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

Last week, Steph Bowe wrote a post about how she is not a fangirl. She's a fan of things, of course, but she's not obsessive. And it's a little embarrassing that I, a grown adult, am being out-matured by a 16-year-old, but there you go. Because I'm totally a fan girl. It started when I was 12, with a band, and then there was a book (and it's author), and then there was another band, and then a tv show, and another tv show, and now there's another band. I'm not one of those fan girls who falls in love with whatever's popular at the moment; in fact, the things I have fannish love for are about 50/50 split as to whether they're generally popular or not. But there's usually something. And just like Steph can't explain why she's not a fan girl, I can't explain why I am one. Why do I spend hours of my life engaging with a cultural artifact that doesn't engage back? I've flown across the country, waited in line for hours, suf...

Lately, I've been reading a lot of series YA books,* books that have two or three or four sequels, and I have to say that it hasn't been going so well. Usually, this is what happens: (1) I love the first book. It's awesome and original and the characters are great. (2) The second book is good. Maybe the idea isn't as good, or the characters seem a little stale or something. But it's still a pretty good book, and I'm looking forward to the next one. (3) I read book three and think "really"? and put it down halfway through after skimming to the end to find out who dies. For a while I wasn't sure why I was having that reaction. I mean, these are all different authors, writing about very different topics, so how was it possible that my reaction was pretty much the same each time? Was it ME? Could I be the problem?** Then I realized what was happening--it was the adults. I went back to confirm and, sure enough, in each of these different serie...

My very own beloved Agent Ted has a BOOK OUT . I know! You can buy it here from Amazon, or here from Barnes and Noble. (Mine is on order from my local bookstore, but I should get it next week!) Congratulations Agent Ted!

I don't have any reviews yet--one of the perks of being unpublished, right?--but this quote from author Roddy Doyle in the Guardian newspaper seems like an accurate summary of what my feelings would be: "An Irish Times review of a reading I gave of one of my children's books, Rover Saves Christmas, in Dublin. The reviewer referred to 'the stench of celebrity vanity'. I've seen him many times since. I've even said hello to him. But I will, eventually, kill him." I'm sure I'll have more to say once I get a bad review. I can hardly wait.

I've been doing a lot of YA reading lately, and I've come to the conclusion that the love triangle is a real problem for most writers. So here are Jay's Rules for an Effective Love Triangle: 1. Each love interest must be a viable choice for the protagonist. I know I don't usually talk about specific examples here, but I'm going to now, just for a minute-- Twilight .* Actually, it's not so much Twilight I want to talk about as New Moon , the sequel, because that was where the love triangle went off the rails, in my opinion, and when I stopped reading the series.** New Moon is where the love triangle between Edward and Bella and Jacob really takes off. Jacob's not much of a presence in the first book at all, and we don't find out about his feelings until New Moon . But once Edward leaves, Jacob jumps in and here's where the love triangle both starts and, in my opinion falls apart. Because Jacob is never really a viable alternative for Bella. Su...

Recently, several of the blogs that I've been reading have been talking about avoiding things. For example, Gretchen, over at The Happiness Project, wrote recently about her aversion to plotlines that involve unjust accusations . I don't share that aversion, but I've noticed that there are certain story lines that I don't appreciate and will avoid if a realize that a story is heading that way. For example, I avoid movies in which an animal gets killed. I can read books where that happens, depending on the book and the purpose of the animal's death, but I have actually refused to see movies where I know the animal dies.* It's a soft spot that I have, and I won't subject myself to movies (or television shows) that are going to tearjerk me by killing an animal.** And it's not exactly an aversion to a storyline, per se , but a character will lose me if he or she cheats on a spouse or significant other. It's not enough to make me avoid a whole book, ...

Since I write YA literature, I spend a fair amount of time thinking about what role the parents are going to have in the story. Because my main characters have to have parents*, of course, but parents aren't usually the most interesting parts of the YA story. If they were, that wouldn't be YA, it would just be...A. Recently, Liz B. over at Tea Cozy wrote a post about a New York Times article that dissed the role of parents in YA literature. In that article, author Julie Just says: Maybe you can think of more recent examples than “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1885) — the gallant, no-good father from “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” (1943)? — but in the classic stories, from “Cinderella” to “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the hero’s parents are more likely to be absent or dead than cruel or incompetent. ... And then the young adult novel came along. I have a question for Ms. Just: are you high? Seriously? Because on what planet is Cinderella's father not cruel or i...

Lynn Viehl has an interesting post over on her blog about author self-promotion and the plethora of tools that exist for authors now. Lynn is an interesting writer in terms of self-promotion: she blogs almost every day, and really interacts with her readers, especially for someone with her level of publishing success, but she doesn't do a lot of other self-promotion.* I don't have anything to promote at the moment**, but Lynn's post made me think about what I will do when I'm published.*** I think that's probably the key to successful self-promotion, thinking about what you like to do and making that a tool for promotion. So these are the things that I will do when I get a book published: 1. blog. I've had a blog in some form or another for a long time now (not just this one). I like a blog/website, because it provides a central place for readers to go, and the longer form gives me a chance to expound at great length one stuff that I want to expound on.*...

I've talked about revision before, but there's a difference between revision and editing, although I usually do both at the same time. Revision, at least in my opinion, involves changes at the plot/character level, whereas editing involves smaller technical changes, things on the sentence level instead of the scene level. Along those lines, Sylvia Rochester has a post over at Heart of Louisiana that has tons of good editing tips for polishing up a manuscript that I'm not going to repeat here. They're all great tips and things that every writer should employ during the course of writing. The thing that I have to keep in mind is that, while all these editing tips are useful, they are only useful in the contest of the story that I'm telling. So, for example, most of my main characters are teenagers. Teenagers have a certain cadence and method of expressing themselves that are unique to teenagers (as a stage of development), and then on top of that, there are laye...

First things first, if you're interested in following publishing industry stuff in a regular way, you MUST read Maya Reynolds' blog . She's excellent at (a) staying on top of major developments and (b) explaining them in clear language, along with their implications. This post was inspired, in part, by her reportage. So, as you may have heard, Amazon is the current market leader in the sales of ebook readers. It's Kindle has, according to some reports, 68% of the market share for ebook devices. Unfortunately, Amazon hasn't been a very benevolent monopolist in the book market in general. It's been dictatorial with authors who want to self-publish, requiring its own print-on-demand service . It even attempted, in January of this year, to coerce publisher Macmillan into accepting its terms by removing the buy buttons from that publisher's books when Macmillan wouldn't agree to let Amazon set the price of its ebooks at $9.99 (Macmillan wanted the abi...

1. You may know Julia Stiles from the fact that she's a pretty famous actress whose been in a bunch of stuff (like Save the Last Dance , for example). What you may not know is that she has a blog, and it's pretty interesting. She doesn't post very often, but her stuff is usually worth reading and she seems really cool.* You can check her blog out here: You Know My Steez . 2. I tried last year to start a one sentence journal, where you write a single sentence a day, but it just doesn't work for me. I keep forgetting to write in it for, like, weeks at a time. I'm much better at writing my three paragraphs a day (as recommended by Bryan Garner). For some reason a bigger committment works better for me. But Leah Dieterich's blog --where she posts a thank you note a day, sometimes to things that you wouldn't normally think of as being grateful for -- is awesome. Some recent favorites of mine include: Dear Neon Yellow Highlighter Dear Future See you when...

Earlier this month, agent Janet Reid had an encounter with a writer over the phone. You can read about it here. That's not the crazy part. No, the crazy part is that when Janet stated that she could not help the writer over the phone*, the writer got mad and sent Janet an email saying that she was rude. HA! You know what's rude? Emailing someone to tell them that they're rude. Seriously. But that brings me to my point, which is this: you are not entitled to help. Ever. Not in life, and especially not in pursuit of your goal of becoming a published writer. Now, a lot of people will probably help you. I personally have had the help of the many people in my fledgling writing career. Teachers, friends, other writers, agents, writing groups, fan fiction beta readers, fan fiction readers...many many many people have helped me, out of the goodness of their hearts, for free, because they wanted to. But I wasn't entitled to that help. I didn't "deserve"...

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 was going to write a big long email about how some people on the internet are jerks, but I think the easiest thing to do is just link to an example * of what not to do, and move on to something that is awesome. So what is awesome today? The combination of this song and video by 30 Second to Mars.** But let's back up for a second. A long time ago, in a land called 1994, there was a show called My So-Called Life . It starred Claire Danes as a teenage girl trying to figure out who she wanted to be, and even though it was an amazing show, it only lasted a season.*** And on that show, Claire (who played a girl named Angela Chase) was in love with a boy named Jordan Catalano. Oh, Jordan . Don't you just love the way he leans ? Anyway, Jordan was the Bad Boy. He probably wasn't going to graduate from high school, he had a LOT of girlfriends, he was a musician , and he was totally wrong for Angela. But she loved him and so, by extension, did the audience. Jordan was played...

Point of view is one of those things that happens so automatically that a lot of writers don't really talk about it. I've found that my stories fall naturally into a point of view and rarely slip from that, but an experience I had with The Book* had led to me to think carefully about what point of view does to a story and what changing it can do. Then I read this post from Marie Brennan over at Fangs, Fur, and Fey about the difficulties she's having with a project. This is how she puts it: the damn thing can't decide what point of view it wants to be in. When I started writing, it defaulted to third. I cranked out a couple thousand words like that in the first day of "whee fun shiny new toy!," but then when I came back the next day, I got a couple hundred in before I noticed it had morphed to first. And ever since then, it's waffled back and forth. Heh . I feel her pain. What this means (t0 me--I don't know what it will mean to Brennan) is that at...

Here's one of the many things I learned from fan fiction: you cannot predict what will be popular. Let me say that again. You cannot predict what will be popular. In fan fiction, things are popular for a variety of reasons. The characters or romantic pairings they feature, the shows they are about, the quality of the writing, the explicitness of the sex scenes, the originality of the idea, the experimental nature of the form, pre-existing popularity of the author...any of these (or a hundred other things) can dictate whether a story becomes a major story in a particular fan universe or not. Bad stories* become hits all the time over in the fan universe. It's one of the reasons outsiders make fun of fan fiction. As a result of this lesson that I learned, I learned something else, a corollary, if you will: if you write for the audience, you lose. That's right -- If you write for the audience, you lose. I don't mean by this that you shouldn't care about your reade...

1. Heh. Carrie Ryan, in addition to being the author of a kickass post-apocalyptic story ( The Forest of Hands and Teeth -- what a title, right?), also has a great post here about what should and should not be in books written for children. 2. Elmo is still awesome. Really awesome. And red. ZOOM ZOOM! 3. Editorial Ass has a nice post about when to take someone else's advice on your writing. Long story short: it depends. But she gives some good general guidance. The most recent piece of advice I'm listening to is the advice I heard last week that my male main character is coming across as too much of a coward. Duly noted, Twinsburg. Duly noted. :) 4. I was fully prepared to dislike the show The Sing-Off. It was billed as the awful mutant baby of American Idol (which I hate) and Glee (which I love), like the Alien Baby in Alien 4*. But it's actually more like America's Best Dance Crew , but with singing. One of the things that's nice about it, l...

Earlier this month, Steph Bowe wrote a list of things that make her stop reading a YA book. If I'm being honest, I'll say that very little will stop me from reading a YA book, mostly because YA books are generally so short that by the time I realize that I should have stopped reading one, I'm done with it. But here are the things that would make me stop reading one, and will keep me from reading the next book in the series, should there be one: 1. "hip" teen slang. Do authors really think that they're being authentic when they do this? Because without fail, "hip" slang sounds corny and cheesy in, at most, a year. Also, if you are not actually a teenager, you have no idea what they think is hip. Adult writers for YA should focus on story and worry about slang later. 2. too many pop culture references. These references, like the slang, grow stale way too quickly and only serve to date the story. And, again, adult writers have no idea what po...

Recently, there's been a bit of controversy in the blogging world* ensuing from The Rejectionist's review of Maggie Stiefvater's latest book Shiver .** The Rejectionist's primary objection to Shiver is that she feels that the protagonist doesn't do anything but live for her man.*** The Rejectionist uses Shiver as a springboard to talk about the weak nature of female characters in YA fiction. Since I haven't read Maggie's book yet, I don't have an opinion about whether The Rejectionist is right or wrong on the issue of Shiver 's protagonist.**** But I agree with her whole heartedly on being tired of what The Rejectionist calls "feeble and inept teenage-girl main characters." And that's why I didn't like 2012 . Because the women in it (no teenagers, actually, but grown women) were both feeble AND inept. One of them was more feeble and inept than a ten year old boy, in fact. For real. Normally, I love disaster movies. I love...

Jay's Nanowrimo Word Count: Susan Adrian has a really interesting post here about how authors behave and how they should behave in online situations. And I agree with her in general. I have made several "online friends" by reaching out to people via blog or email, or having people reach out to me, and striking up a conversation. But there is one part of Susan's advice that I am pretty sure I am not going to follow, and that involves Twitter.* Susan decribes an author, Author B, who replies to most @tweets on Twitter, and that's one of the reasons why people really like her, in contrast to Author A, who only responds to people who are more famous or published or what-have-you. Now, I know that Susan's point is not "reply to every @tweet" but rather "don't be a bitch." And it's a good point. You, person on the internet, are not too good to reply to people who pay you compliments online or send you emails. No, really, you're...