Quick Take on the Holiday Convergence

Happy Chinese New Year/ Valentine's Day from your friendly neighborhood writer!

How Old Is Too Old?

Age is such a funny thing. Some put so much stock in their age that it seems nearly everything revolves around the year, month, day and sometimes even hour of their birth, not to mention the phase of the moon, position of the sun, and alignment of the stars. To others, it’s just a number, yet another way of tracking time and nothing more. It’s all relative, after all. Too old to one person is too young to another. Some would give anything to be young again, while others can’t wait to hit certain landmark years. I know I was eager to hit my 21st birthday, but not so much for the 30th.

There’s one thing that the publishing industry can agree on, though – YA fiction has a specific age bracket attached to it, and if you want to publish in that genre, you’d better keep that in mind.

For the record, Young Adult is roughly the equivalent of 12-21. Wikipedia will tell you it’s 14-21, but while that may be the antiquated view of it, the truth as I understand it expands the category by a couple years. Kids today are much more sophisticated in terms of their growth and understanding, and if a kid is reading any books at all in this age of blockbuster movies and groundbreaking video games, he’s already ahead of the curve. When I hear stories of 13-year olds reading Shakespeare outside of their school’s required reading, I have to take that 14-21 designation with a grain of salt. Hence my 12-21 version, which I think is more accurate than the “official” version when you consider that the stories themselves feature main characters who are roughly the same age as the readers. After all, Harry Potter found out he was a wizard at age 11.

This, of course, brings me to my own books. In the first draft, my protagonist was 17 and in his final year of high school. Graduation was not far off for him, and beyond that, the College World. His friends were the same age, and some of them already had jobs to hold down. As originally written, the main characters were at the tail end of the Young Adult category, which didn’t leave them a lot of room to grow up with the readers.

I’ve since come to realize that this was a Big Mistake.

Like any performance art, you want to make an authentic connection with your audience to take them on an emotional journey through the story of your art. For me, this means making characters that my readers can identify with so they can experience vicariously everything that the characters go through. If I was writing a one-shot story, the 17-year old might fly, but not when I’m writing a series of books. If the character is going to grow and change and mature through the series, it would only make sense for the reader to be able to grow and change and mature with them, to solidify that connection with the audience.

In other words, it was time to strip a few years off their young lives. Mwa-hahahahaha!

Don’t worry, my characters are fine. They are, however, a few years younger. By putting their age closer to the early range of the Young Adult crowd (or, by my own classification, more toward the middle), it gives them a lot more room for growth – and, by extension, more room for the readers to develop with them on their own journeys. Whichever character you feel more of a kinship to, you can be right there to see how they grow into the world around them book after book. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll inspire you on the course of your own personal Hero’s Journey.

Quick Take on the Super Bowl

My hometown team, the New Orleans Saints, won the Super Bowl this past weekend! The final score was Saints 31, Colts 17, which makes me happy as all could be. When I was a kid, I had resigned myself to never seeing the Saints win a game. Now I live in a world where they're Super Bowl champions.

Let that be a lesson - hard work and determination (and maybe a little luck) pays off, big time.

As a consequence to my game-watching this weekend, my usual lengthy post will be somewhat delayed, but not overly much. It's coming, I swear it!

Let There Be Structure!

Now that I had my audience in mind, I was ready to go forth and reshape my story to fit the Young Adult Fiction mold.

This was no easy task, I’ll have you know. I wrote the first draft of my story with only a few characters in mind and an attitude of “Let’s see how they react when I throw this curveball at them” toward writing the tale. It made for fun storytelling, but my retooling of the narrative thus far had only reinforced the fact that I really didn’t have a solid framework to build my story upon. It was a beautiful example of stream of consciousness writing, but that’s all it was. Fixing this, of course, would have to be the first order of business.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to find this new structure all by myself.

Through Barbara, I was able to contact her own writing coach, the very gracious Claudette Sutherland. She read the mess that was my story at that point and helped me figure out what audience I was aiming for. Armed with that information, she put me in touch with someone who could better help me organize my story for a younger crowd, the talented and prolific Michael Scott. The two of us sat down with my modest story and proceeded to break it down to build it up bigger and better than ever.

This sounds like fun, but let me tell you, when you’ve poured so much time and energy into creating something, even the most constructive criticism feels like someone just ripped your puppy apart. The bottom dropped out of my stomach and it took all my effort not to sound defensive at every question directed at why I chose to do what I did with my little manuscript. Even then, I’m sure I looked just like I did when a bully in elementary school tore the arms off of my favorite Star Wars action figure. (Han Solo, for the record.)

All was not lost, however. To the contrary, Mr. Scott freed me from the crutches I’d used in my story so I could walk the road I wanted to travel with my story, a road that would be far more compelling to my readers than the trite journey it had been previously. While I had tossed around the idea of my story as modern-day mythology, he helped me truly focus on what sort of scope I was aiming for. I wasn’t writing for television, or even for a movie, where the size of the story is limited by time and budget constraints. This was a book about gods and mythology as they would be applied to the modern world, and it deserved the same grand scope as the earliest myths of gods and men. (Hm… “Of Gods and Men.” Future book title? I’ll keep that one in reserve.)

To this end, I was instructed to reread one of my favorite books, The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler, and really take a look at the mythic structure and how it can be applied to modern stories. I reviewed the outline of the Hero’s Journey and measured my story by it, changing huge swaths of my narrative to give it the proper feel. The end result, once I’m done writing it, will be an epic in nearly every aspect of the word – and for a hint of what you can expect in my trilogy, check the definition posted in the entry before this one.

I also went back and replotted the original story according to the Hero’s Journey, giving it some actual, honest-to-goodness structure by writing a chapter by chapter summary of the book, then proceeded to do the same with the newly envisioned Book Two and Book Three. It’s still a work in progress as some characters become more prominent and thus necessitate a retooling of the outline to compensate for their new role in the story, but there is now a definitive beginning, middle and end to the whole thing. And while you can enjoy the Hero’s Journey as it is in Book One, the entire trilogy acts as one massive Hero’s Journey for the main characters. Heck, there’s even a Dark Hero’s Journey in place for the antagonist…

There’s more to be said for changing my mess of a draft into a functioning outline for a young adult trilogy, but that’s a story for another time. At least now you’re all mostly caught up with where I am in the process of writing my grand narrative. Stay tuned, I’m just getting started!

Quick Take - Epic

From Merriam-Webster Online...

Main Entry: ep·ic
Pronunciation: \ˈe-pik\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin epicus, from Greek epikos, from epos word, speech, poem
Date: 1589

1: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of an epic
2a: extending beyond the usual or ordinary especially in size or scope
2b: heroic

In the Beginning...

Alright, I promised a blog about my development as a writer, and so far I’ve managed to neglect saying anything directly about my work in progress. No more! It’s time to lift the veil a bit and give you some insight into how I ended up writing a trilogy of young adult books.

As I’d mentioned back in my NaNoWriMo entry, it didn’t start out as a trilogy. It wasn’t even envisioned as a series. At its simplest, most innocent form, I was just working on a one-shot narrative that spun off from a small collection of short stories I was writing at the time. Sure, there was potential for follow-up stories, but my mind wasn’t at that stage yet. All I wanted to do was to tell a little tale to entertain people and show off my “mad writing skills.” I did just that – with every week of NaNoWriMo, I would bring it to the group that inspired my short stories, led by the remarkable Barbara Deutsch and populated mostly by actors, and let one of them read the Excerpt of the Week aloud.

Let me just say right now that if you literary aspirants ever find an opportunity to have your work read aloud by someone you trust, seize it with both hands. Get over your anxiety at having people see your work in progress and let them read it aloud as if to an audience. A successfully crafted narrative is one that flows smoothly, and the best test of this is to see if someone can cold read it without stumbling over the words and sentence structure. More than that, if you’re writing dialogue, you can hear if it sounds conversational or if your characters sound like textbooks. In addition, if you’re writing a story that incorporates humor, you can see and hear if someone gets it or not… depending on if your reader is part of your target audience, of course. (I, myself, am pleased to report that people responded very well to the humor in my first draft.)

By the end of the month, I had a first draft of a novel, but it only barely fit the criteria. I set to the task of reworking it, adding chapters to fill out the narrative, weeding out chapters that were redundant or otherwise added nothing to the story, and changing whatever was left to fit the new material so it would flow even smoother than before. In that time, the word count on my novel blossomed from barely over 50,000 to well over 65,000 words. Plot was tightened, the world was expanded upon, and the whole thing seemed much more cohesive. There was just one little problem.

I had no idea who exactly it was for.

Sure, I had an inkling that it would make for a fine young adult novel, but the tone and some of the material suggested that it might find a home on the sci-fi/fantasy shelf. The fact that I hadn’t decided on who it was for could be seen throughout my story, though, and it suffered greatly for it. I had to pick a genre, and that decision either way would mean a rewrite of my novel. After a great deal of consideration, I decided to bring it fully into the realm of young adult fiction. I’d always had a fondness for the genre, and the success of the Harry Potter book series (among others) showed that they weren’t just for kids. With a little retooling of the story and plot, I could make an awe-inspiring tale of wonder and magic that would sit proudly on the YA Fiction shelf.

I’ll delve into some of that retooling next week!

Writer's Block Disease

It happens to the best of us – writer’s block, the complete and total inability to make any sort of progress in our writing. This horrible affliction is like a debilitating disease, destroying your inspiration and eating away at your sanity until you’re left as nothing more than an empty husk of a writer. Fear and doubt start to creep into your every waking thought. Is there a finite amount of inspiration within you? Have you used it all up? Were you even a writer to begin with? Was this all some delusional state of believing you could write, or a dream that is slowly turning into a nightmare?

I’ve been diagnosed with this dreaded affliction more than a few times, and one case was so fatal, it took me years to recover. I felt adrift, abandoned by my muse to float lost and alone in a sea of despair, wondering if this dream of becoming a published writer was an unattainable fantasy. Depression ruled me and seeped into every aspect of my life, which affected my relationships to the people around me in unhealthy ways. I went from being a reclusive writer to simply a recluse, wearing my angst and drama like a thick cloak, wrapped tight enough to smother me.

Writer’s block is no fun, kids.

So how does one treat the Writer’s Block Disease? First, you’ll have to shut down the computer, step away from the keyboard, and get out. Go somewhere, anywhere, and do something. It could be as simple as going down to the corner store to pick up something to drink or as elaborate as taking a trip to see a place you’ve never been before. Go skiing, surfing, biking, hiking. Watch whatever blockbuster movie is in theaters, or take in a play. Buy a DVD or CD… or better yet, buy a book. Visit friends, walk through the park, or check out the latest roller derby bout. Whatever you do, you need to do it away from your writing.

To some, this advice will no doubt appear antithetical to what a writer is supposed to do. Writers write, right? Yes, but your writing will suffer if you don’t get out there and back up those words with life experience. Sure, you can try to use someone else’s experience to create a narrative, but borrowing from another’s life will not ring as true as if it came from your own hard-earned experience. Despite what some people think, writers aren’t fabricators of lies put to print, we take the truth and wrap it in fantasy and allegory. This truth must be personal, or your most vital connection to your readers will be lost. Make them feel what you feel. Live, love, lose, then come back to the word processor or notebook and get it all down.

What if you’ve stepped away from the computer, “lived and loved” and all that, and you still have writer’s block when you come back to the writing? At that point, I’d probably switch gears to something else that I’ve been meaning to work on and leave the other project on the mental backburner for a bit. Sometimes the brain just gets stuck on something and needs a new creative avenue to travel down. I go back and forth between my trilogy and other projects every so often, and even this blog lets me write freely so my subconscious can mull over the other projects I’m working on. If you’re not feeling it, don’t feel guilty for wanting to switch gears to something else. This may be just what you need to move around that mental block.

What if you’ve done all of the above, and you still can’t get any further on the project you want to work on? Well, all is not lost. Maybe you just need to sleep on it and let your dreams sort out how to get past your writer’s block. My ski instructor years ago taught me that the subconscious will help you learn and grow just as much as any class or instruction you might take. Maybe you need someone to bounce ideas off of, just to get them out of your head. Speaking aloud the problem you’re facing in your writing can sometimes trigger a breakthrough that you wouldn’t reach by internalizing the issue. Maybe your solution isn’t anything discussed here, but something you stumble across on your own. The creative process isn’t something you can codify, as much as other writers (myself included) might lead you to believe. What works for one of us won’t necessarily work for you. Sometimes we have to forge our own path as creators to discover what resonates best for us.

Do you have a preferred way to cure the writer’s block disease? Post it in the comment section and share them with your fellow writers!

Q&A Time, Part One

I was inspired to make a Q&A post after talking with one of my roomies. Specifically, we were talking about what question you would ask of your favorite writer, and the question posed was so out of left field that I stole it to use as a blog entry:

What do you do first thing in the morning?

My answer, it turns out, is somewhat conditional depending on what day it is. As I've stated before, I don't make a living off my writing just yet, so I wake up Monday through Friday knowing that I'll be trudging off to my day job. On those days, I generally wake up (grudgingly) to a warm shower and jump online for a handful of minutes before I make my morning commute to work. In the time I'm online, I generally make a habit of checking weather first (because SoCal isn't always sunny these days) before moving on to email, Facebook, and my favorite forums. Rarely will I make a reply at this hour, but I'll always check to see who's posted what. I'll even spare a moment to glance over the news items on my home page.

The exception to the above is Wednesday, when I generally have a chance to sleep in an extra hour before heading off to meet with my personal champion, BD, and our tight-knit group of creative minds. Without BD and her support, I may never have achieved the focus required to create the trilogy I'm currently working on.

Weekends, of course, are wildly varied depending on what happened the night before, but generally I sleep in (because I believe dreams are an important way of resolving any problems you may be facing with characters or plot) and wake to either a good book or some quality writing time with my laptop. And, of course, there's the requisite online time to check my usual morning sites, though I'm usually quicker to reply over the weekends.

And there you have it, my early morning routine... such as it is, since I'm very much not a morning person.

Do you have a question for me that you'd like answered here in my blog? Click on the comments link below and submit your query. Each question will be answered in its own post to the best of my ability. Be warned, though, I tend to be cryptic when it comes to the specific details of my trilogy. Gotta protect my property, you understand. That caveat aside, though, ask away!

Quick Take on the Harry Potter Series

These books are the best reason to get into Young Adult fiction, and the story of how they got written and published is incredibly inspiring to me.

Location, Location, Location

Whew, survived another holiday season! This time of year, to me, typically means more travel than usual, at least out of town if not out of state. I’m fortunate that my mother doesn’t live too far from my Los Angeles sanctum, but it’s still a sizable drive. The rest of my family is scattered to the four corners, which means braving airport security just so I can enjoy a nice plane ride filled with writing.

Earlier in my blog, I discussed being able to write anywhere to take advantage of odd writing moments throughout the day. In this entry, I thought I’d expand on that a little bit to discuss the traveling writer and some of the excellent opportunities to write that present themselves away from home.

Airlines are always encouraging their passengers to arrive in advance to check in, and in this day and age, it’s a good idea to show up well in advance of your flight just to make your way through the increasingly heightened airport security. As such, your writing opportunities begin before you even board the plane. Instead of counting the minutes until your flight starts boarding, try a word count to see how much you can get down before they start pre-boarding. This is actually a pretty good incentive to get to the airport on time for those who typically have “no time for writing.” What else are you going to do, browse the overpriced souvenir store?

The flight itself is the perfect opportunity to delve deep into your writing. You’re stuck in a cabin with nowhere else to go except the lavatory, there’s really no scenery to look at once you hit 30,000 feet (unless you really like cloud formations), and for the price of those airline headphones you could rent whatever in-flight movie they’re showing. They even provide you with your own mini-desk, and the flight attendants will fuel your creative juices with nearly any kind of drink you want. This is the perfect situation for a writer to be in – no one calling you on the phone, no chores that you remember you need to do, none of the usual distractions and excuses. It’s just you, your writing, and at least a good half-hour of writing time. And unlike the writer’s usual coffeehouse haunt, they’ll bring your drink to you on the plane.

Now, writing away from home can be tricky depending on where you’re staying and who you’re staying with. Family has a habit of taking priority if you’re visiting them for the holidays, and it’s considered rude to ignore your hosts if they’re letting you stay at their place. Fortunately, the same rules apply here that apply at home – you can write first thing in the morning or right before you go to bed. Time changes can help you out here, because everyone expects you to be jet-lagged after the flight, so it’s not unusual for you to wake up before everyone else if you’re going from East Coast to West Coast, or to stay up after everyone else has bedded down if you’re going from west to east. When I would visit family in Texas for the holidays, I’d still be wide awake after everyone else had succumbed to sleep, so I was able to get some nice, uninterrupted writing done without being disruptive or reclusive.

Of course, you might also get lucky and have a wonderful, understanding family like mine who supports your writing and wants to give you the opportunities you need to get in a little alone time for that story you’re working on. If this is the case, make sure to tell them at every opportunity how much you love them, because this is the greatest gift a writer could ever ask for around the holidays.

Jet lag can help you out here as well. People expect you to be tired after a long flight, so they don’t mind if you excuse yourself early to catch some “shut eye,” AKA writing time. Hey, if you can come up with excuses NOT TO write, surely you can come up with an excuse TO write. Right? Right. And if you’re visiting family that you’re not exactly keen on spending too much time with, this is a good way to get out of hearing Uncle Ned’s retelling of how he got kicked out of the Vatican for the millionth time.

As for the flight home, repeat the above section on airports and airplanes. Seriously, it’s some prime writing time, and you’d be a poor writer to pass up such an excellent opportunity dropped in your lap like that.

The traveling writer has a great deal of time to work on his craft while out and about, he just needs to seize it. (And I mean “his” in an all-encompassing sense, not to leave our lady writers out.) The trick is not to let a good opportunity pass you by, and to create those opportunities yourself if given half a chance. Trust me, your inner muse will be glad you did.