Fina's Commonplace Book

Editing can take a lot of different forms. From taking a completed draft and adding whole new plot lines, or going line by line and changing punctuation and wording, the word "edits" encompasses  a lot  of different things. Photo by  Glenn Carstens-Peters  on  Unsplash Recently, I wrote a snippet of a scene for my YA fantasy novel,  Blood Curse.  I knew from the moment I typed it up that it was going to need work (read: EDITS), and I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to show you all my method for going through a scene edit -- not a large scale, plot changing story edit, or a line edit, but something in between. Here is the original scene, as I typed it: I frowned. “But --” Bang! Pain shot through my temple and I stumbled forward, staring around blindly. What -- Gro took off with a startled scream. Kay cursed. “Get down!”   He shoved me to the ground as another shot whizzed over our heads. “What’s --” “They’ve fo...

Summary After Calamity appeared in the sky, ordinary people started to develop superpowers. Now, ten years later, these people -- the Epics -- rule the remains of the world. For years, David has had a single goal -- to kill Steelheart, the overlord of Newcago. He wants revenge for his father's death, and regardless of what others say -- that Steelheart is unkillable -- he will stop at nothing to exact that revenge. He joins with a shadowy band of rebels known as the Reckoners, and together, they may be enough to take on Steelheart. Because David has seen something he shouldn't have -- he has seen Steelheart bleed. But the same thing that could give him the knowledge to defeat his greatest enemy could also get him killed. My Review Steelheart blew me away. After reading  Renegades by Marissa Meyer , I knew that I wanted to read more superhero fiction. This one seemed right up my alley, being a Brandon Sanderson novel; plus the idea of a supervillain dystopia really ap...

Summary Nova Artino wants vengeance against the Renegades -- a band of superheroes who are dedicated to preserving law and order after the chaos of the Age of Anarchy. Nova has reasons to hate the Renegades, and nothing will stop her in her mission to assassinate her prime target -- Captain Chromium, the head of the Renegade Council. Well, almost nothing. When she is inducted into the Renegades, she meets Adrian Everheart, and suddenly, everything gets more complicated. Adrian Everheart wants justice. As a member of the Renegades, he knows that obeying the code is vital to maintain order. But when he discovers the mysterious villain Nightmare may have something to do with his mother's murder, he is desperate for answers. Under the guise of the Sentinel, he searches for the answers to the questions that have plagued him for years. My Review I really liked this book. The whole idea of a superhero uprising -- and then superheroes trying to rebuild the world afterwards -- was s...