YA Highway

If someone’s suggestion of fixing your ‘comma splicing problem’ has you running to your doctor’s office or you just haven’t figured out why writers refer to adverbs as ‘the modifiers that must not be named’ (pitchforks and torches, anyone?), then you’re sitting exactly where I was six months ago.

Got an awesome plot for a story? Great! Have a knack for writing witty dialogue? Fantastic! Guess what? There’s tons more to it. The cold, hard truth is that writing a novel is work and I’m nowhere close to being done.

As a self-proclaimed ‘newbie’, I’m fully prepared to divulge all the embarrassing, disheartening, and hopefully successful moments that being a newbie in the writing world entails. Let’s start at the beginning. Because Maria sang it right guys; it’s a very good place to start.

One large part of writing that I’ve stubbornly battled against is Outlining. I am a reckless, fly by the seat of my pants writer, meaning I use no formal outline. (I also mix my whites with my colors. Oh, yeah. I’m that wild.) And to date I have refused to do more than a simple paragraph or two of summary.

I do not recommend this method-at least not for fellow newbies. My current WIP has been rewritten three times…so far. I love my characters, my story, and my resolution for them all. But each time I get to the halfway point, I find a gaping hole that nothing short of reworking the majority of the story would fix. Does this mean all hope is lost? Nope. With the help of some more experienced writers I’ve been directed to a few sites that showcase different ways to tackle the outlining process:

Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method – A ten step process that uses layers to build your story from conception to completion.

Holly Lisle’s Professional Plot Outline Mini-Course – (Thanks Michelle!) – You have to sign up to receive the PDF file by email. But it’s free, and if the course is anywhere near as amazing as the other stuff I’ve checked out on her page, it will be well worth the read!

Newbie slang word for the day: WIP- Work in Progress- as in the epic soon-to-be New York Times Bestseller you’re working away at.

Potholes On the Newbie Writing Highway

(Well, the Pacific. But the alliteration is nice, isn't it?)
Hidden underground in the finance district of Seoul is the largest mall in Korea- and a bookstore so vast I teared up when I first laid eyes on it. "This," I thought, "is worth the twenty something subway stops next to the suit who had too much soju with lunch."

Finding books in English is one of the great challenges of living abroad, and Bandi and Luni's Bookstore has a fabulous selection of foreign lit. I know from talking with my students that Western fiction has its place on the bestseller lists with Korean youth; I've had more than one class derail at the mention of Harry Potter. Wandering the aisles today, I thought it might be fun to compare what's hot from the East and West in Korean YA.

I started in the English section and discovered one long shelf dedicated to "junior fiction." Among these were the usual suspects, as well as some surprises.

I've got to say, I was excited to see something as recent as The Hunger Games. There was actually a nice mix of popular books from the past few years- Artemis Fowl, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, books by Meg Cabot and Neil Gaiman- and older stuff that took me back- Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, even Where the Red Fern Grows.

And, of course, others that shall not be named.


In comparison with my memory of the teen section of Barnes and Nobles back in the U.S., I see a heavy focus in Korea on literary, fantasy, and sci-fi YA. What's missing is the lighter, more vacant chick-lit reads (ala Gossip Girl).

Heading over to the Korean children's section, I did my best to track down the teen books with my very limited knowledge of Hangul. Do I even need to tell you what dominated?


Korea is heavily influenced by Japan, and comics and manga are everywhere. I learned within my first few weeks of teaching here that when a student says "I read a book today!", nine times out of ten they mean a comic book.

It was also easy to find popular U.S. lit translated into Hangul.

What I couldn't find was a good selection of authentic Korean non-comic YA novels. That doesn't mean they don't exist, of course. YA is still an emerging genre in the West, only recently gaining respect, and I think the concept is still new to Korea.

Here's what I found in the children's section that I don't see enough of in the U.S.: Series after series of fun, colorful, helpful resources for school. The selection of history books aimed at kids rivaled the size of the manga section, I kid you not.

Here's an example of a series that took up half a shelf. Each book, illustrated and with a slightly larger than normal font, highlighted the lives of historical figures like Lincoln and Ghandi. The figures included those important to Korean history and many others. Flipping through the book, I noticed it was all narrative, and not list after list of boring facts that seems to be requisite with most history books. And I'm not joking when I say there was a ton of material like this. I really think kids in the U.S. could benefit from having such a great selection of history books that don't leave them dozing in their bowl of Cheerios.

Check out the inside (and the illustration of Lincoln meeting his untimely demise):

What I love about Korea: Despite the sometimes insane gaming culture here, kids and adults still read. A lot. I've been to this bookstore twice, both times on a weekday in the afternoon, and this was the scene on both occasions:
Need I say more? As common as it is to see all kinds of crazy mp3 players, cell phones, and video devices on the subway, it's just as typical to see people of all ages immersed in a book in their free time.

Or, in the case of the gentlemen next to me on my way here, a bottle of booze.

What's Hot in YA Across the Atlantic

Okay, so there are two plot devices that authors use that drive me crazy (I’m sure there are many, many more than two, but for the sake of this review, let’s just call it two): prophetic dreams and leaving the reader to guess what’s happening in the context of a novel. Drives me crazy.

Marchetta uses them both in this Printz Award winning novel and they almost made me put the book down for good.

But, I know that this is on a certain well-read and well-respected co-blogger’s fav of all time list (see 5 More Views From the Peanut Gallery, below), so I trudged through the first couple of chapters, annoyed that I felt so lost and rolling my eyes at the dreams with the boy in the tree.

Then, without warning, I was sucked in for good. No looking back. And I’m so glad I was.

Jellicoe Road revolves around main character Taylor Markham, who is being groomed to lead her school in the secret territory wars of the region - and when I say revolve, be prepared to be dizzy. The cast is large and very inter-involved (not incestuous, per se, more small-townish). When Taylor was eleven, her mom dumped her off at a 7-11 on Jellicoe Road, the same road that more than twenty years earlier was the site of a horrific car accident that took many lives. Now she has to deal with the consequences of the dumping, and the accident.

The novel unfolds beautifully, intersecting the lives of the survivors of that long-ago accident, Taylor’s struggles with hope and her identity, and the lives and loves of Taylor’s boarding school, Townie, and Cadet peers. And although feeling lost is inevitable at first, the book flies by at such a rollicking pace that you won’t know what hit you until you are sobbing into your milk and cookies from the halfway point on.

Marchetta is a masterful storyteller and her writing is beautiful, haunting and real. Her characters are almost all messed up, but all clinging to hope. They successfully find it within themselves, within one another. Without a doubt this is one of the very best books, YA or otherwise, I have ever read. A stunning read that should not be missing from any YA reader’s bookshelf.

Star Rating: ****

But don't just take my word for it - here's five more views from the Peanut Gallery courtesy of my co-blogger Kirsten Hubbard:

1. It drove me a little crazy to be so lost at the beginning of the story. But I did finally catch on and I was so proud when I knew three of the five without a doubt and the other two . . . I was pretty sure who they were. How long did it take you to catch on and were you as crazy as I was before that point?

Absolutely. But I'd read about the slow beginning in a YA YA YAs post, and her glowing review inspired me to stick with it. I definitely figured out a couple of the mysteries long before they were revealed, but others surprised me. And the book is packed with them.

2. I was struck by how much Marchetta made me care about her characters. What is it, do you think, about her story that makes the reader care so much?

They were just so real -- profoundly flawed, unique, and yet utterly relatable.

3. Did you just love Taylor’s romance like I did? It was so meant to be, wasn’t it? *giddy giggle*

Oh man. My stomach flips just thinking about it. It was so gradual, and so intense... all that history they had buzzing between them in every exchange they had. I can't think of any YA romance I enjoyed more. In fact, as I write this, can't think of any YA book I enjoyed more than Jellicoe Road.

4. My favorite part of the story (I think!) is when Griggs reveals his true reason for being at the train station. Oh, my little heart just broke! What was your favorite?

I have to agree. I had absolutely no idea. It floored me -- and yet, made perfect sense, which is an ideal every author should strive to meet.

5. Are you in a House, a Townie, or a Cadet?

I've thought about this a lot over the last couple days, and I'm still uncertain. If pressed, I'd be a student. I don't have a home base to which I belong, like the Townies, and I definitely don't work well under regimented authority like the Cadets. Just ask my high school teachers.

Thanks for the insight, Kirsten!

Book Review: Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Welcome to YA highway! We are a group of writers, readers and travelers who happen to love young adult fiction. Join us as we read and review YA lit; go on the hunt for agents, publishers and readers; agonize over, write, revise, re-read, beta, and revise again our WIPs; bounce ideas off each other; catch up with the best in young adult travel; report on the YA publishing scene; confuse you, dear reader, with our inside jokes; and regale you with pictures of our journeys, ourselves, and the elusive North American moose.

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