My answer
I have a book coming out in about two months, ALIEN INVASION & OTHER INCONVENIENCES. My first two novels were somewhat realistic and I got the usual questions about whether I was my character and if my story was real. I gave the usual answer. Some of the story and characters, in a very changed form, have elements of autobiography but most is made up. In this new novel, aliens invade the world and conquer it in ten seconds and enslave the survivors. This time I have to admit it’s all real. Every word of the story is true. Also, I’m all the characters.
I’m the aliens who come to earth to colonize. Back in our solar system the sun burned out so we had to hit the road, ride the solar winds, find new worlds. Yadda. Yadda. Fortunately for us there are a lot of worlds out there. Unfortunately, for the inhabitants of those worlds we are quite advanced and think that primitive beings really don’t matter so we put most of them “to sleep” in a humane manner and enslave the rest to help our civilization, which is really, really great, move forward.
I’m also, as it turns out, the enslaved who are mostly young (*author’s note—I killed off most of the older people because, hey, most of them don’t read young adult fiction.) and who must find a way to adapt in order to survive. We’re not happy about this. Each one of us is unhappy in his or her own way. It’s never been all that easy to be a human but being enslaved by aliens (basically little green men whose power comes from their mind and telepathic abilities and not brawn and technology which is very confusing and certainly un-civilized by civilized Earthling standards) really sucks. We’ve lost our parents, our brothers and sisters and friends and dogs and cats. We’ve had a very bad time.
My main character is named Jesse and he is me. He’s only seventeen and I am, well, not. He’s a slave and I am, well, not. His father was in the military for twenty years and mine was in for three. Okay, some similarity there. He has a black belt in TaeKwonDo and so do I, but he’s much more advanced in martial arts than I will ever be. His mother was a teacher and mine was not. He grew up in Houston and I did not. But other than these differences we’re alike. Except in the ways we aren’t.
I guess, in the end, my answer to “is your story real and are you your characters?” , whether writing speculative fiction or somewhat realistic fiction, remains the same. I write what I know and what I know is that any story I write will have parts that are taken from real life and put into the Crazy Imagination Blender™ and used in the construction of character and story along with totally made up parts. In the end, they’ll be blended together in such a way that I won’t always be sure where something came from and what % of it happened and what % of it is made up. It’s all real though—to me—in a purely fictitious way. And thanks for giving me the chance to clear that up.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Nina: On Getting Out of the House
Before I published my first novel, Hold Still, in October of last year, I used to look at novels on bookstore shelves and think that it must be easier for published writers to write than it was for me. I thought that writing might be like making my mother’s (delicious!) buttermilk pancakes. The first try would be disastrous (somehow both burnt and undercooked); the second try, a little better (but too lumpy, with little clumps of baking soda); the next few attempts, just okay. But then, after a while: success! And then, each time that followed: more success!
If I hadn’t gotten the delicious novel recipe down by my first book, I certainly should have it down by the second.
So with inevitable ease and success in mind, last summer I wrote the beginning of my second novel and an outline for the rest of it. It’s a road trip story, and I determined where my characters would be on each day and what they would do and, of course, what would be done to them. My first draft deadline was in the winter, so over the fall, I followed the outline I made, checking off scenes as I wrote them. My outline became a giant to-do list.
Which was a problem.
Where did the inspiration go? The creativity? You know that feeling, when you sit down to write a scene and then, suddenly, it becomes almost a living thing, starts moving in unanticipated directions, surprises you in the best way possible? Well, I didn’t get that feeling. All of it felt like work.
But worse than the work itself was the pressure. The pancake theory burned up, was replaced with the realization that writing is, at least for me, going to be an eternal struggle—and even more frightening than that, for the first time, people will be watching. So instead of only worrying about the book itself and whether it’s any good, I’m now also worried about how it will compare to my first novel. Of course, I want it to be better. I want to keep growing.
This summer, as though rebelling against my former stick-to-the-outline self, I began my revision and expansion work as haphazardly as possible, dipping into scenes at random, adding a few lines of dialogue here and there, letting my narrator think more freely. Upon re-acquainting myself with the novel, something good started to happen. In many scenes, moments that seemed unimportant became seeds of larger moments. I thought of a whole side trip that wasn’t there before, with new characters and new events solidifying the older themes that didn’t quite come to the surface in the first draft.
But I kept questioning myself: what if these new ideas weren’t actually that great? Maybe they were just new. So I decided to get on the road.
I brought music, a camera, and a few changes of clothes. I brought my wife, who is, among millions of wonderful things, a swift driver and a gifted exchanger of ideas. We drove where my characters drive, we saw friends, and we met new people, and through it all, I was open to everything. Just as my narrator is. Almost everywhere we went, I discovered something new to add to the novel. The restaurant in Medford with cinnamon buns the size of my face and impossible riddles as reading material. The farm on Vashon Island, where our close friends are living. The friend of a friend in Portland, who told stories about working jobs I never knew existed. Everything we saw out the window as we whizzed past it.
The trip revealed gaps in the story I hadn’t recognized, and then showed me how to fill them. I’m excited, now, about where the book is going and the ways in which it continues to grow. And, though certainly no replacement for the recipe I thought I would master, I learned something that I’ll be able to apply to the next book: in order to breath life into my work, I need to get outside and live a little.
If I hadn’t gotten the delicious novel recipe down by my first book, I certainly should have it down by the second.
So with inevitable ease and success in mind, last summer I wrote the beginning of my second novel and an outline for the rest of it. It’s a road trip story, and I determined where my characters would be on each day and what they would do and, of course, what would be done to them. My first draft deadline was in the winter, so over the fall, I followed the outline I made, checking off scenes as I wrote them. My outline became a giant to-do list.
Which was a problem.
Where did the inspiration go? The creativity? You know that feeling, when you sit down to write a scene and then, suddenly, it becomes almost a living thing, starts moving in unanticipated directions, surprises you in the best way possible? Well, I didn’t get that feeling. All of it felt like work.
But worse than the work itself was the pressure. The pancake theory burned up, was replaced with the realization that writing is, at least for me, going to be an eternal struggle—and even more frightening than that, for the first time, people will be watching. So instead of only worrying about the book itself and whether it’s any good, I’m now also worried about how it will compare to my first novel. Of course, I want it to be better. I want to keep growing.
This summer, as though rebelling against my former stick-to-the-outline self, I began my revision and expansion work as haphazardly as possible, dipping into scenes at random, adding a few lines of dialogue here and there, letting my narrator think more freely. Upon re-acquainting myself with the novel, something good started to happen. In many scenes, moments that seemed unimportant became seeds of larger moments. I thought of a whole side trip that wasn’t there before, with new characters and new events solidifying the older themes that didn’t quite come to the surface in the first draft.
But I kept questioning myself: what if these new ideas weren’t actually that great? Maybe they were just new. So I decided to get on the road.
I brought music, a camera, and a few changes of clothes. I brought my wife, who is, among millions of wonderful things, a swift driver and a gifted exchanger of ideas. We drove where my characters drive, we saw friends, and we met new people, and through it all, I was open to everything. Just as my narrator is. Almost everywhere we went, I discovered something new to add to the novel. The restaurant in Medford with cinnamon buns the size of my face and impossible riddles as reading material. The farm on Vashon Island, where our close friends are living. The friend of a friend in Portland, who told stories about working jobs I never knew existed. Everything we saw out the window as we whizzed past it.
The trip revealed gaps in the story I hadn’t recognized, and then showed me how to fill them. I’m excited, now, about where the book is going and the ways in which it continues to grow. And, though certainly no replacement for the recipe I thought I would master, I learned something that I’ll be able to apply to the next book: in order to breath life into my work, I need to get outside and live a little.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Lisa: On learning how to write
I've been writing seriously for almost ten years, and during that time, I've often wished I could pursue a formal education in creative writing. But it's not something I've been able to do for a lot of different reasons.
So, I've had to learn the old fashioned way.
That is, by writing a lot. And reading a lot.
Oh, and there have been some conferences thrown in to the mix too, and I always make a point to attend more craft-oriented sessions than publishing-oriented ones.
Anyway, when I say writing a lot, what do I mean?
I mean that if I have an idea I like, and a character I want to get to know, I write the story. Sometimes I check with Sara about what I'm writing, but often times, I don't. Because for me, writing isn't simply about publication. Writing is how I learn. And, there's something sort of soothing about writing a story for myself, just because *I* want to find out what happens.
I wrote some books before I had an agent that didn't sell and I've also written books since having Sara in my corner that didn't sell. And although there may have been some disappointment at times about not selling something, I've never thought of those books as a waste of my time. They are my schooling. They are how I learn. With each book I write, I learn things, and I hope that I become a better writer.
Writers write. And so I do, again and again, each time thinking about my weaknesses and trying to improve in those areas.
I believe writers also read to help them become better writers. In fact, I'd argue, one of the best things a writer can do for his/her career is to read. Have fours a day to spend on your writing career? Spend one of those hours reading. And here's why:
Because I have learned about memorable characters from John Green, Gayle Forman, and most recently Matthew Quick.
I have learned about voice from Cheryl Renee Herbsman and Saundra Mitchell.
I've learned about humor from Kristen Tracey and L.K. Madigan.
I've learned about timing and pacing from Suzanne Collins and Neil Shusterman.
I've learned how to make a setting come alive from Heidi R. Kling and Christine Fletcher.
And I've learned about the importance of connections, big and small, that make all the difference in a story, from Sarah Dessen, Nina LaCour, and Cynthia Lord.
I read so much, I have my 14-number library card memorized. I figure over my lifetime, that memorization has saved me hours of time, since I don't have to find my purse to get my library card every time I want to reserve a book on-line. I visit the library weekly, and usually have two books I'm reading at any given time, one downstairs and one upstairs. Well, I mean, who wants to spend precious reading time climbing stairs?
Reading books also gives me something to talk about with other writers and bloggers. And sometimes, a book can be a point of reference when talking to Sara about a project I'm working on or about editors or whatever (and I'm so impressed that often times I'll ask, have you read XYZ, and Sara will say yes, when she is also reading a manuscript a night! Can you say agent extraordinaire!?).
So, I guess all of this is to say, when writers ask me what do they need to do to get published, I say these things, to start with:
Write a helluva lot, always trying to improve and grow. Don't write the same story over and over if it's not getting you anywhere.
Read a helluva lot, taking in what an author does well and how that can help with your writing.
And sleep with a rabbit's foot underneath your pillow, keep a four-leaf clover in your wallet, and wish on every falling star you see. (Okay, so that's just me, but it can't hurt, right?)
So, I've had to learn the old fashioned way.
That is, by writing a lot. And reading a lot.
Oh, and there have been some conferences thrown in to the mix too, and I always make a point to attend more craft-oriented sessions than publishing-oriented ones.
Anyway, when I say writing a lot, what do I mean?
I mean that if I have an idea I like, and a character I want to get to know, I write the story. Sometimes I check with Sara about what I'm writing, but often times, I don't. Because for me, writing isn't simply about publication. Writing is how I learn. And, there's something sort of soothing about writing a story for myself, just because *I* want to find out what happens.
I wrote some books before I had an agent that didn't sell and I've also written books since having Sara in my corner that didn't sell. And although there may have been some disappointment at times about not selling something, I've never thought of those books as a waste of my time. They are my schooling. They are how I learn. With each book I write, I learn things, and I hope that I become a better writer.
Writers write. And so I do, again and again, each time thinking about my weaknesses and trying to improve in those areas.
I believe writers also read to help them become better writers. In fact, I'd argue, one of the best things a writer can do for his/her career is to read. Have fours a day to spend on your writing career? Spend one of those hours reading. And here's why:
Because I have learned about memorable characters from John Green, Gayle Forman, and most recently Matthew Quick.
I have learned about voice from Cheryl Renee Herbsman and Saundra Mitchell.
I've learned about humor from Kristen Tracey and L.K. Madigan.
I've learned about timing and pacing from Suzanne Collins and Neil Shusterman.
I've learned how to make a setting come alive from Heidi R. Kling and Christine Fletcher.
And I've learned about the importance of connections, big and small, that make all the difference in a story, from Sarah Dessen, Nina LaCour, and Cynthia Lord.
I read so much, I have my 14-number library card memorized. I figure over my lifetime, that memorization has saved me hours of time, since I don't have to find my purse to get my library card every time I want to reserve a book on-line. I visit the library weekly, and usually have two books I'm reading at any given time, one downstairs and one upstairs. Well, I mean, who wants to spend precious reading time climbing stairs?Reading books also gives me something to talk about with other writers and bloggers. And sometimes, a book can be a point of reference when talking to Sara about a project I'm working on or about editors or whatever (and I'm so impressed that often times I'll ask, have you read XYZ, and Sara will say yes, when she is also reading a manuscript a night! Can you say agent extraordinaire!?).
So, I guess all of this is to say, when writers ask me what do they need to do to get published, I say these things, to start with:
Write a helluva lot, always trying to improve and grow. Don't write the same story over and over if it's not getting you anywhere.
Read a helluva lot, taking in what an author does well and how that can help with your writing.
And sleep with a rabbit's foot underneath your pillow, keep a four-leaf clover in your wallet, and wish on every falling star you see. (Okay, so that's just me, but it can't hurt, right?)
Monday, July 19, 2010
Michael: A Wide Net, Full of Snakes and Caterpillars
As a debut author, you’re expected to do whatever you can to help promote your book. That means, when you’re not updating your Facebook status or tweeting, you should probably be blogging. The posts should be interesting, original, and farm fresh, all of which raises some big questions.
What on Earth Am I Going to Blog About?
The conventional wisdom is basically this: The more you blog, the better. A steady stream of fresh content keeps people coming back, helps build a community, earns you more links, increases your search engine visibility, and all of that good stuff.
But how are you going to find enough motivation and material to blog, if not daily, then at least several days a week? And, even if you do, how are you going to stand out from tens of thousands of other authors doing basically the same thing? For me the answer is this: I write about what interests me.
Three of my last five posts, for example, have involved things with tentacles: the Syfy original movie Sharktopus, Cthulhu, and Paul the World Cup-picking octopus. Every day, the top search terms leading people to my site include one or more of the following: “anacondas,” “assassin caterpillars,” and “animals with big ears.” And that’s just the A’s. Which leads to the next question…
Does It Make a Darn Bit of Difference?
I think so. Some days I’ll get a few hundred visitors to my site, only a handful of whom arrived looking for information about me or my books. And yet, there they are. I am not really competing with other authors for this traffic. In fact, when it comes to my posts about, say, cone snails, I don’t seem to be competing with anyone at all.
Nonetheless, a decent chunk of those visitors end up clicking on the pages about my book, bio, events, and upcoming titles. And whether they’re buying them for themselves, their nephews, or their pet snails, on the heaviest traffic days, a few of these visitors seem to click all the way through and buy books from the Amazon, B&N, or IndieBound links in the sidebar.
Now, a book or three is not all that much, in the grand scheme of things, but it has helped to keep my sales ranks from falling too low, and to keep the online discounts maxed out, for almost a year and a half now. And frankly, who knows how it works, that strange combination of word of mouth, sales algorithms, and general momentum that keeps a book relevant? When I found out that Scholastic was keeping Gentlemen in hardcover for an extra six months, one of my first thoughts was: Thank you, assassin caterpillar of Brazil.
And, of course, when the people who are actually searching for info about my book land on the site, they find a mix of fresh material, new comments, and fun (or at least unusual) posts.
So What Are You Saying?
I am neither a font of wisdom nor a runaway success (having quit my day job, I may in fact be running away from success). But I have been blogging regularly for a few years now, I still enjoy it, and I think it helps, so there is one piece of advice that I feel comfortable giving: Allow yourself to write about whatever interests you, not only regardless of how weird or idiosyncratic the subject may be, but because of it. It allows you to cast a wide net online, and to fill that net with whatever you like.
What on Earth Am I Going to Blog About?
The conventional wisdom is basically this: The more you blog, the better. A steady stream of fresh content keeps people coming back, helps build a community, earns you more links, increases your search engine visibility, and all of that good stuff.
But how are you going to find enough motivation and material to blog, if not daily, then at least several days a week? And, even if you do, how are you going to stand out from tens of thousands of other authors doing basically the same thing? For me the answer is this: I write about what interests me.
Three of my last five posts, for example, have involved things with tentacles: the Syfy original movie Sharktopus, Cthulhu, and Paul the World Cup-picking octopus. Every day, the top search terms leading people to my site include one or more of the following: “anacondas,” “assassin caterpillars,” and “animals with big ears.” And that’s just the A’s. Which leads to the next question…
Does It Make a Darn Bit of Difference?
I think so. Some days I’ll get a few hundred visitors to my site, only a handful of whom arrived looking for information about me or my books. And yet, there they are. I am not really competing with other authors for this traffic. In fact, when it comes to my posts about, say, cone snails, I don’t seem to be competing with anyone at all.
Nonetheless, a decent chunk of those visitors end up clicking on the pages about my book, bio, events, and upcoming titles. And whether they’re buying them for themselves, their nephews, or their pet snails, on the heaviest traffic days, a few of these visitors seem to click all the way through and buy books from the Amazon, B&N, or IndieBound links in the sidebar.
Now, a book or three is not all that much, in the grand scheme of things, but it has helped to keep my sales ranks from falling too low, and to keep the online discounts maxed out, for almost a year and a half now. And frankly, who knows how it works, that strange combination of word of mouth, sales algorithms, and general momentum that keeps a book relevant? When I found out that Scholastic was keeping Gentlemen in hardcover for an extra six months, one of my first thoughts was: Thank you, assassin caterpillar of Brazil.
And, of course, when the people who are actually searching for info about my book land on the site, they find a mix of fresh material, new comments, and fun (or at least unusual) posts.
So What Are You Saying?
I am neither a font of wisdom nor a runaway success (having quit my day job, I may in fact be running away from success). But I have been blogging regularly for a few years now, I still enjoy it, and I think it helps, so there is one piece of advice that I feel comfortable giving: Allow yourself to write about whatever interests you, not only regardless of how weird or idiosyncratic the subject may be, but because of it. It allows you to cast a wide net online, and to fill that net with whatever you like.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Carolee: Interview with Simon Pulse Executive Editor - Anica Rissi
Carolee: What got you interested in the field of publishing?
Anica: I stumbled into my first editorial assistant job (working for David Levithan at Scholastic) through pure dumb luck, but I have always been a reader, a storyteller, and obsessed with words. I started out editing mostly middle-grade novels and series, including Candy Apple Books and The Princess School (a series I’m still proud of!), then moved to Simon Pulse in 2007 to focus exclusively on YA. This job is amazing. I get to work with words, stories, characters, and ideas, and with smart, interesting, creative people.
Carolee: Sounds like a dream job. Tell us what you do at Simon Pulse and what distinguishes a book as a Simon Pulse title.
Anica: Simon Pulse is a hardcover and paperback imprint with a focus on commercial fiction that appeals directly to teen readers. Our books range from dark to light, voice-driven to high-concept, realistic to paranormal, contemporary to dystopian, verse to prose.
One of my favorite things about being an editor is the opportunity to nurture and develop the careers of debut novelists. Debut novels from my 2009 list included two-time RITA nominee Nothing Like You by Lauren Strasnick, Crash Into Me by Albert Borris, Pure by Terra Elan McVoy, Break by Hannah Moskowitz, The Hollow by Jessica Verday, Beautiful by Amy Reed, and Stupid Cupid by Rhonda Stapleton. Many of those authors already have second Pulse novels recently published or on the way. In 2010, look for debuts Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson, The Deathday Letter by Shaun David Hutchinson, Losing Faith by Denise Jaden, and Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales.
Carolee: You've said in the past that you like discovering new talent and new voices. What kind of new voices have caught your attention?
Anica: When I read submissions, I’m looking to fall head-over-heels in love. I am a sucker for quirky or dark humor, smart writing, compelling storytelling, and characters that I can’t get out of my head. My tastes tend toward the dark and edgy. I look for truth in character and stories that tap into universal emotions. My favorite kind of voice to encounter is one that could have only come from that writer, that character.
Carolee: What advice can you give to writers trying to create a unique voice for their work?
Anica: You shouldn’t try to create a unique voice, you should write the story the way you know how to write it. Be inspired by others’ work and the world around you, but tell me the story that you were meant to tell, and stay true to your characters. Voice should never feel forced. My advice is, keep at it. All aspects of good writing, voice included, require practice. Writing is hard work!
Carolee: You’re absolutely right. Writing is hard work. So is marketing. The internet has opened up many new vistas for marketing books. Simon Pulse recently created Pulse It, a website where teens can get early access to books, read them online, and write reviews. How is this helping to market new titles?
Anica: Pulse It (simonandschuster.com/pulseit) is an online community for teens ages 14 to 18 who love to read. It’s a great place for them to connect with each other (and sometimes with authors), talk about books they’ve loved or hated, hear about what’s now and what’s next in YA, give us their feedback, and get free access to fantastic new books. It’s also a great way for us to generate buzz for our books amongst a community of teen readers, many of whom are also bloggers.
Carolee: Authors are doing more and more of their own internet marketing. What advice would you give to authors wanting to create an "internet presence?"
Anica: Join the conversation! Blog, vlog, tweet, or join facebook, not just to spread the word about your own books, but to be part of the online community that’s talking about reading, writing, and the publishing world. The internet isn’t a place to market to readers, it’s a place to connect with readers, and like with successful face-to-face human interactions, those connections don’t happen through monologues.
Carolee: That’s good advice and an important distinction. Tell us about some of your favorite upcoming titles.
Anica: Am I allowed to talk about your book, Take Me There?
Carolee: Absolutely.
Anica: I can’t wait for readers to meet Dylan—I know they’re going to fall for him just as hard as I did. I still remember reading this manuscript for the first time, how I was pulled in and swept up by this sweet-hearted bad-boy’s story. It was July 2008, and I’d printed out the first 50 pages to read at home over the weekend. I emailed Sara that Monday morning to tell her I was kicking myself for not having printed out the whole thing. There’s just something about Dylan that made me want to keep reading and reading. Take Me There is sometimes sexy, sometimes sad, and always intense—a dark and surprising novel about a boy on the run who’s headed nowhere fast.
A few other favorites coming this fall:
Leila Sales’s Mostly Good Girls is a smart, wickedly funny novel about a girl navigating the cutthroat world of an all-girls prep school, trying to figure out how to talk to boys without choking on her own saliva, and attempting to set things right with her suddenly-distant best friend. Did I mention smart and funny?
Denise Jaden’s Losing Faith is a lyrical, emotionally intense debut about a teenager who encounters more questions than closure while mourning the death of her sister. There are some real twists and turns to this plot, and moments of unexpected humor throughout. It’s awesome.
Lauren Strasnick’s Her and Me and You has first love, broken friendships, heartache, and twincest. It’s moody and gut-wrenching, and if you’ve read Lauren’s first book, Nothing Like You, you already know that her writing is sparse, haunting, and lovely, and her dialogue is sharp and superb.
Carolee: Anica, thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with us here at the Crowe’s Nest.
Anica: Thanks for having me on the blog, Carolee and Sara!
Anica: I stumbled into my first editorial assistant job (working for David Levithan at Scholastic) through pure dumb luck, but I have always been a reader, a storyteller, and obsessed with words. I started out editing mostly middle-grade novels and series, including Candy Apple Books and The Princess School (a series I’m still proud of!), then moved to Simon Pulse in 2007 to focus exclusively on YA. This job is amazing. I get to work with words, stories, characters, and ideas, and with smart, interesting, creative people.
Carolee: Sounds like a dream job. Tell us what you do at Simon Pulse and what distinguishes a book as a Simon Pulse title.
Anica: Simon Pulse is a hardcover and paperback imprint with a focus on commercial fiction that appeals directly to teen readers. Our books range from dark to light, voice-driven to high-concept, realistic to paranormal, contemporary to dystopian, verse to prose.
One of my favorite things about being an editor is the opportunity to nurture and develop the careers of debut novelists. Debut novels from my 2009 list included two-time RITA nominee Nothing Like You by Lauren Strasnick, Crash Into Me by Albert Borris, Pure by Terra Elan McVoy, Break by Hannah Moskowitz, The Hollow by Jessica Verday, Beautiful by Amy Reed, and Stupid Cupid by Rhonda Stapleton. Many of those authors already have second Pulse novels recently published or on the way. In 2010, look for debuts Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson, The Deathday Letter by Shaun David Hutchinson, Losing Faith by Denise Jaden, and Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales.
Carolee: You've said in the past that you like discovering new talent and new voices. What kind of new voices have caught your attention?
Anica: When I read submissions, I’m looking to fall head-over-heels in love. I am a sucker for quirky or dark humor, smart writing, compelling storytelling, and characters that I can’t get out of my head. My tastes tend toward the dark and edgy. I look for truth in character and stories that tap into universal emotions. My favorite kind of voice to encounter is one that could have only come from that writer, that character.
Carolee: What advice can you give to writers trying to create a unique voice for their work?
Anica: You shouldn’t try to create a unique voice, you should write the story the way you know how to write it. Be inspired by others’ work and the world around you, but tell me the story that you were meant to tell, and stay true to your characters. Voice should never feel forced. My advice is, keep at it. All aspects of good writing, voice included, require practice. Writing is hard work!
Carolee: You’re absolutely right. Writing is hard work. So is marketing. The internet has opened up many new vistas for marketing books. Simon Pulse recently created Pulse It, a website where teens can get early access to books, read them online, and write reviews. How is this helping to market new titles?
Anica: Pulse It (simonandschuster.com/pulseit) is an online community for teens ages 14 to 18 who love to read. It’s a great place for them to connect with each other (and sometimes with authors), talk about books they’ve loved or hated, hear about what’s now and what’s next in YA, give us their feedback, and get free access to fantastic new books. It’s also a great way for us to generate buzz for our books amongst a community of teen readers, many of whom are also bloggers.
Carolee: Authors are doing more and more of their own internet marketing. What advice would you give to authors wanting to create an "internet presence?"
Anica: Join the conversation! Blog, vlog, tweet, or join facebook, not just to spread the word about your own books, but to be part of the online community that’s talking about reading, writing, and the publishing world. The internet isn’t a place to market to readers, it’s a place to connect with readers, and like with successful face-to-face human interactions, those connections don’t happen through monologues.
Carolee: That’s good advice and an important distinction. Tell us about some of your favorite upcoming titles.
Anica: Am I allowed to talk about your book, Take Me There?
Carolee: Absolutely.
Anica: I can’t wait for readers to meet Dylan—I know they’re going to fall for him just as hard as I did. I still remember reading this manuscript for the first time, how I was pulled in and swept up by this sweet-hearted bad-boy’s story. It was July 2008, and I’d printed out the first 50 pages to read at home over the weekend. I emailed Sara that Monday morning to tell her I was kicking myself for not having printed out the whole thing. There’s just something about Dylan that made me want to keep reading and reading. Take Me There is sometimes sexy, sometimes sad, and always intense—a dark and surprising novel about a boy on the run who’s headed nowhere fast.
A few other favorites coming this fall:
Leila Sales’s Mostly Good Girls is a smart, wickedly funny novel about a girl navigating the cutthroat world of an all-girls prep school, trying to figure out how to talk to boys without choking on her own saliva, and attempting to set things right with her suddenly-distant best friend. Did I mention smart and funny?
Denise Jaden’s Losing Faith is a lyrical, emotionally intense debut about a teenager who encounters more questions than closure while mourning the death of her sister. There are some real twists and turns to this plot, and moments of unexpected humor throughout. It’s awesome.
Lauren Strasnick’s Her and Me and You has first love, broken friendships, heartache, and twincest. It’s moody and gut-wrenching, and if you’ve read Lauren’s first book, Nothing Like You, you already know that her writing is sparse, haunting, and lovely, and her dialogue is sharp and superb.
Carolee: Anica, thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with us here at the Crowe’s Nest.
Anica: Thanks for having me on the blog, Carolee and Sara!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Sara: a sad sort of ALA post, lacking photos.
When I assigned myself this blog date, I should have had the foresight to take photos at ALA, so that I could do an ALA wrap up post showing you, for instance, the unbelievably yummy gelato I had first with John Ford and then again with Kristen Tracy and Nina LaCour, and then again by myself on my way to the train station. I thought about adding drawings, but I am not an artist.
ALA started for me with Kristen's tour event at Books of Wonder in New York on Thursday night, and then I was lucky to ride to DC with all of the fabulous authors of the Disney-Hyperion UnRequired Reading tour including Kristen Friday AM. I should have taken video of them as they are a funny group and should consider sketch comedy. But there are lots of videos of them on the tour website, including Kristen's off limits tour of Alcatraz. Friday evening was the Morris dinner with Nina, where we ate amazingly good Italian food, and got to meet all of the other finalists and the winner, L.K. Madigan. Nina's signing was Saturday AM, and then Karen Kincy's was Saturday afternoon. Heidi Kling's signing was on Monday AM, and we were supposed to have breakfast first, but she was on CA time and did not want to eat. I was sad to miss a meal. I had lots of meals at ALA. I visited Busboys and Poets near the convention center 3 times- with Nina, Karen and then Holly Hoxter. And as I have said, lots of gelato. My overeating gelato was obviously a response to the heat.
I may not have shared pictures of the Courtney Love concert Sunday night as this is a children's books blog. Libby Koponen and I went to a thrift store on U Street on Sunday, because she was feeling a little unsure about her Newbery Banquet outfit (which I saw photos of later and which was gorgeous), except I did not go in, because I was just too hot to look at clothes, which is saying a lot. DC, you attempted to broil me, but you have made NYC summer seem like spring. August no longer frightens me.
Other highlights were meeting a librarian from my home town of Dedham, MA, and drinking a thing 1 at the Random House Dr. Seuss party, which was held at the Newseum. As a newish mom, I really do not get out much, and so having three nights out in a row, four counting the night at Kristen's event in NYC, is pretty much the most exciting thing that has happened to me for awhile. And I am still exhausted. But my first ALA annual was awesome, and I cannot wait to read the pile of arcs and books I collected.
ALA started for me with Kristen's tour event at Books of Wonder in New York on Thursday night, and then I was lucky to ride to DC with all of the fabulous authors of the Disney-Hyperion UnRequired Reading tour including Kristen Friday AM. I should have taken video of them as they are a funny group and should consider sketch comedy. But there are lots of videos of them on the tour website, including Kristen's off limits tour of Alcatraz. Friday evening was the Morris dinner with Nina, where we ate amazingly good Italian food, and got to meet all of the other finalists and the winner, L.K. Madigan. Nina's signing was Saturday AM, and then Karen Kincy's was Saturday afternoon. Heidi Kling's signing was on Monday AM, and we were supposed to have breakfast first, but she was on CA time and did not want to eat. I was sad to miss a meal. I had lots of meals at ALA. I visited Busboys and Poets near the convention center 3 times- with Nina, Karen and then Holly Hoxter. And as I have said, lots of gelato. My overeating gelato was obviously a response to the heat.
I may not have shared pictures of the Courtney Love concert Sunday night as this is a children's books blog. Libby Koponen and I went to a thrift store on U Street on Sunday, because she was feeling a little unsure about her Newbery Banquet outfit (which I saw photos of later and which was gorgeous), except I did not go in, because I was just too hot to look at clothes, which is saying a lot. DC, you attempted to broil me, but you have made NYC summer seem like spring. August no longer frightens me.
Other highlights were meeting a librarian from my home town of Dedham, MA, and drinking a thing 1 at the Random House Dr. Seuss party, which was held at the Newseum. As a newish mom, I really do not get out much, and so having three nights out in a row, four counting the night at Kristen's event in NYC, is pretty much the most exciting thing that has happened to me for awhile. And I am still exhausted. But my first ALA annual was awesome, and I cannot wait to read the pile of arcs and books I collected.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Jackie: Teaching YA Fiction in the Writing Workshop
I thought I would sit down and spend a leisurely few hours working on this post, but my three-year-old daughter painted herself—head to toe—with plum lipstick, in the process painting the bedding and her baby doll. It would be fun to adapt the age here to sixteen, and imagine a situation in which a teenage girl or boy does the same, but that would be food for another post…
Instead, I’m going to take the next hour talking about my experience, this past autumn, teaching my first graduate workshop in writing fiction for young adults. I teach in the Creative Writing Program at Texas Tech, where students can earn an MA or a PhD with an emphasis in fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. It was the first ever workshop in YA literature here at Texas Tech, and of the seven writers enrolled in the workshop, only two were truly conversant in the genre. So as part of the workshop, I built in a serious reading component that introduced writers to contemporary literary fiction for teens via Megan Frazer’s Secrets of Truth and Beauty, historical fiction via Lisa Klein’s Ophelia, and fantasy via Martine Leavitt’s Keturah and Lord Death. In the syllabus, I outlined the course objectives as follows:
The workshop is designed as a reading and writing-intensive introduction to the diverse genre known as young adult fiction with focus on contemporary and historical fiction that integrate literary archetypes (Ophelia and Hamlet, the Dashwood sisters from Sense and Sensibility) as well as fantasy. Though the fiction we write in the class will be aimed at young adults and will require writers to inhabit the consciousness of a teenager, an age driven by a host of issues (coming-of-age or “bildung” from the German Bildungsroman, exploration and risk taking, intense questioning and the challenge of authority, as well as breakdowns and breakthroughs), the workshop will focus on the key craft elements in writing character-driven, literary fiction: characterization, plotting (summary and exposition v. scene), dialogue, description, the creation of a dramatic arc in which the writing builds towards conflict and inevitably strives for a closure which is not necessarily resolution.
Because a good part of the workshop will be devoted to investigating the genre and cultivating a teenage voice, the workshop will certainly not discourage an ambitious writer to draft a novel during the semester. The workshop will require ambitious writers to produce three polished chapters of a contemporary novel and a synopsis alongside two polished chapters of a novel that integrates literary archetypes/myth and a second synopsis. These two chapters may be from a historical novel. (Writers interested in fantasy will be required to craft fiction that relegates fantasy to a secondary role, as in the examples of Libba Brays’ A Great and Terrible Beauty, Martine Leavitt’s Keturah and Lord Death, and Gabrielle Zevin’s Elsewhere. In other words, we won’t be writing fantasy novels. The fantastic may be an element of the story. In Elsewhere, the protagonist wakes up en route to the afterlife. In Beauty, the protagonist is a Victorian teen at an all girls boarding school who finds herself with otherworldly powers that lead her to another world.)
In my eight years of teaching creative writing at Texas Tech, I’ve learned to adjust my expectations, change my course, and essentially be open—essential components of my writer’s life. I therefore came to accept that one of the writers in the workshop was seriously invested in violence, profanity, and sex. He ultimately wrote more of a genre novel—a thriller/mystery—featuring a teenage runaway as the protagonist, a vigilante prone to violence and drinking who winds up winning the reader’s support because he fights on the right side in some college drug wars. So.
That said, this proved to be one of the most rewarding workshops I ever taught, in part because of the engagement of the writers and the intimate class size. Over the course of the semester, everyone chose to focus on writing 125-150 pages of a novel AND turning in a synopsis. Six of the novels were contemporary, and one was set in a sort of totalitarian New York City of the future (god forbid).
It would be impossible here to lay out 18 weeks worth of work, though I should emphasize the fact that after discussing the core values of YA fiction in each of the novels we read, we looked at the development of those core values in the evolving novels of every participant.
How, then, did I define YA fiction’s core values?
The protagonist is a teen. She is figuring out herself, her world, and questioning a lot. YA literature is an extension of the Bildungsroman, as in Great Expectations or any of Austen’s novels.
She is passionate: intense. Emotions are not lukewarm.
She is honest.
She is exploring and challenging boundaries.
She must experience crises and come through the other side.
Answers will never come from adults, at least not without the help of the teen herself.
An encapsulation of how YA literature works comes early on—at the close of Chapter 1—in Secrets of Truth and Beauty:
So everyone, Mr. Fitz included, wanted to see me do my presentation on being in a
pageant and getting fat? Was it really so fascinating? The thing was, if this could have
been an anonymous project, I actually did have something important and interesting
I might have explored. But it was too personal, and too messy, as real-life stories
tend to be.
It’s the last two sentences that contain the juicy essentials: something important and interesting I might have explored…too personal, and too messy…
YA literature is all about exploration, and it has to be messy: visceral: emotionally true. And the protagonist has to be someone the reader can get behind.
Getting behind the protagonist was the central problem for my student who wrote the vigilante novel. After all, who relates to a violent, distant main character? What humanized him was bringing in his history—his abusive childhood, his desire to protect his younger brother from his father—and the way that history proved relevant in his current behavior. And then there was one more thing: the writer made our vigilante a lover of superheroes. He actually wore a costume. And in the process, he became more vulnerable, as did the writer’s decision to make manifest his character’s struggle to connect with someone outside himself….
I hope this post generates some discussion from those currently teaching the genre of hoping to do so. As a last thing, I thought I’d share my first day’s assignment which I adapted from Victoria Hanley’s Wild Ink, a handbook on writing for teens, though it’s really only the introductory chapter that I found worthwhile. Hanley does a good job of contextualizing YA literature using broad brushstrokes, and she includes a dynamite assignment. Here’s how I adapted it:
ASSIGNMENT A: “WRITE A NOVEL FOR YOUNG ADULTS”—Okay, make this your header. Now step outside yourself. Pretend you’ve been given the assignment of getting “YOUR NAME HERE” to write a young adult novel. First you have to figure out what you have to work with. To begin, search the person’s mind and heart. What sort of mind and heart does X possess? Curious? Inventive? Fearful? Mistrusting? Persistent? Next, turn to the person’s experiences. List as many as you can. Nothing is ordinary or dull. (EX: A fabulous story-in-embryo could begin with a character whose part-time job involves working at a preschool. What if this person’s father left when he/she was 4? What kind of memories would the work bring back?) Now, jot down the skills the person has. And after that, put down the person’s dreams. And of course include his/her fears. Once you have all of this information gathered, ask what sort of author might this person be? How will his/her character traits, skills, interests, experiences, dreams & fears come together in a writing voice? *Let me stress again that as you do this exercise, really consider the person at the top of the page as if you were meeting him/her for the first time. And remember, an essential of writing for teens is to create characters they can relate to.
After you’ve completed Assignment A, turn to ASSIGNMENT B: FINDING YOUR INNER TEEN—The following questions are designed to help you mind material that will create the base rock for characters and plot in this semester’s writing:
What is your clearest memory of feeling alienated? Misunderstood? Betrayed?
What is the most unfair thing that ever happened to you? How did you react?
In what way did your upbringing seem utterly different from that of your peers (not necessarily your friends)?
When have you gone against peer pressure to follow what you believe?
How do you react to authority? Give 3-5 concrete examples. Is there a pattern here?
What has been your moment of greatest rebellion? How about your greatest dream of rebellion?
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken? What was the outcome?
Have you ever done something impulsive that had a long-lasting impact on your life?
Have you been disbelieved when you were speaking truthfully? Have you feared the truth so much that you lied (to yourself and/or to others)?
Has someone you loved lied to you about something that mattered?
What is the most traumatic historical event you have lived through? How close were you to the event? (Living a block from the World Trade Center v. watching it on TV in Texas v. watching it in Texas and knowing that your best friend was interning there…)
have you grown apart from a close friend? Was it gradual or sudden? Reasons?
Have you ever been so mortified you wished you could disappear?
What’s the most unconventional thing you’ve done? The most cruel? The most generous?
What’s the biggest mistake you ever made?
Have you ever been in a situation from which there seemed no escape? How did you handle it?
When was the loneliest time in your life? How did you deal with it?
When did you first fall in love? What happened?
Has someone important to you rejected you?
Have you ever lost total control or done something so wild you surprised / terrified yourself?
Have you ever laughed so hard you cried? Cried so hard you laughed?
Have you ever suddenly changed your appearance dramatically?
What has been your most euphoric moment? How did it change you?
What have you longed to do but never done?
What and whom would you die for?
What have you yearned to find but never found?
Now that you’ve finished answering the above questions, use what you’ve discovered to write 4-6 pages in a teen voice. These pages should be contemporary. Plan to read a section of these pages aloud at next class.
Instead, I’m going to take the next hour talking about my experience, this past autumn, teaching my first graduate workshop in writing fiction for young adults. I teach in the Creative Writing Program at Texas Tech, where students can earn an MA or a PhD with an emphasis in fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. It was the first ever workshop in YA literature here at Texas Tech, and of the seven writers enrolled in the workshop, only two were truly conversant in the genre. So as part of the workshop, I built in a serious reading component that introduced writers to contemporary literary fiction for teens via Megan Frazer’s Secrets of Truth and Beauty, historical fiction via Lisa Klein’s Ophelia, and fantasy via Martine Leavitt’s Keturah and Lord Death. In the syllabus, I outlined the course objectives as follows:
The workshop is designed as a reading and writing-intensive introduction to the diverse genre known as young adult fiction with focus on contemporary and historical fiction that integrate literary archetypes (Ophelia and Hamlet, the Dashwood sisters from Sense and Sensibility) as well as fantasy. Though the fiction we write in the class will be aimed at young adults and will require writers to inhabit the consciousness of a teenager, an age driven by a host of issues (coming-of-age or “bildung” from the German Bildungsroman, exploration and risk taking, intense questioning and the challenge of authority, as well as breakdowns and breakthroughs), the workshop will focus on the key craft elements in writing character-driven, literary fiction: characterization, plotting (summary and exposition v. scene), dialogue, description, the creation of a dramatic arc in which the writing builds towards conflict and inevitably strives for a closure which is not necessarily resolution.
Because a good part of the workshop will be devoted to investigating the genre and cultivating a teenage voice, the workshop will certainly not discourage an ambitious writer to draft a novel during the semester. The workshop will require ambitious writers to produce three polished chapters of a contemporary novel and a synopsis alongside two polished chapters of a novel that integrates literary archetypes/myth and a second synopsis. These two chapters may be from a historical novel. (Writers interested in fantasy will be required to craft fiction that relegates fantasy to a secondary role, as in the examples of Libba Brays’ A Great and Terrible Beauty, Martine Leavitt’s Keturah and Lord Death, and Gabrielle Zevin’s Elsewhere. In other words, we won’t be writing fantasy novels. The fantastic may be an element of the story. In Elsewhere, the protagonist wakes up en route to the afterlife. In Beauty, the protagonist is a Victorian teen at an all girls boarding school who finds herself with otherworldly powers that lead her to another world.)
In my eight years of teaching creative writing at Texas Tech, I’ve learned to adjust my expectations, change my course, and essentially be open—essential components of my writer’s life. I therefore came to accept that one of the writers in the workshop was seriously invested in violence, profanity, and sex. He ultimately wrote more of a genre novel—a thriller/mystery—featuring a teenage runaway as the protagonist, a vigilante prone to violence and drinking who winds up winning the reader’s support because he fights on the right side in some college drug wars. So.
That said, this proved to be one of the most rewarding workshops I ever taught, in part because of the engagement of the writers and the intimate class size. Over the course of the semester, everyone chose to focus on writing 125-150 pages of a novel AND turning in a synopsis. Six of the novels were contemporary, and one was set in a sort of totalitarian New York City of the future (god forbid).
It would be impossible here to lay out 18 weeks worth of work, though I should emphasize the fact that after discussing the core values of YA fiction in each of the novels we read, we looked at the development of those core values in the evolving novels of every participant.
How, then, did I define YA fiction’s core values?
The protagonist is a teen. She is figuring out herself, her world, and questioning a lot. YA literature is an extension of the Bildungsroman, as in Great Expectations or any of Austen’s novels.
She is passionate: intense. Emotions are not lukewarm.
She is honest.
She is exploring and challenging boundaries.
She must experience crises and come through the other side.
Answers will never come from adults, at least not without the help of the teen herself.
An encapsulation of how YA literature works comes early on—at the close of Chapter 1—in Secrets of Truth and Beauty:
So everyone, Mr. Fitz included, wanted to see me do my presentation on being in a
pageant and getting fat? Was it really so fascinating? The thing was, if this could have
been an anonymous project, I actually did have something important and interesting
I might have explored. But it was too personal, and too messy, as real-life stories
tend to be.
It’s the last two sentences that contain the juicy essentials: something important and interesting I might have explored…too personal, and too messy…
YA literature is all about exploration, and it has to be messy: visceral: emotionally true. And the protagonist has to be someone the reader can get behind.
Getting behind the protagonist was the central problem for my student who wrote the vigilante novel. After all, who relates to a violent, distant main character? What humanized him was bringing in his history—his abusive childhood, his desire to protect his younger brother from his father—and the way that history proved relevant in his current behavior. And then there was one more thing: the writer made our vigilante a lover of superheroes. He actually wore a costume. And in the process, he became more vulnerable, as did the writer’s decision to make manifest his character’s struggle to connect with someone outside himself….
I hope this post generates some discussion from those currently teaching the genre of hoping to do so. As a last thing, I thought I’d share my first day’s assignment which I adapted from Victoria Hanley’s Wild Ink, a handbook on writing for teens, though it’s really only the introductory chapter that I found worthwhile. Hanley does a good job of contextualizing YA literature using broad brushstrokes, and she includes a dynamite assignment. Here’s how I adapted it:
ASSIGNMENT A: “WRITE A NOVEL FOR YOUNG ADULTS”—Okay, make this your header. Now step outside yourself. Pretend you’ve been given the assignment of getting “YOUR NAME HERE” to write a young adult novel. First you have to figure out what you have to work with. To begin, search the person’s mind and heart. What sort of mind and heart does X possess? Curious? Inventive? Fearful? Mistrusting? Persistent? Next, turn to the person’s experiences. List as many as you can. Nothing is ordinary or dull. (EX: A fabulous story-in-embryo could begin with a character whose part-time job involves working at a preschool. What if this person’s father left when he/she was 4? What kind of memories would the work bring back?) Now, jot down the skills the person has. And after that, put down the person’s dreams. And of course include his/her fears. Once you have all of this information gathered, ask what sort of author might this person be? How will his/her character traits, skills, interests, experiences, dreams & fears come together in a writing voice? *Let me stress again that as you do this exercise, really consider the person at the top of the page as if you were meeting him/her for the first time. And remember, an essential of writing for teens is to create characters they can relate to.
After you’ve completed Assignment A, turn to ASSIGNMENT B: FINDING YOUR INNER TEEN—The following questions are designed to help you mind material that will create the base rock for characters and plot in this semester’s writing:
What is your clearest memory of feeling alienated? Misunderstood? Betrayed?
What is the most unfair thing that ever happened to you? How did you react?
In what way did your upbringing seem utterly different from that of your peers (not necessarily your friends)?
When have you gone against peer pressure to follow what you believe?
How do you react to authority? Give 3-5 concrete examples. Is there a pattern here?
What has been your moment of greatest rebellion? How about your greatest dream of rebellion?
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken? What was the outcome?
Have you ever done something impulsive that had a long-lasting impact on your life?
Have you been disbelieved when you were speaking truthfully? Have you feared the truth so much that you lied (to yourself and/or to others)?
Has someone you loved lied to you about something that mattered?
What is the most traumatic historical event you have lived through? How close were you to the event? (Living a block from the World Trade Center v. watching it on TV in Texas v. watching it in Texas and knowing that your best friend was interning there…)
have you grown apart from a close friend? Was it gradual or sudden? Reasons?
Have you ever been so mortified you wished you could disappear?
What’s the most unconventional thing you’ve done? The most cruel? The most generous?
What’s the biggest mistake you ever made?
Have you ever been in a situation from which there seemed no escape? How did you handle it?
When was the loneliest time in your life? How did you deal with it?
When did you first fall in love? What happened?
Has someone important to you rejected you?
Have you ever lost total control or done something so wild you surprised / terrified yourself?
Have you ever laughed so hard you cried? Cried so hard you laughed?
Have you ever suddenly changed your appearance dramatically?
What has been your most euphoric moment? How did it change you?
What have you longed to do but never done?
What and whom would you die for?
What have you yearned to find but never found?
Now that you’ve finished answering the above questions, use what you’ve discovered to write 4-6 pages in a teen voice. These pages should be contemporary. Plan to read a section of these pages aloud at next class.
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