The explanation: Sometimes a sentence will pop into my head, detached from its story. Rather than let these driblets wither away, I figure posting them up as writing prompts may find them a good home. If it does bring you some inspiration, I’d love to hear about it.
Now for the prompt…
Together they jumped, sweaty palm in sweaty palm.
Action: Progress doesn’t happen without change. If we all sat around waiting for something to be adopted without first taking action, progress would never occur. Nothing great in this world ever happened because people decided to sit, twiddling their thumbs, because the necessary action was “too hard”. Nothing ever got written that way either.
There are werewolves, and vampires, and zombies, and ghosts, and other supernatural creatures, which may seem overplayed, but oh this book is tremendous fun. It’s filled with campy humor and wit without becoming over-the-top, it’s well-paced, and well-written with a fresh spin on some classic topics (i.e. coming of age, family secrets, even coping with death). In many ways it reminded me of Christopher Moore, only less explicit. A great read if you enjoy that sort of thing, and I do. Can’t wait to see what other sticky (or headless) situations the characters get themselves into.
Personal rating: 4/5 stars
Last month I declared that contemporary YA lit killed courtship and announced my planned deconstruction of a contemporary YA title. Now that the book has been officially released, I feel comfortable naming it.
The book in question (as if you didn’t guess by this post’s title) is Hourglass by Myra McEntire. I’ve read it and reviewed it, and after some back and forth with a friend, decided to deconstruct it.
I’m not singling this book out to be mean, in fact I found the writing to be quite competent, but because it’s the most recent title I’ve read that relied too heavily on the instant love conceit that’s become so prevalent in YA literature.
A hypothesis is that Twilight’s to blame. Unfortunately, Twilight doesn’t forgo courtship and while I may not agree with the health of that courtship or relationship dynamic, at least it consists of more than a passing glance, a giggle, and then a declaration of love.
Initially I planned to focus solely on the relationship between Emerson Cole, the main character in Hourglass, and “Jack”, the mysterious apparition that appears in her room from time to time, then her relationship with Michael Weaver, a consultant hired by Em’s brother to help her with her visions, and finally her relationship with Kaleb Ballard, a random love interest thrown in for drama.
But I’ve decided it would be best to take the book as a whole, focusing on the major themes as I come across them (such as how EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER is flawlessly beautiful). With each of the posts, I hope to learn how my own biases may influence my reading and writing, as well as ignite a conversation about the state of contemporary YA romance, and YA literature in general.
If you ever wondered whether an entire book could be written where nothing of import actually happens, then wonder no more: It can. But not necessarily can it be done well. I had high expectations for Trapped. You take a bunch of diverse characters and lock them in a room together for days on end with limited resources and see what happens. The possibilities are endless, but it seems several teens trapped by a freak snow storm in a high school only merits one fist fight and pissing in a can. (There was a death, but it was almost peripheral.) And the ending was the worst kind of cop out.
Personal rating: 2/5 stars
Beastly has a simple purpose: Update the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast. For the most part, it succeeded. As I read I couldn’t help thinking it reminded me of a grittier version of Disney’s animated feature (which is heavily modified from the original story). The prose was smooth, but not all that compelling and at times I got the impression the audience was being written down to. The cameos by other fairytale characters and authors was cute and the retooling of the plot worked even if it begged you to turn off your logic radar, so for the most part, I enjoyed it.
Personal rating: 3/5 stars
Sometimes (usually when I’m procrastinating) I’ll dig through my writing box. It’s basically a clear plastic bin where scraps of thoughts go to die (or miraculously grow into strong stories). Every so often I’ll run across some writing that recaptures my attention and sucks me into the world I created; it’s a process that usually ends in disappointment because I learn the hard way that I forewent the denouement. But in this particular case, I found a manuscript that I’d set aside to mature.
Although it had a beginning, middle, and end, I only thought of it as 97% finished–I couldn’t put my finger on why though. Now I think I’m a bit closer to that understanding. I stopped counting the number of times someone has offered up the advice: Don’t marry your words. What they cleverly forget to mention is that there’s a marriage license at every carriage return or new line. And with this particular manuscript, when I finished I thought, That scene in chapter X didn’t really serve a purpose, but it was so beautiful. Still, the fact was: The marriage wasn’t working out.
Removing that scene, however, would mean eliminating an entire character who I’ve grown to love. In fact, I feel somewhat guilty because it’s nothing this character did wrong–on the contrary, she lived up to every task I gave her with nary a complaint–it’s just that I shouldn’t have been giving her any tasks at all, at least not within this story. Ultimately she’s the one paying for my error in judgement.
All of that aside, I knew I still had work to do and that included chopping a few scenes, excising this character, and filling in a few blanks left by the sweeping edits. The key I found, at least for me personally, is constant reminders that removing a scene or character is not akin to murder. The character continues to exist and might even be ideal for another story when the occasion arises. That knowledge is where my courage to edit comes from.
(Not to mention that I always set aside the scenes and character dossiers from the sweeping alterations I make so they’re not really gone gone, just taking a hiatus.)
I hope when all is said and done, I can set that manuscript back into The Box and when I take it out again for another read, it will grip my attention fully and I won’t be left thinking something didn’t fit or that something else was missing. But I guess that’s all any writer can hope for, isn’t it?
A girl in the world who loves stripey knee socks and her cat. She also loves to read, write, draw, and a bunch of other things in between.
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