The History Of FYI- and some other stuff for fun

Okay, yeah, I'm Anon and this is my first post on FYI.
We're (or at least I'm) going to have metric tons of fun!
Okay, so, i don't really think people are going to read this blog, so this is going to be a little 'rant' session for me.
Okay, so, I was kinda curious and decided to look up the history of FYI, but apparently Google gave me tons of useless information.
But my spirit was undaunted (Strikes heroic pose) and I decided to search on the 'maker' of abbreviations.
And did I find anything?
Nope.
Zilch.
Zero.
Nada.
(The clouds of total emo depression hang low over me)
But... I found a site that says that that abbreviations are useless! That was rather interesting! (Perked right up)

And now, I shall commence today's FYI session.
Anyhow, I was surfing Google for random names when I came across a few interesting things.
Many people, namely teenagers, are seriously hooked on writing books, ever since Stephanie Meyer's 'Twilight' series has come out.

Twilight book cover- as you can see.
I have no idea what apples have to do with
vampires. Or what they have to do with
twilight (talking about the time of day, not the book)

And need I tell you what they are mostly about?
You guessed it.
Vampires and werewolves.

A non- scary werewolf. Well, at least not as scary as some of the pictures on Google.
Some of those pictures can scar you for life!

Two dudes from Vampire Knight- The one on the right is Kaname
Kuran, the white- ish haired one is Zero Kiryuu. (This picture was the closest
I could get to a nice and non- scary vampire- the others really freaked
me out)

For one, teenagers nowadays are way too obsessed with vamps and wolves. And now with all of the vampire romance novels being published, I think that I can safely say that this amount of mushy vampire romance is enough to make one gag.

A book from a series about vampires called

'Vampire Academy'. Yes, the vampires went to school. Kind of.

You can tell that a lot of effort went into thinking up

the name of the series.. (Sarcastic smile)

A book from the series 'House of night'
Can you feel my pain ? All I had to do
was type in: Vampire Romance Novels for teens and
Out popped the torrents of vampire romance books.
X.X 

One example of a total vampire romance hater is my friend. He even wrote a book review on Twilight that I thought was very inspiring. A non- direct quote/ summary from his review (Slightly edited because I can't remember it fully):

"Twilight was, degrading, to say it bluntly. For one, who has ever heard of sparkling vampires? It was probably the most ridiculous thing I have ever read in all the XX (Shielded for privacy issues) years of my life.....  It is a terrible and sad thing to read these kind of books. To see the proud sons of the moon and the magnificent children of the night being lowered to such shameful positions- to be portrayed so disgustingly......
And with the torrents of vampire romance novels being published by the truckloads, reading these books is enough to make one gag with revulsion..... But, Stephanie Meyer does deserves some credit for effort..."

Do you want to guess his rating for Twilight?

0.5/ 5 stars.
The 0.5 was for effort. When I questioned him on why he gave her such a high review, he calmly replied that he was trying not to be the bad guy.

I, on the other hand, being smart, decided not to even go within 8 feet of a Twilight series novel.

And I went way off topic. Now, to steer this post back on track, let me give a few tips on how to write books properly, and how to avoid the mistakes that many teenagers and even adults make with writing books!

And now.......

Anon's guide to writing books properly and avoid making stupid mistakes that many make which totally throws the reader off reading for the rest of his/ her life!

1) Don't try to give your characters and worlds weird and incredibly 'unique' names. It throws off the reader 'cos NO ONE can remember so many odd names at one time. Leave it to the pros to pull those off. For instance: A fictional world that has 5 different kingdoms, each with their own 20 different places and 4 main characters named Meralista, Fyrosine, Carratiell, and Reganisse (Example of 4 characters in ONE kingdom). It is incredibly hard to remember, even with a glossary at the back of the book. Really.

This book would have been better if there weren't
So many characters to remember, and some of them had very
strange names.
But the plot was not bad.
Albeit a little strange and boring, due to the countless books that
have already had the same kind of plot.
A bunch of kids falling into a different world?
Been there, done that.

2) At all costs, AVOID writing about Vampires, Werewolves and medieval times, ESPECIALLY if there is some sort of romance between a vamp and a mortal. Romance is fine, and so is the vamp/ wolf stuff (In SMALL, teensy- weensie amounts), but ONLY attempt this if you are a pro at writing those mushy scenes or if you have a death wish to see your book go down the toilet. There are enough of those kind of books in the world and extremely hard to stomach, as too much vampires are a pain in the neck. (I just made a pun) (XD)

This was really cute and extremely funny. XD

3) Try as hard as you can to steer clear of copying other authors work, or by continuing the story in a complete spin- off from the original one, except that you added on your own characters to the story. I think that doing that is a straight off violation of copyright laws. (I think)

Okay, I'd admit, this has nothing to do with Tip
No. 3, but you have to admit,
it's really cute!

4) Do NOT write excessively or add on useless things to your story. As the Chinese say, 不要画蛇添足
(bu yao hua she tian zhu). Literally, it means to add legs to the snake. In a non- literal context, it means to add things on excessively, and for the worse. Many 'budding' authors make this mistake and it SERIOUSLY throws the reader off. I mean, imagine this: You are reading a book and have come to the point where the hero is about to save the girl trapped in a cage suspended above a pool of starving piranhas when he suddenly starts thinking about how lustrous and brown her hair is. And he goes," Oooh, look at her pretty hair.. I wonder if she uses SunSilk or Pantene or something to make her hair so silky!
( I know that That's a little exaggerated, but it's a good example)
I mean, what's that all about? The girl is trapped in a cage and about to die a horrible death by chomping piranhas and you're going to write about what kind of hair products she uses? Now THAT is seriously messed up. So, GET YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT! Story first, hair products later! Better yet, NOT AT ALL.

This is really funny. And I only found this with my sister's
awesome help. (She made me say that)
And I got admonished and insulted with a
small brain. (Evil sister)
I never said I was good with picture surfing
on Google

5) Flashbacks: NOT good. Many authors CONSTANTLY make this mistake. Flashbacks are not the best idea or method to use. Once or twice is fine, but more than that is overkill. They hold back the story, and let's face it, we want to find out HOW the story progresses, not what happened before the story line. Remember, the past is history, the future is a mystery, and the present is a gift. That's why it's called the present! (I know that's very lame but it's true and very apt)

Okay, not so apt, but still very fun to read! XD

6) Show not tell: Don't simply TELL readers about something, SHOW them. Seriously, you don't want to read: He was a very handsome pooch.
Instead, describe it to your readers: His fur was like spun gold, with just the lightest curl at their tips. His eyes like molten chocolate, framed with long lashes a model would die for. One gaze was enough to send you reeling. Of the highest pedigree, he was most certainly the most handsome Retriever I had ever seen.
Or at least something like that. See? Now which one do you think is more interesting?

This is VERY cute! And extremely amusing!

Well, that's all I can think of up 'til here.If I think or stumble across anymore, I'll make part 2.
Sounds good?
Okay then, I shall conclude today's FYI with a little quote from Steven Wright:

"Early bird gets the worm, but second mouse gets the cheese".

See ya!
Anon

Credits for Pictures: Google