I HEART YA #17: Let's Talk About Passion

So, Suze Reese on her fun I <3 YA Blog Carnival has offered a new and interesting topic, and I'm not just saying that because it's based on my ramblings from last week.  As she put it:"Thanks to Cara M. for suggesting this week's topic. Cara pointed out that while 'a lot of people are very rah-rah about sex in YA...I doubt they would be so happy if an erotic romance subgenre started up.' I have to agree with that, though I'm sad to say I've seen hints of just such a subgenre."
I have to say, to some extent, I agree with Suze.  I like a clean read.  I like a book that if it says its going to be sci-fi or fantasy is actually sci-fi or fantasy, and isn't sex-sex-sex all the time.  It's actually why I read more children's and YA than I do adult, because I couldn't stand being hit over the head with sex all the time.  I didn't want there to even be the idea of sex in my books.  That's what turned me off of Tamora Pierce and Anne McCaffery when I was young, because I couldn't bear the onset of puberty narrative.  (Amusingly enough, I've gone back to Tamora Pierce and now I have a different point of view, which is that it's a rather boring narrative compared to the, say, fighting Spidrons option.  I also realized that while some people are horrified by the casual mention of the existence of birth control in a fantasy world, I was horrified by the casual mention of the idea that any of these characters I identified with might ever want to not use it.)  Then, of course, there was the dragons-mating which caused an overwhelming urge to couple in their human bonds in the Anne McCaffery books, which made me ill.
But I also know that when I was a little older, 13, 14, I wanted to read about sex.  I wanted the information.  And I ended up on the internet reading fanfiction.  Fanfiction is very informative, but it's also very diverse.  Things are well marked.  You can choose what you want to read and you're not going to be tricked.  Ratings and warnings are for the reader, so that they won't be shocked by what they find inside.
So honestly, I think I would prefer that there actually was a well marked (brown paper covered) erotic subgenre for YA.  I would much rather that than to set off into what ought to be an innocuous book and discover it halfway through when I wasn't prepared.  I doubt this will ever happen unless the publishing companies lose all grip on the market, but if they do, it's natural evolution.  And what I would really like is for these books to contain positive, safe, and healthy depictions of sex and sexuality, of a variety of types of sex and sexualities.  My real issue with 50 Shades of Grey is not its nature as fanfiction, nor its shoddy writing, but the fact that it is currently the most common exposure anyone has to D&S.  D&S as a political culture has one of the most healthy attitudes to sex anywhere, which is that it is all about planning and communication and safety.  That attitude is the one that needs to be shared, but right now only the titillation is being communicated.  
50 Shades is mostly known for being read by adults, but I don't doubt a lot of its original popularity came from YA readers.  When you're writing about sex for a YA audience I think the most important thing is to be honest, about the realities of it, about the dangers and the risks.  But that doesn't mean it can't be erotic.  If people can explore their sexualities through fiction it may make it less necessary to explore it physically right away, and being informed about the safe way to do things and about your own preferences and your responsibilities is always going to 

Pacing

What is Pacing and how do I fix it?

In nearly all of my WIPs at one point or other, or over the whole thing, readers have frowned and said the pacing was off.  But no one was able to explain how to fix it.  Changing scene length didn't work.  Shorter sentences didn't work.  What was to be done?

In my current critique group we read 3000 words or less at a time, and we meet every two weeks.  How are you supposed to keep up momentum with such small chunks over a two week interval?  I wondered.  But actually, doing that showed me exactly what was wrong with my pacing.  For me, pacing is simple.  Every scene, every 3000 word chunk, has to do two things.

1) It has to contain an event that is relevant to the plot.
2) It has to contain or continue the characters' plan for what happens next.

This is my formula for momentum.  It may not work for anyone else, but for me, one of my main problems is that I tend to write lovely scenes that dispense important information, and are inherently boring.  To keep my characters active and dynamic, I need to keep them actively thinking about the situation, let them make plans and take action, even though I know those plans will fail and their actions backfire.

Also, if nothing happens in the story for 3000 words, or if what happens is repetitive, doesn't offer something new, doesn't let something change, it's time to cut!

Road Trip Wednesday #125 Images and Imagination

This Week's Topic:

What images inspire/ represent your WIP or favorite book?

So actually, I did a post quite like this a couple of weeks ago, talking about how finding images to round out the feel of the characters actually changed the story. Here. To summarize:

But actually, I quite rarely use photos of actual people for my novels.  I don't want them to be that concretely defined.  I sketch and doodle, I make maps, I work up my own cover art.  I even have a thermos which has pen & ink drawings of my characters from one novel decorating it.

Interestingly enough, the books I can't have photos for are my fantasy stories.  The one I have photos for is Sci-Fi.  But I would love to  print the photos and use them as a reference for a sketch.  Pictures of real people often crush the possibilities you need to imagine.  It may be why I hate reading books with photo-covers.  Even a perfectly realistic painting is so much better.

WWW Wednedsay

So I've been busy...
What are you currently reading?

Peril

by Thomas H. Cook

Sara Labriola is a married woman haunted by the shattering secrets of her past—and terrified of the future. Tired of living in fear—and knowing that if she stays in her marriage she'll be killed—Sara decides to do the only thing she can: she makes herself disappear.

One afternoon, without telling a soul, she packs a single suitcase and leaves her life in Long Island behind....more

I'm reading this because I'm considering de-trunking a trilogy of Mafia novels that I started in college.  But one of the things I realized in the years since was that I was trying to write a thriller without ever having read a thriller.  I like it so far, but I'm surprised by how literary it is.  It's essentially a story of a bunch of very sad people doing terrible things because they don't know how not to do them.  But it's a beautiful exercise in character motivation.  And each time a character's POV is introduced, it's introduced at a pivotal moment - when the story starts for them.  The switching POVs and intense 1st person is very nice, and it's a lot like what I have in my files.  It's nice to know that it's a valid writing style for this sort of book.  I thought I had to pick a character and stick with her.  (Of course, when I was writing the first one, there was no way I could have handled multiple threads and switching POVs.  I was still a baby writer.  I'm pretty sure I've at least graduated into Elementary school now.)

What did you recently finish reading?

Cara M gave  to: Sea of Shadow (The Twelve Kingdoms, #1) by Fuyumi Ono
x Apr 05
Cara M gave  to: On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington, #1) by David Weber
Hornblower in space! Lots of weapons specs and delicate politics, and the brutal type of war that you get when you're in a tin can bobbing around in space, or in a hollow log bobbing about in the water. Tons of fun though.
x Apr 04
Cara M gave  to: Ramage (The Lord Ramage Novels, #1) by Dudley Pope
x Mar 25

I do love me some adventure novels, whether sci-fi or nautical, and if they are chock full of Horatio Hornblower references, that's even better.  :D

Sea of Shadow was a re-read, and it was as brilliant if not better than the last time I read it.  A member of my writing group was asking about exotic fantasy, and I thought of this, and then just had to read it again.  The translation, I think, values faithfulness over flow, but after you get used to it, it's not distracting at all.  Oddly, though I love Sea of Shadow, I've never been able to finish the next book, perhaps because I really could sympathize with Yoko, and the MC in the next book just isn't as interesting as she is.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Oh my, my pile of TBRs is towering and huge.  But whatever it is, it may not even come from that pile.  I suppose I will find out when I read it.

Road Trip Wednesday #123 Best Book of the Month!

In March I read 2 new books. (Plus many articles, some of which were quite good, but not relevant here.)
I read

Cara M gave  to: The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill (Goodreads Author) read in March, 2012

My rating: edit my review shelf: read

When I first started to read this book, just picking it up at the library, a chill crept down my spine. A book about a boy who feels ignored by his parents, sent to stay with his aunt, a skateboard, a crumbling old house, a parent who is split in tw...more and Cara M gave  to: Ramage (The Lord Ramage Novels, #1) by Dudley Pope My rating: edit my review shelf: read They were both interesting and fun and I enjoyed them quite a lot.  But in March I also reread a book. Cara M gave  to: Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge My rating: edit my review shelf: read

Have YOU read this book yet?  Have you?
Because this book is honestly wonderful.  And sure, it's an MG, but it's an MG that is a lot smarter than most adult literary fiction.  And it's funny and thrilling and exciting, as well as being smart and sharp and Spot On.

NB. There is no magic in this book.  There are unions and kings and geese and the printing press, but no magic.  Call it fantasy at your peril.  But it's not realism, historical, dystopian, or sci fi either.  It's not a genre.  It is just an excellent book.

I Heart YA #11: You Oughta Be In Pictures

So it's, uh, been a while.  Academic life is hard. *pouts*


Suze Reese on her I <3 YA blog tour has offered up the topic of Books being made into Movies.  I thought I'd put a little spin on it and toss it back and ask, Writers, what about your book being made into a movie?


To some extent there's always going to be a bit of a Hell Yeah! So that isn't interesting.  Instead - What do you think about fantasy casting?


For me, I always tried to keep myself pure of basing characters off of hearthrob actors.  It would pervert and cheapen the character! I thought.  (As a fanfiction writer, this is a little hypocritical.  Don't call me on it.)  So I flailed about, working on my own sketches of the character, trying to get something that felt right.


Then I started working on my Sci Fi novel (a W still very much IP) and I sketched out a few characters, who they were, how to set up the basic situation.


A quote:

"ok 4 philosophers/politicians2m/2fone is a ship's captain – female

one a plantation owner – male

he’s a philosopher.  One of his slaves is his lover.  He rationalizes slavery as a way to keep us all safe from lazy idle people.  He wants to free her and marry her, but he’s already married. 

one is a transplanted aristocrat – female 

and one is a former trader/explorer who is now a wealthy merchant – male"

(Yes, I am older than 12, even if my note taking skills do not support this claim.)


I started fleshing out these very basic descriptions, and suddenly, I had an image.
Transplanted Aristocrat:

Christa Miller

And then they kept coming.
Ship's Captain:

Lucy Lawless... as a blonde

And then my plantation owner:

Christina Cox in Blood Ties

Everything was right about that picture, the colors, the glasses.  Everything, except that suddenly my nice even gender split was thrown off, because my plantation owner was a woman, had to be a woman.  And the story just spun out of my fingers.


(Eventually I came up with this pic for my ex-trader/adventurer:)

NO JUDGING!

Essentially, what I got out of these pictures wasn't an actor and their particular physical make up or their usual expressions, or anything like that.  I got an image.  I got a sense of color and of attitude.  I found a concrete way into these characters that was repeatable.  Sometimes people can do it with a song that speaks to them in a particular way.  For this story it was images.


So how about you?  Do you use fantasy casting as a way to help along your creative process or does it hurt it?  Do you have any other methods?  Making mixes? Sketching pictures?  Let me know!

The Lucky 7 Meme!

Donelle Lacy from a Little Dversion tagged me in the Lucky 7 Meme.  And go and read hers, because it's totally intriguing and cool.

Here are my 7 lines, from the middle of my current WIP.

Deanna’s fingers twitched the edge of the blanket. She stared down at its patterns, as if they were a scrying bowl in which she could see her own past. “I had to beg to learn to fight,” she said. “I had to be the best at it. I had to prove that I deserved to learn, deserved to be my father’s heir. If I wasn't better than the boys, the best of the trainee guards, better than my cousin Garrick, I was useless.
“But all of you could fight. No one said you were just girls trying to do things you weren’t supposed to do. I had had to work so hard to just be allowed to pick up a sword and you all had it so easy. If I couldn’t beat you, just girls from a bunch of countries who had forgotten what war was like, what good was I? I had to win.”

And as a bonus, here's 7 lines from the 77th page of my last novel, (massive and ungainly, and on a querying break.)

Blaise looked at him and then down at his hand. “A gat-limb? What is that?”
“It’s a replacement.” Tom squeezed his arm. “This is a mine. Often people are injured, and with a replacement limb they can get back to work right away. I have one myself.” He bent and rolled up his pants. One skinny leg was lightly dusted with orange hair, but the other was bare and olive-toned. “The original was crushed in a cave in. But if you don’t work, well.” He glanced away down the tunnel, looking for the insects. “They need to get the gat-limbs from somewhere.”