How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?

Gacked from a guest post by Rachel Simon over at Hey, Teenager of the Year! These are my top 5 YA literary crushes: 5. Quentin Compson. The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner. Okay, so this is cheating a little bit because neither The Sound and the Fury nor Absalom, Absalom are really YA books, like, at all. Like not even in the way that you might say Catcher in the Rye is a YA book. But I can't help it. I love Quentin Compson. Is he screwed up? YES. Is he ultimately not a very heroic character? YES. Do I love him enough to put up with William Faulkner, who I actually can't stand as an author? God help me, yes. When I say I am character driven, this is what I mean -- I will read William Faulkner in order to be close to Quentin Compson. That, my friends, is dedication. 4. Matt Perino. Twenty Boy Summer , by Sarah Ockler . Matt Perino is not on this list because Sarah Ockler is a cool person (although she is), or because she, too, is...

I'm working on some revisions of The Book right now and it feels a little bit like when you see someone you used to date a while after you broke up and you remember everything that you loved about them and wonder "why did I ever leave you?" I don't know what else to say about that, except that I'm glad I'm not thinking "why did I ever go out with you?"

I've already written a little bit about prologues , but recently, Agent Kristin did a post listing the reasons why, in her experience, most prologues don't work. Yeah, I agree with her. In my own experience as a reader, most prologues either give away too much, thus ruining the book, or don't tell me enough, leaving me confused and wondering why I should care. I can think of only one prologue in the books I've read recently that worked at all, and even then, when I saw it I almost put the book back on the shelf.* Perhaps part of the reason why I'm anti-prologue is that I haven't had an idea yet that would require one, so I don't understand why every one else shouldn't just chop theirs off their books to conform with my ideas of right and wrong. I don't understand why they're necessary, why a writer would think it was important to have one.** Some authors have said that they use a prologue to convey backstory, but can't backstory be worke...

1. This weekend, I was getting dressed to go out and run some errands and suddenly I thought of the first lines for one of my dormant projects. I don't know why that thought came to me then -- there wasn't anything that triggered it that I can recall -- but it did, and I didn't want to lose it, so I stopped what I was doing and wrote it down. One thing I've learned is that when something comes to you, don't argue with it. Some times ( a lot of the time ) writing is work, so when it's not, you gotta take advantage of it. 2. Okay, I get it, February isn't spring time in Ohio. There's no need to dump seven metric tons of snow into my driveway in order to prove it to me. sigh. 3. Isn't March spring, though? 4. I recent saw Victor/Victoria again on television and that is an awesome movie! It doesn't have much of a plot, really, or at least not one that's resolved by the end, but it does have several song and dance numbers by Julie Andrew...

Over at Upstart Crow Literary, Chris has a question about where writers get their ideas . I've already written a post about this, so I won't repeat all that, but Chris's post got me thinking in general about how I get ideas, and I think the thing that works for me is noticing stuff. I know...that's really specific right? Y'all are like "oooh, thanks Jay for the handy tip about noticing things , if you want to write." I'm a visionary, what can I say? Seriously, though, that's how I get my ideas. And that's how, if you dig into many writers' stories about where their ideas come from, they get their ideas, too. For example, I remember reading Stephen King's recent book Cell , and knowing exactly where he got the idea for the book. It's right there in the opening scenes, when the pulse goes off and everyone on a cell phone turns into a raving zombie lunatic. And I know (even though I don't really know) that King was standi...

As I've mentioned before around here, I have written fan fiction. Quite a lot of it, in various fandoms over the years. I do it (or did it--I don't have much time anymore) because sometimes when I watch a movie or a television show, there are things I want to see that the creators of the show aren't going to show me.* It's my (humble and unscientific) opinion, that that's why most people write fan fiction, to create things that they want to see. Which, that's the reason for all art, isn't it? Fan fiction or Picasso. The creation of something to express something. The reason I'm thinking about this is because, in this interactive world, there's been a sort of blurring of the lines between creating something and critiquing something, a blurring that Linda Holmes points out in her recent blog post about the NBC show Chuck .** Here's part of what she says: But here's the thing: When a storyline isn't going in the direction you prefer, i...

1. I proctored a practice LSAT this weekend and once again, I was cold. Every time I do one of these I think to myself "wear a sweater so you don't get cold" and today, even though it was sunny out and I was warm, I put on a tank AND a really thick sweater (I was sweating in my house and couldn't even put on my coat, I was so warm) and still about halfway through I got cold. sigh. I think it's because I can't move around while students are taking the LSAT -- they don't appreciate that much. :) 2. It was Chinese New Year last weekend, thank god. My friends and I have decided that we are officially starting 2010 over again because the first month? Not so great. So Happy New Year, everyone!* 3. SciFi Channel** has been showing reruns of Joan of Arcadia recently. That was a good show. A little sappy sometimes, and the cop sections were a little...cheesy, but the high school stuff was almost as good as My So-Called Life and grittier than you would h...