When the Character Fits

I'm in the home stretch of my WIP. I've worked on the flow. I've cut out repetition. My dialogue sparkles. But it still needs a little work. I need to make my minor characters as rich and full as my main character.

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What's Better Than the Library? Nothing.

I've been spending a lot of time in the mall and online, looking for those perfect gifts for the special people in my life. I'm so happy when I find the exact perfect match for that special person, at this particular point in time.

I love it when I'm on the other end of that deal, too. When I open a box and in it is exactly what I want at that moment.

But I'm lucky. Really lucky. I get that feeling of opening up a box and finding that exact special treat so many times every year. I get it every time I walk into my library.

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NaNoWriMo...Specifically

I've started NaNoWriMo a few times before, but never got further than around 5000 words. This year, I'm still behind, but I've written 14,046 words. If I write just under 2000 words a day, I can finish on time.

But do I still want to?

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Defining YA

A few weeks ago, PW Shelftalker asked a simple question with a not-so-simple answer -- how do you define YA? They asked their readers to contribute their thoughts to craft the ultimate definition of YA. I did, and guess what? They liked me, they really liked me!

I am one of three contributors whose responses were merged into one ultimate YA definition:

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List-Mania for Writers

Who doesn't love a good list? Certainly, Buzzfeed readers do. On any given day of the week, Buzzfeed offers lists of advice from Wizard Chic: 10 Ways to Look Like Less of a Muggle to the 25 Most Awkward Cat Sleeping Positions

This week, Buzzfeed was one of several websites to focus on lists for writers. I have to admit, I got sucked in - I clicked on each one. So, for this week's reading pleasure, I give you my favorite lists of the week:

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Old School Index Cards Rule

As I zeroed in on the ending of the second major revision of my WIP, I came to a terrible realization. My ending sucked.

First reaction: Overwhelmed. How can I fix it? It's too much work. Maybe I should trash it and start something new. Maybe I should go find some chocolate.

Second reaction: Find the chocolate and think things through.

Third reaction: Okay, I think I've got a new ending, but holy shit! It's too much work. New ending requires new stuff sprinkled throughout. Maybe I should trash it and start something new. Maybe I should open up a bottle of wine.

Fourth reaction: Open up a bottle of wine and get to work.

Here's what I did.

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The Idea File

An hour after I read Robin's last post and video about where she got her inspiration, I found a ten-year-old idea file. I had forgotten this file existed. It wasn't in the right place. (At least it was in a folder in a file drawer.)

I pulled it out, wondering what stories interested me when I first began my writing journey.

Turns out I was interested in crime. Teen-age crime.

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Filling Up Notebooks

Confession. I'm a victim of the Palmer Method. I went to Catholic School and learned to write cursive in those notebooks with the dotted lines through the center. I spent many an hour looping my ds, ps, and qs to just the right height, my wrist never touching the desk. Somewhere along the line, I rebelled, and now even I have a hard time reading my scrawl.

But that doesn't stop me from filling up notebooks.

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Wrongs and Writes

Like many writers, I suffer from a dreaded writerly disease: trying to write it right the first time. I agonize over sentence structure, search my thesaurus for the perfect synonym, and doubt every plot line.

So when I came across this New York Times Magazine Article that reminded me how important it is to be wrong -- and "to be wrong as fast as you can," I considered once again how overrated right is. In the article, Hugo Lindgren reviews a list of ideas he's had throughout the years and wonders why he hasn't written them. He recounts a Charlie Rose interview with Pixar's John Lasseter:  

Pixar’s in-house theory is: Be wrong as fast as you can. Mistakes are an inevitable part of the creative process, so get right down to it and start making them. Even great ideas are wrecked on the road to fruition and then have to be painstakingly reconstructed. “Every Pixar film was the worst motion picture ever made at one time or another,” Lasseter said. “People don’t believe that, but it’s true. But we don’t give up on the films."

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Writing Funny

I like to inject a fair amount of humor into my work. I don't write a lot of slapstick or ROTFLMAO stuff, but I hope my readers are giggling frequently. Lately, due to some personal circumstances, I've had a hard time writing at all, let alone writing funny.

I needed a way to combat my writing inertia and get me and my characters out of their gloom. So I invented a writing exercise. At least, I don't know of anyone else who has done this before. Oh, except maybe Second City and other improvisational acting troops.

So here's what I do when the funny is missing.

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Revision Tip - Make Bad Choices

My revision passes usually have specific purposes. When I've finished my first draft, my first revision deals solely with plot. I rearrange here, add or subtract there, build up plot threads and kill off and combine characters. I do additional revisions focusing on character, setting, dialogue, beginnings and endings, etc. But I've recently added another revision pass that has changed the way I look at the entire process. I call it the "make bad choices" pass.

I've written before about my tendency to make my characters too good for their own good. Sure, bad things might happen to them, but my initial impulse is to let them take the high road to get out of any mess.

Now, I still let them have their nobility in my first draft, but when I get to the make bad choices draft, well, I let them make bad choices.

So here is what I do. I go through my manuscript and mark up every time my characters make a choice. It could be as monumental as whether to have sex or as small as what flavor ice cream to order. Then, I make them make the worst possible choice and see what happens. The results could be as devastating as a teen pregnancy or as embarrassing as a white shirt with a chocolate stain in a strategic spot. I may not keep every bad choice, but I always end with a meatier, more tension-filled story.

Anybody else care to share about revision?

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The Possibilities of Digital Publishing

Over the months and years, we've talked a lot about the move toward e-books and digital publishing. But this recent interview with David Levithan published in Digital Book World is an eye-opener. I'm a huge David Levithan fan -- a fan of both his writing and editing. And in reading this article and understanding that he is also on the cutting edge of digital publishing and what it means to the middle grade and YA marketplace -- well, I just wonder if this guy ever sleeps! So please take a moment to read this article. It may open your eyes to some interesting publishing possibilites.

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Why Fiction Matters

When I woke up this morning, the first thing I did was knock on my son’s door. I knew he would have a hard time getting up for work. Last night he and a friend had gone to the midnight show of Batman.

I went downstairs. My husband had the TV on. And I saw what had happened at another theater halfway across the country. What had happened to other kids who just wanted to enjoy a movie.
Like everyone else in this county, I’ve been thinking about this tragedy all day. How unexpected it was. How incredibly, terribly sad and senseless. But, I still had to work. And work, for me, meant revising my novel.

As I sat at my keyboard, I thought about my characters, their problems and their emotions. While my plot lines don’t involve tragedies like those in Aurora, Colorado, my main goal as a writer is to connect with emotional truths. I think fiction is important like that. As a writer, it’s my job to create characters that allow my readers to feel emotions in deep and meaningful ways.

Writers like Jodi Picoult and Richard Russo have dealt with difficult subjects like school shootings. Patrick Ness left me in a big puddle when I finished A Monster Calls. These are works of fiction, but the emotional truths within the writer’s words lead us as readers to deeper human connections.

That is one reason why this writing job is hard. And why it is so important.

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Different Writers, Different Responses

Julie's recent post about writers and writing spaces made me think about how much I love to read about famous writers and every aspect of their writing lives: their habits, routines, passions, challenges. And I always appreciate their advice.

So when I came across this post on Flavorwire, detailing writers' responses to children's letters, I immediately clicked through. You should too! It's fun to share Maurice Sendak's delight, J.K. Rowling's empathy, and most of all, Harold Pinter's no nonsense answers to a list of literary questions.

7 HANOVER TERRACE
REGENTS PARK
LONDON N.W.1
AMBASSADOR 9393

4 November 1966.

Dear Master Seaman,

I’m glad to know of the interest of Form 5A in THE CARETAKER. I will answer your questions quite frankly.

i) Davies’ papers are at Sidcup because that’s where they are.
ii) His name is assumed because he assumed it.
iii) The two brothers see little of each other because they rarely meet.
iv) Aston fiddles with his plugs because he likes doing it.
v) When he goes out to walk, he walks.
vi) The monk swears at Davies because he doesn’t like him.
vii) Davies doesn’t like coloured people.
viii) He refuses to believe that he makes noises during the night.
ix) The Buddha is a Buddha.
x) The shed is a shed.

I assure you that these answers to your questions are not intended to be funny.

My best wishes to you all.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed, ‘Harold Pinter’)

Harold Pinter.

What I most love about this response is the brutal simplicity of Pinter's writer's imagination. He created a world and described it "as is". No more, no less. He leaves so much to the reader, and doesn't fear his readers having different interpretations. Or no interpretations at all.

What a contrast to the other writers and their responses to their young fans. But isn't that the beauty of writing? There is room for so many different styles. Lush, sparse and everything in between. And the beauty of reading as writers, is appreciating the work of other writers and writing styles that are totally unlike your own.

As for me, my writing falls more towards the sparse side than the lush side. Yet I can appreciate a good, epic saga that spans decades, even centuries. I love Michael Chabon and Jeffrey Eugenides.

Anybody else out there have favorites that are completely unlike your own writing?

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Camping In

I'm camping in this June. Okay, maybe I'll spend some time on my deck with my laptop, but I'm camping in with Camp Nanowrimo. Yes, for those of you who always yearned to write a novel in a month, but couldn't imagine speed writing in November, you can now attend Camp Nanowrimo in June or August!

Camp Nanowrimo works perfectly for me. I had already decided to buckle down and finish my revision in June. Now I have friends and emails cheering me on to reach that finish line.

So excuse me if this post is short -- I have a lot of work to do. And who knows, if all goes well, maybe I'll go to camp in August, too!

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Cars, Boys and Freedom

You never forget your first...car. Well, my son's first car is officially a goner. Purchased new by my mom in 1996, it was passed down first to my sister, next to my older son, and then to my younger son. We had so hoped it would last until he leaves for college in late August, but poor old Chrystal succumbed to a deadly mix of oil and antifreeze.

This got me thinking about what cars mean to boys. How cars mean way more than transportation. They mean freedom.

So I decided to give a car to a favorite boy of mine. Not my son. I adore the kid, but he'll have to share my Prius for the next four months. Nope. I'm giving a car to my main character.

One of my favorite books with a car as an important player is John Green's PAPER TOWNS. Quentin drives a lot. Unfortunately, he drive his mom's minivan. (Full disclosure, we have one of those, too.) And the scene where his parents finally give him a car of his own is laugh out loud funny. 


So for funsies, I'm giving my MC his own set of wheels. Now he can get around, get out of town, get into and out of more trouble than before.

My first car was a station wagon -- about as cool as a minivan in those days. But I loved it. Loved driving. Loved loading up the back seat with more friends than I should have and cruising about. 


Remember your first car?

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Tics That Make Characters Tick

Plot driven vs. character driven-- I love them both. But even books with the most crazy, imaginative plots (HUNGER GAMES, anyone?) better give me characters that make me care. Characters I want to spend time with. Characters I HAVE to root for. Characters that break my heart.

When I read HUNGER GAMES, I was ready to jump in and watch Katniss's back. And I was Team Peeta all the way. But in John Green's latest novel, THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, Hazel and Augustus did more than break my heart. They shattered it.

Green's writing is so much more than witty dialogue and gritty truths. He finds ways to show fierceness and bravery in simple, unexpected choices.

Augustus doesn't smoke cigarettes. He dangles them. His biggest character tic is one of choice. That unlit cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth screams in frustration and pain, boasts of triumphs great and small, and shouts out laughter and fear.

All by choice. Augustus' choice.

In THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, lots of stuff happens that the characters can't control. And that broke my heart. But the choices they made -- well, that's what shattered it.

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Getting in the Mood

As I near the finish line of my WIP, I'm beginning to think about my next novel. Several ideas are fighting to be next in line, but today, one of them took the lead. I was in the mood.

Let me go back a few years. I had an idea for a middle grade ghost story set at the beach. I did some preliminary research, knew my two protagonists, and knew who my ghost would be.

But now I also want to write a book about a kid in high school band -- I've got the plot structure for that one, but no plot yet. I've got the beginning of a YA about a theater kid that I want to get back to, and a YA mystery begging to be solved.

So what happened today to make that MG jump to the front of the pack?

Well, I went for a walk on the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ. I've walked that boardwalk countless times. My husband was born and raised there and my in-laws still live there. But today was different.

Today was...moody.

The sky was overcast, but the sun was breaking through in shafts of light right where the waves break. Sea Isle City, seen from a distance curving out and into the ocean, was shrouded in mist. The boardwalk was deserted. I was alone.

And more than anything, I wanted to write about it. I was in the mood.

I think my in-laws will see a lot of me this summer.

I'll share a photo when I get home to my own computer. Can't download from my phone on the one I'm using.

So does anyone else care to join me in a summer WIP? Plan it now and fast draft throughout the summer months? Come on in! The water's fine!

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So You Want to Write a Novel

This is definitely one of the funniest YouTube videos on writing. I watched it as I took a break from my revision. And now I'm going back to work. Enjoy!

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You Talking to Me?

Question: When writing in first person, who does your main character talk to?

When I began writing, I always considered my audience. My first novel was middle grade, so my main character spoke to a middle grade reader. As I wrote it, I pictured him speaking directly to the reader -- to every reader who picked up that book. He would tell that story to anyone willing to listen.

But now, as I revise a YA, I'm giving very careful thought as to whom my main character will confide his deepest personal thoughts and feelings.

MY WIP is written in past tense, which gives me more options than my first novel -- written in present tense -- did. So who does this boy talk to? And how does this choice color the way he tells his story?

Does he talk to a girl he is currently in love with, sitting on a dock, watching boats sail in and out? Or is he a little tipsy and telling the story of senior year to his freshman roommate? Or, is he talking to the reader, and if so, how far away is he from the timeline of the story? Each choice changes the way the story is told, unbeknownst to the reader.

I'm not ready to reveal the choice I made. After all, I'm still revising. I may change it again. And again. And again. But I do know one thing for certain. My main character deserves to tell his story to someone who will really listen.

So I ask all you first person writers -- who does your main character talk to?

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