Testing the Boundaries: How Far is too Far?

In honor of Banned Books Week, I thought I'd do a little post about boundaries. I was raised in a pretty open-minded household. My parents didn't really care if the book I was reading at the time was full of swearing and racy, boundary-pushing moments. They were pretty confident I could handle whatever they threw at me, and they were totally right. But there are lot of parents out there that don't want their kids reading those sorts of books.

Does that mean I should hold back on the cussing/drugs/violence/sexual content in my writing?

It never stopped me. If you took a look at my manuscripts, you'd see right away that I'm not shy when it comes to "naughty" words. But the way I look at it, I write about teenagers and that's how most teenagers talk. My characters cuss and party because it's in-character for them to act that way.

This is basically where I stand on this issue:

If it feels natural for your character to be a foul-mouthed, womanizing, junkie, that's just what he needs to be. But don't give a character a foul-mouth or drug problem or whatever just because it seems like the edgy thing to do.

Do you think you can go too far when writing YA?

Hmm...personally, I think most YA readers are prepared for just about anything you could think to throw at them. As long as you're not going all out and thinking up the most grisly, violent, offensive scene ever written, you should be okay. Sure, there are going to be some parents and teachers who get a bee in their bonnet over your character's cussing/drug problem/promiscuity. But as long as you're being true to your story, who cares? You wrote the story you were passionate about, and that's all that matters.

What about MG?

Now, middle grade is a whole different story. While I believe kids that age are a little more mentally/emotionally prepared than most of us tend to give them credit for, I still think you need to be more careful when writing for them. An intermediate amount of violence with little-to-no cussing. Oh, and you probably don't want any sexual content in there at all. Maybe a really, really glossed over joke that they wouldn't get until a few years later would be okay.

What do you think of banning books?

I don't think any book should ever be banned. That sort of censorship, in my opinion, is just wrong. If you don't agree with the message/content, just put the book down and walk away from it. And if, for some reason, your child is reading a book for school you don't agree with, tell the teacher you'd prefer your child didn't read that particular book. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to hear you out. Don't go all crazy and start circulating a petition to get it banned.

Have you ever read something that offended you?

No. I've read plenty of books, and a few of them challenged my world views. But I can't say I've ever found anything in a book to be offensive. You've just got to remember that the author wasn't taking a shot at you with what s/he wrote. Don't take it personally, just enjoy the book.

HAPPY WRITING, LOVELIES!

[Go out and pick up a banned book today!]

Pushing Through The Headaches

Today, instead of a typical "here's my advice" post, I want to talk about my book(s) and all the junk I've been doing lately. Why? Because I can't think of anything to give advice on right now. Ehh...something will come to me later.

LIGHTS OUT
[New Title Pending]
I've been working pretty hard on cutting that word count down to size. I snatched out the first 50k and tried to condense it a little. I'm thinking I'll manage to shave off a good 10 or 15k. But even with all those words gone, I'll still have a lot of paring down to do. I'm trying to get rid of 20 or 30k. Yeah.
As you probably noticed, I'm working on a new title. And I also changed a handful of the characters names. Most of the super important characters are still the same, but I thought a few could stand a revamp. (Excuse that horrible pun.)
My mom is devastated about all of this. (Lol.) She doesn't want me to cut any of the words or change the title/characters' names. I'm pretty sure she's more emotionally devoted to this book than I am. Hah. Seriously, though. I think it's a little weird how indifferent I seem compared to her.
I actually used to get a little angry/annoyed/upset if I had to change something in my book. Here's a little fun fact for you--Ashton (Skye's brother) wasn't always called 'Ashton.' His original name? Jakob.
Yeah. Imagine my surprise when I found out Twilight had a Jacob. It kind of ticked me off because I'd spent nearly six months getting to know him as Jakob. But I knew it would probably be for the best if I changed it, and y'know what? I like calling him Ashton better.
It all worked out in the end, I suppose. :)

OPHELIA
This is actually sort of on hold for the moment while I finish tidying up Lights Out. I've really been itching to work on it again, though. I went back to working on Lights Out right around a pretty pivotal part of the story. Shit was about to get real. But I really wanted to finish working on Lights Out and get it off the table for a while.
I was pretty pleased with the direction is was going when I put it on the back burner. The only thing that was really bothering me was the beginning. I tend to suck at first draft beginnings, though. I end up reworking them, like, twenty times before I'm finally happy. But there's nothing wrong with that--trial and error. Anyway, the beginning. I feel like I dragged it out too long. Like I just need to cut it all and work the information in throughout the story. The beginning, as it stands, is just a whole lot of setup. And I like to stand behind "cut the setup, and get to the meat."
So, I'm probably going to get rid of all the "I was born, I grew up" stuff and sprinkle in background details throughout.

My List of Potential Projects:
-Inhuman-
Sequel to Lights Out. Not sure if this going to happen or not. I don't advocate starting a sequel before selling the first book.
-Cimberlyn's Bracelet-
Novella. Urban fantasy. I'm not going to say anything about the actual idea, or I'll spoil it, but I will say I'm pretty excited with it.
-Vengeful Deep-
Novel. Fantasy. Again, I don't want to say too much and throw out a spoiler. It's about a small fishing-sustained village whose fishermen have started dying mysteriously.
-Together-
Sequel to Ophelia. This book could stand on its own, so the "not before selling book one" rule doesn't apply.

HAPPY WRITING, LOVELIES!

Everyone Says It Differently

I had dinner with my mother and my grandmother the other day and at the end of the meal, we all basically said the same thing. "The meal was great." But what really interested me was how we each said it.

My grandmother said, "That was excellent. Just excellent."

My mother said, "Mm. I really enjoyed it."

And I said, "Ooh, yeah. That grub was killer."

So, why am I telling you all this? Because that's what you need to do as a writer! What? No--not have more dinners with your grandma! Jeez...

All your characters need to have their own way of saying things. Some characters would say, "half-dozen" where others would just say, "six."

You see what I'm getting at?

Yep. If you know me, you'll know I love dialogue. There's nothing better than dialogue done correctly. You can gather an endless amount of information about a character based on what they say.

But when dialogue is done badly, it can really kill a story. I don't care how good your narrative is--if your characters open their mouths and your reader yawns/rolls their eyes/skips it completely, you're done for.

--Things to avoid--

*Idle chit-chat.

No one wants to read about people talking about their breakfast or exchanging pleasantries. Cut to the meat of the conversation and let the rest go.

*Meaningless chit-chat.

Sort of like idle chit-chat, but a little different. These are conversations that lack any importance at all. They don't give the reader any new information, they don't advance the plot, they don't develop a character. They're just useless. Don't write a conversation for the sake of writing one. It needs to be important.

*Everyone-Sounds-The-Same Syndrome.

Like I said earlier, every character needs their own way of saying things. No two characters should ever sound exactly alike. If you can take everything one character says and copy and paste another character's name on it, there's something wrong.

*Everyone speaks in complete sentences and uses perfect English.

Yeah, this is a big no-no. As writers, you'd think having the English language completely mastered is a good thing. And it is. But people don't speak in complete sentences and use absolutely perfect English all the time. When it comes to dialogue, you're supposed to make things realistic.

*It's getting a little too realistic now.

Yes, I just told you to be realistic, but hear me out. When real people talk, they pause a lot. They "uh..." and "err..." and go off in all kinds of directions. If you transcribed an actual conversation, you'd see what I mean. And reading that would wear a reader out. Hell, I'd be surprised if it didn't tick them off a little. I know I'd stop reading.

So, basically, all you've got to do is make sure everything the characters say is important while also being unique to the character, but while also staying realistic, but not too realistic. Eek.

Aw, don't worry. It's not really as hard as it sounds. It just takes a little time and practice, and you'll be writing great dialogue.

My suggestions for getting better?

Well, in short, read a lot. I wrote horrible dialogue until I started avidly reading and saw how to do it well. And maybe do a little eavesdropping around the mall to get a feel for "real people speak."

For more about writing dialogue, click here.

HAPPY WRITING, LOVELIES!

All These Contradictions Hurt My Head

I was reading Nathan Bransford's post about contradictory query advice, and got to thinking about all the writing advice I've seen over the years that contradicted another piece of advice. There's a lot of it out there. I've read blogs that say, "Write something you feel comfortable with" and I've read blogs that say, "Write something that puts you on the edge of your seat."

I imagine that makes a lot of new writers curl up in the corner and cry, "What do I dooooooo?!" (That wasn't just me, right?)

So, I'm sure the big question on everyone's mind is:

With so many conflicting opinions floating around, who do I listen to?

Well, lovelies, let me start off by saying, writers, agents, and all the like have these "advice blogs" to help our fellow writers.

We're not saying (I'm not anyway, I can't speak for everyone) that what we say is the only way--it's just the way we do it. With writing, there are some gray areas where it's all about personal preference. For instance, a lot of writers say in their blogs not to read over what you've already written. Just keep writing and save all that for editing.

Well, I can't do that. If I did that I'd be writing the same jokes over and over again, forgetting that I'd already used them. (Bad short-term memory for the lose.) I have to read over what I wrote the night before to refresh my memory. But lots of writers don't have to.

If you find a piece of contradictory advice, don't freak out.

First, consider the source. Is this advice recent or was it typed up five years ago?

Okay, it's recent, now see if it's true.

I'm not saying people handing out this advice are flat-out lying, but they could be mistaken. Once, I saw a "format" for queries that involved a three paragraph system. First paragraph: About how you found the agent/publisher. Second paragraph: About your book. Third paragraph: About yourself. No, no, no! NO! Take a look at Query Shark if you're in doubt.

Finally, after making sure the advice is recent and real, ask yourself "Will this work for me?"

There are some rules out there that you have to follow, but you can bend most of them a little. Getting too caught up in following rules can suck the life out of your writing.

Just relax and write.

HAPPY WRITING, LOVELIES!

Purple is the Enemy

He stretches out in the lush, green grass. His eyes sparkle in the golden sunlight like beautiful blue gemstones. A soft breeze brushes over the dips in the huge, rolling valley, kissing my cheeks and kicking my hair off my thin shoulders. The hills here are breathtaking in the springtime, like a never ending sea of the most astounding emerald water you'd ever see. He reaches a strong hand toward me, flashing a glittering, straight, white smile as his clean, off-gray sleeve waves in the wind.

"Don't be so uptight," he coos, his voice soothing and melodic in my ears. "Lay down."

"I couldn't possibly," I reply, turning away to hide the blush burning like fire on my cheeks. My knee-length turquoise sundress, with it's slightly tacky, but still endearing flower pattern, flutters against my legs like a graceful----

Okay, I'm gonna stop now. I can't keep writing like that.

Please tell me you see what's wrong with all that. Please.

It's PURPLE.

And no, I'm not referring to the color of the font. The writing itself is purple.

Now, if you've ever seen my blog, you can probably tell I'm a fan of the color purple. But purple prose is horrible. If you don't understand why, go back up to the top and read that crap I wrote again. Yeah. It's exhausting and awkward and...just ugh. The writing pipes are clogged with details. Overly flowery, overwritten details.

If you actually thought that snippet up top was good writing, please step away from the keyboard and douse yourself in ice water. Then you're welcome to come back.

So, how do you know if you've crossed the line into purple territory? It's actually not that hard to tell if you have. Do you get a headache reading it? If yes, you probably have purple writing.

On a serious note though, you're officially purple if:

-You use more than two adjectives in your descriptions.

Believe me when I say you only need one. Hell, you might not even need that. But if you really, really feel the need to use more, limit yourself to TWO. Any more than that and you've crossed the line.

-You describe every seam in the MC's clothes.

There's a very thin line between details and inconsequential crap. Weighing your reader down with a million unnecessary details is going to bore them half to death.

-Your writing is so flowery, it got a blue ribbon at the National Gardener's Convention.

For the love of all things good and pure, don't write things so flowery I've got to get my hedge clippers to see the actual story. I don't need a two paragraph info dump describing the love interest's eyes/hair/body/ANYTHING!

-You just wrote two whole pages and nothing really happened.

To quote the QueryShark, pare it down! Pare it down! Pare it down! If something important isn't happening, you don't need it. Though, this isn't really a sure sign that what you've written is purple, it does tell me it's unneeded. Throw it out. It's just weighing you down.

HAPPY WRITING, LOVELIES!

Typos--Killers of Moments

I've said it before and I'll say it again:
REVISION IS IMPORTANT!

Recently, I was reading an amazing book. I was flipping the pages so fast I've gotta wear a wrist brace for the next few months. After only fifteen consecutive hours of reading, I was at the end of the climax scene. A massive fire burned. Smoke and ash churned into the sky. The MC stood there, basking in the orange glow, his tattered clothes blowing in the breeze.

But, suddenly, a typo flew out of left field and ripped me out of the moment.

I hate it when that happens. I don't know about you guys, but typos ruin moments for me. Especially if it's supposed to be dramatic.

I found numerous typos in the book I was reading before the epic one I was just talking about. And that book wasn't nearly as good, so the typos only made it harder to finish. Every time I found a misspelled word, I wanted to put the book down and walk away forever, certain I'd be content never knowing the fate of that particular protagonist.

Typos are bad for business. They jolt the reader out of the story.

Imagine it with me: Your book is published. You've got a copy of it in your hands right now. It's amazing. But when you open it and glance it over, you spot a typo!

OH NO! Spirit has officially been crushed!

You've got to go over your manuscript with a fine-toothed comb and look for every typo. EVERY typo.

My suggestion?

Read your work out loud to yourself. This method usually works for me. I can read a sentence five times in my head, but I'll miss the typo (no matter how obvious it is) until I read it out loud. This is also a good place to use your friends/family for help. They're no good when it comes to honest critiques, but they're great for keeping an eye out for rogue typos.

Remember: Revision is serious business.

HAPPY WRITING, LOVELIES!