I thought this was a pretty interesting article about the things we thought were must-haves a few years ago that we now look at and go, WTF? Granted, some of these things are still pumping today so the total sh-itsplattering of the current economy hasn’t wiped away all of it yet.
Among my favorites is the Birkin Bag. I remember the absolute raving over this ridiculous thing. It’s the epitome of shallow, people. Remember that. And as sure a way to get jacked up and mugged as wearing a neon sandwich board begging for it.
Another one? Reality TV. I think this one is still exploding, what with vapid, brain oozing shows like Daisy of Love an
d Paris Hilton’s My New BFF but I don’t think any of these come even close to the soul-burning show, The Swan. You remember that? That was the TV show where they chose a bunch of butt fugly guys and girls, amped them up with various amounts of plastic surgery, hair dye and make-up (yeah, you might have gotten a clip or two of them on treadmills but let’s get real here, anything they needed to lose was surgically removed), parade them around in a fashion show only to tell most of them that they still weren’t good enough and send them home. You remember that? I wish I didn’t. Thankfully it didn’t last very long but that was seriously a WTF? moment in reality TV show shows. I’m sure that had people asking, “What devil did those producers sell their souls to?”
Another awesome one are those pool table-sized plasma TVs. Those things were not made to go in an eight by twelve living room. But tell that to Joe Schmo that’s sitting with his nose pressed up against it now. I know people like that. They complain money’s tight but they’re paying $100 a month for cable and are watching it on a screen as big as my bed. And somehow I’m supposed to feel sorry for their lack of funds? It just doesn’t make sense.
And let’s not forget deregulation! Yay! Thanks to deregulation my electric bills have doubled despite the fact that my energy consumption has been cut in half! Yay!
I’m sure in another four years we’ll be able to have another article just like this one. And then the next four years after that. And after that. And after that . . .
I heard back from the final beta yesterday (or was it the day before?) and she essentially reiterated the same thing another beta said about the pacing of my story. It’s moving too slow. Le damn. You know, one opinion I could justify away as just that, one opinion, and see my work as is. But the second one saying the exact same thing from a completely different person, I just can’t ignore that. It’d be wrong.
Thankfully, reading that beta’s email, I had a head thump of brilliance and instantly knew where to shift my story to start it and how to change it around so the poop really hits the fan in the first chapter instead of the second or third. Thank god. It was meant to be, I swear.
And it took me a while to really understand another of her comments, about getting out of Michael’s voice and toning down the snark. Initially I felt it couldn’t be done, unlimiting my limited third person POV. That would take it out of Michael’s voice and into one that doesn’t fit him. One beta already slapped my wrist for that and I’m whittling the stuff that doesn’t fit out now.
But considering I was done with work around 10:30 and sat around and did nothing all day, I spent a decent amount of time develing deeper into showing vs telling (something that’s hard for me to recognize in my own work) and voice. I looked up third person limited and really stewed over the definition, that it can be such a limited view that it’s almost first person or it can be not-so-limited and told from the character’s perspective but outside of his personality.
I really sat on that one and thought and thought and thought. And then it all came together, along with some other comments another beta gave me. She did a lot of marking in the places where I poked through the writing and deviated from Michael’s voice. She kept asking, “is this what a 15-year-old sounds like?” What she didn’t ask is, “Is this what Michael sounds like?” Lightning bolt to the brain, I tell you! It’s like the most beautiful epiphany ever.
I can’t deviate the story from the voice of a 15-year-old because the poor kid will sound schizophrenic if I do. But I can deviate from Michael’s voice. Remove his voice and he’s still a 15-year-old boy. I can tone down on the snark a little, keep Michael Michael but get other things out about the world from the point of view of a 15-year-old. It makes so much sense! If I keep the voice genuine to the age, as opposed to genuine to Michael all the time, I can say what needs to be said and not saturate the reader in snarkisms.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Tis awesome.
I’ve seen this on quite a few writing blogs over the last couple of weeks but I took this one from Isaac Espriu’s Place.
1. Where do you write?
In my bedroom, on my bed.
2. When do you write?
Usually at night, after 8 PM. Sometimes I’ll do it during the day but that’s kind of rare.
3. Planner or Pantser?
Pantser. I don’t plan stuff out until after I’ve written a first draft. Then I actually have to in order to line things up.
4. Coffee or tea?
Used to write? Neither. I like iced tea in the summer but I don’t drink it warm and I don’t drink coffee. I generally stay away from caffeine.
5. Pen and paper or computer?
Pen and paper. There’s isn’t much I can do directly on the screen without printing the work out. My brain doesn’t function that way.
6. What gets you in the writing mood?
Nothing in particular and everything that I see. I set specific time aside to write so I write whether I’m in the mood or not. Outside of that, the mood just strikes.
7. What pulls you out of the writing mood?
Being tired. It’s harder to write when I’m tired. Or if my brain is somewhere else and it’s distracting me and urging me to do something else. I have a tendency of bouncing back and forth between things when I write.
8. What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever read/heard/received?
Aim low. When you write, don’t aim to write like Stephen King or whomever. That’s like aiming to win the lottery the first time you ever buy a ticket. It’s a goal you probably won’t live up to so instead of aiming to write just like an author you idolize, aim to not write like an author you think is crap. Read something you don’t think is so great, say, “I can do that” and then do it. It’s much easier to get to the top of the stairs without falling down if you go one step at a time than four.
9. Got muse?
My ideas come from anywhere and everywhere. I’ve never had an instance of my muse not wanting to work or falling behind in her job. She’s always there when I need her, right at the opportune moments. She oftentimes leaves me to do the dirty work myself but the initial idea comes from her in all shapes and forms.
10. Who is the biggest supporter of your writing?
My friends and family, especially my parents. They haven’t read much of it but they know how hard I’m working to get it done and get it published so they’re there to cheer me on while I toil.
11. Sound or silence?
Silence. I’m too easily distracted by the TV or radio if I’m writing and I have a hard time splitting my brain between the two so it has to be one or the other. Or ear plugs.
It’s kind of pissing me off how much coverage Michael Jackson’s death is getting. While dropping dead seemingly out of nowhere is a pretty horrible thing, so is slowly dying of cancer over the past two and a half years. Hours after her death, Farrah Fawcett is delegated to a half inch by half inch picture on any given screen (at most) that’s been otherwise forfeited to the “King of Pop”’s untimely demise.
It’s amazing how high we hold people after they’re gone despite what they’ve done, or have been accused of doing, in their lives. Sure, Jackson had some great accomplishments but over the last, well, decade really, all he’s been known for is monstrous plastic surgery and pedophilia claims. A mighty king, isn’t he? And let’s not forget his shiesty swindle of The Beatles catalogue right out from under Paul McCartney’s nose back in the 80s. “It’s just business,” Jackson told McCartney, thoroughly screwing over his supposed friend.
So is all forgiven in death? Is he now all of a sudden worthy of seizing all manner of news, from all Clear Channel radio station doing tributes to him, to MSNBC’s headlines to all of the TV specials, despite all those child molestation accusations and constant mocking all those years? He’s all of a sudden some kind of music god? It seems like people are trying to make up for the mocking they did of the mockery Jackson became. Give me a break.
You know my first thought when I heard he’d died? “Way to steal the spotlight from Farrah, asshole.” Insensitive, I’m sure but where are all the tributes to Farrah? Where are her specials and her movie and TV movie marathons? Where are her public Charlie’s Angels spectacles? Maybe she should have touched a few little boys and mangled her face into putty in order to be so worthy in death.
Is Farrah not such an icon? Did not millions of boys have that famous red bathing suit poster hanging in their rooms back in the 70s? Is she not equally as iconic as Marilyn Monroe? So what the hell? Why does the accused pedophile that likes to sleep with little boys get a bigger farewell because he cranked out a few bestselling albums and Farrah all but disappears?
Come on, guys. Let’s remember every facet of Jackson’s life instead of blissfully forgetting all of the bad stuff and wailing about how amazing he was and what a shame he’s dead. Because you know 90% of those same people called him some form of pedophile back during those trials and mocked the shit out of the disgrace he’d become. And now they’re acting like a family member died.
How about we give Farrah her fair share of the spotlight too, huh? She’s not less deserving of it than Jackson. In fact, I think she’s more deserving. At least she was never accused of child molestation. But this gives hope to those future would-be baby touchers (well, alleged anyway), doesn’t it? All they have to do is crank out some good-selling albums and in their death, all, apparently, will be forgiven.
Pacing is a big thing in YA. The deal is, you have to hit the ground running, to be horribly cliche. You don’t have the luxury of exposition for the first hundred pages like you do in mainstream reading. Teens don’t want that. They don’t have the patience. But at the same time shit blowing up in the first sentence of the first chapter is a little disorienting. At least I think it is. So you have to strike the right balance of brief build-up and bang-go!
One of my betas, who gave me some wonderful advise and thank god because I’m seeing that crap all over my work. Let me just say my pages are very colorful right now and I’d highly recommend buying stock in glitter pens. But she also said, at page 16, that nothing was happening and I needed to advance the plot sooner otherwise I wouldn’t make it through a partial. Of that I’m afraid.
For those of you that have read my book, you have a better idea of what I’m talking about. The catalyst that causes the fairy shit to hit the fan happens in the first chapter and my MC comes face to face with it in the second. The build-up to cross worlds is a little gradual but once they’re there, it doesn’t stop. The book (at last count, anyway) is only around 55,000 words and it gets from point A to point B completely. I’m actually afraid of moving the plot any faster than what it already is.
And, of course, I look at other books and I notice their plot. I’m reading Lament by Maggie Stiefvater and I remember when I got to the halfway point thinking that not too much has happened yet. It did but it’s subtle stuff. A lot of alluding to things. I’m 30 pages from the end and the antagonist has yet to make an appearance except for an off-handed remark. I look that this book that’s filled with subtleties and a plot that’s more emotional than physical and I look at mine and I can’t help but go, “I have to move my plot faster?”
I see the voice issues (and there were voice issues, albeit minor ones). I kept poking through Michael’s voice so I’ve done a lot of rewording, expanding on a few things, I need to make Michael a little more unique. Mainly I want to make his room more than a bed and walls. I see the errors. I see everything that everyone’s pointed out to me. Except the pacing. I just can’t justify it to myself to push it any faster than what it’s already moving. I can’t justify it to my story. I just can’t.
It’s rare when a beta makes a very valid point that I don’t agree with it when it comes to my writing. Let me re-word that. It’s rare for me not to see the critique from a beta’s eyes when they comment on something like this. I usually can. I’m proud to say I’m very good at seeing my own flaws. It’s one of the most beneficial things for me as a writer. But I just can’t see this. Especially compared to other YAs that I’ve been reading. The puzzle pieces aren’t matching up.
I know it’s my own work and I take whatever criticism I feel is rendered for my work but I almost feel guilty. I don’t know why. The thing is, my book is like a roller coaster. To give you another horrible cliche. It’s a slow, gradual climb to the top but once you crest that hill, your cheeks will be flapping in the breeze until you come to the end. My beginnings have always been a little on the slow side. Always. It must be my style.
I found this on one of my fellow book bloggers’ site.
A – Age: 26 but I look about 18
B – Bed size: full, I’ll graduate to a queen when I move
C – Chore you hate: Dusting, and it shows
D – Dogs’ names: A MinPin named Malfoy, my mom’s dog is named Lynzee and she’s a Chinese Crested
E – Essential start to your day: Waking up usually does it
F – Favorite color: Vibrant green
G – Gold or Silver: Silver
H – Height: Just under 5′4″, I haven’t grown since I was 12
I – Instruments you play: I don’t, used to play clarinet in elementary school though
J – Job title: Assistant Underwriter (property and casualty wholesale insurance, don’t get too excited)
K – Kid(s): Make my uterus die . . . was that not the right answer?
L – Living arrangements: At home with my mom, but I’ll soon be in the market for a vacation home
N – Nicknames: Duck, Bugs, D, Don, Donaduche (pronounced like Bonaduche, don’t ask)
O – Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Not that I can remember
P – Pet Peeve: Stupidity and then said person blaming you for their idiocy, it makes my head hurt
Q – Quote from a movie: “It’s just the ocean air . . . “ Lucy, The Lost Boys
R – Right or left handed: Right handed but left-sided
S – Siblings: Nope, only child
T – Time you wake up: During the week, just before 6, on the weekend, around 8:30
U – Underwear: Don’t leave home without it
V – Vegetable you dislike: Brussel Sprouts, those things are just little balls of evil
W – Ways you run late: Hitting the snooze too many times, but I’m usually never late
X – X-rays: I’m surprised I’m not glowing with how many I’ve had
Y – Yummy food you make: Kick ass Sloppy Joe, macaroni and cheese (the real stuff)
Z – Zoo animals: Tigers although I’m morally opposed to zoos
By a landslide. I still have my homemade theme and the rustic one with the photos. I think I might rotate out every once in a while just for some variety (and I like the rustic one too much to just let it sit there) but for right now, this’ll be the main blog theme. I need to dress up the widgets a bit, update those. I’ll do that next weekend. But here it is!
