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There’s a wonderful post over at Gayle Forman’s blog today, “Stuck, and Unstuck“ about the challenge of the writing and editing process. So much of it struck a chord with me. Statements like this, for example:
“Some books just arrive and keep arriving and they feel miraculous because the characters just tell you where they need to [...]
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- TOPIC: Write A Selling Synopsis Without Losing Your Mind
- TOPIC: Mastering The Art of The One Sentence Pitch
By: Lia Keyes,
on 5/20/2010
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“The better your title is, the better your chance that the publisher will use it, rather than changing it.” So says Rachelle Gardner, an agent with WordServe Literary Agency, and she’s right, of course. Your title is a sales tool, so you should give it the same consideration as a one line pitch, which is [...]
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Tonight on #ScribeChat we’ll be looking at how to pitch an entire novel in one sentence. Impossible, you say. No, not impossible, though it is REALLY hard to do. So why bother?
Well, we’ve all been at dinner with a friend we adore in spite of the fact that they can’t tell a joke to save [...]
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- TOPIC: Diamond In The Rough—Identifying and Developing Dramatically Rich Story Ideas
Romantic fiction is one of the hottest selling genres across the world, evoking such universal emotions and yearning that it has been translated into more than 90 languages, even though most of them are written by English-speaking authors. Even as world economies slid into recession, romance fiction sales remained strong, remaining the largest share of [...]
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- TOPIC: The Dark Allure of Gothic Literature
Ideas aren’t generated from just one source, so this week I’m going to try something new. I’m going to chuck a bunch of questions at you and let you inspire each other to look at story development in new ways by reading each other’s comments.
Thanks to the internet, writing is no longer a lonely business. [...]
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- TOPIC: How Do We Know If Our Story Concept is Good Enough?
- TRANSCRIPT: How Do We Know If Our Story Concept Is Good Enough?
- TOPIC: How Did You Get The Idea For Your Work-in-Progress? And How Much Has It Changed Since You Began?
It astonishes me how many writers claim they don’t have the time or money to attend workshops and conferences, yet ask me for advice about how to find an agent, or get published. I’ll admit I’ve been incredibly lucky, but part of that luck was due to putting myself in the right place at the [...]
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It astonishes me how many writers claim they don’t have the time or money to attend workshops and conferences, yet ask me for advice about how to find an agent, or get published. I’ll admit I’ve been incredibly lucky, but part of that luck was due to putting myself in the right place at the [...]
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This week I participated in an engrossing #LitChat discussion of Gothic Romance and an hour just wasn’t enough time to explore all the questions that came up so I thought we’d continue the chat here on #ScribeChat.
Now, lads, before you throw up your arms and run away screaming thinking this is only for the girls, [...]
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- TOPIC: Should There Even BE a YA Literature Category?
- TOPIC: Fantasy Literature In The Classroom: Angel or Demon?
By: Lia Keyes,
on 4/1/2010
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There can be nothing better than encountering a new author whose work truly strikes a chord within one. Scottish YA author, Gillian Philip, is one such writer. Writing with tremendous strength of voice, Gillian’s work displays honesty and credibility, and she is unafraid to deal with tough subject matter. She is unquestionably a writer to [...]
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By: Lia Keyes,
on 4/1/2010
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There can be nothing better than encountering a new author whose work truly strikes a chord within one. Scottish YA author, Gillian Philip, is one such writer. Writing with tremendous strength of voice, Gillian’s work displays honesty and credibility, and she is unafraid to deal with tough subject matter. She is unquestionably a writer to [...]
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{Contributed by Shevi Arnold}
Out of all the House of Funny mirrors, the wiggly mirror of odd couples is the most useful to the fiction writer.
Why? The humor from the wiggly mirror comes from conflict—the conflict you get when you put together two things that don’t go together, like your head and your feet, or a long [...]
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- TOPIC: Writing Under The Influence—Which Influences, Good and Bad, Fuel Your Writing?
This week’s chat was blessed by a visit from @markdavidgerson himself, who was able to give first hand information about his workshops and some retreats planned for later this year.
The reasons you write and the ways you trick your demonic internal editors into leaving you alone long enough to get some words down were entertainingly [...]
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- TOPIC: Writing Under The Influence—Which Influences, Good and Bad, Fuel Your Writing?
The most memorable characters in literature are not the ones who never put a foot wrong, but the ones who often do. Following a flawed character through the pages of a well-told story presents a spectacle comparable to watching a car crash in slow motion. We are compelled to watch to the messy end to [...]
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- TOPIC: What Is The Source Of The Enduring Appeal Of Fantasy Literature?
The most memorable characters in literature are not the ones who never put a foot wrong, but the ones who often do. Following a flawed character through the pages of a well-told story presents a spectacle comparable to watching a car crash in slow motion. We are compelled to watch to the messy end to [...]
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- TOPIC: What Is The Source Of The Enduring Appeal Of Fantasy Literature?
By: Lia Keyes,
on 3/6/2010
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It was clear from tonight’s chat that the subject of how to make the most of social media without sabotaging your writing is big enough to absorb us for several more blog posts and chats. I’m going to make this an ongoing series that we’ll revisit from time to time but, for now, here’s tonight’s [...]
It was clear from tonight’s chat that the subject of how to make the most of social media without sabotaging your writing is big enough to absorb us for several more blog posts and chats. I’m going to make this an ongoing series that we’ll revisit from time to time but, for now, here’s tonight’s [...]
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As writers we’re encouraged by editors and agents to develop and maintain an active online presence well in advance of publication date. Current advice is that this should be done at least six months before you expect your book to hit the shelves, but debut authors are feeling increasing pressure to begin this process much, [...]
By: Lia Keyes,
on 2/9/2010
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After this week’s impassioned responses to Scribbler Andrew Smith’s articles at The Scribblers Gazette, I thought we’d open the discussion to a wider audience by making it the focus of the first official chat of 2010. What are the pros and cons of age categorizations in children’s literature? Does it promote or hinder reading habits?
Across the pond, English authors have been in an uproar for some time over the controversial introduction there of age guidance for children’s books. The guidelines were introduced by leading publishers but more than 80 authors, illustrators, librarians, teachers and booksellers joined together in protest. An online petition was started at www.notoagebanding.org stating “our passionately-held conviction that everything about a book should seek to welcome readers in, and not keep them out.” But this was no low-key protest by a few disconsolate authors with nothing better to do. The names heading the vanguard are stellar: Michael Rosen, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, Terry Pratchett and that infamously outspoken author of His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman, who stated for The Daily Telegraph:
“I don’t mind anybody having an opinion about my books. I don’t mind a bookseller deciding they are for this age group or that, or a teacher giving one of my books to a child because they think it is appropriate.
“But I don’t want to see the book itself declaring officially, as if with my approval, that it is for readers of 11 and upwards or whatever. I write books for whoever is interested. When I write a book I don’t have an age group in mind.
“I have had letters from children of seven who say they have read all the way through His Dark Materials and they have an astonishing knowledge of it. But not every child is the same. A child of nine might be tentative and unsure about reading, and to give them a book that says 9+ will reinforce their sense of failure. The book should be suited to the individual child.”
Mr. Pullman’s own publisher, Scholastic, has agreed not to put age banding on his books. He made it clear that he wouldn’t sanction it and, being Pullman, he was in a position to be listened to. But as he himself admits “talking to other authors, I discovered that not everybody was in my position.”
For myself, as a mother, a reader and a writer, I don’t like seeing books pushed too early on young readers so parents can boast how advanced their children are. And I don’t like those who aren’t so advanced to feel stigmatized, or even shy away from reading completely, because they can’t bear to be seen reading a book labeled below their actual age.
Why not let children roam at will through the wonderland of story, but be there for them if they need to discuss what they discover there? As my own children grew up I always read in tandem with them, which made for entertaining talk over dinner about what might happen next, or whether a character made a good or bad decision in this or that chapter.
We often complain that teenagers are insular and self-involved, yet while we age-band are we inadvertently providing an intellectual bubble that further ‘protects’ them from realities of life that they’ll shortly have to navigate alone?
Looking along the shelves of YA literature the book covers are predominantly geared towards girls, who are the most likely readers of YA fiction. The boys are either still reading series for younger readers or have moved on to adult literature, depressed by the lack of suitable material for them on the YA shelves they feel they should be browsing in.
So what does that actually mean? That boys are obliged to move on and grow, while girls remain infantilized by the very literary category which claims to meet their tastes
Okay. Let me tell you how much I hate YA.
I’m letting all the big reasons out today, so hang on.
First, a little backstory. I was e-talking with Lia Keyes the other day, and she mentioned to me about another author who thought that YA as a category should be done away with. She thought it would be interesting — fiery — to have me participate in this debate.
And, I’m, like, what debate? I totally agree.
I hate YA.
Here are my three biggest reasons:
1. YA has no definition. You may just as well call it “fiction.” And, because of this ill-defined super-categorization of what I believe to be a non-existent genre, people carry too many pre-conceived expectations about constraints on content and embedded curriculum (see point 2).
The thing is — and why YA is a pointless label — is that YA contains every genre of the broader category of fiction, from contemporary literary, to science fiction, paranormal romance, chick-lit, fantasy, humor, and so on. But the YA section in a bookstore is the vampire section.
It’s kind of like putting all adult fiction in the “Dan Brown” section. Remember, “YA” didn’t exist when Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, or even when Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. I don’t think there was such a category when Stephen King wrote Carrie or ‘Salem’s Lot, both of which would definitely be stamped with the big Y and A if they were published for the first time today.
All those titles up there (and I’m sure you could think of many others) were just novels.
Let’s revisit the Venn Diagram from two days ago:
They’re still “adults,” right? Just “young” ones.
2. The Expectation and the Blues. (That’s the title of a really great song from Corb Lund)
(The Blues)… best “back-at-ya” comment I received from someone on the “Part 1″ installment:
“As a writer you can write for any age group you want, can’t you?
If you hated being a teenager why write for and about an age that made you unhappy?”
Okay. Now, I am definitely NOT speaking on behalf of all authors here, so don’t give me any superpowers I don’t already possess.
First, question one: I don’t write for an age group. Not ever. Nope. Totally wrong assumption. I write to tell a story. The only target in my mind is a story, NOT a demographic.
As far as question two goes: ouch. huh?
What a downer.
So, the expectation part: See, when people pre-suppose a work of fiction is only for a particular age group (and that age group happens to be… let’s say, high school kids), then they frequently get all caught up in the thought that what you write must contain some kind of curriculum geared toward the elevation or the insulation of the fragile “young adult” soul.
It’s pretty much what I’ve been railing against for two days now. And for those people who want to put the cart up front of the horse, and pre-plan a target demographic and constraints on content, that’s all totally fine with me.
Do you hear me? It’s fine with me.
Just don’t expect me to do it.
I just write stories. If people want to get all caught up in the debate about a writer’s lack of responsibility for including certain content elements, then they can’t possibly be talking about books for “adults,” whether they’re young, old, or anything else.
My readers are adults. Young ones and old ones. It’s a disservice, in my opinion, to treat them like children.
3. Back to Taxonomy: (And I know this will likely tick off a lot of my author friends, so, for that, let me apologize in advance)
Take a look at the Venn Diagram above, one more time. Now, where it says “People,” imagine the word “Literature.”
One of the things I’ve struggled with most — and, given
I still hate YA.
You remember all those times your mom told you the old if-all-your-friends-jumped-off-a-cliff-would-you-do-it-too line? You know what I told my mom when she tried that one on me?
Um… no. I’d go down to the bottom and start looking for wallets and jewelry.
So, there’s this assumption that “young adults” make some kind of moral and ethical connection between choices made by fictional characters they empathize with and the REAL-WORLD decisions and actions they assume themselves.
Again, I’m not making this up, this comes straight from the Thought-Police sites of the Wonder(bread)blog I mentioned yesterday.
I think we’ve all known some particularly dumb kid at one point in our lives who jumped off his roof wearing a red blanket clothespinned to his neck after he watched an episode of Superman.
Yeah… broken femurs are actually pretty damned funny sometimes.
Everyone loves observing idiocy from a safe distance, but give kids… er… Young Adults credit that their B.S. filters are functional. For those whose filters are a little “glitchy,” like the red blanket boy mentioned above, we have one great hope: please do not attempt to breed.
One more bit about why I hate YA. I’ve been accused — multiple times, and by different “adults” — of being a bad father, because of what I write about.
First, allow me to fully confess and lay it all on the table: My first two books, Ghost Medicine , and in the path of falling objects have the words “damn” and “hell” in them (this is a hint that my next book,The Marbury Lens has quite an “expanded” vocabulary). They also include on- and off-screen references to underage sex, drinking, smoking, getting tattoos, chewing tobacco, suicide, driving without a license, and marijuana use.
So I’m a bad father. I made those things happen in my teenage kids’ world, didn’t I? I should have shielded their eyes and ears from such goings-on, and hope and pray that they remain untainted by reality, so they can live with me and their mother until well into their forties. As untattooed virgins.
Shoot me now.
You see, the clean-YA bloggers insist that you should never write anything if the prospect of your own kids reading it makes you feel “uncomfortable.”
Sometimes, dealing with things with your kids that make you feel a little uncomfortable is a preferential strategy to burying their heads in the sand and hoping they don’t catch passing glimpses of what the rest of the world is like.
So, yeah… I honestly do not feel uncomfortable at the thought of my fifteen-year-old son or my soon-to-be-thirteen daughter reading my stuff, because I know who they are, and I am there to talk about things with them (my son was devastated by something that a character did inGhost Medicine, which he read at thirteen).
Sometimes kids do have to make tough choices, and we can always count on the fact that fledgling, “Young” adults are definitely going to make mistakes — and, unlike red-blanket-boy, hopefully learn from them.
The bottom line, though, is that when we do let our “Young Adults” out into the world (as we do every single day — at school, at malls, hanging out with their buddies) and they get confronted with difficult choices, the voice in their head that tells them which course to take is not going to be that of a character in the most recent book they enjoyed.
If you’re worried about that, you better round up and hide all your red blankets, clothespins, and step-ladders.
Coming up tomorrow: My BIGGEST reasons why I hate YA.
I hate YA.
Let me explain.
I hate YA for many of the same reasons I hated being a teenager: there are all these external expectations on who you are “supposed” to be, and, simultaneously, you’re trying to figure that out on your own.
Okay. Try this experiment. Close your eyes.
Wait. First, get someone to read this to you aloud. Or else, just pretend to close your eyes.
Now, let’s make a Venn diagram (I know… Venn Diagrams are the new black). The paper the diagram is on is “People.” Now, draw a circle for “Children,” and another for “Adults.”
Unless you’re a moron, those circles won’t be touching at all.
Now, draw a circle for “Young Adults.”
Again… moron test: that circle should be entirely enclosed within “Adults.”
If you’re a writer, you have to realize that there are certain mile markers we pass in order to become adult. It doesn’t necessarily happen at a predetermined chronological age, either. But it does happen. Bam! You’re an adult.
Young adults are inexperienced (because — duh! they’re “young”) at dealing with certain things, so they make mistakes. It’s forgivable in most cases.
Okay, now here’s a reason why I hate YA: A lot of people have this notion that YA literature should steer away from certain “adult” concepts. Those people wouldn’t pass the moron test described above.
I’ll confess that I read a certain “book blogger” who really emphasizes cleanliness as being an overarching responsibility in YA. I read that particular blogger because the person is actually a fairly decent writer, as opposed to so many illiterate dimwits who blog about YA. And, I’m not going to ID the blogger for two reasons: 1) I don’t want to get into a pissing match, and 2) I don’t want to increase the traffic on that particular blog… because it’s wrong.
A couple points this blogger makes about YA (and, by the way, I am an author who has two teens at home — one of each gender):
1. We, as authors, have a duty to raise strong, responsible adults who make strong, responsible decisions.
2. If there’s underage sex in a book, you are acting irresponsibly if you allow a teen to read it. Allowing a teen to read such a book is equivalent to endorsing irresponsible sexual behavior.
Okay, that’s the gist of this particular blogger’s theory on YA and the duty of authors and parents.
As to the first point, I agree that parents do have a responsibility to raise their kids to make ethical decisions. But it doesn’t always happen, and a great deal of what we learn as we pass those milestones toward “adulthood” comes at the expense of making mistakes. (A great line from Elvis Costello: “Some people can’t be told, you know, they have to learn the hard way.”)
Where I depart from the first point is that as an author, I feel a responsibility to tell as much as I can about WHAT IT IS REALLY LIKE OUT THERE… without necessarily condoning anything.
As far as point 2 goes (and — seriously — I am not making this up about this particular blogger), I suppose the blogger believes there is some magical moment, like the age of eighteen, when sex becomes okay. Now… a couple points. First, I realize I grew up in what truly was “The Greatest Generation,” and, no, it wasn’t WW2 (as I talked about with my friends Wendel and Yvonne a few weeks ago), it was the “Generation that used up the next 100 years’ worth of fun.”
And, really, I don’t think I knew anyone from that particular generation who waited for a specific number to show up on their driver’s license before having sex — whether underage or not.
Furthermore, in my own experience, and having seen a lot of the world, if we really could make people wait until they were sufficiently responsible, ethical, and psychologically strong before allowing them to so much as read about sex, then half the world would never be “of age,”
I am researching competition for a picture book idea. I know there are topics with very stiff competition and I want to avoid anything similar to what has already been done.
But this time, I am also researching how this particular publisher approaches certain types of books. I want to know if they do double page spreads, spot illustrations or full illustrations, and what kind of language is used. So, I’ve ordered a couple books to study.
When I get the books, I plan to read them quickly for an overall impression. Then, I’ll read aloud to see how the language flows. I’ll study the illustrations to see how much liberty the illustrator has taken with the text; in other words, how much do I have to provide for the illustrator and how much will they interpret.
I’ll also try to think about how I can add something new to the collection of books on a topic. If this topic is covered 20 times in current children’s books, I”ll need to be bolder in order to “stand out in today’s crowded market.” If it’s only covered once, I’ve more leeway, and won’t have to push quite so hard.
Tools for Researching Competition
- Search. Search both Amazon (or Powells or your favorite online bookstore) and Google (or your favorite general purpose search engine) for books on your topic.
- Specialized search. Be sure to also search GoogleBooks and any other specialized search engines you know about.
- Library. Search the catalog of your favorite library to see if they have it available for checking out. Also search WorldCat.org to see what other books are available. (Hint: You can download a WorldCat plugin to put this search on your Firebox browser; there’s also a plug-in for your Facebook page.)
Related posts:
- Did you Write a Picture Book or Something Else?
- The Biggest Mistake in Submitting a Picture Book
It astonishes me how many writers claim they don’t have the time or money to attend workshops and conferences, yet ask me for advice about how to find an agent, or get published. I’ll admit I’ve been incredibly lucky, but part of that luck was due to putting myself in the right place at the [...] Related posts:
Oh, what a fun chat we shared tonight! Lots of new ScribeChat-ers, and a visit from special guest Lorin Oberweger of Free-Expressions Seminars (@WriterLor). Lorin offered an opportunity to apply for a full scholarship to her next week-long intensive workshop with NY agent Donald Maass, worth $1,900! Submissions close next week. Check the transcript for [...] Related posts:
Ideas aren’t generated from just one source, so this week I’m going to try something new. I’m going to chuck a bunch of questions at you and let you inspire each other to look at story development in new ways by reading each other’s comments. Thanks to the internet, writing is no longer a lonely business. [...] Related posts:
Tonight we had the highest attendance of any chat to date, thanks to the attendance of @EllenHopkinsYA (Ellen Hopkins, Bestselling YA verse novelist), steampunk author @KateMilford and @WriterLor (Lorin Oberweger, founder of Free-Expressions Seminars (Writing The Breakout Novel Intensive week-long workshop with NY agent Donald Maass). Great solutions for weak second acts were shared and most [...] Related posts:
There’s a guest post by Alyx Dellamonica at the Writer Beware blog today mentioning me as an example of a writer responding to the current market pressure to build a web presence in advance of publication. Alyx was a teacher of mine at the UCLA Writers Program and is the author of a wonderful new book, [...] Related posts:
This week’s #ScribeChat was hosted from The Curious Palate cafe in Venice, California, with special guest screenwriter/author/writing coach @Eric_Elfman, who provided valuable feedback and support as we explored the inner lives of our characters, both good and bad. Read the transcript here: Creating Stand-Out Characters.scribeChat.may7th2010 Related posts:TRANSCRIPT: Mastering the Art of the One Sentence Pitch TRANSCRIPT: The Unique Appeal of [...] Related posts:
Romantic fiction is one of the hottest selling genres across the world, evoking such universal emotions and yearning that it has been translated into more than 90 languages, even though most of them are written by English-speaking authors. Even as world economies slid into recession, romance fiction sales remained strong, remaining the largest share of [...] Related posts:
Well, it’s obvious that romance novels are close to a lot of people’s hearts as tonight’s chat was our most well-attended yet, despite technical problems with the Twitter API which made posting comments an exercise in patience. Lots of examples of favorite romance novels were shared, along with great advice about the essential and non-essential ingredients [...] Related posts:
Tonight on #ScribeChat we’ll be looking at how to pitch an entire novel in one sentence. “Impossible!” I can hear many of you say. No, not impossible, though it is really hard to do well. So why bother? Well, we’ve all been at dinner with a friend we adore in spite of the fact that they [...] Related posts:
First, the good news. In fact it’s great news. Readership has risen at an astonishing rate since The ScribeChat Review’s birth in January 2010, and in the last month alone it’s gone up 180%! That is downright gobsmacking, and I’m so delighted that you’re all enjoying the blog so much! Tonight we had some pretty chronic [...] Related posts: