Reading/Writing Reflection #4

Reading Reflection:

                Retribution Falls is opening up quite nicely. It’s such a breath of fresh air from the dank world of Metro 2033, not only in setting but in writing style. The characters are deep, but not 25 pages of exposition deep; most character development is actually done through a multitude of POVs, ranging from the protagonist Darian Frey, to the Ketty Jay’s drunken doctor, and even the ship’s cat. It really is quite entertaining.  Retribution Falls is also paced much better than Metro was; chapters are manageably long, there are twists and plot turns that don’t take centuries of pages to develop, and the author isn’t bound by any real framework. In Metro, the story was entirely Artyom’s journey, every last second of it. Retribution Falls is much, much looser. It’s about a band of sky adventurers who kind of have a goal, but it’s nothing set in stone, and never predictable. The opening twist of the book had my mouth agape for what felt like hours.  I don’t want it to sound like I didn’t like Metro, though.

                The two books are very different. Retribution is an adventure, while Metro is a trip. They each have their own ups and downs and give out their own completely opposite moods. I don’t feel defeated every time I pick up Retribution, but there’s a certain enjoyment that went with carrying the weight of Artyom’s travels. I’m glad I read Metro 2033, really I am, but I’m way more glad I picked up Retribution Falls after.

It’s like a reading vacation.

Writing Reflection:

                The writing’s been going alright, not awesome, but alright. I finished my Moment draft, despite the difficulty of it. I don’t know why it was so hard; maybe it was the shameful subject, or maybe I’m just not in the mood to write about myself (most likely the latter). This is a really polarizing piece for me. It doesn’t seem that long, but I ended up with an 1100+ word-count, and it still doesn’t feel like enough! There’s detail I have that I can’t properly articulate, which is something I’m really not used to. My biggest concern for my moment is that I come across too much as a terrible person, and that people won’t be able to relate to it because of that. It’s not a moment that makes me look good, but it’s a moment that was important to me, a moment of change.

I just hope that comes across in my writing. Le sigh.