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enbylesbianism · 3 years ago

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ANY WAY THE WIND BLOWS: Simon Snow trilogy wrapped! (review)

Hi, there! It took me a while to finish this post, as I could talk about it for... a long time (not necessarily a good thing), but I got it! I like praise, so if anyone wants to tell me I did a good job... Also, I might edit this post later on. I don’t remember anything else I’d like to add, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I did after posting. My brain does not obey me. Anyways, off to it! By the way, I won’t give this book a real rating.

While this is a review on Any Way the Wind Blows, I intend on analysing some points of the overall series too. The book starts where Wayward Son left off, the end of the road trip, Simon and Baz having problems in their relationship, Penelope helping Shepard with his curse... and the whole situation of the NowNext vampires. Rainbow Rowell only seems to remember the first part. That leaves us with the second book of the series ignored almost completely, with the exception of Simon and Baz’s feelings as well as Shepard’s existence.

Don’t get me wrong, aspects of the book are mentioned, but never in a truly important way. Lamb, the Vampire King, is mentioned by Simon, but only focusing on his and Baz’s relationship, never about the fact that there are a bunch of vampires (supposedly ‘evil’) in the U.S. but I guess what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? I could count on one hand the times the NowNext vampires were mentioned (like, literally, this isn’t an exaggeration, I looked up ‘NowNext’ on the e-book and only got five results), all of them either being one of them considering telling someone else about it, then not following through with it, or dismissing it as a concern for Lamb. Which makes the plot of Wayward Son completely useless for the trilogy. Now, that wouldn’t matter as much if everything else had been properly developed, but we definitely can’t say that.

We are introduced to a brand new, poorly developed villain, Smith-Smith Richards, whose character arc is as ridiculous as his name. He’s one of the fake Chosen Ones that started appearing after the events of Carry On (and the only one to be mentioned and/or defeated, for that matter). It becomes clear that presenting as Simon Snow-ish is part of his brand, especially when Baz describes him as looking like the Netflix adaptation version of Simon, and that he was raised and guided by his uncle, who’s just... there. I don’t think it would’ve been hard to make him manipulating Smith-Smith into believing he’s the prophetic savior of the Magickal World, which would not only make both of their characters more interesting, but it could also serve as a parallel of Simon’s relationship with the Mage. Richards also has some special powers such as increasing a mage’s magic for a limited amount of time, but taking it away afterwards, as well as making someone immune from spells. It’s worth saying those aren’t skills that are usual in the Magickal World, or else there wouldn’t be so much confusion and shock from people (specially Baz and Penny, who would definitely have heard of something like this before), but we get no explanation on why or how Richard has them.

Then, we have the Salisbury’s. We, as readers, already know Lucy and Davy are Simon’s parents, making Ruth his grandmother. It’s noticeable that Rowell builds up to that discovery, by making Simon get along with Ruth instantly, him thinking about Lucy a lot etc. It makes us excited to read the part where they actually figure it out, to know how Simon would deal with that, him dealing with the fact that he’s the Mage’s son and the fact that, technically, he killed his father. I suppose that’s the point, but actually getting to that part was incredibly underwhelming. The way they discovered about Simon—being able to lift a family sword—hadn’t been mentioned or hinted at before. One would’ve expected Simon, who’s particularly interested in swords as it’s mentioned many times throughout the series, to notice a freaking Excalibur at the Salisbury’s place before.

And speaking of noticing things: when it’s finally revealed that Simon is Lucy’s son and the Mage’s heir, Baz pointed out the uncanny similarities between his boyfriend and the deceased Watford principal. “Those narrow eyes. That tilt of his head. I thought... I thought he’d learned it. Was imitating it.” + “Merlin, Simon, you even look like him.” (Any Way the Wind Blows, chapter 86) Simon was the Mage’s protégé for years and I assume the Magickal authorities knew that he was the one to inherit all of his money and personal belongings, but no one, in the whole British Magickal community, thought about them being related? I refuse to believe there were no conspiracy theorist teachers at Watford or that Mitali or even the Pitch’s alongside everyone who was against the Mage didn’t at least check to know if there was something behind those characteristics. Baz literally said (chapter 88), “I think it’s undeniable. I’d cast ‘Flesh and blood’ on them, but it would bounce right off of Snow (...)”, so there is a spell for that. Plus, we didn’t even have one whole chapter of Simon dealing with this information! The chapters (no more than five, out of ninety-one) were divided between Simon, Baz and Lady Ruth’s POVs. He’s the main character, so one would think he’d get more development.

Another point that felt rushed was the romance. While Simon and Baz’s relationship wasn’t, as it’s been a topic Rowell has explored for three books (we’re not counting Fangirl here, as their ‘participation’ on it was minor and their personalities weren’t as consistent as in the trilogy. Not that it is that consistent there), the others just felt like she wanted everyone to finish the trilogy with a pair. I’ll start with Shepard and Penny. There were fans who liked them together before Any Way the Wind Blows, but it wasn’t hinted at—it was more like a fandom thing. I personally like them as a couple, but it could have had development and, maybe, foreshadowing in Wayward Son. I mean, they did fight monsters during a huge part of a road trip together.

The next one I’ll talk about is Agatha and Niamh. I love them, don’t get me wrong. Actually, it’s precisely because I love them that I wish they’d gotten a better treatment. Niamh wasn’t introduced before Any Way the Wind Blows. I get why she wasn’t introduced in Carry On—it was interesting to see a character who wasn’t caught up in Simon and Baz’s drama during the school years—but a hint of her existence could’ve been left in Wayward Son. Agatha is an important character on it, and a mention of her father training an aspiring veterinary could’ve fit somewhere, as a hint, maybe. (Also, Lucy, the dog, being absolutely forgotten during this book when a lot of Agatha’s time is spent in a veterinary clinic...) Besides, we could get the vibes from them, but after they kissed, there was barely any content. We didn’t get them calling each other ‘girlfriend’ (or if they even like that label at this point), or the aftermath of the kiss, or a POV from Niamh. Or Niamh appearing the epilogue? If Agatha was taking care of the goats, I’m sure Niamh would have a part in that too. Still on Agatha’s character, but not on Niamh’s, it felt like Rainbow Rowell was setting up for aromantic and asexual Agatha, specially because of this quote: “It was like she'd pulled the feeling right out of my heart. I could have kissed her. (I still wish sometimes that I wanted to.) (That would feel like an answer to... the question of me. Then I could say, 'Oh, thats who I am. That's why I've been so confused.')” (Wayward Son, chapter 4).

And I was leaving the best (I need to be sure everyone knows I mean this sarcastically) of the romance topic for the end: Fiona and Nicodemus. It’s just... so forced and undeveloped. Not even because, to me, they’re both gay as hell. There was just... such a lack of development! I don’t think we had any interaction between the both of them before Any Way the Wind Blows. There was no foreshadowing or why would Fiona, a vampire hunter from a family of vampire hunters, would marry... a vampire! I’d already find it weird to see fanfiction of them as a crackship, but it’s canon?! Like, canon as in they’re going to get married and use Fiona and Natasha’s mother’s ring? Seriously, nothing will take from me that this is a lavender marriage (as I’ve already discussed with my best friend, which inspired this post of theirs.)

I’d also like to speak about a topic that’d been hinted throughout the series, especially post-Carry On, which is the criticism towards the Magickal Community in the U.K.. That criticism is very much embodied in Shepard’s character. It’s explicitly said that the British mages have some kind of supremacy towards other supernatural beings, such as vampires for example, gatekeeping literal magic. Up until relatively recently, mages with weak links with magic couldn’t attend Watford (and that’s a major plot point in the final book) and there’s a denial towards any other kind of magic except the ones that are part of their craft. Even within the Magickal community itself, there are more important families that are more likely to succeed, like Natasha receiving criticism for marrying Malcolm, as a Pitch. It felt pointless not to tackle the issues you’ve set up yourself in your own universe. Penelope has very strict morals related to magickal law and beliefs, something that she could’ve deconstructed, especially considering Shepard, her love interest, symbolises that. Another point related to that is, the trilogy is very clearly heavily inspired by Harry Potter, where many of those points are very clear (e.g. wizard supremacy in relation to other species, such as werewolves and domestic elves and the status quo that makes some traditionally magical families more influential than others, like the Malfoy’s vs. the Weasley’s), so it’s not an easily forgettable concept.

The series also had a lot of inconsistencies. The one I’ve seen talked about more often is Simon and Agatha’s... intimacy status, let’s call it that. Simon’s whole thing in the first book was that he struggled controlling his magic when experiencing intense emotions, which makes it hard to believe that he managed to have sex withount an... accident. Besides that, though, there’s this quote, “She (...) presses a kiss into my temple. No one has ever kissed me there. No one has ever kissed me anywhere but on my mouth” (Carry On, Chapter 27), but in Any Way the Wind Blows, when Simon’s about to have his wings cut, Agatha says, “It’s a strange feeling to look at someone’s chest and know it’s nothing to do with you anymore, but still to remember kissing every inch.” (Chapter 14)

So, we have established that Rainbow Rowell’s work, both character and plot driven, is flawed. “But we got the characters interacting for the closure of the series, at least!” Well... we got interactions between the canon romantic relationships, yeah. But besides that, we didn’t get much. There were no interactions between Agatha and Penny, or Shepard with Simon and Baz. Or Penny and her mother figuring stuff out. Or literally anyone with a therapist. And not gonna lie, the interaction we got between Baz and Dev was underwhelming, to say the least. Niall is nowhere to be seen, too.

Rainbow Rowell’s writing is beautiful: she writes poetic lines that make the book seem perfect at first glance, if you don’t think about it for too long. Her words are very shiny, but once you get use to that light and see what’s behind them, what’s between one shiny quote and another, it has so many flaws and plot holes that it reads like a first draft. There are many concepts in there that are genuinely good: the rest of the trilogy focused on the protagonist dealing with the trauma of being a child soldier instead of being entirely an adventure, Simon being unlabelled, a fake Chosen One that gives mages fake hope... Those are all good ideas, but so poorly explored that, despite being an entire book/trilogy, it still feels like a writing pitch or something among those lines.

I felt iffy about other things during my reading of the series, but they aren’t exactly plot points, so I’ll just list them below:

Mitali, Penny’s mom, including ‘discovering your bisexuality’ as a mid-life crisis thing

As I’ve seen people talking about biphobia/bi erasure in the books, I’ll be including this post that features both unlabelled and bisexual individuals talking about the topic (it isn’t my place, as a lesbian, to talk about this, that’s why I decided not to do so.)

Romanticising of Baz’s suicide (a.k.a. chapter 61) in the first book. If you’re not in a good place mentally, like I was when I first read Carry On, I hope you know that a kiss or romance doesn’t help any mental illness you or others might have. Don’t let anyone use your guilt to manipulate you. Paraphrasing Alice Oseman in their graphic novel Heartstopper, love can’t cure a mental illness.

Any Way the Wind Blows was... very horny. I can’t point out how this makes the book bad exactly, but it wasn’t something I enjoyed. One of Rainbow Rowell’s strongest skills is that her quotes, when loose, are good. They tend to be poetic and just beautiful, overall. But in the... explicit scenes, these skills were barely used, and I felt like I was reading NSFW tweets off of someone’s private account on Twitter. Besides, the first two books of the series weren’t written like that, so the change was very sudden.

The older people could’ve been more explored. Penelope and Mitali’s relationship and how similar the both of them are compared to each other, Daphne and Professor Bunce’s insecurities and why they believed in Smith-Smith, Fiona, Nico, and Ebb... Also, the Mage and Lucy. We could’ve had more on them, y’know.

The pop culture references. They made the book read even more like Twitter’s feed. Honestly, if I wanted to read prompts and nice ship content alongside memes from Twitter with some horny thoughts sprinkled all around, I would’ve opened the Twitter app. Or Tumblr, Instagram, whatever.

The POV switching felt lazy to me at times. It’s nice to know how different characters are experiencing that situation, yes, but sometimes, like during the discovery that Simon is a Salisbury, it read as if Rowell wanted to create tension, but couldn’t think of any other way to do it except the switching around.

Narrative wise, I think Simon and Baz should’ve spent more time broken up.

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naomi-l-tiessen-blog · 8 years ago

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Tips on Planning out your Novel

Hellllloooooooo everybody ~

Happy Thursday Blogday!

If you’re in the same boat as me, the writing world is completely foreign territory. Every single day you are presented with a brand-new challenge, and like a puzzle, you need to figure out how to solve it. But you’ve made this far, and there is no fucking way you are backing down, right? You’re involved now, committed. You’ve joined the writing cult, and are in much too deep to back out now.

But here’s the thing: you don’t know the first thing about being a writer…or writing a story.

Hooray, me neither!

Don’t worry, from one newbie to another, I’ve got you covered. Don’t be afraid…the writing cult can smell fear….

So, you want to write a novel, but don’t know where to begin? I’ve got your back! In today’s blog, I’ll cover 5 essential points on planning your novel up to the writing phase.

So, without further ado, here are 5 tips on planning your novel and getting you started on the path to success:

1) The Brainstorming. This is generally the most exciting part of the writing experience itself, where the birth of magnificent ideas take place. They can come to you in dreams, while reading or watching TV, or randomly when you are, say, taking a bath and day dreaming about mermaids (may or may not be speaking from experience). This is, needless to say, the most vital part of the novel-writing process. Because, let’s face it, without an idea, there’d be no story, right? So, say you come up with an idea that you know, deep in your bones and heart of hearts, needs to be written by you and you alone. So, now what? Well, things to consider: 1) does the idea have substance? Can it carry the weight of an entire story, or would it be stretched thin from beginning to end with the threat of developing holes and breaking? And 2) are you going to be just as passionate about this idea in 2 months’ time? 6 months’ time? A year? Now I know that’s sort of a trick question, and unless you are a psychic, you aren’t really going to know the answer to that question. But sometimes it’s good to write down an idea, and then put it away, out of sight, out of mind. Allow the initial excitement to die down a bit, the glamour, the glare from your rose-tinted glasses. If, after a week or two, this idea is still as captivating as the day you thought it up, then you might have a story on your hands!

Once you are able to answer these questions, the fun begins! Keep a notebook handy, and start jotting down your thought dumps. Scenes that keep playing in your head nonstop, lines of dialogue, characters and their aesthetics. Create a name bank, pay attention to street names for inspiration (that’s how I got my MC’s last name), and unless your story takes place on Earth, maybe start daydreaming up things you might want to include in your new world (ie: language, terrain, wildlife, inhabitants, main food staples, etc). Write down things you’d like to have happen in your story. It could be anything…a coffee date, playing Marco Polo quietly at a bookstore, singing horribly at karaoke (ah, just learnt that I can’t, in fact, spell karaoke without spell check saving my ass), or a romantic picnic that ends in disaster when a rogue rain cloud unleashes its inner Poseidon and drenches everything. Some of these ideas you might be able to incorporate, some of them you might not, but it’s always safe to keep of list of ideas handy to give texture to your story. By the end of this, you should have a pretty good idea of the gist of your story. Having said that, never STOP brainstorming; it’s ok to come up with ideas for the beginning of your story, even as you write the end. I mean, it’s a bit difficult, and you might need to revise the shit out of your manuscript, but hey, that’s what drafts (and drafts, and drafts) are for!

2) The Researching. Maybe not as fun as the brainstorming part, but important. At this stage, you are diving deeper than just ideas. What sort of story are you telling? What genre is it going to fall under? If you don’t know much about that genre, learn about it. Read and watch movies that fall under the same category, and take notes (if anyone judges you for watching hours upon hours of Doctor Who, just declare it in the name of science. And if that fails, just tell them Scarlette made you). If your novel isn’t taking place on Earth, hit up tutorials on world building and stage setting. Dive into workshops about dialogue, chapter structures, and making believable characters. You know the bare bones of your story at this point. With that in mind, can you describe it in a single sentence? Can you explain it, start to finish, on a single page? These exercises help train your mind into getting the meat and potatoes of your story, the nitty-gritty. What is so important, so prioritizing, that you simply HAVE to mention it vs. what is, meh, maybe not that heavy duty, and can sit on the sidelines. It’ll help produce plot points, subplots, potential climaxes, and maybe even the mythical theme (le gasp!). Doing these sorts of exercises well help give your story shape, and point you in a solid direction.

3) The Creating. Don’t get me wrong, you’ve been creating this entire time. But this is sort of a different level of creating. In this part of the planning, you should no longer be picking ideas out of thin air. Your ideas should be taking structure…you should have a general idea of what your characters look like, what your world looks like, and the direction your plot is going. This “creating” process is dedicated to further solidifying those features. Your characters should have names, a vivid description, and profile pages full of their likes and dislikes, fashion sense (or lack thereof), fears, goals, where they start in the story vs. where they end up, etc. This is where the internet is your friend. Find pictures that best resemble your characters, and keep them around for inspiration. But try not to be creepy about it. Trust me, a lot of weird shit comes up when you type in things like, “7-year-old girl with blond hair and green eyes,” blah blah blah. Don’t want the cops paying you a visit!

You should be creating character profiles for your main characters (protagonists and antagonists), and at LEAST half-assed ones for your side characters. Side-note: create a cheat sheet for your character descriptions and names close by just in case. You don’t want Sir Maxwell McFeelya’s hair color to change from shoulder length, greasy dirty blond, to a crew cut with a totally-there bald spot in the middle of his more-pepper-than-salt hair. Talk about awkward. Or if your Sue-Ellen McAlister in chapter 2 suddenly becomes Virginia Davies in chapter 10. Oops. Once again, may or may not be speaking from experience here. During this stage, your new world should be really taking shape. Once again, don’t be afraid to use pictures as references and inspiration. You should know the main ins and outs of your world, such as language, professions, climate, terrain, food staples, religion, etc. There are some great templates explaining things you need to consider when creating a world from scratch...seriously, a ton. At this time, you should also be thickening up your plot, figuring out the main points, subplots, and climaxes. If you know the beginning, middle, and end, but don’t know how to piece them together, that’s ok. That’s what the next step is for.

4) The Outlining. This is on the list?? Shocker. Ok, before you pantsers get all up in my face about this, I stand firm in my belief that this stage is freaking CRUCIAL to the planning and writing process. To begin writing without an outline, you are more than likely going to end up with plot holes, inconsistencies, and a hell of a lot of frustration. Granted, there are a lot of people that don’t outline, and that works just fine for them. I am not one of those people, and therefore outlining is on my list. Plus, I kind of sort of love outlining. This is the point of the process where we have all (or at least most) our ducks, and now we are going to get them in a row. It’s time to organize your story, getting it in order. THIS is where you need to figure out how to glue the beginning, middle, and end together.

Think of outlining as a puzzle: you have all the pieces, and now you need to figure out where they all go. Don’t force the pieces into spots where they don’t belong, because you will end up with bent edges and something that is bumpy and doesn’t flow well. If a certain piece doesn’t fit anywhere, it might be for a different puzzle; take it out, and keep working. If you can’t find all the pieces, that’s ok too, just keep working, and when you’ve used up all your pieces, go back and focus on the holes. Maybe the piece is under the couch with the rest of your cat’s toy hoard. Or, much more likely, the piece hasn’t been discovered yet, because you haven’t thought it up. That’s totally fine. It’s also fine to push forward despite having holes in your outline (as long as they are nothing too major, of course). Often, I find that while I’m writing, solutions to those holes come to me at random. It’s sort of like your fur baby suddenly wanting cuddles the fucking second you stop pleading for their attention. Keep in mind that this part of the planning will take some time. Seriously, it can take weeks, and that is a-ok; it’s not a race. Just make sure that you don’t lose your passion during this time, because if you lose it now, then your story might be hooped. And on that happy note, we move on!

5) The Writing. Ah, yes, the stage where we actually do the thing. No more dancing around the subject, no more planning, no more outlining (yet, anyways). At last, you are ready, young Padawan. So, the first most important thing here to keep in mind is to write first, edit later. Seriously, that’s it. Don’t stress yourself silly about how shitty it sounds (newsflash, it probably does sound shitty), because if you let this fear consume you, your story will never leave your brain. Just get it all out of your noggin. Convert brain vomit into word vomit. Some people like to edit after every couple chapters, and if that works for you, then go for it. But don’t be picky, because if you get really down and dirty with the editing now when you don’t have the entire image in front of you, you might remove or change things that 1) don’t need it, or 2) are actually super freaking important. And while some don’t agree with me (HOW DARE YOU…just kidding *not really*), I highly recommend trying to write in chronological order to save yourself the misery of discovering holes and time inconsistencies and having to re-write a shit ton. Not fun.

And there you have it! Easy peasy right? Well, easy in theory, anyways. Lord knows that this is actually a shit ton of work. But with these tips in your tool kit, you are now one (or 5) steps closer to destroying the pipe dream of being an author, and actually becoming one! Hooray you!

With that said, I post new blogs every Thursday, and if there is anything you’d like me to discuss, feel free to message me on here, or tweet me @ScarletteStone

Until next time,

Happy Writing!

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