Book Review - "The Kill Order" (No spoilers)

(This book review doesn't give any plot information about the book.)

I got the fourth book in a series called The Maze Runner, The Kill Order. It's a prequel to the first three, set 13 years before the first book. I got it for Christmas and started it the day after. I finished it in 3 days, that's how much it sucked me in. The entire series (The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure, The Kill Order, respectively) was written by James Dashner.

The Kill Order is the latest book. It was released this year. And that's what I'm reviewing.

A basic premise: The Earth suffered terrible sun flares a year ago. Mark and Trina survived them. But now, a virus is beginning to spread all across the eastern United States. A disease of absolute madness. And it's mutating.

Pro - The book was very intense and action-packed. Any book that's like that will suck me in.

Pro - The characters were likable. He did a good job of making me care for the good people.

Con - The author's writing style sometimes annoys me. He will often write "the boy," "the girl," etc. in reference to the person he's writing about, instead of using "he" or "she." Why there shouldn't be anything wrong with doing that, he does it all the time.

I'd recommend picking up the first book, The Maze Runner, at the library, and giving it a go.

PARENTAL INFORMATION:
I'd rate this book PG-13. It is very violent. Very violent. The entire virus part may especially affect young children. The language is okay, only uses a slight bit of the least inappropriate profanity. There is only a little drug mentioning in the book.

All relationships are appropriate.

Before the Year Wraps Up...

2012 draws to a close in a few days. But before it ends, I want to mention some highlights from this year.

This blog was created, first of all.

And second of all, the world didn't end on December 21st. I didn't really expect it to.

So, coming into 2013, I'm going to make it a goal to write posts on this blog more frequently. As a matter of fact, I'm going to start writing ideas down after I finish this blog post.

To all readers of this blog, you all are really awesome people. Really.

NaNoWriMo: Final Words

I completed NaNoWriMo on the 28th of November. Yes, I wrote a 50,000+ word novel. But for some people, they had a comeback story, or some other exciting finish of NaNoWriMo. Some didn't even finish.

If you didn't finish, good job for attempting! Not many average people would say "yes" to writing a novel in a month. Hey, maybe next year!

For those who did finish, great job for what you have accomplished! Whether it was hard work or easy work for you, whether you came back from almost not winning, good job!

If you had a comeback or some other interesting story of how you won NaNoWriMo or almost came back but just couldn't win, come here and share it! I'd love to hear them!

NaNoWriMo November 2012: ADVICE

NaNoWriMo is coming November 1st. And I'm here to help you get your novel done before December 1st.

First off, before the event begins, you'll want to write down a plot. It can be just a simple list of things behind the story or an entire 70-sheet notebook filled up entirely with the story.

Secondly, if you have a busy schedule, put in 1-2 hours of writing every day.

Thirdly, if you are on the YWP site, be sure that you have set your goal.

When the event is going on, take the steps I'm about to give you. It's important not to burn yourself out when writing. If you are feeling worn out by your writing or can't seem to write for the time being, take a break and get back to it later. Usually a short walk around your neighborhood could do.

How to complete the challenge in a simple way:

If you are on the adult website, the word count goal is automatically 50,000 words. If you are on the YWP website, you can set your own goal.

Divide your word count goal by 30. Whatever your result is is the amount of words you have to write per day. I'll just call it your daily word count goal in this post.

Next, find out how much time to fit into your day to write. Do this by taking a typing test. You can find them online. Divide your daily word count goal by the amount of words per minute that you can type, and that is how many minutes it would take to get your daily word count goal done.

HOWEVER, you will also want to tack on 30 - 60 extra minutes to that amount of minutes, because sometimes you might type something out and you decide to change it, you will probably make frequent typos, etc. Mistakes and quick edits will add up the amount of time you have to take to write.

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EXAMPLE:

Let's say your goal for the month is 50,000 words. So you would do the math: 50,000 divided by 30. You wound end up with a decimal number, but just round it up to the nearest one. You'd get 1,667.

Next, let's say a typing test says you type 30 words per minute. You divide 1,667 by 30 and get a number with decimals, but you round it to 56. So. 56 minutes to get to 1,667, but then there will be extra time taken with fixing errors and all, so add another hour.

In total, you'd have to take 2 hours every day to get your 1,667 daily words done.
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Hope this advice helps!

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My history of NaNoWriMo:

When I first heard about NaNoWriMo almost a year ago, it was already 3 days into NaNoWriMo, but I did it anyways. I got past my goal of writing a 30,000-word novel. In August this summer I did a 50,000-word novel in Camp NaNoWriMo.

I'm about to write my third NaNoWriMo novel, called "Derrick And Fame." My word count goal is 50,000 words. You can find me on the YWP NaNoWriMo website as Gillman329.

Four Large Bears and the Possessive Noun

Some of you may know what it's like to read a sentence that has an apostrophe error in it. That some of you may understand how it's so annoying to read a sentence that uses the possessive form of a noun or pronoun when there's no apostrophe needed.

Example: Martin was shocked to see four large bear's sitting at the table.

Bear's is possessive. An apostrophe is added to make the noun possessive. You could talk about a bear who owns an archive full of honey and say that it's the "bear's honey archive." Archive belongs to bear. You could talk about a den that belongs to a bear and call it the "bear's den." Den belongs to bear.

But did the author mean to use "bear's" as a possessive noun or the plural form of a noun?

Remember that a possessive noun is a noun showing ownership or relationship, and is often used as an adjective telling whose.

Martin was shocked to see four bears. In the example sentence above, "bear's" is not showing ownership or relationship. It is not being used as an adjective that tells whose. This is because there isn't any other noun or pronoun in the sentence that belongs to a single bear. There is no ownership or relationship between a bear and another noun or pronoun.

Bear's is supposed to be plural and have no apostrophe, because an apostrophe is not used to make the plural form of a noun.

So, the author (me) should have written "bears," since an "s" (or another small number of letters) is often added for the plural form of a noun.

So the sentence corrected is: Martin was shocked to see four large bears sitting at the table.

(Another note, if we were going to use bear's as a possessive noun, we would actually stick the apostrophe at the end [think Martin was shocked to see four large bears' mates sitting at the table].)

Typing Faster = Getting Wordcount Done Quickly

The writing tip for today is basically that typing correctly (without looking at the keyboard and having your fingers in the correct positions) can really help you in writing faster, especially with NaNoWriMo. Typing with two or three fingers will just make that seem much more slowly. I took typing lessons when I was only around ten years old.

For some of you, I'm sure you've learned already how to type right.

If you haven't already:

Find a reliable book with typing exercises, or look online for one. Regularly take an online typing test. It'll definitely help you with writing faster, and making capital letters faster and easier. And it will help you with NaNoWriMo.

Writing Wrace 4000: Who's Participating?

I'll be hosting an online writing even probably next month, and I want to know who is interested in participating.

Basically, it's a one-day even where everyone will have to write a 4000-word story. I'm still working out the details on what the exact competition type is, but I'll get more details out soon.

Are you interested? Let me know in comments!

Camp NaNoWriMo: Writing Fast?

In the past couple of days, my writing has slowed down to a little bit over 1,600 words per day, the regular average words-per-day for Camp NaNoWriMo. The reason being is that I have been writing all the planned parts of the story, the parts that I planned to happen, and I didn't know I'd get to the part where my main character ends up where the climax happens at only 20,000 out of 50,000 words, and I even began to get a bit tired of writing.

!!!!

What if this happens to you? What if your story is so fast-paced that you've gotten close the climax halfway through the novel? Do what I'm doing!

I'm making things up along the way. Creating a bit more suspense and tension. The next half of my novel, except probably the climax, will be a part that was never really written down. It'll be fun.

So, just a tip on what you can do.

An Overused "Then"

One of my earlier posts was on how you want to limit adverbs. For me, adverbs can be unavoidable.

Just very recently, in my Camp NaNoWriMo novel for this month, I felt like I was using "then" a lot. So I did a word search and found over 80 results. Over 80! I couldn't believe it! 80 of the words in my novel were "then!"

So I looked for each "then" and found that a lot of them were unnecessary. I spent a few minutes cutting back on them and managed to get them down to around 40.

This same problem, except with the adverb "suddenly," happened with my November 2011 NaNoWriMo novel.

Remember: Adverbs are okay to use in writing, but limit them. Also, you can use them in dialogue.

(Hey, why not play a fun game. Find all the adverb from this post and copy them into a comment.)

Writing Wrace 4000

Get the drumroll ready. For I have an exciting announcement.

Coming up August 20th is: WRITING WRACE 4000!!

It is the first writing contest/challenge that I'm making. I am will keep you up-to-date on this event by writing occasional posts. Eventually, I will give you full information on what's happening in the event. All I'm saying is that it's a writing challenge where people compete, and it will happen every so often.

Stay tuned.

Camp NaNoWriMo Begins TODAY!

Wooooohooooooo!

For all those people who are doing the writing challenge that starts today and ends on September 1st at 12:00 AM, I would like to wish you folks GOOD LUCK!

You can also share an excerpt or your synopsis of your Camp NaNoWriMo novel here.

Also, I have written two posts with Camp NaNoWriMo tips. Here are the links:

http://pickyaboutbooks329.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-few-tips-on-camp-nanowrimo-info-on-my.html
http://pickyaboutbooks329.blogspot.com/2012/06/camp-nanowrimo-survival.html

Here's the synopsis of my book, "The Most Wanted Boy in Moldy."

Matt lives in the city of Moldy, a big but grimy town created by people with no money. Matt, like a lot of the orphans living there, takes care of himself. And now at the age of thirteen years old, he is old enough to have a job.

So Matt takes a job as a cleaner at St. Du Mario Lance Hospital. But soon after he starts his work, he runs into a closet that leads him to a big room under the hospital containing what no citizen of Moldy has ever seen.

Suddenly, Matt is the most wanted man in the city of Moldy, as well as neighboring towns and cities too. And he must run away and get to safety. But what he has seen under St. Du Mario Lance Hospital is filling his dreams and thoughts, and he finds himself with a great question: Go to Moldy and save the town, or remain in hiding for the rest of his life.

A Few Tips on Camp NaNoWriMo

I'm participating in the August event of Camp NaNoWriMo, and I'll write a few more tips for you. (I wrote an earlier post on some Camp NaNoWriMo tips. Read it here.)

First off, if you don't know what Camp NaNoWriMo (or just the regular NaNoWriMo) is, it's an online writing challenge where you have to write a novel of 50,000 words in a month. The Young Writers Program (YWP) NaNoWriMo is set up a bit differently; you set your own goal. However, this is unavailable for participants 18 years of age and up.

Anyways. Here's my plan for this month's NaNoWriMo:

• Write 20-30 chapters, maybe one for each day (two or more if I feel like it).
• Devote my time on the computer to it.
• Don't get distracted.

You should apply these tips also. Again, read my older article on other tips here.

The Add-On Story

You may have done this before, but I love doing this.

I'll write a sentence to start a story. Then you have to write a comment with a sentence that keeps the story moving on. People will keep adding to the story, making the characters doing many things.

RULES:

• Sentences you write must be in a comment on this post.
• Have fun.
• Everything must be G-rated. No swearing/cursing (some call it "cussing"), no blood, no violence. You can make it wierd, like "suddenly he turned into a lion with three heads and the lion ate five trees," but nothing PG or above. Thanks!
• Don't end the story suddenly. Wait until I give the heads-up.
• Please write only 1-3 sentences.
• No arguing with each other. No bullying. Everyone be nice to each other. We want this to be a friendly environment.

Remember that I have the authority to delete comments.

I will let you know when we're about to wrap up the story, so we can all write the ending together.

Here's the starting sentence:

On the top of a hill was an old, dilapidated building.

News Update #1

The highlights are:

• I've started writing a series of books. Just wrote last night and wrote today. Over 2,000 words accomplished!
• I've been reading a lot more books now. Seems like my "mission" is almost over. I'm going to most likely get a library card soon!

May or May Not Know #1

Okay, so I may be starting this "May or May Not Know" thing, but it's a little post I'll put up every now and then with writing tips or facts, one that the average writer may know, and one that the average writing probably doesn't know.

May Know


As of now, writing "Said (insert name here)" after dialog is only accepted in fantasy novels. In any other genre, it should be written as "(Insert name here) said." (I'm pretty sure about this.)

May Not Know


The simple present tense of the word spit is simply spit. The simple future tense of the word spit is will spit. But the simple past tense of the word spit is not spit. It's spat. So you don't write, "She was so furious that she spit on the ground." You would write, "She was so furious that she spat on the ground." Make sense?

If you wish to challenge any of the above, you're welcome to. Just please don't write anything inappropriate. This site is intended for all ages.

Two books I have read this month...

I read two books this June, one called "The Maze Runner" (by James Dashner) and the other called "Deadweather and Sunrise" (by Geoff Rodkey). You should read them if you haven't already.

The Maze Runner is the first in a series. It sucked me right in and I spent hours at a time reading it. It took me about 4 or 5 days to read it. Check it out if you haven't already. (I'm going to read the second one as soon as I can!)

Deadweather and Sunrise is the first in a series and was very recently published, and I got sucked into it as well and it only took me 2 days to read it. (Might have to write a book review, it's new) (The second book isn't coming out for a year!)

Camp NaNoWriMo: Survival

Camp NaNoWriMo has begun! I'm participating in August.

For those of you who don't know what NaNoWriMo is, it's "National Novel Writing Month," and it's every November. You have to write a novel in one month, and there's a word-count goal you have to get to to win. And now there's also NaNoWriMo in June and August!

Here is the plan to help you get through NaNoWriMo, or, to be exact, Camp NaNoWriMo.

1. Devote time to it. If you have a busy schedule, you'll need to put NaNoWriMo in it for at least 2-3 hours.
2. Don't be distracted. Do not let yourself be distracted from your writing. Focus only on the novel, not computer games, Facebook, Twitter, or anything else.
3. Keep it up. If you want to become a published author one day, you can't give up. I'm not saying that you'll publish your NaNo novel, but still, you can't give up.
4. Stretch. You can't just sit for two or three hours and type. You'll need to get up at least once and take a quick, relaxing walk to refresh your mind.
5. Play music. I love playing music when I write.

Hope these help, and good luck!

NaNoWrimo in the Summer!

In November of 2011, I wrote my first NaNoWriMo novel on the YWP site. My goal was 30,000 words, and I completed it!

So, in June and August, there will be Camp NaNoWriMo. And I am going to be posting tips soon.

I Hate Plotting

Here's something about me: I don't like plotting for a novel. I prefer to do the plotting inside my head. I know that it's a good idea to write it down, to get the facts on paper so you have a stronger novel.

In November 2011, I wrote my first NaNoWriMo novel. My goal was 30,000 words. I completed it, revised it a few months later, and now I'm ready to get 5 free copies of my novel from CreateSpace. But the thing is... I thought of the story idea while cleaning out the computer room. I didn't write down any ideas for the story, I just thought of the basic storyline and started writing.

Currently, I have a cool story idea in my head, and months ago I started to plot it... until NaNoWriMo "got in the way." And then I stopped plotting it. I want to get back to it... but every time I think about doing it, I don't do it. I feel kind of pressured to have to plot it before writing it.

Do you hate plotting?

Book I Just Finished Reading: Divergent

I just finished reading Divergent, a dystopian book by Veronica Roth. I might even put up a book review on it for those of you who haven't read it. I love the dystopian genre, so I really liked Divergent. It was a really great book, and it sucked me in.

Again, I might put up a review.

Why Limit Adverbs?

An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. It tells how, when, where, or to what degree.

This is an important writing tip.

I've been revising my NaNoWriMo (November 2011) novel this month. I've added scenes, changed things, and made the novel better, way better, than it's first draft. All in preparation for my five free paperback novels.

Everyone knows about the adverb "suddenly." Well, I did a global search in my novel for "suddenly," and I found 28 results. Yes, 28 "suddenly" adverbs in my novel. And so I looked up each one and either deleted it or changed it to something else. Overall, I only kept 2 of them.

Including too many adverbs in your writing is one way to make your writing bad writing. I don't mean to be harsh to those who regularly use adverbs, but you'll want to use these sparingly (especially adverbs of degree). Too many adverbs can add useless words that are unnecessary.

For example: "He ran very fast toward the object."

Let's take all the adverbs out. What is the use of "very fast" in this sentence? "Very fast" tells how he ran to show the reader that he was running fast, but is unnecessary because you can change "ran very fast" to "charged," "sprinted," "darted," or another verb like that.

Another example: "In a very kind way, the woman gave her son the apples."

Now, really, do we need the adverb (prepositional) phrase? We can make a single adverb out of this adverb phrase.


Think, think, think, think, think think, think, think...


"The woman kindly gave her son the apples."

Have any questions?

First Post

Hey, thanks for stopping by my blog!

Just wanted to welcome you and tell you some of the posts I'll be putting up on this blog. I'll be putting up posts that show the progress of me trying to become a bookworm. I may occasionally review some newer books. I'll be putting up writing games and contests. Overall, I'll try to post at the least two or three times a week.

I might even put up a random but really cool post as well!

Have a great spring and summer

- Gillman329