Trying Not to Empty the Well of My Writing

A few months ago I mentioned that I was working on a super in detail crazy outline. Well, the update is that I've finished that outline (25,000 words!) and I've now started working on complete draft number three.

My outline is crazy detailed, and really I've given myself EVERYTHING that I need to pretty much just write this draft until I'm done (if I could go without sleep for about a week...). Yet I'm STILL "getting stuck."

Where do I get stuck? Well, before I begin. There are so many times when I cannot bring myself to start writing because my thoughts are along the lines of but I don't know where it's going... I don't know what should happen...

If you saw my outline, you would realize that those are really lame excuses. I know what is going to happen!! I just have to write it!!

A few days ago I figured out my problem. I'm one of those people that likes to get things done, so naturally I like writing to the end of the scene because I feel like I've accomplished something. If I leave a scene half written, I feel like that's one thing I can't cross off my to do list.

However, starting with a new scene every time is hard! Awhile ago I read some writing advice that said you should stop when you're on a roll - even in the middle of a sentence. Heck, ESPECIALLY in the middle of a sentence.

I'm writing this post right after I wrote a bit, and I probably only had a few sentences left before I would've completed the scene I was writing. Instead of finishing it, I stopped mid-thought. I know exactly what I want to happen next, I just have to write it. So I don't have to start completely fresh next time, I just have to pick up the thread where I left off.

When do you stop writing? Mid-thought? The end of a scene/chapter?

“I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

On Taking A Gap Year

Today I want to talk about the "gap year" phenomena. A "gap year" for those who don't know, is a term for taking a year off between high school and university or any other post-secondary education. For most people in North America, the progression of life is:  graduate from high school, go to university.

There is a lot of controversy over the issue of the "gap year", and numerous articles stating the pros and cons.

Right now I'm in the midst of my gap year. My experience with my gap year so far has been amazing. I'm working at a school in the Philippines. I've met so many people, learned so much, and come to appreciate the world in an entirely new way. I've also come to a much greater understanding of things than I did before.

I'm also so psyched to go back to school. At the end of last year, the last thing I wanted to do was more school. I miss it so much though! I miss studying, I miss learning. I learned how to convert cassettes to mp3s the other day and that 5 minutes of learning was the best part of my day just because I love it so much.

So obviously I'm in support of the gap year. But like anything, you have to find what works for you. I read a lot of writing blogs that always give that advice - yeah, look at all this writing advice out there, but you don't have to follow all of it. Do what works for you.

Same goes for gap years. You don't have to take a gap year if that's not what works for you. You don't have to go and volunteer somewhere for a year (although I think traveling is a great way to open your mind, especially to developing countries), you don't have to work and earn money for a year, but you can. And you can go to university right away too. It depends on you, and what works best for you and your needs.

So, this advice might not apply to you specifically, but maybe it will help someone in the long run. :)

The Struggles of Loving Books

OK, THIS is why I hate making a promise to blog every week. Because you get to these days where you know you don't have anything to say but nothing, and you have to post anyway.

I was going to write a book review, because those are faily straightforward but the only book I've read lately is Half the Sky - which is a good book, and I do recommend it, but non-fiction book reviews are something I'd rather stay away from (at least in public). Especially when the book is on a topic as complex as what Half the Sky was on (international development and women, in case you were wondering).

Then I thought I could talk about the latest thing I'm interested in (like I did when I talked about the Lizzie Bennet Diaries two weeks ago), but the only thing I could think of was that I watched Newsies on Saturday night with some friends and fell in love with it again. But really the most I can say about that is that it's awesome, and that every song and dance is absolutely amaziinggg.

Or I could talk about how today for some reason I was thinking of how I went to see The Hunger Games in theatres with my best friend a total of three times, which when you say out loud to people sounds really weird and then you kind of feel embarassed. Especially since you're working in a Christian school and a lot of people with a Christian background struggle with seeing past the violence in that book to see the big picture (lots of people have problems with this kind of not-seeing-the-big-picture thing, by the way, not just Christians).

But I love The Hunger Games anyway. However, because of all the different opinions and views and the popularity of THG, I find myself quite often wishing that I was the only one who knew about it and could love it in secrecy and peace, as opposed to having to feel like I have to defend my love for it all the time, or explain that I am not just reading them for the so-called love triangle that everyone else seems to be hooked on.

Books can go the other way, too. For example, I adore the book Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta. So often I wish more people I knew had read this book and fallen in love with it. Unfortunately most people have different tastes, and there is almost nothing more heartbreaking than wanting someone to fall in love with a book so you can love it together, and have them come back just to have them shrug their shoulders at you.

Well. Obviously I have nothing to say today. ;)

So, what books have you fallen in love with that you want to share with the world? What popular books do you wish you could keep all to yourself?

The Beauty of Storytelling: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

So, something that I've just mildly obsessed with lately is the Lizzie Bennet Diaries.

If you've heard of them, yay! If you haven't, go watch them right now!! They are so amazing and as happens with lots of amazing things I like, all I want to do is share them so that other people can fall in love with them too.

I started watching the Lizzie Bennet Diaries with hesitancy, but not too long after I started I fell in love, because the LBD had everything I loved in books. (By the way, the LBD is a youtube web series that is a modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice). That is, amazing characters, amazing writing, and a beautiful story that makes you think about the world and people in general.



One genre I'm not too fond of is historical fiction. But I was so fascinated with the LBD that I read Pride and Prejudice. It still isn't my favourite, but I have much more appreciation for it and its core message thanks to the LBD.

Since mostly writers read this blog, I'd really encourage you to watch the LBD if you haven't. There are so many things you can learn about writing and storytelling from this little web series. There is so much stuff that happens beyond what the characters are actually saying. You would think in a vlog-style web series, where the characters are talking directly to the camera, it would be hard to do the "show don't tell" bit of storytelling. But the LBD team does it amazingly.

So, I guess I would just say watch it and learn about writing from it, because I certainly have. :)

The Formula for Inspiration

A few days ago we were coming home from somewhere, driving along this road that runs right next to a large valley. Most of what I could see on this drive were trees, but I got a five-second glimpse of the roofs of a village of squatter homes. I only saw about fifty makeshift roofs, but I know that the squatter area there fills that valley. (Squatters are really, really poor Filipinos who make their homes anywhere they can, with anything they can because they can't afford to do anything else).

After that five-second glimpse of that squatter area, my thoughts wandered. I thought about what it might be like to live like that, and how I can never ever fully comprehend it, and other things as well. I don't know why, but for some reason that overwhelming urge to create something meaningful overcame me at that moment.

That afternoon after I got home, I sat down and wrote for about two hours. Somehow, for some indeterminable reason, that glimpse of those squatter homes inspired me to write.

I feel like I talk a lot about inspiration, but I think I do that because it's always different. There is no formula for inspiration, and I think it's sometimes easy to forget that. I know that I've definitely read posts about how to get inspiration, or people have inspiration-themed prompts. "Music inspiration for you", "want inspiration? go for a walk outside", etcetera.

But really, inspiration comes, at least for me, in the most unexpected moments, through the most unexpected circumstances and glimpses of images. I don't have a formula for what inspires me, and I never will, no matter how much I might analyze the things that have inspired me and motivated me to write in the past.

What random things have inspired you?

My Work In Progress

Well, this post has been sitting in my drafts since December 19. That is evidence that talking about my personal writing does not come naturally to me... but I did make a goal to talk more about it once I started these weekly posts, so that is what I'm going to do!

I was tagged in this questionnaire (awhile ago) but I'm finally going to complete it!

The book I'm talking about is the book that I'm currently outlining, which I talked about in my last post.

What is the name of your book?

The working title is "I Am Terrible At Coming Up With Titles". See this post.

(Actually the working title is "Percy", which really isn't much better in my opinion).

Where did the idea for your book come from?

I'm not sure. I think I was just walking home from school one day in the winter a few years ago, and I had this idea to write a story about an invisible girl, and the story starts where some guy tells her she's invisible (because he is too). I've since changed the POV from the girl's perspective to the guy's.

In what genre would you classify your book?

YA dystopian? Maybe? It kind of has that flavour, I think.

If you had to pick actors to play your characters in a movie rendition, who would you choose?

I have no idea, although the actors on The Lizzie Bennet Diaries are pretty amazing.

Give us a one-sentence synopsis of your book.

17-year-old Percy Collins used to be invisible, part of the world of invisible people called Unseens, until he was injected with the legendary antidote to invisibility and for the first time in history, it worked on him, thus making him a very valuable person in the Unseen world. (Trouble ensues).

(Forgive me for that summary... it was the best I could come up with on short notice).

 

Is your book already published?

Nope.

How long did it take you to write your book?

It took me 2 years to complete it ("it" being the first draft - I've a long way to go before it's FINISHED finished) once I'd started. But the thing is, I hardly worked on it nonstop. So I don't think the length of time it takes to write a book is equal to the amount of work or effort you put into it. (In my opinion). If I would've worked on it nonstop, I probably could've finished in a few months at least. But life happens.

What other books within your genre would you compare it to? Or, readers of which books would enjoy yours?

Hmm... well I suppose I would link it to the obvious dystopians The Hunger Games and Divergent, although my book is quite different from both of them. The ways they are similar are: 1. Focus on the relationships between characters and a lot of character and character relationship development and 2. The focus on the fight to create the best world they can from the circumstances. I think these are the main similarities.

What authors inspired you to write this book?

John Green and Suzanne Collins both inspired me by creating an overwhelming desire in me to create something both meaningful and potentially world-changing, or at least worldview-changing. I want to make people think. What I learned in history in grade 11 and 12 (the 2 years I wrote it) also influenced my writing. We were learning about single-party states and Castro and Stalin, so I thought a lot about them and how they came to power and their influences as I wrote.

Tell us anything that might pique our interest in your book.

There are lots of good characters, and the MC grows as a character, and in my opinion this is the best thing I've ever written and therefore my favourite thing that I've ever written. I love the characters and I definitely think that it would be easy for others to fall in love with them as well.

I suppose now I should tag people - let's just say whoever reads this, do it, and then post a link or tweet me or something (or just write about your book in the comments). I want to know what you're writing about. :)

What Works For Me When Outlining

Today I am going to brave the waters and talk about my own personal writing! (Something I rarely ever do here on the blog).

So I have this story... okay, book... that I've been working on, on and off for probably about three years. (Wow. It sounds really intense when I say that. Trust me, it's not.) I'm now onto my third draft, although I haven't actually started it yet. I've read over the second draft probably four times (probably more), and had people comment on it and help me by pointing out things they were confused about or needed to fix (especially Elle - she is the awesomest!).

That's when I came to the point of having absolutely no idea how I should fix all of the problems. It just seemed way too overwhelming, with all of the stuff that needs to happen, throughout each part of the book and each scene. I wanted certain characters to be spotlighted more, and certain friendships to develop but how could I just change all of that? How in the world could I change everything? I couldn't even comprehend how it could work.

I don't know where I got the idea, but one night about a month ago I just started writing down what was  happening in each scene. I wasn't writing the story, I was just writing a very in-detail description of events. I guess you could say I was just telling. The other helpful thing about doing this is that this book of mine is in first person. I'm writing the outline in third person, so I can write out what other characters are thinking or feeling or the MC's subconscious motivations behind his actions and thoughts. This is SUPER helpful, because then I know exactly what's going on under the surface of what I'll actually end up writing. I'm telling first, showing later.

I've never really done much serious outlining before, because how-tos on it on other blogs just don't appeal to me. This is definitely working, because I can tell the ENTIRE story, working out plot details and character development along the way, but I don't have to do the work of writing an entire draft and having to go back and fix it.

How do you outline, if you do? Or how do you fix a mess of problems in your drafts?

Stories That Create The Desire to Write

As you may have noticed on the sidebar of my blog, I have now committed to start posting every Monday. I wanted to do this so I won't procrastinate on writing blog posts, and also maybe it'll force me to write blog posts that I normally wouldn't write, stuff that turns out to be blatherings squeezed out on short notice. I also wanted to have a goal this year of talking more about my personal writing, which is something I normally shy away from on the blog most of the time. I thought that probably if I was scrambling for things to post about, it'd be more likely I'd fall back on talking about my writing (because that's basically what people do on writing blogs).

The other day I saw Les Miserables for the first time. It was amazing, and I'm fairly certain I was on the verge of tears for almost the entire movie. I love things like that, whether it be books or movies or any form of art, that evoke such emotion from you, and make such an impact on your emotions or your mind. I love how much story, no matter what form it's presented in, can affect a person.

When I feel affected by a story (like Les Mis), it inspires to affect other people with the stories I have to tell. @CostelloShields summed it up perfectly on twitter:

"I want to write things that matter. I want to write things that people will love."

That's exactly what I want to do with my writing, and brilliant stories like Les Mis, or The Fault in Our Stars, or Okay for Now, or Life of Pi, or even the Lizzie Bennet Diaries make me want to do create stories that matter even more. I want to write something that will affect others in the way all these other stories have affected me.

I love it when I come home from a movie or when I finish reading a book, and the first thing I want to do is write.

What kinds of things create a desire to write in you?

You Don't Have to Be Fearless to Do Scary Things

A few weeks ago over Christmas holidays I went for a hike to a waterfall with a group of about 20 other people. Some were in runners (like me), but most were in flip-flops.

The hike was fairly treacherous. There wasn't a nice gravel trail. We basically had to climb over rocks the entire time, and since it had rained the day before, the rocks were slippery. There was one part of the hike that was straight climbing up the side of a cliff. Then, once at the top, you had to walk on a ledge that was barely wide enough for your own foot. My heart was definitely pounding for the entire hike, in anticipation that I would slip and kill myself.

I figured I'd rather look stupid and be alive than the opposite, so I did a lot of crouching and bum-scooting on that hike. While I was bum-scooting my way along the path, the high school boys and tough hikers were way ahead, nimbly climbing over all the slippery rocks like monkeys.

There was one couple on the hike that I had heard lots about, mostly about how daring and adventurous they were. From what I'd heard, they loved to take risks and travel, and they had just backpacked around Indonesia for a month before visiting the Philippines for Christmas. Based on the things I'd heard about them, my perception of them was that they were tough, crazy backpackers who weren't afraid of anything.

Well, I was wrong. Once we'd arrived at the waterfall everyone stripped down to their bathing suits and jumped into the cool fresh water of the waterfall. The 20 of us were swimming or wading in the pool at the base of the waterfall. The girl of this backpacker couple was swimming near me, and all of a sudden she shrieked and held her tanned feet above the water. "Was that a leech?" she shrieked. "There better not be leeches in this water! I hate leeches." She shuddered.

I'm not really sure why, but in that moment I realized that, for one, I once again judged someone wrongly, but mostly that you don't have to be fearless to do scary things.

Sometimes I feel like I want to be at some level of bravery, where I'm not afraid of anything and I'm willing to do anything and everything in the world, no matter the risk. However, I still have tons of fears, whether they be big or just little things. It's definitely the act of overcoming those constant fears that is courageous, I think.

I definitely think this applies to writing. First, I'm too timid to try anything risky with my writing, for fear that it won't go over well with the people who read my work. Then I decide that I'll just wait until I get over this timidity and I'm fearless and have the freedom to write from anything to everything. But then I'm stuck in a rut, because I will never be fearless. I will always have doubts and hesitations about my writing. I just have to try to overcome those fears daily. I have to daily break out of my comfort zone, in life, but also in writing. I have definitely seen evidence that if you take risks and be unique, you or your writing is loved the more for it.

Maybe I'm afraid of leeches, but I can still backpack all over Indonesia...

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." -Meg Cabot

Review of All The Books I Read in 2012

Last year, I read 120 books. This year, I made it to 115. It's really interesting to compare the two years and see the different books I read, and the trends in my reading habits. For instance, once I started working in an elementary library this year I started reading a lot more middle grade. If I was savvy enough, I might make some charts or something. But for now, you just get lists, full of some recommendations for you for the new year (if you haven't already read them)! 

 

Best Books of 2012

 

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins - Sigh. She's done it again. Amazing.

 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - Read more of my thoughts on this achingly beautiful, wonderfully written book here. TFiOS is definitely his best book yet.
 

 

Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt - I'm pretty sure this is the only book that doesn't have a death in it that has made me cry. This is such a beautiful, beautiful book and it is now my favourite book of all time aside from Jellicoe Road. This is one of those books that just makes me go gaaaah sooo good, go read it pleaaase.

 

Savvy by Ingrid Law

 

True (...sort of) by Katherine Hannigan - Both Savvy and True I talk about in this post. They are both awesome, deep middle-grades that definitely made me think.

 

Books I Bought in 2012

 

Finally and Forever by Robin Jones Gunn - I love RJG, so I will buy anything new she comes out with. (Although I can't quite recall if I bought it, or if I got it as a gift... if you gave it to me as a gift, correct me if I'm wrong).

 

 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - I knew it would be hard to get at the library, and I kind of had a feeling I might want to have it, and I was right. If only I would've brought it to the Philippines with me...

 

The DUFF by Kody Keplinger and The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta - Both of these I bought as eBooks. I figure that still counts, because now I own them and I can read them whenever I want! Yay!

 

Books I Reread in 2012

 

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

 

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta - Not quite as good the second time, but still awesome. I love Melina Marchetta.

 

 

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke - The last time I read this I was in middle school, I think. It's interesting how just being a few years older changes my opinion of a book. I still love it, though, and Dustfinger is my favourite character of all time ever.

 

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - So how many times is this now? 5? 6?

 

Harry Potter 1-6 - I will never tire of rereading these.

 

Divergent by Veronica Roth - I reread this for the sole purpose of remembering what happened so I could read Insurgent. It was still just okay, even the second time around.

 

 

2012 Releases I Read in 2012

 

A Million Suns by Beth Revis - I liked A Million Suns better than Across the Universe, but I did noticed that the some of the story elements were repeated. I liked it though, and am still looking forward to eventually reading Shades of Earth.
 

Insurgent by Veronica Roth - I enjoyed this much better than Divergent, although I haven't fallen head over heels for either of them. I liked the tension between Tris and Tobias, and I liked how it was unpredictable. I did not like all the mind-controlling drugs, as they seem to be used a lot in dystopians now a days and in my opinion they are getting old.

 

Article 5 by Kristine Simmons - I really enjoyed this book. It was a smaller scale dystopian than Insurgent or The Hunger Games, but that just meant it had a bigger focus on the two main characters, which I really enjoyed.
 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
 

Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard - This is a good summer read, but it wasn't really anything special to me.

 

Worst Books of 2012
 

Wings by Aprilynne Pike - I read this book because of a recommendation from a friend, but I did not really enjoy it (sorry, Megan). The writing was good and the idea was unique, but there was a love triangle that was done absolutely terribly.
 

How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbaleister - I really, really did not like this book. It was very shallow, and I kept waiting for the characters to use something useful and become less selfish. They did not. This would probably be the only book I would ever encourage people not to read.  

 

 

So. What were some of YOUR favourite books that you read this year? I need some recommendations of things to read for the coming year. ;)

 

Happy New Year!



RTW: How I Name Characters

Wow, I haven't done a YA Highway Road Trip Wednesday in forever...  (although, on my current side of the world, it is already Thursday...)

This week's question is How do you decide on names? Would you ever name a character after a friend/family member/ex?

There are a few ways that character names come to me.

1. They are just magically there when I think up a character, and the fits absolutely perfectly and I love it and can't imagine any other name.

2. I can't think up a character name right away, so I think up a placeholder name. Eventually, I can't think of the character by anything but the placeholder name, so the placeholder name is then no longer a placeholder, but the character's actual name.

3. I can't for the life of me think of a good name, and I spend hours and hours on end scouring babynames.com and other useless baby names sites where all of the names are really weird or unpronouncable. After that, I spend days asking family and friends for names that they like and they answer oh so helpfully with names of other family members. Or my name. At that point I usually go back to #2. (So, no, I wouldn't name a character after someone I knew. Mostly because I'm sure they would forever think oh, so that's what she thinks of me? Is that supposed to be what I'm like? etc).

So! That's my very inefficient way of thinking up character names. How do you think up character names? Maybe you could give me some tips...

How to Make It Feel Like It's Canada Outside When It's Not

For me, winter usually means 6 months of cold and snow and wearing long pants. I am used to white Christmases, toboganning on Christmas break, layering, frozen eyelashes, bundling up, being able to see your breath, and walking through snowdrifts.

Winter in Canada

 

Well. I am currently living in the Philippines (if you didn't know that already go here to get the scoop). It is 30 degrees Celsius pretty much every day, and stinking humid all the time. I've worn jeans once since I got here (and came to the conclusion that that was a mistake), and I almost never wear sweaters or socks.

Yet I've figured out a few ways that I can still have little tastes of Canadian winter, even though I'm in a tropical country. And if you follow the suggestions below, you can experience some Canadian winter too. Just... be prepared to use your imagination. ;)

Winter in the Philippines

 

1. Go running in the 30 degree heat and humidity. Once you've started to sweat a bit, just imagine that you've been tobogganing for a few hours and have worked up a sweat climbing up the toboggan hill so many times, and now you're at the point when your three layers and snowsuit feels kind of stifling. You're just going to have to use your imagination on the frozen nose and fingertips, though.

2. Go inside your apartment. Shut and cover every door and window so you can't see outside. Turn on all the Christmas lights, and crank up the air conditioning (or "aircon" as it's called here). Make some hot chocolate, and then cuddle up with a good book. Try to ignore the fact that you are wearing shorts and a tank top.

3. Stick your head in the freezer. Ignore the smell of frozen meats, and just bask in the numbness in your nose and the frost on your eyelashes.

4. Get some white paper. Cut out some circles from the paper. Then fold the circles in half, and then half again. Cut shapes all the way around the outside. Unfold, and you have snowflakes! It's even more like snow if you count all the tiny little white scraps all over the floor from the shapes you cut out.

5. Get some marshmallows somehow. Stick three together with a toothpick. Decorate with raisins. You made a snowman!

Yeah... not really comparable to a real Canadian winter, but you've just got to make do with what you have I guess. :) What's winter like for you where you are? 

The NaNo Mindset or, How to Get Things Done

Hello!! I know, I know, it's been a while. Over a month, actually... whoops. But I figure it's OK that I've been MIA here on my blog, because most people go missing in action during November anyway because of that NaNoWriMo beast.

I didn't do NaNo, although a couple of days before November I was determined to, because I watched this video:

...and I realized that all those excuses Kristina Horner shoots down in that video? Well, those were my excuses.

However, it was a day before November 1 and I barely had an inkling of an idea. As well, I'd decided to make a goal of running 60 miles in November. With the schedule I have, plus running every day, I knew I wouldn't be able to crank out 50,000 words. So I just scaled it back to 30,000 words.

And guess what? I did it! I actually ran 60 miles, and wrote 30,000 words in November. After November ended, I couldn't help but ask myself, how did that happen? How did I manage to write 30,000 words while being as busy I was, especially when I have gotten way less writing done in other months that are way less busy? How does that even work?

What was different?

Then I realized that I had put myself in this mindset. Here are the steps for my personal NaNo mindset:

 

The NaNo Mindset:

Step 1: First of all, I was absolutely, completely determined to make both of my goals. I wasn't wishy-washy about it, like I sometimes am with goals. It wasn't "well, I'll try to write 30,000 words, but if I don't, that's okay too." Nope. It was "I am GOING to run 60 miles, and I am GOING to write 30,000 words."

Step 2: I prioritized. I wrote when I would've done other things, but since reaching my goal was important to me, I made the time to write.

Step 3: I took advantage of every possible time to write. I like Kristina Horner's suggestions in her pep talk video when she shoots down the "I don't have time" excuse. What about those times when you sleep in? Or go watch youtube videos? Or read your book? I actually had lots of time, but I just usually didn't use it for writing. If I had time, using that time to write was the first that came into my head.

So, I definitely think this mindset could work for anything, not just writing or NaNo. You just have to shape your thoughts into a certain mindset so you'll get things done. Convince yourself that not writing (or whatever else) isn't an option.

How was your NaNo, if you participated? How do you motivate yourself to write or get things done?

How Books Influenced Me To Do Things In Real Life

Books have influenced my life a lot. The other day when I saw Willow and Twig by Jean Little on a library shelf, I was reminded just how much.

Storytime!

When I was in probably grade four or five, my best friend and I both ended up reading Willow and Twig. We fell in love with the book and the characters. But we especially fell in love with the character of Red Mouse. Red Mouse was an imaginary friend that Willow had in her head and that she would talk to. It was basically a fictional version of her own thoughts.

Well, my friend and I liked this idea so much that we created our own imaginary friends stuck inside our heads. I think hers was a fish, and mine was a mouse named Rascal. I'm pretty sure I "talked" to him even in middle school sometimes.

I also ended up writing a picture book based on the character Red Mouse (one of the only two pieces of fanfiction I've ever written, incidentally - the other one was Bionicles fanfiction, which you can read here).

Then I was reminded of the Babysitters Club Books. My friend and I went crazy over these books. We tried to set up a BSC library, which was just a painted cardboard box that we were going to stuff all of the BSC books that we could get ahold of inside. We also tried to set up our own babysitter's club (unforunately at the conception of this idea, we were too young to babysit).

These things kind of just make me think of how strong of an influence books can have. I think they're a lot more powerful than we sometimes think they are.

What are some ways books have influenced you to do things in real life? Also, if you haven't read Willow and Twig yet, go do that! It is a beautiful book, and just looking at the cover brings back warm memories of reading it.

More Books I Want You To Love

Today one of my friends bugged me about blogging, and noted how I haven't  posted in a while. This is because basically the only blogging rule I have is Blog When I Have A Really Cool Idea I Can't Stop Thinking About. (Yeah, I think I need some new rules...)

So, I still don't have any shiny idea for a blog post, but since this is mainly a reading and writing blog, I'm just going to talk about the books I've been reading.

1. The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling
by Maryrose Wood
Goodreads
Amazon.com

If you've ever seen Nanny McPhee, you will kind of get the gist of the style and storyline of this book. There's a group of unusual kids who need to be taught to behave, and a young person comes in and teaches them. The kids are unusual because until recently, they've been raised by wolves. The premise is great, but the actual story is quite a bit slower than you'd expect.

It wasn't a book that changed my life, but the style of it felt so classic (a la The Chronicles of Narnia almost) that I enjoyed it heartily. It felt like I was reading an old friend. Also, the main character and the wolf children's nanny, Penelope Lumley, was one of the most unique, fresh characters I've ever read. She was not a stereotype in any way, and that was AWESOME.

Anyway, this book was really enjoyable and in my opinion it would be a great book to read aloud to kids.

2. Savvy
by Ingrid Law
Goodreads
Amazon.com

This book is technically MG, I think, but I don't think elementary or middle school kids could get the depth out of it that teens or adults could. This book was absolutely amazing. I was close to tears by the end. The premise of the book is that there is this family with these things called "savvies", which are basically just special powers - one of the boys has the power to control the weather in a way, another has power over electricity.

However, even though the story is based around these savvies, that isn't the focus of the story (if that makes any sense). It's not a story about special powers; it's a story about family and friendship and prejudices and judgementalism and standing up and believing in yourself and... now it sounds sappy but the way Ingrid Law writes it, it is BEAUTIFUL. Please go read it. Now!

3. True (...sort of)
by Katherine Hannigan
Goodreads
Amazon.com

This book starts off with a quirky girl, Delly, getting into trouble all the time even though she doesn't really mean to. I wasn't sure about this book at the beginning, but in the end it is a beautiful book with numerous intertwined stories of brokenness that together make something heart-achingly wonderful. This is another book that almost made me cry. It is amazing how dealing with so much hurt can be written about so wonderfully in a book for children. Also, this quote, that Delly's brother RB says to her:

"She's my favourite friend," he said. "You're my favourite everything."

Perfect.

I really, really encourage you to check out these books, because they are absolutely lovely.

What MG Does That YA Really Needs to Get Better At

1. Friendships. MG's main focus is friendships - actual, genuine friendships.  Somehow, most YA friendships are stereotypical, have some sort of tie-in with some sort of popularity struggle, or end with a romance.

2. No romance. YA, no matter the genre, always seems to end up slipping into some sort romantic subplot which then becomes of the focus of the book (even if it's actually not the focus, the fans will make it so). MG is not about the romance, and I am very thankful.

3. Unique concept. A lot of YA I've read always seems to end up falling back into the old, easy stereotypes and the stuff about popularity. So many MGs have such interesting stories and concepts. I always find them quite a bit fresher than YA.

4. Covers. So many YA covers these days have the face of a girl, or you know what, how about you just look at these common YA covers. MG covers are AWESOME and creative and artistic. Look:

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you think YA needs to get better at? Also, what are your favourite MG covers?? I want to know!!!!

 

*just a disclaimer: I'm sure all these things don't apply to all MG, but most, anyway.

 

Books That Creeped Me Out When I Was Young

I was a weird child (which you probably already know if you've read this post or this post), and today we're going to look at yet another weird part of my childhood behaviour...

So I've been working in a library recently and reorganizing the picture book shelves made me think of the books I read as a kid, in particular the books and fictional things that kind of creeped me out. If you didn't need yet another reason to think I'm weird, then just look at some of the things I was creeped out by:

 

1. The 19th story of Wayside school,  the one that doesn't exist

2. Heffalumps

 

3. Nova's Ark by David Kirk - For some reason, I thought the pictures in this book were fascinating but also kind of scary.

 

4. Time Flies by Eric Rohmann - In my opinion, that cover is still scary.

5. The wicked thought in The Red Racer by Audrey Wood - that big green monster struck fear in my young heart, I tell you.

 

 

I know these things aren't really that scary, but they genuinely did scare me when I was younger.  These fictional things and books actually made my insides twist and my heart speed up. (This is also why I don't read horrors or thrillers or anything, haha). Now, I kind of think it's cool how much of an emotional response these books got out of me, but it also brings up another point: every reader has different levels of what they can handle.

A lot of really intense books that you probably think are fluff would have terrified me if I would've read them even in middle school. I wasn't ready to read those kinds of books until now or a few years ago. But that's OK, because everyone is different and everyone reads differently and takes things in differently. Evidently I get taken in very easily by books and their fictional worlds, so they have, and have had throughout the years, a much stronger effect on me than other people.

Not every 13-year-old (or any age) is going to be able to handle all the same books that every other 13-year-old can handle. That's kind of why I think rating books is a weird idea. People need to "rate" books according to their own personal needs, and not make a general statement that everyone should follow.

What do you think? What books creeped you out when you were young?

The Fear of Writing Diversity

My sister has Down Syndrome. She has a hilarious personality, gets grumpy when she watches too much TV, and says funny things like, "[Bro], I have some advice for your driver's test. Cut your hair." She's a big and special part of my life, and I always sort of had the intent to write either a book about her or a book about a character with Down Syndrome.

But I couldn't, because I was sure I would get it wrong.

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to represent her properly as a character in a book. My thought always went along the lines of "I am not someone with Down Syndrome, therefore I can never accurately portray someone with Down Syndrome in a book, therefore I will not write them."

And I didn't.

But then I realized a few things.

1. People with Down Syndrome are still people.
2. Everyone is different.
3. I am a person.

I know writing a character with Down Syndrome would require some amount of research just because of the way a life is affected by that, but what I realized in realizing these things is that I'm not writing "Person with Down Syndrome", I'm writing "Person".

And I can do that.

I became unstuck from the thought of "what if I can't get my sister exactly right?" because I realized that yeah, my sister has Down Syndrome but she isn't THE representation of everyone with Down Syndrome, just like I'm not THE representation of 18-year-old white Canadians with curly hair. 

My sister is not a representation; she's a person. And if I chose to write a character with Down Syndrome, that character isn't a representation either. They are a person who is different than others with Down Syndrome and that's OK because people are different from each other.

The #yalitchat on Twitter the other day was about diversity in YA. And I think part of the reason why there is so few books with POC (Person of Colour) MCs or anything other than Caucasian MCs is because of this weird fear writers have (including me) that they're going to get it wrong or they're going to misrepresent someone along the way.

We have this mindset of "I'm not that, so I can't write that."

But I think that we need to stop worrying about that because people aren't just lumped into one huge group of White Canadian Females with Curly Hair that all have the same personality and charateristics and likes and dislikes, or one huge group of People With Down Syndrome who are all clones of each other and we've got to get our character-clone exactly right.

Stop being so afraid, and just write people who are different, because every person is different.

Because really, that's exactly what diversity means.



What do you think? 
(Also check out this awesome post by @ravenamo on writing POCs!)
(Also just so you know I did eventually succesfully write a short story that featured a character with Down Syndrome. ;) )