Today we're so proud to have Geoff Herbach, author of Stupid Fast, guest posting for us. This topic is very dear to our hearts here at YABC, so please take the time to read Geoff's insightful words and enter to win a copy of his latest book, Nothing Special.
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Stupid Fast has been out for almost a year. It’s been really great. I’ve traveled a bit, met lots of writers and librarians and bloggers. Best of all, though, I’ve met “elusive” teen boy readers – both through my blog, email and in person. Good stuff.
I do have some concerns, though.
A really smart 16-year-old from Brooklyn wrote to tell me how much he loved
Stupid Fast. He also said, “I hate books, always have.”
What?
A freshman at a high school I visited the other day told me: “I only like two books.
Stupid Fast and this other one I can’t remember.”
Okay…
I have had similar exchanges again and again in the last year. It reinforces the reason I wanted to write
Stupid Fast in the first place: there is a good-sized subset of kids who don’t have enough books to read. I was that kind of kid.
Click here to read the rest of the post and enter a giveaway to win a copy of Nothing Special!
...I left for real, got my Varsity, and rode it home, slow and angry, shaking my head slow, repeating this fine little mantra: “I’m gonna make you barf. I’m gonna to make you barf. I’m gonna make you barf.” That’s a little different than om shanti shanti shanti, which is about peace, not terror. Oh hell no. “I’m gonna make you barf.” That’s not Jerri’s mantra.
No peace, no justice. I’m gonna make you barf.
Hey! Ho! I’m gonna make you barf!
I, Felton Reinstein, was hot. Seriously hot. Boiling angry. Me, a good, very fast, potentially funny young man, with no naturally occurring ill intent toward anyone, had been completely mistreated forever. I’d had enough.
Hell no! We won’t go! I’m gonna make you barf!
Be sure to stop by Figment.com to hear author Geoff Herbach talk about abstractions in writ
Replace Abstractions with Concrete Detail!
Guest post by Geoff Herbach
Introduced first in 2007, debut children’s authors have formed a cooperative effort to market their books. I featured Revision Stories from the Classes of 2k8 and 2k9 and this feature returns this year with the Class of 2k11.
What’s wrong with this passage?
Bobby was such a nice boy. He would help people who needed to be helped. But something wasn’t right. Bobby felt sad everyday of his life.
It’s dead. You can’t see, feel, or smell it. It’s all tell, no show. What makes the passage that way? Abstractions!
In writing, abstractions are words that symbolize a notion. For instance, in the passage above, what does nice mean? What does helped mean? What does sad mean? Abstract is good in math (math describes reality using symbols, which are by nature abstract). Abstraction can be really cool in visual art. Check out Mondrian’s work Broadway Boogie Woogie, a series of lines and blocks of color meant to represent Midtown Manhattan. You get a different idea of Manhattan through abstraction. Abstraction does not work in writing, though!
Mondrain: Broadway Boogie Woogie, Low-res used under Fair Use
You might have had an English teacher or writing instructor ask you to “show” not “tell”. Often they’re asking you to replace your abstractions with concrete detail.
Reading should be a visceral experience. You should feel it in your guts. If I say I am nice, do you know what nice really means? No way! You can’t see it, feel it, or smell it. If I say every morning I get up at the cold crack of dawn, roll out of my warm covers so I can trek three miles to my disabled grandma’s house to help her make breakfast, do you know what nice means? Oh yeah. You can see and feel it.
Circle Abstractions. When I am revising my work, one of my steps is to go through the manuscript and circle every one of my abstractions. After I do that, I’ll think about each instance and decide if the abstraction serves the story or takes away from the reader’s ability to “see” what I mean. Almost always I’ll replace the abstraction (showing what nice means) with concrete details like getting up at the cold crack of dawn or making breakfast for my grandma.
If I replace every abstraction in that initial passage, I get this:
Every morning Bobby woke up at 5 am so he could cross the wide street in front of his house and serve Old Lady Grisham a breakfast of poached eggs and apple smoked bacon before he left for classes a
Today I am hosting a character interview with Cody from Stupid Fast, by Geoff Herbach.
Hi Cody! Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Yeah. I’m the quarterback for the Bluffton football team (that’s Felton’s high school team). I’m all-conference in baseball (pitcher). My dad’s a cop. My mom works at the bank. I don’t have any brothers or sisters. I always wanted a little brother. We live just outside of town and I ended up throwing rocks at old pop cans half the time, because there was nobody else out there to play with. It’s pretty nice out there, too. Lots of steep hills and ravines to walk through. My dad likes it quiet.
What is your favorite thing to do outside of school?
I like to golf and fish, I guess. I just started grilling, too. I like brats and steak. My dad boils the brats in beer for fifteen minutes before we grill them. It’s really good. All the alcohol boils off, so I don’t break any conduct codes or anything. Next summer, I want to throw a party out at the house and grill for everybody.
What is your relationship to Felton Reinstein?
That’s a weird question. I really like him. I always thought he was kind of a freak or something. He was, too. He used to talk to himself in class and at recess, sometimes, he’d stand in the corner of the middle school courtyard with his head stuck in there, in the corner, and he wouldn’t look at anybody for the whole half-hour. I sort of felt bad for him, but he couldn’t sit still in class and talked to himself, and stuff, and I couldn’t help it, I told him to shut up sometimes. I didn’t push him around like some people did (they are sorry now, or at least scared, because he could definitely kill them if he wanted to). Since he got into sports, we hang out a lot, and I know he doesn’t have it easy at home. I know what happened to his dad. I feel bad about how we all treated him. He is such a good dude, too. Makes me not want to treat anybody bad, because you don’t know what they’re dealing with.
A little personal here, who is your current crush?
I don’t know if I’d call it a crush. I’m going out with Erin Bellmeyer. She’s cute and pretty nice, too. Me and Jess Withrow went out for about two years, but she’s a good friend and we never spent anytime alone and then we went to homecoming last year, and afterwards everyone was at Karpinski’s house all coupled off and we were both like: you are the last person in school I want to kiss. She’s more like my sister. Erin and I go to Dubuque, Iowa, about twenty minutes away, to see movies and crap. It’s cool to hang with her.
What is your best quality? What do you think is your worst?
I will not let you down. Never. That’s my best thing. I will not.
Worst? I guess I get pissed at people too easily. Karpinski is my best friend and he pisses me off so much I can’t even talk to him for like a week sometimes. Jason Reese is a good friend, and half the time I think he’s an idiot. Sort of like a little kid. Felton is the only dude who actually doesn’t annoy me. I shouldn’t get pissed, but I don’t like it when people act stupid.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
I hope I’m playing college football and baseball someplace. At a smaller school. I’m not big enough to play any place big. I might stay in B
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Ooh. Sounds like an exciting read. I read May B. last night, all in one sitting. Five minutes in I realized I couldn't put it down!
I love Felton!
Football book? Glad to learn about it!
Mia, it is and it isn't about football. It's more about a boy who's always been the nerd suddenly welcomed into sports because of a huge growth spurt, how he copes with his new status, how he deals with family heartache and first love. I'm the least sporty person around and loved it.