Stats are Whack (and Wicked Helpful)

Once upon a time, I was discussing Miss Snitch with my dad, and I mentioned that two of the secondary male characters were dating each other. Now, I tend not to bring up my characters' personal business unless it's actually related to what they're doing, and in this case it was. But my dad's reaction was something along the lines of "Isn't that a bit much for YA?"

Me, I didn't think so. Because, near as I can tell, most teens have met LGBT people. There are LGBT people in the schools YA readers go to. Most teens are fans of LGBT celebrities. Some readers will be LGBT people. To boil this down: No, because LGBT people are a fact of life and thus are fit for books.

Once upon a time, in the fantastic play The Importance of Being Ernest by the utterly wonderful Oscar Wilde, "I don't know whether there is anything particularly exciting about the air in this particular part of Hertfordshire, but the number of engagements that go on seem to me to be considerably above the proper average that statistics have laid down for our guidance." This is very useful advice, even when one isn't trying to get engaged.

In life, the shadow (stats) move in response to the sun (people), but in fiction, if you want it to look like life, the the shadows of actual life need to tell us, as writers, where our suns should be pointing.

Hannah from Invincible Summer once posed the question: Why aren't there more characters like me?

This is a good question. Readers want to be able to recognize themselves in the books they read. But, if that's really going to happen, books have to reflect actual life with characters like actual people. That includes the statistical minorities. They exist in life, so why aren't they in the books?

I, for one, think sometimes I try so hard not to make every character in my book just like me that maybe I forget to make them like people. To include a little something for everyone. But it's definitely something I'm trying to work on. Because everyone reads books, so everyone should have someone to relate to in them. No one should be out there thinking, "Why aren't there characters like me?"

How do you feel about this? Do you let stats or your life experiences tell you how to make up your world? Do you have trouble finding characters like you?

Story Telling Ticks

I'm starting to think I have a story telling tick. Not a word I fall back on, not a sort of story I like to write, not a theme, just one character element that appears in everything I write. This thing: Mathletes.

Hear me out. In Miss Snitch, my MC was a Mathlete. In the script I wrote for my screenwriting class this summer, my MC was a Mathlete. In the story I'm outlining for NaNoWriMo, my MC -- and the Male Lead -- is a Mathlete. That's a lot of Mathletes.

To this, I can only say, what the cherry tomatoes? I was not a Mathlete in high school. Okay, I was a Mathlete in Junior High and for freshman year of High School, until I got bored being on a team where the only scores that counted were those of the Seniors in Honors Calculus. Plus I wasn't too good at maths. That might have been a problem too. Anyway, I was a thespian, not a Mathlete.

So why are there Mathletes all over everything I do? Seriously, if it's contemporary, they just show up. Is there an advertising sign in my brain, Only Math Geeks Need Apply? I'm starting to wonder.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing. I'm not saying it's a good thing. Near as I can tell, it's just the way my mind seems to work. I'm sure some day someone will be able to tell me what's going on in my messed up head to put math people all over everything like salt on french fries, but until that day, I'm going to be thinking a lot about math.

How about you? Is there any element that appears in your stories a lot? For no explicable reason? For a reason? What?

How Soon Is Too Soon?

On Wednesday, I gave into my compulsion and began revising my new ending to The Thief Book. Happy, happy, joy,joy. There's some serious changing going on, definitely cutting at least 2000 words, probably writing another 2000 or more. This'll be draft 3-ish. It'll be interesting.

A friend who Alpha read Draft 1 saw my revisions-in-progress and insisted I email her my newest work. I said, "Maybe after this draft." She prefers now. She's just got that sort of personality.

The part of me that wants to hear what someone else thinks would rather like me to send her draft 2.5. The part of me that knows that draft 2.5 contains bad dialogue, an unedited ending with lots of extra words, and a scene of ridiculous melodrama, say, "Mmm... I'm thinking no." I don't know just yet what side will win out.

This calls to mind for me a debate I had a few days ago with Captain Film Major about the writing process and, more specifically, early drafts.

It is my personal belief that a first draft is between a writer and maybe a trusted Alpha. However, I tend to let my first drafts only be scene by me. I like to keep my own schedule and let my own thoughts have a go first. Also, my first drafts tend to have unneeded scenes, excess prose, and poorly defined characters, because I'm often making things up as I go along and learning as I go.

Personally, I don't think the MS can defend itself against the criticism and critique of any other reader (who doesn't love it quite as much as I do) until it's in Draft 2 or 3 at least. Draft 1 is rough and no one needs to see that.

Captain Film Major endorsed getting another eye to look at one's work very soon in the process. In some ways, this view makes sense to me. When I worked on Miss Snitch, I gave the chapters to an Alpha as I wrote them. She could give me notes about the characters and plot arcs as they formed, which for that project I felt useful, since I was truly writing that one off the cuff and didn't always know if it all made sense. Sometimes, also, an Alpha can weigh in on plot and character and open a window for the story the author might not have seen before or notice a hole forming that the author is missing.

How do you feel about this issue? How long do you wait before showing your work to someone else? Does you time limit change with each project or are you always consistent?

In Other News...

So, all in all, this has been a pretty big week. (Actually, I'm talking about the first seven days of the year, but it could go either way and still be a big week.)

As you might remember, I finished my rough draft of Miss Snitch (thanks, everyone, for the congratulations. You guys rock), and now my rational side is keeping it away from my little editing fingers will a whip and a chair.

"Wait," says my rational mind. "It is better this way."

"Me wants it," the editing urge cries. (Yes, a large portion of my brain speaks like Smeagle. It also hisses when displeased and whimpers when sad. I guess that's not the side of me that writes.) "Give it to us."

Anyway, I'm resisting the urge to edit. Hey, yet another reason to clean -- distraction. I choose to take the fact that I don't want to put this down as a good sign. I still really like the story.

In reading news, I've so far kept my resolution of finishing a book a week. This past seven days (yes, I do weeks in a funny way), I finished Emma by Jane Austen. (Technically, that's two resolutions, so I'm get to do a dance of joy. Yay!) All in all, not my favorite of Ms. Austen's works; however, it did show some of the things that I believe make her work truly great. I think she shined most in the character of Mrs. Elton, one of the more antagonistic forces. Her use of little details to show that we aren't supposed to like this one are just brilliant.

Next book on the reading list: Burmese Days by George Orwell. We'll see how that goes.

I hope y'all are well. How's your New Year coming along so far?

I'm Done?

I'm done. At least, I think I am. I mean, I finished up the whole story and closed it all down. If I kept going at this point, it would be pretty stupid. So, I guess I'm done. With draft one at any rate.

Yep, I'm done with draft 1 of Miss Snitch.

But then why does it not feel like I'm done? I think it's because I don't really like my ending. I got the happy ending I wanted, but the summation felt a little bland to me. I'm waiting on my Alpha reader's thoughts, I guess, before I really think of closing this one down. I comfort myself by remembering that Chapter 18 can get overhauled in the revision process.

Still, a part of me is itching to get in there and start nibbling away at the revisions. I'm already excited for working on draft 2. It won't be easy. I already know there are going to be some big changes in this one's future (some major logic-fails need some fixing. oops). Must ... Resist ... Urge... To ... Edi t...

Well, for the moment, draft 1 of Miss Snitch is done, even if it is begging to become draft 2.

How Do You Get There From Here?

Okay, so, today's post doesn't have much to do with the previous three posts. I wish it did, because it would feel so awesome to have a sort of series feel going, but I'm moving on to another topic today. Actually, there was a transition between the two ideas, but I won't waste your time with it. (If your curious, the whole thought process started with Susan R. Mills.)

Today, I'd like to talk about transitions. While there are many types of transitions, I'm thinking, at the moment, mainly of those of time. A while ago, there was a very good post about this at the Literary Lab, which I highly recommend.

When it comes to passage of time, in my current WIP, at least, I seem to favor what Mr. Bailey calls the "Just do it" approach. I tend to have a scene break or a chapter break and then begin by explaining roughly how much time's passed and maybe mention if a few things changed the reader might incidentally care about before jumping right back into the action of the story.

This didn't strike me as a problem. I didn't see a need to kill time until the important and interesting things were occurring. I don't remember Trig homework being interesting to do in high school, and I don't think it'll be so fascinating when my MC does it for three pages when nothing else of interest is occurring in her life. I skip over those days when not much is happening. Concentrating out the useless bits. (I'm tying back to a previous post. This makes me oddly pleased. Anyway...)

One of my betas, however, didn't care for it. In her eyes, it seemed there ought to have been subplots or some other story arc occurring in that time instead of just skimming over it. I believe she means something along the lines of -- in Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone the Quidditch scenes might not be key to furthering the Voldemort (yes, I said the name) plot, but J.K. Rowling shouldn't have just cut them. They're interesting, can serve a good purpose later, and help pass time before Big Events. Without other details, by just skipping around, she says it feels like I'm just bouncing from Big Event to Big Event. She thinks I need more transitions.

Admittedly, there are a few leaps in Miss Snitch. One, I think, is a bit more than a fortnight long. I guess I can see how she'd feel that way. However, it's not in my nature to 'transition' so much, as it were. If feel like my readers get the point that time is passing without needing to see what's happening as it goes on, and I often worry that I'm wasting their time by including things I know don't go into furthering the plot, even if those things might be interesting.

How do you feel about transitions? Do you use them? How do you like to transition between Big Events?

A Sound in Silence

Yeah, there's been radio silence on my end for a while now. I meant for that to happen, but I'm starting to feel like a negligent bum letting the blog go down for more than a week.

So, to fill the void, some updates and musings. Sorry, this isn't a super-serious post, because I'm just that inadequate, but c'est la vie. Anywho...

I've broken 50k on Miss Snitch. Yep. I've made it all the way through my goal for the month. So, I guess I get to feel spiffy about that. ^_^ (I really wish emoticons here expressed more emotion, or just looked more like faces. Because sometimes, I'd like to give a little peak at my expression, and :D doesn't always seem to cut it.)

Anyway, I've got about 6k or so to go on this draft, I figure. But, then again, history has shown that I have exactly no skill at predetermining word counts, so we'll see how this one goes. But, that shouldn't take another lifetime.

In other news, I've determined that I need to shelve The Thief Book. Quite frankly, taking the time to get some space just showed me that while I knew what it would take to fix up the beginning and middle into decent shape, I still didn't know what to do to get myself happy with the ending. And, well, I'm not sure how I feel about sinking a month or more into a project I know I'm not going to be happy with. Maybe, one day, I'll figure out what ending I want, and then I'll revisit it. But, for the time being, it's on hold.

How about you guys? Any progress on the WIP front? How are the revisions and such coming? Any good news out there in the blogosphere?

Just a Kiss

The ever unique Girl With One Eye had the interesting idea for people to post a kiss scene from their one of their books for the 21st. Normally, I don't post excerpts but today, I though, "Well, why not? Just this once."

So, without further ado, an excerpt from Miss Snitch.
------


“Have I said Happy New Year yet?” I whispered.

“No, I don’t think you have,” he answered with a smile.

“Well, Happy New Year, then,” I told him. Inside, we could hear people counting down to midnight. Ten … Nine … Eight… Our eyes met, and suddenly all there was was him, me, the moon and stars, and the sound of oncoming midnight. Three… Two… One… Happy New Year! I smiled at him. I wanted to speak, but somehow my voice didn’t seem to work anymore.

I don’t know what I expected, except that as we stood there, I prayed he wouldn’t back away.

He didn’t. Instead, he leaned in closer. We were almost chest to chest. I could feel his breath hot on my cheeks. And then it happened.

He kissed me.

It wasn’t a long kiss. At least, I don’t think it was. It felt like it lasted days, but it probably only lasted a few seconds. It wasn’t impassioned either, and I doubt it looked anything like a kiss from a movie.

Still, it felt like the whole universe, the instant his lips touched mine, dissolved into the two of us, and suddenly I couldn’t feel the cold anymore or hear the sounds from the party inside. Somewhere, deep, in the farthest recesses of my mind, one thought occurred. ‘Wow.’

Chapter Fifteen

I'm kind of excited about how well Miss Snitch has been going so far. I'm in the middle of Chapter 15, and I can't wait for the second half of it. My MC is about to start really acting for herself, and it's going to be an interesting scene to write. I'm smiling just thinking about it.

Word Count So Far: 45k.
Words per day until deadline: 385

I must say, I'm not always sure how I feel about Chapter 16. I shook up the end of Chapter 15 when I worried that my MC wasn't taking an active enough role in her own life. But, I think I've got enough time left to muse on that a bit and still finish it up in time for my deadline.

Can I Get a Rating Over Here?

One thing I'm noticing as I work on Miss Snitch is that there's cussing in this book. This is a change for me. A lot of my previous stuff was swear-free, or at least, our-kind-of-swearing-free. I haven't changed the age group, just the setting. Though my other stuff has been YA as well, this is contemporary .

Now, at least 98% of the teens I know cuss a bit. Maybe they don't all do it loads -- though I know people who have used a cuss word in every verb tense you can name -- but teens pretty much all curse a little bit. So it makes sense to me that there'd be some swearing in the book. There's just more than I expected.

Oddly enough, the character doing the most of it is my MC. Most of my major characters in previous work didn't swear, usually because it wasn't appropriate. But teen girls these days swear sometimes, in their heads, even if not aloud. Maybe that's why I've so much cursing now, so much internal time. It's easier to cuss loads in your head, because people don't rag on that.

I'm careful with it. I try not to do any of it gratuitously, and for the most part it's all pretty moderate. There's no use of the dreaded f-word, but a certain word beginning with B makes numerous appearances in most of its parts of speech forms (noun, verbs, some adjective, though not adverbially, thankfully).

If it came down to it, I'm probably circling a PG-13 rating, though I couldn't find any more specific guidance on the interweb, dash it all. All I know is that I still have both my f-words left before I have to be an R.

Now I'm beginning to worry that it's just a bit too much. I know I curse too much, less than some but certainly more than I'd like to. And, I think, maybe it's that the swearing has become enough of my vocabulary so that it just doesn't sound weird to me.

How do you feel about swearing in books? How much is too much?

Me, Myself, and I

When I started working on Miss Snitch, I got about 100 words in before I decided that what I was doing wasn't going to work. What I usually do is 3rd person POV. It just felt too distant, too out of my MC's head. I needed to shift into 1st person.

I don't usually work in 1st person. Actually, this is the farthest I've ever gotten in something that wasn't 3rd person. I don't really know why I favor the 3rd person, since a lot of books I love have been 1st person stories. Maybe it's because I tend to see the stories I'm writing from the perspective of a observer, watching it play out instead of acting in it myself.

I think this has been a growing experience for me. It's certainly forcing me to rethink the way I narrate stories. I feel as though I use the word 'I' too much. If I were writing 'Jenny' instead, I know it wouldn't feel half so awkward.

I'm not sure I've got the handle on it yet, but I'm working on it.

What POV do you favor?

Any tips for working in 1st person?

NaNo Not For Me

Okay, I knew that Nano wasn't for me during the second week of the month when I decided to temporarily devote my heart, once again, to Mr. William Shakespeare. (Oh, William, how do I love thee. Let me count the ways.)

But that didn't mean to me that I had to give up working on my latest project, Miss Snitch. When I picked it up after the show, it just flowed. The words aren't flowing like rain water down a tree anymore, but I've been getting out about 1k a day since Sunday. This past week, I managed to go from 7.3K to 16.6K.

So I'm feeling pretty good. I feel like I might be able to hit 30K by the end of the month, which was my goal. I just need one or two more good bursts. But, thanks to the upcoming holidays, I should have the time for that.

So, how is everyone else's writing coming along? Will we all be meeting our November goals, regardless of what they were?

In/Out/In/Out

Right now, I am experiencing a quandary. My character, for my next scene, needs to think things and know things and realize things. There are also things I would like her to tell the readers so that the reader can remember them for later. However, I do not know what to have happen besides that.

When I work my scenes, I like to try to create a balance. There are internal things that much occur in every moment. However, I cannot let my characters spend the whole scene in their heads, or I fear that it gets boring for the reader. Also, a part of me feels that if nothing but the thinking occurs in the scene, the scene will read something along the lines of, "Okay, here's some info I want you to have. Could you just remember this, because I want to reference it later. 'Kay, thanks."

To balance it out, I like to have things going on around the characters of which they are aware. While sometimes having them just do something of minimal importance while they think suffices, and that can be done very well; however, this does not feel like the time for that. A niggling suspicion tells me that I have already done that, and I do not want to do that too many times. I want action that is also of importance to occur during this scene.

I just don't know what that action will be just yet. So, I am spending some time figuring out what my MC, Jenny, is doing while all of this is going on. Not sure how I'll figure it out. Maybe I'll throw a ball against the wall until the idea comes to me. (Hey, it works for House.)

How do you like to balance your scenes? Do you mind a lot of internal action or do you prefer the external?

Getting Notes

One thing I learned early on when I was asking people to read my work was that I can't be in the room when it's happening. It's one of those "I can't look at you when you're looking at me" things. It's just a very vulnerable moment.

But I sent my current WIP to my sister for a quick Alpha read, and I find myself laughing aloud at her notes. She's writing things in the margins the likes of which she'd say out loud to me while she were reading any book. And I like that. Because that's what people would be thinking when they read it.

My favorite so far: I said, "This had to look weirder than the sun turning blue." Her note, "Won't that happen right before it explodes?"

I love my sister.

I'd forgotten how much fun there can be in getting notes. I think I'm actually going to enjoy getting notes through this process.

How's the process going for you?

Wow!

I'm feeling totally crazy right now.

After a week of not writing anything at all, because of Romeo and Juliet, I sat down to my computer today planning to write about 1k or so. I ended up doing 3.5k. I even broke the 10k mark.

I don't know what happened. I just got on a roll and didn't want to stop. So, while I'm probably going to hate myself in the morning, right now I feel flipping fantastic. :D

What's in a Name?

Okay, I'm a name freak. I adore finding out what first names mean and layering that into my stories and characters. It makes me happy.

When it comes to surnames, I'm a bit less sure of myself. I don't know what they mean half so well -- I'm actually not even that fussed, so long as it doesn't have an obviously off one -- and I don't always know if they sound as good as I think they do. Or if I am using the name of someone I know. (Yes, I once accidentally created and killed off a character that turned out to be a girl from my English class.)

But while working on my current WIP, currently called Miss Snitch, I spur of the moment needed a surname for my character, and I hadn't thought of one yet, and the first name that came to mind was Chen. Not sure why, except that it's very common around where I am.

But Chen? What was I thinking? First of all, if my character's name is Jen Chen, I'll kill her myself. Why would I ever do that to someone? Second of all, she's not even Asian. She's a Caucasian, a brunette. Weird, I think so.

A second character needed a surname. The first name that came to mind: Lin. I know what you're thinking, what's with all the Asian names? Honestly, I don't know.

David Lin. Actually, I kind of like that for his name. I have no objection to the character being Asian, as long as he gets to keep having green eyes.

I think we can all see by now that I tend to pick surnames mostly at random for my characters, unless there's some sort of abiding theme I'm going for, like I did in the Thief Book when class indicated by name. While I'm sure Freud would have some interesting things to say about the name's I've chosen, I choose not to delve into that area of my mind. Who knows what I could find back there.

How do you go about picking surnames for your characters?