YA Highway

Happy Halloween fellow Highwayers! We hope your weekend has been full of the horrible, the putrid and the dastardly, mwuahahahaaaa! And we hope you've dressed in epic literary costumes or at least seen some epic literary costumes. Remember, Bram Stoker's Dracula was a book before it was every third kid who visited your house.

On that note, we'd love to hear about your favorite scary, horrific, gruesome or otherwise completely Halloween-worthy books and stories! Especially since some of us Highwaywomen are kinda pansies (*raises hand*) when it comes to the horror and don't read it so much. The rest are bad-ass take no names types, of course.

A recent Tales of Tragedy round table (aka email) revealed a number of dreadful favorites, young adult and not so much young adult. Some of our favorite horror?

Stephen King's books figured prominently: IT scares everyone (creepy clowns = hell on earth), Rose Madder, Carrie and Michelle's favorite neck-ripping vamps in Salem's Lot.

R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike: Remember these? Amanda was all over them once upon a time.

The Exorcist: Yeah, the movie, but the book by William Peter Blatty expands the scary (a la Kirsten).

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson: Another Kirsten rec, she's talked up this one so much that I almost want to read it. Especially considering The Lottery (a paragon of creepy in its own right) is one of my favorite short stories.

What are your favorite horror novels? We'd love to hear about them, young adult or not. Maybe one of us easily spooked types might actually read it. In the middle of the day. With the lights on. And soft music in the background, of course.

Your Favorite Spooky Stories

source

The writing mind is like an ice cream maker. It will always produce ice cream, but unless you intervene, that ice cream will always be vanilla.

I can sooner quote LL Cool J than T.S. Eliot. (And I had to look up the proper spelling of “Eliot.”) There have been times I've opted to watch Tommy Boy (again) over whatever esoteric film has been lately discussed by critics... When I find myself on a death-spiral of doubt and insecurity and comparison and other soul-crushing habits of the mind, I remind myself: Just put your head down and do the work.

Field Trip Friday: October 29

Since I am elbows deep in final revisions this week, I thought I’d touch a little on the what’s and why’s that work for me. Everyone has their own style and method, but the nuts and bolts are pretty much the same. Go over your WIP and make it shine like the top of the Chrysler building. (Yes, I took that from Annie and in my head it was totally Carol Burnett's voice too!) Incidentally, that is a pretty good representation of what I look like half-way through revisions. Go figure.
 
First, I am so glad we no longer have to write using a typewriter. I am educated and smart, but can’t for the life of me spell when I am trying to type fast. All I can say is, thank god for spell-check and Word! (Although there is a certain comedic bent when it suggests words for you. Yes Word, I did in fact really mean organism, though your suggestion would add a certain element of surprise to the book.) I cannot even imagine how much whiteout I’d go through. Not to mention how ugly that piece of paper would be. And having to retype an entire page when editing. No way.

I find I am thankful for these little things as I go through and edit, on paper, my 225 page manuscript. (Don’t worry, I have young kids and the pages get recycled as drawing paper when I’m done.) I have tried editing on screen, but for some reason, it engages a completely different part of my brain. When I have the words on paper, the reader in me wakes up and I can spot every little comma misplacement or mixed up word. (form and from anyone? Gah!)

I try not to analyze as I read. My main goal is to make sure the story flows and is logical, as if I were really reading a book. (Well, technically I am , but you know what I mean.) If something catches me as a reader, I can mark it to change. If I stumble over the wording of a sentence, I can fix it. If something makes no sense whatsoever and looks like the writer dropped it in to see if anyone was paying attention, I ‘X’ it out. But I don’t stop reading. These are quick notations as I go. Reminders of what I need to do when I put my writer hat back on.

I think there is a tendency to over-think and over-analyze every single mark of punctuation, or every word choice when you edit. You can rewrite the same sentence ten different ways and still not be happy. You can second-guess every choice your characters make and wonder why on earth you ever wrote this drivel to begin with. Internal editors are a bitch, plain and simple, and you have to learn to turn them off at some point.

I let mine have a say when I’m drafting. Typically, I will go back a few pages and read what I wrote before I continue on, just to get into the right mood. Inevitably, I’ll fix the little things as I go, so by the time I type The End, I usually have a decent draft to work with. Then it goes to my betas. When I get it back, I make any suggested changes and clear up the questions that might have come up, and I print it out.

I have a three ring binder that I use for my WIP’s. It keeps it all neatly together. (Which is good because I always forget to number the pages) Then I let it sit for a couple of days while I bask in all the free time I now have.(Why hello family! Long time no see!)Then I put on my reader hat, sit in my comfy chair with a red pen, and start reading. I pretend I am curled up with a book I’ve wanted to read for ages, and let that anticipation drive me into making it the best book I can.

This is where I am now. This week is “reader” week. I am almost done. Every single page has a mark on it. Soon I will get to make all the changes on my laptop and it will be out of my hands. At least until super-agent goes over it with HER red pen.

That's a whole 'nuther freak-out.

Putting on my Reader Hat to Revise

source

Welcome to our 51st Road Trip Wednesday!

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link in the comments - or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments.














This Week's Topic:
What's the best book you read in October?

Kody: “Quiet, a little spooky, and utterly heartbreaking."

Kristin M.: “I marveled at the emotion, the phrasings, the magic..."

Kate: "I didn't read a single book this month."

Lee: "This month is a two way tie..."

Kaitlin: "I caught things I hadn't ever noticed before."

Kristin O.:  "So if you follow me on Twitter, you know that there's one book I've been talking about nonstop...














Road Trip Song of the Week:
“This is Halloween" from Nightmare Before Christmas

Next week’s topic:
TOPIC

Road Trip Wednesday #51: Best Book of the Month -- October

Doubts are crafty little creatures. Sometimes they hit you almost as soon as you sit down and pull out your notebook or open your word document. Sometimes they’re sneaky and crawl in after you’ve written a few pages. One minute things are normal, and the next you have that feeling like fingernails down a blackboard, that weird sensation of not liking your words much anymore. In fact, every single word makes you feel ill. And sometimes it goes away, but other times everything descends rapidly downhill. And then you realise that you’re not just writing any old bad novel. No. You’re actually writing The Worst Novel In The Entire Universe.

There are a lot of different things you have to screw up to write The Worst Novel In The Entire Universe. You need appallingly dull characters, characters with no interesting qualities whatsoever. Not even slightly interesting qualities. Everything about them has to be as dull as possible. And every single sentence needs to snarl up and make no sense, and also talk entirely about things no reader ever wants to know. And the setting has to be – I don’t know. Somewhere with no chance of any interesting thing ever happening. And the plot – the what? There’s no plot. At all. And god forbid there be any themes. Or any anything. Or maybe there are themes, but they’re all awkward and keep turning up constantly. Every two words.

And sure, there are some characters who accidentally do boring things in every first draft. Mine like to go to sleep and tell me what they’re dreaming about. There are some sentences in every first draft that clunk in one way or another. Mine end up kind of scatterbrained: sentences that try to do too many things at once in the wrong order without any commas when really they should be doing something else entirely. Like that last sentence. There are possibly a few moments when the setting doesn’t make much sense. Or the plot falters. And maybe the themes turn up just to whack you in the head with obvious obviousness. And sometimes, naturally, you look at all this stuff, this stuff that you screw up, and you think that maybe you should go watch some daytime television and never attempt this again.

I read a post on Sarah Dessen’s blog recently, where she talked about writing Just Listen. She almost deleted it and gave up writing in despair. She was that convinced it was terrible. I couldn’t believe that not just any published author, but Sarah Dessen, could feel that way about a book which turned out (in my opinion) to be her best. In short, we don’t know. As she points out, when you’re entangled in a draft, you’re so close to it that it can be impossible to see clearly.

Besides. It’s better to hate your writing sometimes than to never hate your writing at all. Doubt can be good. When you’re working on that next draft, you’ll be objective and able to listen to other people’s advice and edit ruthlessly. If you’re in love with every single thing you write 100% of the time, it’s hard to acknowledge the flaws. Doubt shows that you’re a healthy writer, rather than an inflated egotistical ugly one.

So, sometimes you write and it comes out imperfect. Or even awful. But don’t let that stop you. As the British government liked to tell people during World War II, just keep calm and carry on. Because you never know. That Worst Novel In The Entire Universe? It might just turn out to be amazing.

Those Insidious Doubts

Characters. They’re tricky little monsters, but you can have the best plot and the best setting in the world and without characters, not much is going to happen.

Many people have many different ways of figuring out how to make realistic characters. Some people’s characters talk to them, which sounds to me like a really great way to get to know a character. However, my characters don’t talk to me. When I’m sitting there, eating lunch, I don’t have a character randomly say, “Hey Kaitlin! I like oranges and am really messy. Just so you know. Also, I’m totally not feelin’ Love Interest. Pick me a different one, would you?”

This led me, over time, to the whole “character profile” method. Google “Character chart” or “Character profile” and you’ll find tons of them. Even those MySpace survey type things work. The problem is, you can spend hours on these things. It’s not like you can do it for just one character. You should know your supporting characters as well as you know your main character (or at least close!) because they’re all in the story for a reason. And, honestly, I didn’t feel like I was learning enough about my characters filling out profiles. It was fun. I liked imagining what my characters’ favorite colors were and where they liked to hang out after school (if they were in a contemporary setting, that is), but I didn’t feel like I was learning anything useful about them. And really, some of these character profile things have GREAT questions. How characters feel about themselves. What would throw their lives the most into turmoil. Greatest weaknesses and strengths in their personalities. I'm definitely not anti-character profile, and in fact still have one saved in a word document for inspiration.

So I asked myself what I was really trying to learn by doing character charts, or by willing my characters to speak to me (willing them to do it doesn’t make them any more likely to do it, by the way. This seems to be an ability you need to just…have), and I discovered what I was missing: the why.

I could give my characters personalities. Could even give them some motivation to be that way. But what I was missing was the deep down dark inside reason why they were like they were. Because everything we see and do and hear and watch others do affects what we do, whether good or bad. Once I started thinking about that, really thinking about it, I started to feel like I understood my characters better than I ever had before.

It sounds totally simple in retrospect, and maybe some of you reading this are wondering, what on earth is she rambling about and does she have a point?

I do have a point. And that point is: if nothing quite seems to be working for you, ask yourself what’s missing. You might feel like an idiot for having to wonder, but you’ll feel so. much. better. when you figure it out.

Characters: When They Won't Talk To You...

source

source

source

source

Field Trip Friday: October 22

You know all of the backstory. Your main character knows some of the backstory. Your reader knows none of the backstory. How do you work it in? It's a difficult balance for any writer to master; revealing just enough to keep readers interested, but withholding enough to build suspense and keep the pace up. Let's take a look at a few classic backstory blunders, and what to do if you find them in your current project.

Taking a Dump

It's as lovely as it sounds. Infodumping is particularly hard to avoid in sci-fi, fantasy, and any genre in which the world and its history differs from our own. But no matter how fascinating your backstory, pages of exposition just aren't all that interesting. (I have a toilet paper analogy here, but I'll spare you.)

The fix: Spread it out. (Ew!) Figure out what few details need to be pointed out up front so that the reader isn't totally lost, then break the rest up and insert pieces here and there as the story progresses. I'm going to stop there, because the dumping analogy took on a whole new level with "pieces" and I don't trust myself to continue.

The Internal Hemmorage

This backstory technique typically comes in lovely shades of purple. The main character sees a Meaningful Object, a Meaningful Person, or, heaven forfend, looks at herself in the mirror, and proceeds to treat us to endless paragraphs of internal angst over recent (or long ago) transgressions, all in Chapter One. This is like saying "I love you" on the first date. Don't Mosby the reader.

The fix: Let's get to know one another first, shall we? Our heroine can show us said Meaningful Object/Person/Reflection, but maybe we don't need to know anything right now aside from the fact that it's meaningful. Better yet, maybe introduce some action that shows us why this thing is so important to the main character. (O hai, show-don't-tell.)

The "As You Know, Bob"

Backstory in dialogue form. Characters discuss what happened, reminding each other of things they all already know. This does not good dialogue make, fellow Jedi. One character lecturing another character on past events is also a sign of Bob rearing his ugly head. (Sitcoms are notorious for using this to recap on season premieres. When a character starts a sentence by saying "I can't believe---"...you'll know. It's Bob.)

The fix: Read it aloud. Even better - recruit a friend to read your dialogue with you. If it sounds stilted and unnatural, wield that mighty axe and take aim at Bob's throat. Don't sacrifice good dialogue for backstory.

Dreams That Put the Reader to Sleep

Dreams are a part of life, but without a dang good reason, they don't have to be part of a book. Using dreams simply to show stuff that happened in the past is often just boring. It kills all the suspense, all the mystery. And let's be honest – I pretty much never dream exact scenes from my life, do you? Should our characters?

The fix: Wake his ass up. I mean, characters can (and should) sleep, but a few pages and we've got a real snooze-fest.

The Prior Prolegomenon

The prologue, the prelude, the overture filled with action and fast pace and tension and wonderful characters we love immediately and an intense situation we care about - that, a page turn later, we learn happened years (decades? centuries?) ago and are now merely a faint echo as we join the sleepy-eyed hero downing Cheerios at the kitchen table while pondering how dull his life is.

The fix: Tricky, because it's easy to say "cut the prologue," but it's really not the prologue's fault. Some - many - prologues are brilliant. But if they simply serve to show a significant past event we'll need to know about later, it's a Catch-22. If it's dull, we might close the book and never get to the real story. If it's interesting, we'll be good and ticked when we do get to the real story and it's boring by comparison. So if the prologue stays, the first chapter needs to live up.

Not Rad Retro(spection)

FLASHDANCE! Er, backs. Flashbacks can be amazing when done well. And they can feel like a Cheap Trick (and not the metal band) when done poorly.

The fix: Ask why. Why is the character having a flashback? What is happening at this exact moment that is causing her to remember? Cracked Up to Be, by Courtney Summers, is an excellent example of seamlessly integrated flashbacks – they appear according to the main character's current emotions and situation. If the flashback is simply there because you can't move on until the reader knows that bit of backstory, it's an issue of structure. Slapping on a flashback-bandaid won't help.

The Self-Congratulatory Monologue Told as the Hero Dangles Over a Pool of Sharks with Frickin' Laser Beams

Also known as "Monologuing, Incredibles-Style." In this case, the villain recounts everything we (and the main character) need to know about everything. The problem is this typically takes place at the climax, which might...um...slow things down a bit.

The fix: Nothing wrong with a few surprises springing up when it looks like the main character is about to be defeated. It's just a matter of how much. Too many and we feel cheated – why didn't we know all this before? You might also want to save some of the cigare--- erm, explanations for after the climax. Smooth, yet satisfying.

Disclaimer: Clearly, very successful and well-written books have committed one or more of these "blunders." They aren't always a bad thing - but they can be difficult to get right, and it's good to be aware of them.

Big Dumps, Bob, and Other Backstory Blunders

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link in the comments - or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments.

Emilia: "Everyone is special. You're special. Adorable little Billy is special. I'm special! (No, really...)"

Kaitlin: "You might think I'm going somewhere with this..."

Kate: "I liked the idea of using comp titles in my queries, because I wanted to show that I had done my research."

Road Trip Wednesday #50: Who's your comp?

via Highway email thread from Kate Hart

A common feeling among family and friends outside of the writing, or most any art realm for that matter, is confusion. Why would anyone with all their marbles spend so much time and effort on something with no guarantee of a return? Why can't you be satisfied with a normal job like everyone else? Your support system sees you crushed as yet another novel finds its way into the 'trunk' and wonders why you continue to torture yourself with lofty dreams of seeing your name grace the cover of a book spine. At times, we even begin to question it ourselves. Life would certainly be easier if we aspired for something more attainable. Are those stolen hours of writing here and there taking away from our family? And the worst: are we being selfish for wanting more?

Enter the soul-sucking sensation of guilt.
 
Now put on the brakes.

When I was in first grade, they told me I could be president. Lucky for you citizens of the U.S.of A, I had no interest in that position. But I did have plenty of interest in being a doctor, a teacher, a lawyer, and a short phase where I was convinced I was destined to be a Broadway sensation. And each and every time I changed my course, everyone cheered me on. The sky was the limit, etc. Not to go all guidance counselor, but we're supposed to dream big. So when did the rules change? At twenty-five? Thirty?

The truth is the rules haven't changed, only the players. Maybe you loathe your day job but needed the good insurance plan. Maybe you love your day job but wanted to add author to your resume. Either way, there's nothing wrong with still dreaming big. It doesn't make you irresponsible and it doesn't make you selfish. It makes you someone who refuses to settle for less than what they want from life.

There are, and will always be, the nay-sayers who like to pull our heads from the clouds and make us question if it's nothing more than a futile effort. Don't let them bring you down. In such an instance, you might borrow some words of wisdom Kristin Miller said in a Highway email thread discussion on this topic:

This is what I need to do and I will choose my own sacrifices because there is one life, it is short and I have to live it my way. 

 What do you/will you sacrifice to achieve your dream?

Sacrifices

from xcdc via Maureen Johnson

via Getty Images

We only had one brave participant in the meme challenge last week - thanks Katrina! 

But I managed to scrounge up a few others to round out the post. 

 

  

Happy Friday!

~ Kate Hart 

Field Trip Friday: October 15

Welcome to our 49th Road Trip Wednesday!

Kate: "I've blogged at length about my favorite book openings..."

Michelle: "It could be a simple statement of an odd fact that piques your interest..."

Kaitlin: "When I read books, I want them to be interesting, you know?"

Amanda: "I love opening a book, reading the first sentence, and instantly falling into the story."


Kristin O.: "When I read the beginning of a book like JELLICOE ROAD, something implodes inside me."

Kristin M: "Something mysterious, something explosive, something poetic . . ."

Road Trip Wednesday #49: Wooing the Reader

I rarely do the same thing, the same way, twice.

I think there's something in my DNA that prevents it. (That's the excuse I'm running with anyway.) This can pose a problem when you're a writer. I have yet to discover the formula that works 100% for me, but this has also allowed me to experiment. I have a binder full of print-outs on various ways to fast draft, one-pass revise, add depth and emotion, and...well you get the idea.

I love the *idea* of being organized enough to make one of these fantastic methods work for me, but it never quite ends up how I hope. For example, index cards. OMG index cards. Perfectly shaped, color coded cards that can be used to organize an entire book. I swooned when I brought home mine. I opened them, gazed lovingly at their blankness, made future plans, could see this would be a long and lasting relationship.

A week later they were at the bottom of my desk drawer, forgotten. I had decided that using the index card method took way too much time. I need/want something that is fast, that works, and that keeps me on track. This sadly, was not it.

BUT, in my attempts to figure out my own process and what works, I stumbled across a method that I wanted to share. Mainly because it does work so well for me!

I will use my book, Geo, as the example. It's almost done in draft form. It's the first book I actually outlined. I am a pantster, so outlining in itself was a huge benchmark. I am now a believer in outlines! Let me tell you why (Wait! Don't run away yet! This is good, I promise!) The beauty of outlining, and one that I had not found before, is that when you have a rough idea of where your going, you don't have to write the story in order!

I'll say that again, DON'T HAVE TO WRITE IN ORDER.

And here is where my dusty index cards come back into play. Basically, I wrote my book in unnumbered chapters because I had an outline. I knew the scenes needed so I could jump back and forth depending on my mood. When I was ready to organize it all, I printed it out and put each "chapter" together with a paperclip. (See exhibit A, aka the pic)

Then, I took one index card for each "chapter" and wrote down the main event driving that scene, how many pages it was, who was in it, and one important clue that is revealed. I did this for each chapter. Then I looked them over, rearranged into a more logical order, gave them chapter numbers, and could now see clearly where the gaps were. Here is the exciting part! I used my trusty index cards to add in the scenes I needed to tie things together. All I had to do was put the who, what, where and why on the card, insert it into the correct slot, give it the correct chapter number, and tada, no more plot hole!

It may sound like a confusing mess, but a light bulb went on when I saw my entire book spread out on my kitchen counter like that. When you write, it's hard to lose track of what came before or after the scene you are writing at that moment. With this method, I could see the story arch, who was in each scene, if my clues made logical sense (it's a mystery) what needed to be moved, or changed, or taken out.

I was then able to go back to the laptop and make the changes I'd marked out, and my confidence in this book skyrocketed, because I could go forward knowing that what I had written so far made sense. So I guess the moral of this blog post is to trust your own method. What works for one person may not work for another. I'm a visual person, I need to see everything in order to put it all together.

I hope that this post has inspired everyone to be comfortable in veering off on your own. There is nothing that says you can't take two, three, even four styles of plotting/drafting/revising and make it your own. We all need to find what works for us, and it will be different than what works for someone else.

Embrace it! Celebrate it! Writing is supposed to make our hearts and souls happy. Why not share something you've discovered that has made this process just a little bit easier for you? A light bulb moment? An "AHA" that made everything clear? Your idea might even inspire someone else!

Everchanging Process aka Finding Your Method

As writers*, we tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves. We are on a constant quest for improvement. We write first drafts and fifth drafts; send our manuscripts and queries and synopses to beta readers or forum participants to be torn to shreds; if all goes well, we repeat this process with agents and editors and finally, the public. Every book, every page, every word is a learning experience, and it never stops. This isn’t a bad thing. Actually, it’s very good. I’m not sure what I’d do with myself if I stopped learning, growing, improving with every thing I write. It’s part of the fun.

But the problem comes when you stop seeing yourself as someone who is good (or great!) and trying to become even greater, and start seeing yourself as someone who cannot write a single good word on a page. When you hate everything you write, because nothing comes out exactly as you’d pictured it in your head. When you rewrite your ms seven times and revise it thirty-two more times and there’s still that one pivotal sentence that just will. not. sound. right no matter what you do because you are such a terrible writer and…

This is when you need to take a step back and cut yourself some slack. We spend so much time trying to improve that sometimes we forget we are improving. We become our own worst critics, and never feel like we’re getting it right. It’s good to want to improve yourself, but not if it’s going to take you over and make you miserable.

I find that it sometimes helps to look back at things I wrote years ago—or even more recently—and see how much I’ve grown. It puts things in perspective, and reminds me of how far I’ve come. Because you should never become so overwhelmed by your desire to perfect your craft that writing stops bringing any enjoyment. Life is stressful enough without creating more of it for yourself. And if you’re never having any fun, what’s the point?

*Since this is a blog by writers, I specified my focus, but the advice applies more broadly, too.

Ease Up On The Self-Pressure

On my recent travels in Quebec City, I wandered into a bookshop and took a few sneaky photos of the YA section. I thought I'd share my research with you.

So. To start with, you put something in the window that's bound to grab everyone's attention. This is actually a universal law of bookselling.

The Young Adult section is called Romans Jeunesse (in English, romans means "novels", jeunesse means "youth").


It took me a while to stop thinking that the books were all upside down. I'd never really thought about this, but when you're looking at English language novels on the shelf, the the text usually runs downwards, towards the base of the spine. But with French ones, it runs upwards. So instead of reading the title and author from the top to the base of the spine, you read it from the base to the top.





And for my fellow punctuation geeks: I didn't get a photo of this, but if you open up a French language novel, you'll see that instead of marking out dialogue with speech marks, they use long dashes. If you're not used to it, it looks strangely poetic.

French Language YA