away from the stress of reality (*enter* the stress of the imaginary).

           Usually, readers are thought to fall into these two categories. I could fall into the latter.

           But do you really want to know why I read?

1. The imagination. You have to admire the word building. The concepts. Where do people come up with this stuff?!

2. The amazing characters. Sure, there's always real life people, but we introverts like to keep our distance. We like people well enough in theory, but only a few up close. And even then, we do people one at a time. How do we cope with the masses? We do books instead (people who read in public, yes?).


the masses: noun  two or more living beings (if there's a dog in the room, yes, it counts too)
                                               -from The Introvert's Dictionary of Slightly Exaggerated Definitions


3. The adventure! Yes, this is purely an escapist's point. But seriously. There are so many things you can do in books that you can't do in real life. Ride a dragon? No, problem. Become a telepath? Right up book alley.

      a. It doesn't even have to be the fantastical though. Right now, say I want to visit London, England. I live in America. But I don't have my own private jet. So what do I do? Pick up a book.

      b. In which point 3 is no longer the escapist answer. What if I wanted know what it's like to live in London, England? How they speak? How they dress? What's for dinner? Do they as a culture have different values than my culture? Believe it or not, you could learn all of those things from a well-written novel.

4. To learn. So what else can we learn from fiction?

           a. Have you ever wondered what someone else was thinking? I do. All the time. Have you ever had the audacity to walk up to a random person and actually ask? Uh, no. (I applaud to you more adventurous and extroverted people). Novels can transport you into the mind of someone else. The mindsets of the characters (to be obvious:their character) have similarities with real people. That's why fiction is called the believable lie. It has just enough truth.

        b. This spins off from a. Through books you can learn about people who think differently than you. You learn how to understand real people who are coming from different situations or mindsets than yourself. You learn how to empathize.

       c. You learn about concepts and lessons also. Usually, if done well, these are the more subtle parts in a novel. So we won't expound. (why do I keep saying we like there's more of me?)

           So why do you enjoy reading? What's your favorite flavor books?

the Makings of a Good Sequel

           Uh. . .

            Oh! Yes, so I am trying to start the sequel in the Oddball trilogy.

            Can I say it's not going very well?

            I know what is supposed to happen in the latter half of the book, but the first half is still a mystery. I don't know much about the kingdom they are going to or why they are going there in the first place. Well, I do actually. They are going there because Jaykin has sent them on a mission there.

          But what is the mission?

           Yes, that's the hold up.

           Right now I'm tossing up ideas of what the story will consist of, so far I've thrown these ideas around:

famous scientists
Medieval culture
a lawless kingdom
racial prejudice

          Is it possible to combine these? I would say yes, but those first two, hmm. . . Challenges are good, no?

          So outside of all that, I've also been thinking about what makes a sequel good, and what makes a sequel bad? A lot of sequels are just blah. But when a sequel is good, it is absolute genius!

          I read a post at chasingthecrazies she mentioned that a sequel ought to introduce new characters to capture our interest. I thought that sounded good.

           What about other sequels? Does this happen?

              Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, I thought was very good. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. The new characters were awesome, creating tension and capturing our hearts (sometimes breaking them). Also the whole idea of the arena as a clock, the underground resistance group. The Hunger Games felt like preparation for the meat of the story's plot: Panem breaking away from President Snow's rule.

           Maybe that is how it should be? When I think about the Divergent series as a whole and then about the single book Divergent. The first book seems like a preparation ground for the real plot. It was, may I say, a sort of initiation.

            Let's talk about movies?

            I liked the first Thor, but the second one? Even better! There was the introduction of a new character. You know, the intern. Poor intern. He had a name, I can't remember, and I feel honest bad for that. But we also spent more time away from earth.

             The Thor sequel took us to another world (and threatened our own with alien invasion, but that's tangential ;).

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             In ways Catching Fire takes us to another world. It shows us Katniss' new life in the beginning then dumps her into a new arena. In Insurgent, Tris occupies different faction headquarters and then later becomes a prison in Erudite headquarters.

            How to Train Your Dragon 2. I know its animation, but that was a really good sequel, especially for an animation. There were new characters. They took us to another world. But what I thought was really cool, and unique (especially for an animation), was that the characters grew. They literally grew up and matured. They took on responsibility and their present and past achievements were acknowledged to that they were raised to a higher level of status.

           The How to Train Your Dragon sequel showed growth and developed maturity in the regular characters.

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          At the end of Catching Fire, Katniss is no longer a little girl who is only staying alive for her sister and thinks that District 12 is the worst there is. She realizes in Catching Fire that things are bad everywhere, and people are not always what they first seem. She is more aware of what is going on in the world and is able to take a more mature outlook on it. She is also made the symbol of the rebellion (more or less against her will). In Insurgent, Tris is no longer the skinny little Abnegation girl who people overlook or mock. She is stronger and assertive; few would challenge her. She is also nominated to be a Dauntless leader, though she declines it. In the second Thor, Thor has grown wiser, and has gained better sense of who he is and what he wants in life. 


The checklist of a great sequel:

1. New characters

2. It should look like the first book was written for the sequel, not the sequel was written for the first book.

3.Take us to another world

4. Growth and developed maturity in characters

What do you think? What do you like to see in sequels?

Um, I know I was here for a reason. . . now what could it be?

           So it’s been insane lately.

           Mid-terms at the college.

          Oh, yay. . .

            I forget a lot of things. I’m terribly unprepared. I walk into a room and forget why. I go to tell someone something and forget what I was going to say.

         My mom suggests I have a daily planner. But if I had a daily planner, I would never look at it. Or it would get swallowed into the abyss of my room and never be seen again. Besides I have an argument for procrastination.

        

Being highly unorganized and unprepared develops flexibility, resourcefulness, a quick mind, and improvisation.

         I’m telling you. It can be a good thing. ;)

         Lately, with everything I do either being something I don’t really want to do, or something that’s limited by some time constraint, I’ve been questioning myself a lot lately. Even if I’m doing something I love, I almost feel guilty for doing it because I’m not studying or doing something “important.” (my idea of important and other people’s ideas of important seem to be incredibly different, hence the quotation marks) Always in the back of my mind there’s this question:

Why are you doing this? What are you doing it for? Why does it matter? Does it even matter at all?

           I’ve really been bothered by this, longer than I originally thought. I actually changed my major this semester because it was bothering me all last year. I thought changing would help, that I would stop asking myself why I am doing what I do. Obviously, that didn’t work.

           I don’t normally talk about stuff like this here (okay, or anywhere), but oh, well.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
           This Sunday I realized something. That whatever I do, no matter what I do, I am doing it for God. Even if nobody sees it or hears about it, except God. As long as I am doing my best at it, it gives glory to Him. Because He is my strength. He is why I can do what I do. It’s my daily act of worship, I guess you could say. It doesn’t even have to be anything in the “Christian box.” (aka: it doesn’t have to be of the Christian genre to glorify God). God gave me this overwhelming peace that everything I do, whether it’s writing, playing guitar, spending time with family, studying for college, driving down the road, I am doing it for Him. And it does matter.


           I know that all might sound very simplistic. But I’ve been struggling with this for a long time. And I’m still figuring it out. Sometimes I still get kind of down and question everything I do. I have to remind myself why I am here and who I am doing what I do for. I need to stop trying to do everything on my own. It’s wearing me out. And I just cannot do it. I was never meant to do it alone. I have to give it to God. And I definitely haven’t grasped the concept of that yet. But we’ll get there.

          So. . . yeah.

         Also I wanted to share this really cool link with you. There’s this awesome post by Wild Horse at Ravens and Writing Desks (pretty cool title, huh? J  ).  It's about finding the personality type of your characters. It's a lot of fun! You should go check it out. Here's a link to the different types of personality types.  (I am determined that one day I will write an ESTP character).

         There’s this other really neat post by Mariah Martinez. She has started a post series on magic in literature from a Christian perspective. I think it’s pretty awesome of her to talk about a controversial topic, and I can’t wait to hear her opinion. You can read her first post at Godwottery Shenanigans.