Bria Lou Reviews

Hey Guys x So, welcome back to another 'Like A Writer' post! This time I'm talking about original ideas, or rather, my struggle with finding them! I don't know about you, but I definitely feel like everything that I think about writing has already been done in some shape or form, and there's nothing left! Especially because, in this day and age, things get popular so quickly because of social media. For example, 'The Girl On The Train' - it's the most popular thriller book and movie out right now, that I feel like anyone who writes a thriller will be compared to it. Not compared to the story exactly, but compared to the feeling that you get when you read it, and this is something that I definitely want to avoid when I eventually publish a novel - comparison. Of course, comparison is unavoidable, and a bit of comparison here and there after the product is released can be a good thing, a necessary thing. However, I hate comparing my story t...

Hey Guys x Welcome to 'Like A Writer' - I haven't done one of these in a while, but basically this series is just different pieces of advice and my own opinions about writing a novel. Today, I want to talk about naming characters - particularly the characters whose names are going to be mentioned a lot. Now, for me, my favourite thing about writing anything fiction based, is creating my own characters. And the best part about creating characters, I think, it giving them names. Lots of people do this differently - Author Giovanna Fletcher said that she sometimes takes the names of friends and changes them slightly. Carrie Hope Fletcher gave her characters in her debut novel 'On The Other Side' surnames relating to seasons - everyone does things differently. For me, I spend days before even planning anything searching baby naming websites. Normally I have a small idea about the character, maybe one or two details, and choose a name based on this - however...

Hey Guys x So, for today's instalment of 'Like A Writer' I want to talk about dialogue! For me, when I'm reading a book, one of the most annoying things is when the author has amazing descriptions, and I can picture everything perfectly, but then the character's speech is the most unrealistic thing. Like, in 'Fifty Shades of Grey', although for the most part, the descriptions were great, Ana's prolonged use of the phrase 'oh my' was so annoying! Like, what person randomly goes around saying 'oh my' all the time? But something that I find interesting is that, for script writing, this is so much more important! I guess, because in a movie or TV show, the dialogue is the most important because all that ever happens is people talking, either to other people or to themselves. You probably don't find this as interesting as I do, but as someone who thinks about script writing (or any other kind of writing, I'd literally do an...

Hey Guys x Welcome to the third instalment of my series 'Like A Writer'! I've been loving doing these so far! Just to reiterate - with all of these posts, this is just my personal opinion. I'm not a published author, so don't think that what I'm saying is something that you definitely have to do! In fact, take everything I say with a pinch of salt, see what you think about it and comment your own opinion in the comments. This week I'm mainly talking about secondary characters, but this can apply to your main character(s) too. It's really easy to base our characters on people we know in our real lives, and in a way, this makes complete sense. What better way to make a character 3 dimensional than to base it on someone you really know! In the book 'See Jane Write', it gives the advice: 'shoplift a few items, don't steal the whole store; - meaning, take a few personality traits of your friends, don't insert their whole selve...

Hey Guys x Welcome to the next instalment of 'Like a Writer' - this time, I want to talk about falling in love with love interests! Now, the love interest is such an important role in so many books and movies - and it's the one that most people watch to see! However, I've found that these characters are the hardest to write. This is because, as well as having to make these characters as realistic as possible (just like the rest of the characters in the book), you also have to write a character that your readers will fall in love with. And that's hard! As I've been writing 'Lou's Novel', I have so many love interests, so many! I guess mine is kind of unique, but even so, I'm trying to write between 4 and 8 characters that I want my reader to fall in love with, and right now, it's seeming like an impossible task! This is because, romance in itself is the most cliché thing on the planet! Every romantic line h...

Hey Guys x I'm starting a new series! I read this book yesterday (yes, I read the whole book in one sitting, in about 9 hours because it's the most amazing thing I think I've ever read) and immediately my brain went into overdrive. Not only did it spur me on to write my own novel, but it made me want to talk about writing. So I thought, why not start a series about writing on my blog? The series is called 'Like A Writer' and I plan on doing these posts every Friday, but if I feel less passionate or if something happens, obviously this isn't set in stone, but it's my plan for now. I'm also going to make it a specific page on the blog (look above to see 'book reviews' and 'favourites') because it is something really important to me and, if you're writing a book, or you want to, I want it to be easy to find. I also have to point out - I AM NOT A PUBLISHED AUTHOR (yet!) Everything that I write will be taking things from the...