Note to self: Stuff not to write

Here are some plots I've been reading a little too much of lately:

1. The angsty teen. This girl/guy is way messed up. He/she is in major self-destruct mode. This person is on drugs/ driving drunk/ flunking school/ suicidal or all of the above, messed up because they want to die. Death seems like a picnic compared to their life, which is filled with backstabbing friends, an abusive relationship, clueless teachers, and screwed-up parents. But wait, it gets worse. The real reason our hero hopes to meet death in a dark alley is because....

2. Teen thinks he/she is responsible for someone else's death. Yup, there was a terrible accident. Lost soul-type friend/ innocent little sibling/ perfect parent would still be alive if our hero hadn't failed to save the day. He/ she is guilty of Being in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time. Except, of course, it wasn't really our hero's fault. But since our hero doesn't have a time travel machine to go back and fix things, he/she is buried under a mountain of guilt, but puts on a brave face and rebuffs everyone who tries to break through said Brave Face. Everyone, that is, except for...

3. The tortured relationship that will eventually end in bliss. Hero and love interest meet, and ka-pow! They are struck by the amazing insight that Hot Girl/ Boy is, though perhaps a little quirky, awesome--unlike everyone else at Rich Snob High. But alas, the First Twist happens as Love Interest hugs another person! Oh, no, misunderstanding ensues! Fortunately, the Other Person ends up being a relative, like a sibling or cousin. Phew. Crisis averted. But then, Major Crisis time. One discovers a horrible secret in the other's past, and thinks this is the end of their relationship, because this means that Other Person is not as perfect as previously thought. "What? She's not perfect? She should have told me that. I seriously thought she walked a different plane than the rest of us mere mortals. Now, not only is she not perfect, she's a liar, too, for keeping this from me." This all leads up to the Great Reconciliation in which Love Goddess reveals that she actually had a noble reason for not revealing her secret. This restores her status to perfection and everyone lives happily ever after.

Coming to you, live and in stereotype

If you read as much as I do, you know who the stereotypes are when you meet them. You can identify them right away and you can usually figure out what they're going to do right from the beginning. "Look, here he is, the dumb jock. I bet he'll make stupid jokes for comic relief all through the novel until the very end when he realizes there's more to life than sports."
Here are some other stereotypes that annoy me.

1. The self-righteous religious conservative. photo source

You know the one. The gay-hating, intolerant, anti-evolution, and possibly racist crusader, this character doesn't see any other way except the right way, which just happens to be this character's way, too. The SRRC will fight to protect the status quo, because God's on their side, until (surprise, surprise!) their son/friend/cousin turns out to be a member of the very same group they've been hating on. Oops. Well, maybe that person isn't so bad. Maybe our Glenn Beck groupie has to rethink his or her chauvinist/anti-Muslim/gun rights stance after all.
2. The popular cheerleader.photo source

Yeah, I know, pick on the most obvious stereotype on the planet, right? Well, it's fun, so I'm going to. I think most writers these days have enough sense not to create this character, but maybe there are still a few bad cheerleader books out there.
She has to be blonde. Huge boobs. And for some reason, waving pompoms makes all the guys drool and all the girls stalk her at the mall to find out where she shops. Usually, she's such a ditz the author doesn't have to bother with much character development. She exists (1) purely to torment the main character and her friends or (2) to steal the MC's crush until the silly boy hits his head on her huge boobs and realizes (oops) brains are better than boobs and how could he not have noticed The Perfect Girl Right in Front of Him?
3. The nerd. (photo source)

He's a loner. He sits by himself at lunch, and when he goes home, his best friend is the computer. He doesn't have enough social skills to remember to remove the paper towel bits from his face after shaving (which he does at least once a month), but by golly, he has a heart of gold. Thank goodness for his understanding teacher who reaches out to him and saves him from his self-destructive tendencies, because otherwise, he might never have the sense to believe in himself or make new friends. But by the end of the novel, he applies his teacher's wisdom to his life and even gets a girlfriend. Cue cheering crowds of popular cheerleaders.

I can think of a few more, but I'm stopping for now. What stereotypes are your pet peeves?

Careful or I'll unleash my evil influence on you

Let's take this one as a given: No matter their religion, or non-religion, most people have a moral code they live by. Certain things are right, and certain things are wrong. There may be some exceptions, such as sociopaths, serial killers, my inherently evil sink full of dishes, and toddlers throwing tantrums, but for the most part, people believe there are good ways and bad ways behave. These morals vary across individuals, cultures, generations, etc.

Next question is, what influence does a writer have on a reader's beliefs and moral values? (I'm not going to even get into TV and movies here--they're a whole different animal). Can you change what someone else thinks or feels through your books? Has a book ever changed you? If so, what is your obligation as a writer? Even if your character is a hermit, your book still needs conflict. How are you going to treat this conflict? Here's another question: If your main character doesn't come from the same background as you, is he/she going to see moral dilemmas the same way?

As a reader, preachy books annoy me. I don't want the character telling me what's right.

As a writer, I've learned that you can't please everyone. Let's take the Twilight books, for example. It's been not so high on everyone's moral horse for different reasons. Some people hate them because they think vampires and other paranormal creatures are too much like witchcraft. Some don't like the sex. Others don't like Bella's abandoning her plans when she gets married and pregnant at a young age.

Some complaints about "questionable" books might sound like this:
"The author makes it okay that (insert evil action here)"
"The author makes the evil characters likeable/normal/sympathetic"
"The depiction of (evil action) is inappropriate for young readers"
"(Evil action) is glamorized"
"(Character who committed evil action) never faces the consequences for his/her actions"
"I can't believe someone who shares my culture/religion/politics/shoe size would write this way"

What it comes down to, either spoken or not, is the end of the sentence, which goes something like this "...so readers/young people learn that..." and you can fill in the appropriate (or not) blank as you please.

Is that what readers do? Do they automatically assume that whatever printed matter they read is true, valid, and should make up their moral code? How malleable are the minds of the people who pick up books, and should we care? If I write about how fun it is to vandalize buildings, am I partially responsible when some teenager reads my book and decides graffiti is her true life calling? If I put something less than ideal in my book, am I being realistic or immoral?

And as a reader, if I disagree with the morals in a novel, should I put it down, or do I have a (moral--ha ha!) obligation to keep an open mind and see the book through to the end?

I phrase these as questions because I don't have the answers. But I'd be interested to hear your opinions.

BTW, gentle sphere, sorry about the evil font issues on this post. Blogger is out to get me.

Drum roll, please!

August 24, 2010. I am so there.

Shannon Hale fans, now hear this!

If you are anywhere near as Shannon Hale obsessed as I am, you will know about her latest announcement. If you live in a Shannon Hale-deprived world, you need help.

Just kidding. Mostly.

I am way excited that she has finally announced her super-secret project, after keeping her true fans on edge, promising a big revelation. She delivered. Check out this link if you want to know more. And really, why wouldn't you?

Hope it works!

My friend Sydney (see link to her author blog on the right) lent me this book. I don't think the techniques in the book work for every child. But for "easily frustrated, chronically inflexible" children like L, I think it's worth a try. To sum up: There are three baskets you put your child's behavior in. Basket A is the stuff that you will not bend on, that you're willing to endure a temper tantrum for. Usually safety falls in this category. Basket B is the stuff you're willing to talk about, so you and your child can negotiate and both be happy. And Basket C is the stuff you're just going to forget about for awhile.

The premise of the book is that children who throw fits when things don't go their way aren't purposely trying to be manipulative, difficult, bratty, etc. Just as some children walk later than others, some children develop the ability to handle frustration later than others. They know their behavior is inappropriate, but they lack the skills to express what they need, so they end up yelling, kicking, crying, etc. Consequences (rewards and punishments) usually don't work for these children because they don't have the skills to figure out that if a consequence follows a behavior once (or even twenty times), the same consequence will follow in the future.

So a parent's job is to figure out (using Basket B behaviors) how to train the child to handle frustration. You have to intervene when the child is in "vapor lock" before meltdown starts. After meltdown, reasoning with the child is impossible. When you see the first stages of vapor lock, you have to get in there quickly by empathizing. Then you take them down still further with humor, distraction, etc. Then you talk about the behavior, encouraging them to find a happy medium you can both be happy with. "You don't want to go to the grocery store right now. You want to go to the toy store. How do you think we can find a solution?"

I just finished reading, so I haven't tried out many of the ideas yet. But when I have, it's hard! It's hard not to lose your temper, not to think you have to show them who's boss, not to think you can't let them say no to you in that tone of voice. But Dr. Greene maintains that if you follow his method, meltdowns will actually decrease because the child will not get frustrated so often, and you have better control over when meltdowns actually occur.

I think Dr. Greene is right about the consequence thing. It never has worked for L. He truly can't think at all when he gets to meltdown stage. L often tells me he loses control, or that his brain makes him do things his body doesn't want him to.

So I hope it works for us. I'll let you know.

YA trends

I've been thinking about something Sara Zarr mentioned at the conference I went to recently. She was talking about religious fiction because that's what some people in our group were writing. About 85% of teens say God is important in their lives, and that's huge. Of course, religious fiction has always been around, mostly as niche fiction that only highly religious teens would be interested in reading. As for mainstream religious fiction, though, there hasn't been much. When you consider how many teens believe in God, it's strange that this population has been underserved for so long. So religious fiction is going to be a huge trend in the upcoming years.
First of all, why isn't the religious fiction that's already out there selling? I think there are a couple of reasons.
One: Teens don't want to be preached at. If there's a moral an adult is trying to shove down their throats, teens will see through that. If they want preaching, there's church. I think teens are more interested in how a religious person lives. Not how to be moral, or religious, or faithful, or even to make good choices. I'm not saying there isn't a place for that. It's called church, and plenty of teens attend. But they don't want to go to church when they read. Teens just want to know how to live. And religion is a part of that.
Two: It's got to be good. Maybe authors are intimidated by the New York culture that the publishing world is immersed in. Maybe they're afraid it won't sell. But there isn't much of it out there, and so the pickin's are slim.
I don't know if other authors feel this way, but I steer clear mostly because I think it would be so hard to write it well. I mean, how intimidating is that? To put what you believe in into print for thousands of people to scrutinize? Even the genre sounds scary to me.
Three: Another reason I am afraid of religious fiction is this: It can't be cheesy. That's even more embarrassing than preaching. Warm fuzzies that make readers cringe. It's fiction, but on some level, it had better be real. For someone who grew up listening to preaching, it's hard to translate scripture into contemporary characters. In sermons and scripture, everything but the lesson to be learned drops away. They need to be accessible to everyone. Not that there aren't subtle layers of understanding, symbolism, great dialogue, action, etc. But complex characters and ambiguity? Not so much. They usually draw straight lines of the either-or variety, but fiction is seldom that way, and when you try to create gospel-style simplicity in fiction, it falls flat.

I don't mean that creating good religious fiction is impossible. I just think the challenges are different when you start bringing in religious themes, ideas, and characters. And I'm excited to see what the next few years of religious fiction will produce.

Five days later...

I met Shannon Hale! That's right, all you jealous SH readers, she actually spoke words and addressed them to me. We as-yet unpublished authors are so not worthy. And, of course, I didn't bring my camera. Time for a Homer-style Doh! But, check it out. An autograph. There's proof for ya.

I was similarly blessed by James Dashner, Wendy Toliver, and Janette Rallison (though she wasn't there, I got her autograph the same day by coincidence). My bookcase is starting to look like the signed collection of the rich and famous. Well, published authors, anyway, which is better.

What a great event it was! Twenty or so authors, all sharing nuggets o' wisdom for us mere mortals. So inspiring. The novels languishing on my computer are so happy I went (finish me! they say). It wasn't like the authors' advice was totally new to me. But it was so fun to get to know so many more authors, not to mention entertaining. (Now we all know the meaning of the word docent.) Seriously, so many published authors sitting together in one place! We're talking (besides the aforementioned autograph signers) Anne Bowen, Sara Zarr, Kristyn Crow, Rick Walton, Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson, Sydney Salter, and more. I could go on all day, gush, gush, gush. What's not to love?

Mormonism, Canadiana, and literature

I've been thinking about these three things lately, since they are all part of me. Here are two questions I haven't found an answer for: Can the great Mormon novel be written, and can the great Canadian novel be written (and don't be cute and tell me I'll write one or both)?

Some people, as in this column I read recently, think the great Mormon novel is impossible because Mormons are too involved with their own religion to write anything other than self-promotion. http://www.mormontimes.com/mormon_voices/jerry_johnston/?id=9119 I'm not sure about that. I don't think doubt is the only kind of conflict that can produce greatness. But certainly, Mormon greatness is lacking on the literary front.

I've noticed, however, that the same is true of Canadian literature. Oh, come now, Canadians, we know there is some really good stuff written by Canadians (I read some of it in my high school English class). There's no denying Margaret Atwood has talent, for example. But world class literature that can hold rank with Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Hemingway...we're still mostly working on it. And in the case of Canadiana, you don't have any prohibitions against indulging in evil or dabbling in doubt.

So, here are three reasons that both Mormons and Canadians lag behind in literature:

1. Small population
2. Short history
3. Self-consciousness

1. Small population. I'm going to be really crass here. If the Holocaust had happened to Mormons during WW2, it would have wiped them out a couple of times over. But thankfully, there were still millions of other Jews to tell the horrific tale to their children and grandchildren and make sure it never happens again. And to pass on their thousands-of-years-old heritage.
America has ten times as many people as Canada does. The numbers game means they not only have a statistically bigger talent pool, they also have more opportunities for publication and more of an audience to reach.
2. Short history. Face it. The Catholics have a few hundred years on the Mormons. This means they have not only a much larger literary tradition, but they also have a richer cultural tradition to draw from. So do the Jews, the Muslims, the Methodists...
Same with the Canadians. I think most of the American greats started to appear at the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th. They just had more time to develop their culture. Canadians are still trying to figure out who they are (not American! We know that much, right?). I'm not trying to invalidate anyone's culture here. I'm just saying the longer you've been around, the more of it you have. And all the arts are immersed in culture.
3. Self-consciousness. Part of being a smaller culture means finding your unique place in the world around you. When you are surrounded by a larger one that's been around a lot longer, that's a challenge--to not be intimidated by the culture around you, to not let it swallow you up, to not care what it thinks of you, and to not let it take over your own. I don't necessarily think that means you have to be hostile to the bigger one (memo to Canada: the United States honestly doesn't want to invade you). I just think you have to let your culture grow. And both Mormons and Canadians worry about what everyone else thinks of them so hard that sometimes they fail to see beyond it. It's understandable. They are both overlooked and trying to get noticed. But when you're looking in the mirror or over your shoulder all the time, it's hard to see straight ahead. It's a paradox: you're trying to get attention, so everyone ignores you.

So, the question remains: Can the great Mormon novel and the great Canadian novel ever be written? My answer is: sure, but it will take a while.

How to Shorten Your To-Do List

Larsen, Jo Ann. I'm a Day Late and a Dollar Short...and It's Okay! Shadow Mountain, 1991.

I bought this book a couple of years ago. I found it in a bargain bin, but it would have been worth it even if I'd paid full price (or double).

Here are just a few excellent sentences: "As you set priorities, delineate the amount of housework you'll do each day. As you know, there's never an end to housework--and for many women it's always there, intimidating, pushing, prodding, and indicting them. Because of this, you need to take charge of your time." (193)

"I can't anticipate or control the way other people make messes or move the pieces of my house. Nor is there always enough of me to go around. Nor can I always fix things or people the way I'd like. Nor should a clean house be entirely my responsibility--it should be our responsibility. Therefore I give myself the right not to have an ordere house in a disordered world. And the right to have other priorities besides my house." (188-9)

I think my favorite sentence is the last one. There are some people who could cook, clean, and do laundry all day and enjoy it (or so I hear). I'm not one of them. I don't want to spend my entire life taking care of my house. There is too much life to enjoy! So if you feel less than perfect because your house looks like people actually live there, take heart and read this book.

Top Five YA Books

Here are some of my favorite books and authors of young adult literature. We'll see if I can keep it down to just five. There are, of course, many other authors whose books I want to read and just haven't gotten to yet.
1. Laurie Halse Anderson. My three favorites of hers, Catalyst, Speak, and Wintergirls, are all the kind of books I love best. I like fantasy, I like historical fiction, and I like mysteries, but these kind of contemporary issue-driven first-person narratives are the kind of stuff that I just eat up. I love books that make me think, laugh, and cry.
2. Shannon Hale. I've enjoyed everything of hers I've read. I'd have to pick Princess Academy as my favorite because of one particular aspect--girl power! I love female protagonists who improve not just their own lives, but the lives of the people around them.
3. Cynthia Voigt. I loved the whole Tillerman cycle. I read them as a teenager, and I still think they are really good stuff. Dicey's Song and A Solitary Blue are her best, in my opinion.
4. Lois Lowry. I thought The Giver was just about as perfect as a novel could get. Gathering Blue was also really good.
5. J.K. Rowling. So everybody and their dog has read Harry Potter. Maybe those canines have good taste. I wouldn't say they are close to perfection, but I can't help but admire Rowling's ability to create an entire world and a culture around one skinny, bespectacled boy. And I can reread them when I'm sick.
6. Tim Wynne-Jones. I'm totally in awe at how he uses a single striking image (like a piano dangling from a helicopter in The Maestro) to create a novel.
7. Orson Scott Card. Ender's Game made my jaw hang open. The premise seems impossible, that a six-year-old boy is chosen to save the world, yet you believe it when you read it. There's some deep stuff in this one.

I can think of more, but I'll stop here. I have to work on my own masterpiece sometimes, too.

Here is a copy of my Amazon review:

The Hunt for Dark Infinity is just as exciting as its predecessor. It contains everything that James Dashner does best--unexpected plot twists, brain-teasing riddles, funny dialogue, and adventure. But, even better, this sequel makes the characters even more memorable than they were in the first book by developing them in surprising ways. I can't wait to read the third book.

Funny, funny book

If you have kids in school, they will love this book. I decided to read some Anne Bowen books since I'm interviewing her for an article (there's a link to her site on the right). What a great fringe benefit from writing articles. If your kids are convinced that their teachers live at school, wait until they find out what teachers really do there all night long! I laughed and laughed, and I'm a grown up! The illustrations are every bit as funny as the writing.

13th Reality

I just finished reading a really fun fantasy-type book. It was kind of Harry Potter-like. I've read a lot of really bad young adult fantasy since I started writing for the same age group, so it's fun to find something I enjoy. I didn't have to force myself to get through to the end. It's by James Dashner. His writing is hilarious--check out the link to his blog on the right. He's been successful enough to quit his job and write full-time. Not an easy thing to accomplish when you're a writer with a family to support.

Speaking of support, many thanks to my writer's group for your ideas and suggestions. There's just nothing like being around other people who know the biz (especially when they're more experienced than you). I have lots of work I want to do (and not enough me clones to get it all done). I hope I can be as successful as they are someday. They inspire me!