Teens Writing For Teens

“You and I could write a bad romance.”

Lady Gaga knows the insecurities of writers, it seems. What makes a bad romance? Is my book a bad romance? What? Why? No!

Pitfalls and booby traps are so VERY hard to avoid when I’m writing. Sometimes I get lost in the flow of my MC and her LI, that I basically keep re-writing the same scenes over and over again. But real-life relationships aren’t like that. They make progress. They have beginning, middle, and (sadly, it’s true) end points. And at each stage, the characters act differently around each other. They’re not static. And static characters make for a bad romance.

Other notorious screw-ups I (sometimes) catch myself making (and when I don’t, my betas catch–thank you betas!):

1. No more chemistry. The MC and her LI start out strong at the beginning, exchange witty witticisms (repetitively redundant, yeah, I know), tease each other, and their hearts pound when they catch a glimpse of each other. But once they’re together, it becomes dull, monotone. There are no more mysteries to find out about the other. There are no surprises left waiting for the LI in his locker. Yes. This does happen to crumbling relationships in real life. But are those interesting to read about?

2.  Lack of conversation. You know you’ve got a problem (and the relationship does) when your characters are talking about the weather. About other characters. About last night’s homework. Anything but revealing more of themselves and their darkest secrets.

3. Cheesy one-liners. While on the other hand, the guy’s lines and the girl’s lines appear to be scripted. (“Do you work at Subway?” “No, why?” “Because you gave me a long!” “Aww, teeheehee, my cuddly-wuddly, you’re sooo cute!”) Gag me with a spoon.  (Okay fine I am COMPLETELY guilty of this. But if it helps, it was when I first started writing. Which was like three years ago.)

4. A too-perfect couple? Creepy. She’s blonde, he’s blond, she’s smart, he’s smart, she’s hot, he’s hot, she’s rich, he’s…OMG HE’S RICH TOO. And THEY WEAR MATCHING PINK POLO SHIRTS. (They’re Lacoste, too!) (!!!)

5. Super implausible pairings. No, the literary male socialite version of Paris Hilton will not fall in love with an impoverished McDonald’s cashier. (Written when I was 11. *hangs head in shame*)

6. “I’m ALWAYS here for you. In fact, when I’m here with you, we don’t pay attention to ANYONE around us, that’s just how in love we are.” (And people don’t even notice when we arrive in evening wear at the airport, climb up to the roof of a private hangar, and crank up our iPods so we can dance until his flight comes the next morning.) Enough said.

What do you think I may have missed in my defining of a bad romance?

-tilt

OH.

And p.s. you need to watch this. Consider it research. ;)

For those of you who follow the blog often you may or may not have noticed that I attempted Nanowrimo this November.  The good news, I was able to push through my blood. Sweat and tears and hit that magic number emerging a victor of Nanowrimo.  The bad news; I experienced a phenomena that I like to call a writing hangover.

For about a week after Nano I just couldn’t write.  I would sit at the computer flicking between both my works in progress and would be at a total loss.  In my mind I think I put it down to the fact that I had used every trick every percolating plot in my Nano novel that my brain decided it would go on strike while it waited for my creativity to re-boost.  Now at first I thought I would wait it out.  However after almost three weeks of writing absolutely nothing it seems I have lost all motivation to write.

I’m sure we all have this problem at some stage.  Life sometimes gets in the way.  Prior to Nanowrimo I had a schedule, I was still in school for the year and all my friends understood when i had to tell them that I was unable to catch up with them because of school, exams or even netball finals.  However as soon as the holidays start you have to catch up with everybody, and when you’ve neglected everybody for a year that takes some time.  But back to my problem.  At this point I look at my laptop with a sort of lost longing feeling.  I know I should write, and I want to write, at least i think I do.  So starting today I am enacting a twelve step program (conveniently downsized to three steps) to get me and anybody else who is out there out of writers block.  I will no longer wait for this sucker to pass; I am going to attack it vigorously.

Step 1:  I will write words every day.  It can be for anything, any work in progress, and every day after this I will write 100 more words than I did the day before.  I will do this until I reach an average daily word count that is sustainable and continue it until my novel is finished.

Step 2:  I will not go to the start of my novel and decide that editing the first few chapters will count as some progress towards the day.  This is of course optional for those of you who can restrain themselves long enough to get back to writing.  Unfortunately I know full well that i have no restraint and long periods of editing will require ice cream, shortbread biscuits and a large amount of reassurance from my mum about how I haven’t wasted months of my life.  That situation will not help my finish my novel, especially when it probably only needs 10,000 words or so to finish it.

Step 3:  I will set a deadline with another person, my critique group or my writer friends.  They will know what is happening and by sharing my problem perhaps it will be halved.  Even if it is not halved I will have people telling me to write every day.  People who will through there caring and understanding will give me a swift kick up the behind if I not met my daily quota.

By doing this I will (It is not a question of might, it will happen whether my brain wishes to cooperate or not) drag myself out of the desert where all good ideas go to die and once again be a writer to be reckoned with.  Well that is the plan anyway.

So good reader what is it that you should take from this?  Perhaps the simple fact that we all get writers block.  Some of us even get stuck in quick sand and need help to get back out of it.  I’m sure you have all experienced this at some point.  What methods do you find work for beating back the monster that seems to drain all the creativity directly from my brain?

~ Alyce

CPCS: Chronically Passive Character Syndrome

Warning! CPCS can have serious health effects. Some cases have resulted in book fatalities.

If the following symptoms are present, seek immediate inner-editor advice.*

Signs and Symptoms in Characters:

1. Character spends inordinate amounts of time sitting around, waiting for something to happen.
2. Character frequently watches/listens to events unfold (often from a distance, a hiding place, or a confined space) without actively participating in or influencing the course of these events.
3. Character continually goes along with what supporting characters want to do and doesn’t have (m)any ideas of his/her own.
4. When supporting characters propose a course of action that Character doesn’t/shouldn’t like, Character makes only weak/inner protests before going along with proposed plan.

Signs and Symptoms in Readers:

1. Boredom.
2. Drowsiness when reading book.
3. Tendency to misidentify supporting characters as main character and to care more about supporting characters than main character.

*The presence of some of these symptoms at some point in time does not necessarily indicate CPCS. Characters may have moments of passiveness without suffering negative health effects. Problems arise only when passiveness is prolonged.

Treatment:

1. Make Character do something. For best effect, make Character do something that he/she believes will help him/her accomplish his/her goal. Make this something have consequences – good, bad, disastrous, whatever.
2. If Character is in a situation that is forcing him/her to be passive and can’t escape this situation on his/her own, make something happen. Turn the situation on its head and allow/force Character to do something.
3. Take away the people who usually save Character from having to do things him/herself. Some characters are chronically passive by nature. Going from passive to active can be a perfectly acceptable character arc, but to achieve this arc, certain measures must be taken.

CPCS is a serious affliction in books. However, once identified, it is entirely (if not always easily) curable.

:)

- Becca Cooper (AKA Elusive)

*buzzcracklecrackleSCREEEEECH*

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog to bring you this special announcement.

Recently we have noticed some incorrect information being spread by the general public on the subject of “revisions.” We are here to clear up these falsehoods before someone loses their mind clicking the “spell check” button for the twentieth time.

What Revisions are NOT

~ Line edits

Example: “OMG, I cannot buh-LEEVE I used ‘they’re’ instead of ‘their.’ LULZ. Oopsie.”

~ Dialogue tweaking

Example: “So yeah I did like A LOT of thinking and I decided that Ryan would TOTALLY not say ‘Dat’s da bomb, yo.’ He’s SOO much more deep and sensitive than that.’

~ The careful and calculated rearranging of paragraphs

Example: “GOSH DARNIT. Can’t believe I ACTUALLY described Penelope’s AH-DORABLE Prada shoes before I talked about her EVEN MORE AH-DORABLE Gucci dress.”

~ Minor character changes

Example: “OH. MAH. GAWD. I just realized that it would be SOO much hotter if Chet had brilliant cerulean-violet eyes instead of just BOOORING turquoise. Am I right? AMIRIGHT?!”

What Revisions ARE

First, sit down and read through your book. All of it.

Make notes – honest, critical notes, like you’re beta-reading your own novel. Right now, this is not your baby. This is not your sweat-and-blood. This is a bookyou picked up off the shelf, and you’re trying to decide if it’s worth reading or not. Tick-tock…tick-tock… Come on, ladies and gentlemen – do you want to buy that book or not?

Before you answer that – no. You don’t. Not yet. Because that is a first draft, and even if it’s a decent first draft, it’s probably still not saleable. And it won’t necessarily be fixed with line edits or dialogue tweaking or minor character changes. You’ll probably need to revise.

To give you an idea of what revisions look like, you may want to head over to Kirsten Hubbard’s place. Or re-read Becca Fitzpatrick’s interview about her five rewrites.

The fact is that revisions are not about making your book shiny and error-free; they’re about making your book BETTER.  Sometimes this involves cutting 5k. (*sniffle* Bye, Shiny Pickpocketing Scene! It was fun while it lasted!) Sometimes it involves editing your favorite plot twist because – let’s face it – it just doesn’t make sense. (But WHY can’t the president’s son secretly be Dax’s long lost brother? This book needs a nod to Star Wars!) Sometimes this involves rewriting the beginning. (Maybe he can visit that one chick who shows up on pg. 57?) And rewriting the beginning. (No, no, that won’t work – we need more tension. Maybe…EPIC-RUN-IN-WITH-THE-OTHER-MC-IN-WHICH-THEIR-EYES-MEET-AND-THEY-HAVE-AN-INSTANT-CONNECTION.) And rewriting the beginning. (God, the MELODRAMA – it’s killing me. *facepalm* Stupid stupid stupid.)

So when you finish your first draft and you’re tempted to click spell check, fix those pesky grammar errors, and call it good – remember that this is your book. Your duty to your baby is to make it the best it can possibly be. It may be painful and frustrating and even a little insane-making (says The Girl Who No Longer Sleeps) – but ultimately, it will pay off.

~Kristin

Recently I had the honor of interviewing Rhonda Stapleton, an up-and-coming author with her first novel coming out on December 22.

Rhonda Stapleton started writing a few years ago to appease the voices in her head. She has a Master’s degree in English and a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing. In the twelve minutes of free time she has each day, Rhonda enjoys reading, photography, writing poetry, singing in the shower (and in the car, at work, or basically anywhere that provides oxygen), drinking chai tea, and playing on the Internet (AKA, connecting to the “mother ship”).

Rhonda lives in northeast Ohio with her two kids, her manpanion, and their lazy dog.

Let’s give her a warm TWFT welcome! *cue applause*

TWFT: What inspired you to write Stupid Cupid
RS: I thought it would be fun to write a story about a girl with an unusual job, and for some reason, being a cupid came to mind. Yeah, I guess being that would qualify as unusual, haha.

TWFT: When you started writing Stupid Cupid, did you ever think that someday both it and its two sequels would be published?
RS: Actually, I hadn’t even thought of it as a trilogy–my editor did. She suggested it and asked me for rewrites, and who am I to argue with genius? :D

TWFT: What was your journey to publication like?
RS: Long. hahaha. I got my agent the old-fashioned way…through querying. While I was doing so, I worked on Stupid Cupid to distract myself. It took me approx. 3 1/2 years to sell…so hang in there, writers! Just because it doesn’t happen fast doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

TWFT: Did you ever have a point when you just wanted to give up, and what did you do?
RS: I’ve had points where I’ve been crazy discouraged, but never where I wanted to give up. I’m stubborn like that. I think persistence is KEY to being an author, because you often have a lot of bumps in the road.

TWFT: Did you always want to write for young adults?
RS: Actually, my first novel was a chick lit–dum dum DUMMMMM…yeah, that one didn’t go so well. haha. But after I started writing YA, I was totally hooked.

TWFT: Can you tell us what’s in store next?
RS: I’m working on a couple of different projects right now–one’s a contemp comedy, and one’s a futuristic. I’d love to play around in different genres too!

TWFT: Do you like to listen to music when you write, or do you need complete and total silence?
RS: I love, love, love music. It sets the mood for me and helps me really get into whatever my characters are feeling.

TWFT: Do you have any advice that you’d like to give to all the young writers out there?
RS: My first piece of advice is to read–read, read, read, reeeeead a lot! Go read the classics in your genre. Read great books. Read crappy books. See what works and what doesn’t. After that, I tell writers they have to make regular time for writing. Like any craft, it won’t grow and develop unless you nurture it.

TWFT: What is your favorite book?
RS: I don’t think I can answer this. It’s like asking me to pick between my kids. haha. But I can say that some of my fav YA authors are Sarah Dessen, Suzanne Collins, Neal Shusterman, and Elizabeth Scott. And there are about a billion more I love, haha.

TWFT: And finally, our traditional TWFT question, what is your favorite flavor of jelly bean?
RS Ooooooh I’m not sure…maybe orange? I don’t eat a lot of jelly beans. But I can tell you that I absolutely LOATHE the butter-flavored one. Maybe it’s supposed to taste like popcorn or something, but that one makes me throw up in my mouth a little. haha

Thanks so much Rhonda! You can learn more about her and her books at her website and blog. Stupid Cupid is due for release December 22nd from Simon Pulse. It’s sequels, Flirting with Disaster and Pucker Up will be released March 9, 2010 and May 18, 2010 so keep an eye out for them!

Wouldn’t it be so amazing to just write and write without any trouble at all? What if you were to write a brilliant manuscript the first time around? Only having to tweak this or that. But writing is harder work than it seems.

There are so many different elements that must be put all together to make a piece uniquely your own. To make a piece beautiful. Writing has many difficulties, that’s for sure. But here is a blog post dedicated to some tips and tricks.

What’s writing when you’re not sitting down to write? First tip: Keep your BIC. Butt in Chair. Sit down and write. For a specified amount of time each day at the same time. Heck, you don’t need to write creatively, just as long as you’re writing. I got this advice from Ridley Pearson, an author who spoke at my local Barnes and Noble a few years ago. Okay, maybe I don’t listen to it all the time. I am, after all, a college student with lots to do at different hours of the day. I don’t even write every day. But I am promising myself to work on it. If anything, set yourself a goal–3 days, 5 days, a week, or more–to keep your BIC for that amount of days. If it works out for you, then great job!

What if you can’t find the right word to explain an idea you see clearly in your mind but can’t translate into words? Second tip: Use a thesaurus if you have an idea of a word that is similar. Or get this, use a “reverse dictionary.” Google it. Click the first link. Should be OneLook. Seriously, just describe the concept and voila! You get a list of words that could possibly have the word you are looking for. Sometimes I use it as my thesaurus lol

What is this darn thing called writer’s block? Third tip: In The Writer’s Little Helper, the author, James V. Smith, Jr. says he believes it does not exist. That is is a “form of laziness” or “distraction.” He says that it’s a “lame excuse to not write.” I have to agree wholeheartedly. He has some great advice in this little helper book, and I am going to quote it.

I’ve learned two things about creative writing. First is that creativity doesn’t strike sparks in you like a bolt from the ionosphere. You can’t expect much from wandering around idyllic settings waiting for an inspiration.

The most effective aids to creativity continue to be a simple pen and a blank pad. You create sparks by striking one against the other. Write an idea down. develop that idea. Turn the idea inside out. That’s where creativity comes from.

The second thing I’ve learned is that writing does not occur by thinking about it. Writing only happens when you do it, so plant your butt in chair and get busy. Keep busy. After you create a million or so words, you will have established yourself as a serviceable writer simply from the experience. If you’ve worked hard at learning from your experiences along the way, you’ll probably be a creative writer. That’s how it works.

And by the time you’ve written those million words, you will have, like me, forgotten the condition of writer’s block even exists, except in the minds of dilettantes.

“My writing sucks…” Fourth tip: Um, that is so not true! If you are being doubtful of your writing, have someone read it, if they are in love with it, problem solved. ”But I got negative comments on it…” That is OK! If you work on those problem areas more, this will help make your writing even better, right?

And if you really think it is sucktastic, I will forward you to Parametric’s post about this particular issue: Parametric’s University of Fantasy blog post!!! <— This is AH-MAZING.

“I am new at this… what do I do?” Fifth, sixth, and seventh tip. Know your market. Read books in your genre. And if it’s literary read that. Seriously, if you read and get to know your market, it helps you know what sorts of things are available to you to write about in your genre. I am a contemporary romance writer. So I read those sorts of books. It helps. A lot. Research the publishing process! I am not going to go into detail about the publishing process. Instead, I leave that up to you to explore. Check out books like Writer’s Market or sign up online here. There are also other books to check out at your local bookstore or research stuff online. There are so many resources out there for you!

Check out some self-help writing books. There are some great ones out there. The Writer’s Little Helper is my fave. Here is something I had posted on AW.

The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier: How to Solve the Mysteries of Weak Writing by Bonnie Trenga. Haven’t sunk my teeth into this one yet but from the ToC we get passive voice, nominalizations, vague -ing words, weak verbs, misplaced modifiers, super long sentence, wordy writing and more!

The Writer’s Little Helper By James V. Smith Jr. PHENOMENAL book I love it so much. Talks about pretty much everything you want to know about writing. Characters, scenes, POV, flashbacks, dialogue, pacing, some publishing tidbits and lots more!!!

The First Five Pages By Noah Lukeman. This one is more for revising/editing, but it could still help you avoid the mistakes that most writers make. Adjectives and adverbs, showing vs. telling, viewpoint and narration, characterization, hooks, subtlety, tone, setting. Really great book too! (also written by an agent) There is also another book by him.. The Plot Thickens which I need to get my hands on… That one is more for the writing of a novel I think. Must google it later…

Keys to Great Writing by Stephen Wilbers. Haven’t sunk my teeth into this one yet either. But it talks about some things such as: economy, precision, action, music, personality, purpose, POV (but you’ve heard of that) organization, support, coherence, the writing process. If you want more info on some of those chapter titles, look into the book there’s a lot of nice info in those chapters.

Between the Lines by Jessica Page Morrell. Really goes in depth into some subtle elements of writing, backstory, cliffhangers, thrusters, epilogues, epiphanies, flashbacks, foreshadowing, imagery, pacing, prologues, sense of place, sensory surround, subplots, subtlety, suspense, tension, theme and premise, transitions.

All of these are really great. Then of course get your hands on a grammar and syntax book! I have a pocket book from Random House Webster’s that cost like 6 bucks.

Last WoW (no not World of Warcraft but Words of Wisdom): Think of writing as something fun, something you love to do, something you are passionate about instead of a means to make money off it. Without using your love to write to put forth your best attempt, no money for you I am afraid.

The writing process is a journey. Take the road less traveled.
Never give up! You can’t fail if you don’t give up!
No matter what, keep your dreams in sight.
And lastly . . . go forth and WRITE!

Okay, well these are all the tips and tricks up my sleeve! Hope you have enjoyed them!

~ Karla AKA KC