Currently Reading: The Tale of Genji (Volume 1) by Murasaki Shikibu

Current Writing Project: Outlining, Questioning, Back to the Characters of Her Testament to Life

My NaNo 2008 has been causing me endless problems. When I first edited, the manuscript went from 60,000 words to 30,000 words. I never realized how much dribble I put in there until I started cutting it out. West Wing rants, talks about whether Kiwis really like being called Kiwis and if was really just a British attempt at making fun of those from New Zealand. Seriously, some days during that month I just wrote dribble.

It is my goal for that manuscript to see a literary agent before the year ends. 220 days left, according to the newspaper. I know I've mentioned it before, but a young adult novel should be about 65,000 words. And that's where my problem came.

I needed to add 35,000 words that wasn't drabble. I tried thinking of scenes but that wasn't linear and they ended up in a file named "Additions" that just sat and sat.

So I reached out to the friendly people at WriYe. I started asking questions - how do you define a scene? How do you make a proper timeline? Is a timeline a substitution for a plot outline? How in-depth do your character sketches need to be? Is it important to know things like if your Main Character (MC) likes oranges or is it more important to know they can't stand the sound of chewig?

As I got answers I realized that being a pantser (working without an outline) may work for my History Day papers and other school papers but it's not going to work with my novel.

And now, I've got to get back to the beginning. I need to re-examine what I have written, what questions are in my mind when reading it so I can answer them. I need to relearn every little detail about my characters so that when I'm writing about them, it's like they are an extension of myself, not something my mind is making up on the spot. In the end, I think it will make the book more consistant.

Here's to getting back to the beginning, almost like I had never written the novel before.

When you have to add significant wordage and don't know where or what needs to be added, what do you do?

Putting things into prospective I realized a few things this week.

There will always be better writers than me.
That does not mean I am a bad writer. -- It just means I have more to learn

I have written a novel. That is more than most can say.
I am proud of my novel. Even if Her Testament to Life never sees the light of a bookstore, I am proud of it.

I may never publish. And somehow, I think I'm okay with that. Because....

I have a huge amount of passion for the writing I do. I put my heart and soul into my writing.

Fan fiction is not a worthless pursuit because it teaches me how to build plot with characters I already know.

Sometimes you have to take a step back from your writing to see what is really important to you.

Writing will always be there - even if Real Life tells you it won't if you can't write x number of words every day.

I can learn and while I may be stubborn, I am willing to learn.

And while the publishing blues may hit me every once in awhile, just knowing I'm a writer who is proud of her own work, is an accomplishment in itself.

Opinions? What makes you feel accomplished?

As both a Young Adult writer and a high school student, I know what the other, published, authors are talking about. I understand the drama of a first love and the pressures of school work. However, I believe YA authors leave some parts out of their novels.

Finals: The stress of finals is something every high schooler has to deal with, and yet, is rarely mentioned in YA books. Why is that?

Prom: God, someone could write a book just on the prom drama llamas. This is another topic I don't see written about as much.

The cliches of high school: We, as high schoolers, are not trying to be cliched. We're just trying to be the best people we can be under the circumstances. Ask a freshman in my high school what popularity is and they'll say "having lots of friends." By the time they're a senior they'll say popularity is "over-rated."

Honestly, I wish sometimes a YA author would take the time to let their own high school experiences guide them. We still struggle with the same things - for example, my high school is known for its drinking and every year we lose someone to drunk driving (normally around graduation). We still worry about getting into college. And there's still loads of drama.

Two of my favorite authors, Laurie Halse Anderson and Sarah Dessen, focus on the teenage psyche. And they do a wonderful job. But there are parts still missing.

And if someone were to tell me this wasn't good fiction I woud have to remind them, "This is our lives. We're experiencing this drama and stress and life. So don't forget to put it in because you think it doesn't make good fiction." I want to see a teenager I can relate to in a YA book. And when they not only struggle with the aftermath of their rape (Speak or Just Listen for example) but with dates to prom or finals.

A favorite tweet of mine came across my screen today: "I'll be in plot surgery all afternoon."

It was an interesting comment which made me think of my own novel.

My NaNoWriMo 2008 novel has turned into a dragging project I never thought it would be. I never understood how much junk I wrote during a WriMo until I was editing that baby. I went from 65,000 words to a litte less than 30,000. A marketable novel for Young Adult, I've been told, is about 80,000.

So I knew I needed to add more to my novel. I started a new Open Office file called "Additions" and just started writing scenes, figuring I'd add them in later. Now, I'm realizing that isn't going to work. I am never going to get the extra 50K I need by doing that.

Therefore, I know I need to take the Twitter author's suggestion - have plot surgery. Realize where the gaping holes are and stitch them closed. Maybe then the vital organs will survive.

The book postings for my Intro to Creative Writing class are up. I've got to buy four books ranging in price from $10.00 to $35.75 in addition to the other books my other professors haven't announced.

Regardless of the fact I'm going to have to pay quite a pretty penny for my books to be without highlighting, I'm so excited.

I love textbooks that interest me. So sorry Mr. Newmeister, that doesn't mean I voluntarily read that Biology textbook.

And part of my obsession (healthy? I have no clue) with books is that I can't mark them up. I feel like I'm damaging something sacred. Even when I really needed to highlight things for my cultural anthropology class two years ago, I had issues. It didn't matter I wasn't going to keep the book. I thought that I was defacing a book.

So now, as a to-be college freshman I wonder - how does one get over this? Can you actually get over this feeling or do you just have to feel everytime you put the pen (or highlighter) to paper that you are damaging something precious, almost like a little soul?

It is prom season in the high school world. While the girls have had their dresses for months, suddenly it's a mad dash to get shoes, accessories, figure out how to do their hair and what color to paint both nails and toenails. And if we females weren't obsessed enough with appearance, there's the date aspect. It's enough to drive someone mad.

For all writers of YA who aren't a young adult themselves, take a look at prom. Ask a senior girl about prom planning and you could get half an hour on what she thinks, is feeling and is worried about. Prom introduces a whole new set of drama llamas into the household. For the girl seniors, this is the event they'll probably remember for the rest of their life (or want to forget) and they want everything to be perfect. Prom comes with the sudden realization that graduation is only three weeks away and then it's off into the real world (or something slightly like it - college).

It's a scary, fun and emotion-filled time.

So next time a YA author wants to make their novel realistic, talk to a girl about senior prom. Take those bouncing, struggling emotions. Take those drama llamas and drag them home to live with you while you write the novel.

Both the girl and the novel readers will appreciate you.

Sitting, freezing with a dead camera battery at a varsity soccer match tonight, I realized a few things about writing that also pertain to soccer (at least at my high school).

* The Crowds
While soccer is a popular sport to play at the high school level, it is not well-attended. At the soccer game I went to, it was all parents or siblings. Unlike football where people will weather 20 degree weather and sleet, nobody shows up for the bad weather during soccer season.
In the same way, writing can be a very lonely profession. Many people don't "get" writing or why you would want to make a career out of it. And when those sleeting days come, it gets even harder. Ever met someone who told you to just "write" when you had writer's block? Ever want to hit them over the head? (They may have a point but that's a different point for a different post.) Writing is spent not in collaboration but in the room with a locked door without anyone - including the cat or dog depending on your level of distraction tolerance.

* The Rules
Just when you think who the call was for in soccer, the ref changes it. Of course, the parents get outraged and the players want to talk back to the refs. There's lots of internal and external yelling.
The publishing world is like that. You think you know all the rules and they go and change them. Two spaces after a period? One? Courier or Times New Roman? E-query or SASE? And that isn't even getting into tenses, point of view or the nitty gritty writing aspects.

* The Exhaustion
High school soccer is two forty minute halves, FIFA World Cup is 60 minute halves. And soccer has very few substitutions leaving the players dead after a game. It's a game of endurance, to say the least.
Writing requires just as much endurance - if not more. But it's a different kind of endurance. You have to have the ability to get through a novel, a short story, a poem - to see it through until the end where it's either a well-edited piece for yourself or a published piece in some form. You have to be able to know that there can be times when you get ahead of yourself and then promptly run out of steam because of overwriting. Like any endurance athlete learns, you have to pace yourself.

* The Yellow (or Red) Cards
A yellow card is kind of like a warning for players. Two yellow cards and they're out. One red card and they're definitely out.
Writing has its own yellow and red cards. Maybe they come in the form of someone trusted saying a piece is unressurectable and you don't listen, ignoring their advice. That's a yellow card. The biggest offense for writers, at least in my opinion? There's two.
1) Sending queries that are badly written or sent to an inappropriate place (or both *cringe).
2) Not staying true to what your writing style is - while always knowing you can improve.

So maybe come this June when the FIFA World Cup comes on in South Africa, you'll see more than just soccer. Maybe you'll see your own little writing world.