Three Young Adult Authors Making It In Hollywood

In celebration of The Perks of Being a Wallflower the movie getting released this Friday, I'll be hosting a mini-theme week on the blog. I just finished reading the book and loved it. I think all writers can identify with Charlie, the titular Wallflower, and his random observations are ones I've thought about, too. (like realizing that people in old pictures felt the same way we do in the present) Even though Charlie writes in a semi-conversational style that's light on actual description, the characters he writes about still come off as real, fleshed-out people.

The author of Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky, has had an interesting trajectory. He went from independent filmmaker to published author to Hollywood screenwriter. While lots of authors become Hollywood sensations because of their books (John Grisham, Stephen King), most of them don't actually dabble in screenwriting. Chbosky carved out a successful career in mainstream film and TV before adapting Wallflower into a film. The book was released in 1999, then a few years later, he was hired to write the film version of Rent (whose characters would mesh nicely with Charlie's circle of friends in Wallflower), then a year after that, he co-created the CBS series Jericho. It probably did help that Chbosky had a background in film and a film agent, but still, it's rare to see a YA author make this kind of transition. Nowadays, Hollywood writers are jumping on the YA bandwagon. (e.g. Paul Weitz, Liz Tigelaar) It can be done, though. In fact, at least three other writers have made the jump from writing YA to writing for film and TV.

1) Rob Thomas
YA books: Slave Day, Doing Time, Satellite Down, Rats Saw God
Rob Thomas has always had a foothold in the teen world. Not to be confused with the lead singer of Matchbox 20, this Rob Thomas went from high school teacher to working at kid's news station Channel One. While there, he began writing Rats Saw God in his spare time, and eventually got an agent. He went on to write five books.
Hollywood connection. On the strength of his YA novels, Thomas was asked to be a staff writer for this new show on the WB called Dawson's Creek. Maybe you've heard of it? From there, he created the series Cupid and then six years later created another show about a teenage sleuth called Veronica Mars. Maybe you've heard of it? Then four years after that, he wrote the script for the reboot of this show called 90210. Maybe you've heard of it? Ok, I'll stop.

2) Jake Coburn
YA books: Prep, Lovesick
Prep, about privileged Upper East Side kids who form violent gangs, caught the eye of MTV films, which optioned the book and hired James Frey to write the screenplay. However, like most book options, nothing has come of it yet. Still, Coburn has managed to carve out a niche in the New York socialites genre.
Hollywood connection. Because of Prep, Coburn was recruited to write a pilot called The Stanton with Kevin Williamson (creator of Dawson's Creek). While that didn't go, he was hired to write for ABC drama Dirty Sexy Money, which revolved around a super rich family in New York City. When that got canceled, he went on to write for a CW drama about privileged Upper East Siders - Gossip Girl - where he's risen to co-producer.

3) Shauna Cross
YA books: Derby Girl
As an aspiring screenwriting in LA with no produced credits, Shauna Cross found a literary agent through a mutual friend who encouraged her to write about her experiences in the roller derby. That turned into the novel Derby Girl.
Hollywood connection. The book caught the eye of Drew Barrymore, who hired Cross to adapt her novel for her directional debut - Whip It, which was released in 2009. Cross next went on to adapt another, very different book - What to Expect when You're Expecting, which was released in June.

One thing to note is that all three writers lived in Los Angeles either when they sold their books or got their film/TV gigs. Unlike publishing, film and TV are industries where newbie writers need to be living in LA in order to be considered for jobs. Sure, if you're best-selling authors like James Frey or Michael Chabon, then you can probably take gigs and stay put where you are.

Dialogue vs Description

What's a good balance between dialogue and description in novels? (Note: Description here refers to all non-dialogue.) One of my insecurities as a writer is that I write too much dialogue and am light on description. I have a cut-to-the-chase style of writing. I picked it up from writing screenplays before transitioning to books. In scripts, it's suggested that you never have more than 3 lines of description at a time. It's a well-known fact that people in Hollywood don't like to read. Blocks of description turns them off. Also, scripts are used more as a blueprint for the director and actor. Description tells them what's happening, but they will use their own interpretation to create the tone and feel.

I am incapable of writing long passages of description. That's why I like YA. Kids like having a good mix of white space on the page. They feel they aren't reading a textbook that way. Do you ever cringe when you turn a page and it's a block of description? I sometimes do. When I read, I want description that's long enough to just give me a sense of what's going on. I don't need painstaking detail about physical description, a play-by-play of the characters' thoughts, or a journalistic recounting of backstory. Make it succinct; my mind will fill in the rest. I always think to that scene in Pleasantville when the kids discover blank books. Reese Witherspoon vaguely describes what a book is about, and the pages fill in with text. I would rather reveal information via dialogue.

On the same token, I don't like dialogue that goes on and on. Writing dialogue is fun, but it also needs to have a point. It must move the story along. I tire of scenes with dialogue that goes nowhere. Pulp Fiction is a famously talky script, but it's all leading somewhere. Characters don't talk just for the sake of talking. Long stretches of dialogue reveal character and explore the movie's theme: what does it take to be a righteous man?

Recently, I read The Giver by Lois Lowry and loved it. I devoured it in two days. It's an award-winning book, and I was surprised at how dialogue-driven it was. Most of the description are action lines. As I kept reading, I realized that the writing style echoed the colorless, emotionless world of the story. Still, I got a very clear sense of the main character and place. When Lowry does switch to more description in the end, they are short and sweet. They tell us where we are and what Jonas is doing. She did an amazing job at conveying so much in a few lines.

Which do you tend to write more of: dialogue or description/action?

Update: Revisions, AWP, Books, and Remembering Your Nose

Happy Friday!

I'm looking forward to the weekend. The AWP (Association of Writers Programs) conference is going on in Chicago through Sunday. Professors, students, and alumni of MFA writing programs are flocking to the city to mix and mingle. There are a slew of readings happening in bookstores, coffee shops, and bars. I went to a poetry reading on Wednesday night. To be honest, poetry is not my forte, but I still enjoyed being around other writers. I'm planning to go a fiction reading sometime this weekend. Since we spend so much of our time alone staring at a screen, it's nice to meet other pale, socially awkward writers in person. Their schedule can be found here.

I've also been revising every single day this week. I'm not hitting my chapter-per-day goal, but I'm still proud of myself for keeping up this daily pace. I thought I would dread revisions, but I quite enjoy having a base to go off of.

In my descriptions, I've been adding more sensory images, especially smell. We take smell for granted, opting to use visual and tactile description. But people have a strong attachment to their sense of smell. You can evoke a feeling or memory or setting quickly and effectively with sense of smell. You see, the sense of smell is our only sense that's connected directly to our brain, making them more vivid. The sensations don't have to be transmitted and translated like they do with the other four senses. That's why when I smell Cool Water on a guy, I'm instantly taken back to 7th grade sitting in front of this kid Jason who poured it on. Whereas if I see an old picture of him, it would take a little more thinking to picture the classroom. Try to intersperse some olfactory descriptions into your WIP. If you have a minor character, maybe you don't want to spend time describing his/her appearance, giving your reader yet another person to remember. Instead, describe how they smell and distringuish said character immediately.

In book news, I lent my copy of Small Town Sinners to a friend who's a youth minister. She loved it! She really appreciated how the protagonist questions her faith, how organic her development felt, and how the book doesn't put down religion. She's going to recommend it to her kids. I love when people love books I recommend. It's like a job well done...I'm currently reading Stephen McCauley's The Object of My Affection. Yes, I'm breaking my rule about reading the book after seeing the movie. And yes, I keep picturing Jennifer Aniston as the main character, even though in the book she is very different and not as glamourous. But I am enjoying the novel, especially its datedness. (It was written in 1985) The main characters are debating whether to invest in an answering machine. At least it's not a pay phone.







 How is your writing coming along? Any fun weekend plans?

Writing YA for Dummies

Happy Presidents Day!

I'm taking full advantage of my day off by starting the second draft of my WIP. After receiving feedback from my writer's group, letting it marinate for a few weeks, and then reworking my story to fix plot and character problems, I am ready to go! My banana cream pie-in-the-sky goal is to revise 1 chapter/day. A more realistic goal might be 1 chapter every 2-3 days. I'm aiming to finish draft #2 by May 1. (If only I didn't have a full-time job that's in its busy season currently...) I know -- I shouldn't set such firm goals in a public forum where I can be judged held accountable. But I'm hoping this spurs me on to finish in time. How long has it taken you to finish a second (or third or fourth) draft?

An unlikely tool in getting me psyched up for revisions is Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies by Deborah Halverson. My friend gave this to me for Hanukkah, and I let it collect dust all through January. When I decided to read it one morning on the train, I was hooked. I had never read a writing advice guidebook for novels. I figured I knew how to write a story from studying screenwriting in college and from reading lots of books. YA for Dummies didn't teach me new tricks; rather, it helped clarify parts of writing I thought I knew. I had about five epiphanies about my book after reading this.

My biggest takeaway from YA for Dummies was how to write a theme and weave it into my story. The theme is the central idea in your novel. In screenwriting, they call it the controlling idea. In Robert McKee's book Story (a must-read for any screenwriter), he says that Paddy Chayefsky, writer of Network, would keep his controlling idea next to him while he wrote. That way, he could make sure everything he wrote stuck to that theme. After I wrote my first draft, I couldn't state my theme in one sentence. I had about 3 themes garbled together. With draft #2, I've streamlined, and my story feels much clearer and focused. Halverson includes a theme-building exercise in the book, which at first I scoffed at, but came to find helpful.

I recommend picking up this book, or at least flipping through it at Barnes & Noble. Unlike Story, it's written in a nuts-and-bolts fashion, which I can appreciate. Just the facts ma'am. No matter how much you know, you're bound to learn something new. I haven't read other how-to books like Save the Cat or Writing the Break Out Novel. Have you? Thoughts?

Finally, a random comment on a YA book I'm currently reading. Said novel was published last year and takes place in present day. In one scene, the protagonist is searching for a quarter to use a pay phone, and then her friend takes her to a record store. The record store part I will let slide...barely.

But who still uses a pay phone? And they sure doesn't cost a quarter anymore.

I live in Chicago, and I've only seen maybe 2 pay phones. I doubt suburbs have them anymore. Most teens today have never and will never use a pay phone. They carry cell phones. If they don't, they would ask a stranger to borrow one before thinking to use a pay phone. That small detail pulled me out of the story for a moment. So for those of you writing contemporary, leave out the pay phones. I know people are wary about writing in technology that could be outdated in a year. But trust me, cell phones aren't going anywhere.

YOUNG ADULT the movie review

Last night,  I got to see a sneak preview of Young Adult, the new Charlize Theron comedy from the writer-director team behind Juno. There's been some buzz in the kidlitosphere, worry that Young Adult will portray people in our profession in a negative light - that we're writing about teens because we're immature, can't grow up. And that Charlize's character will grow up in the end, and choose to write adult novels to symbolize her maturity. NONE OF THAT HAPPENS.

Young Adult was a great movie. It's not what you expect. It's a dark comedy-drama, and it stays that way until the credits. Charlize Theron plays Mavis Gary, a rude, depressed thirty-something ghostwriter of a young adult series who decides to return to her hometown to win back her high school sweetheart Buddy (Patrick Wilson) - who happens to be married and a dad. When she isn't trying to seduce Buddy, she spends her time getting drunk with Matt, a high school classmate she never paid attention to. Her life peaked in high school, and she refuses to move on and grow up. She's an unlikable character, borderline pitiful, and she doesn't become a good person in the end. She does have an epiphany, but it's not what you expect, which I found refreshing. Mavis acted that way we wish we could act sometimes but never would. That may turn people off, but I appreciated that the filmmakers stuck to their guns and never veered into sentimental territory.

Through all this, I found the character fascinating to watch - a credit to the acting, writing, and directing. Charlize Theron is so good at playing bad, a trend she'll continue with Snow White and the Huntsman. The script was a step up from writer Diablo Cody's first film Juno. Unlike Juno, the characters were less verbose and witty, more natural sounding. She also used voiceover in a clever way. Director Jason Reitman gave the film a lived-in, unpolished feeling down to the omnipresence of chain stores, and he managed to wring humor from twisted characters and setups. He is now 4-for-4 with his films. If you haven't seen his first three films - Thank You For Smoking, Juno, and Up in the Air - netflix them now.

Young Adult does not discredit or disrespect young adult writers. It's not a commentary on authors or the genre - just Mavis, and she is an extreme example. She lives and acts like a teenager still, down to a messy room and drinking coke from the bottle first thing in the morning. Her young adult writing is a device the movie uses to explore the theme of growing up. She is stuck in the past, which is why she can't write about adults. Her YA series, which is getting canceled, is about catty girls at a prep school, very mid-2000s. Think The A-List, Private, Gossip Girl. The movie never makes the assumption that all YA writers are like this. It's only focusing on her arrested development.

Film and TV writers will identify more with Mavis than will YA authors. Most of them have left their small hometowns to make it big in NY/LA. They've gone on to try and be rich and famous while those they left behind got married, had kids, and live "boring" lives. However, the majority of YA authors I've read about and interact with are married with kids and live in the suburbs. Really, Young Adult is a semi-autobiographical movie about the screenwriter, Diablo Cody. Like Mavis Gary, Diablo lived in Minnesota, writes under a pseudonym (real name: Brooke Busey), moved to a big city (LA), made it big as a writer (hello, Oscar!), worked in the YA genre (she was hired to script a movie version of Sweet Valley High), is thirtysomething, was divorced, and was childless and unmarried until recently. (congrats on both!) She may have felt like a hotshot writer, but when she returned home and found her old classmates had less glamorous lives with a family in the burbs, did she have a pang of jealousy? The young adult publishing industry really seems like a cover for Hollywood, while allowing Cody to ruminate on growing up and not letting the past define you forever. And like I said, Mavis does not write adult novels in the end.

Overall, I loved Young Adult, and it's a shame movies like this are so rare. It has a strong shot of being nominated at the Golden Globes for Best Comedy and Best Actress - Comedy. Its box office prospects are decent. This is not a mainstream movie, so word-of-mouth may not reflect how the critics feel.

Young Adult opens December 16. Are you planning to see it?

Team Buffy or Team Bella?

(In case the print is too small, under Bella it says: Edward, you watch me sleep at night, you treat me like a child, and you think about eating me for dinner. Under Buffy, it says: No guy is worth your life. Not ever.)

I have never read or seen either, so I don't have a dog in this fight. However, the infographic above is the main gripe I hear about Bella.

Thoughts?

Now get back to writing, NaNoers! :)

Does YA Give You Body Dysmorphia

I recently finished a YA contemporary novel, a well-written coming-of-age story about a girl standing up for what she believes in and finding out who she is. I enjoyed the book, but the part that bugged me was her love interest: the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, preppy, built, cute boy. The most generic 'boy' stereotype across all media. And the girl protagonists in these stories usually believe they're dull-looking, yet still manage to attract the attention of the cute boy.

Why are these characters always so good-looking?

Our culture has a serious body image problem with no cure in sight. TV, movies, and magazines inundate us with impossible standards for male and female beauty: blonde, skinny, six packs, big boobs, long legs, no body hair, chiseled chin, etc. Women have it 100X worse than guys. In Hollywood, guys like Seth Rogen, Kevin James, and Woody Allen wind up with women like Katherine Heigl, Amber Valetta, and Diane Keaton. Guys can be schlubs, but women must always be stunning. Men have it rough, too. Every female-targeted romcom has the women ending up with some lockjawed, ripped dude. This has been going on forever. I know that. But why are books, especially YA novels, embracing these stereotypes, too?

TV and movies are visual media. They use hot actors to attract paying customers. Books don't need to use that trick. Readers don't pick up a book (with the exception of romance novels) because it's about attractive people. And if they start reading the book and find the main character isn't gorgeous, they don't automatically put it down. Teenagers are particularly insecure about their looks. I spent way too much time on my hair in high school; no wonder half of it's fallen out! Teens are bombarded all day by images of supposedly ideal body types. Why do we perpetuate those body types in YA books? Not all girls are attracted to the hot/dreamy guy, and not all guys are into the Heidi Montag look. If that were the case, then only supermodels would date. People have different ideas of what they find attractive. We should strive to write characters that have physical quirks to them - like actual teens. Let's not try to recreate a CW show. I'm sure readers will love your book even if the boy of your MC's dreams has unruly hair or a bony chest. And guy readers won't throw a book across the room if the girl love interest has blemishes or love handles. Don't save all odd body features for your side characters. I worry that many female protagonists in YA novels suffer from Laney Boggs syndrome: they think they're so ugly when it's glaringly obvious to the reader/whole world that they are total knockouts.

 
In Tina Fey's book Bossypants, she said that most successful shows centered around normal-looking, even slightly unattractive, casts. Friends was the exception. The casts of Cheers, The Office, Seinfeld, 30 Rock, and CSI among others are not filled with models. Whereas how many series with sexy casts got canceled?  *cough*Coupling*cough*

Believe it or not, there have been successful books with protagonists who don't fit the beauty mold. Skeeter Phelan of The Help was tall, lanky, flat-chested, and had embarrassingly frizzy hair. Katniss Everdeen had few discernible female features. She was kind of described as looking like Sandra Bullock in the first half of Miss Congeniality. Even down to the hairy legs. I know that readers love pining after the same guy/girl as the MC; that's part of the fun of reading a book. But you don't have to make them generically attractive. Create your own form of sexy. Leave the generic body types to Hollywood.

What do you think, readers? Is there a body image problem in YA?

Social Media Overload

Recently, Google+ opened the floodgates officially and now everyone can join yet another social media site. For months, I've seen other bloggers talking about Google+, putting the link in their sidebar, etc. A co-worker tried to sign me up for Google+ over the summer. I asked her why should I sign up for G+ over Facebook. "G+ is awesome. You can put people in circles." That wasn't reason enough for me. I told her plain and simple that I would only sign up for G+ if all of my friends left Facebook and joined. I'm such a trailblazer! I have nothing against G+, but I don't have the time or energy to join ANOTHER social media site. I'm already on Facebook and Twitter, and that feels like more than enough.

Agents love talking about platforms and social media presence. The quality of your writing is first and foremost, but online prowess is not far behind. I worry about this because I have limited mental bandwidth for the internet. I'm on Facebook and Twitter, but I don't use them religiously. I have a blog and blog friends, and try to post and comment regularly. To add Google+ to this list is daunting to me. What can G+ bring to the table that those other sites can't? I don't want to be overconnected. I can't be everywhere. I just have to admit to myself that I'll never be a social media maven. Will that make me less desirable to agents and publishers?


For all the authors who have a strong web presence like John Green and Brent Hartinger, there are plenty who don't who've sold lots of books. YA authors need to be online in some capacity, I think, since that's where their audience is. What do you think is the bare minimum of social media that authors should utilize?

Young Adult trailer!

For those who don't follow movies obsessively like I do, Paramount is releasing a movie called Young Adult this December about a YA writer who hasn't grown out of her bratty teenage phase. She goes back to her hometown in the hopes of winning back her old high school boyfriend - who's now a husband and father. The movie has great auspices: Charlize Theron, Diablo Cody, Jason Reitman. But I'm not sold on it yet. Diablo Cody is currently scripting a movie version of Sweet Valley High, and I think that's where her perception of YA literature is coming from. I don't think she has any idea how much YA lit has developed since then. I still remain hopeful. Reitman has not directed a bad film yet (Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air).

What do you think?



In other news, my writer's group read the first 6 chapters of my WIP and loved them! I've never gotten such a positive response from them. It was the inspiration I needed to continue plugging along with the second half of my book. Woohoo!

Cursing in YA

Kids love cursing. We want kids to read our books. Ergo, we should make our stories chock full of the seven dirty words. Right?

Well, that's up to you. Fantasy/sci-fi/dystopian novels generally have no cursing. It seems in scary, futuristic societies, people watch their language. And middle grade novels don't have any curse words because those readers are too young. Cursing seems to be an issue in contemporary YA. We want our books to feel real, and let's face it: real kids curse. But does that mean we need to use curse words in our books? 

The more serious your novel is, the more likely it is you will involve cursing. If you've written an issue-driven book about drugs, abuse, or violence, then chances are you will use dirty language to emphasize the scariness of a character, or the harsh reality of this world. But for regular, contemporary YA, I don't think cursing is needed unless it has a point. To this day, controversy surrounds teaching Catcher in the Rye in schools because Holden curses. Yet his cursing is viewed as a symbol of rebellion against the phony, upper-class society he inhabits.

Personally, I rarely curse, so I don't feel comfortable writing characters who drop f-bombs left and right. And when I read a YA book or watch a teen movie, I'm taken out of the story when the characters begin swearing excessively. Filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and David Mamet LOVE swear words, but it's natural to their adult characters: mobsters, hitmen, gangsters, shady businessmen, angry power-crazed men. Some YA characters will curse more than others since it's part of their characters, like if they were lower-class or poor. But for a suburban teen, is it necessary?

To garner a PG-13 rating, a movie can only contain one f-word; any more, and it's instantly rated R. PG-rated films can only have maybe 1-3 s-words. G-rated films can't have anything filthy. When PG-13 movies cash in their f-bomb, they usually have a strong reason, i.e. the protagonist may be in a climactic fight. In She's All That, Laney Boggs shouts the infamous "Am I a bet? Am I a f--king bet?!" The f-word gives that line more power, makes it more jarring. For the most part, curse words are used sparingly, and that doesn't make audiences enjoy these movies any less. Luckily, books don't have that kind of censorship, but I think there should still be some responsibility on the author and editor's part not to take advantage and load up on swearing. Yes, kids swear, but that doesn't mean they won't enjoy a book with clean language. You don't need f--k and s--t to have your characters sound like real kids; you need them to have conflicting emotions and complexity.

I'll leave you with what my dad always said about swearing: The English language has hundreds of thousands of words. Why do you have to continually use the same 4 or 5?

What are your thoughts on cursing in YA? Do you have it in your story?

Sparkfest! aka Thank You Amy, Lois, Caroline, Cecily, James, and Kody

I am participating in Sparkfest 2011, brought to you by The Writer Coaster. I couldn't participate in the Star Trek blogfest also happening since I have never watched the show. But I have seen Galaxy Quest. Does that count??

For this blogfest, Christine Tyler @ Writer Coaster asked us the following:

What book made you realize you were doomed to be a writer? 

What author set off that spark of inspiration for your current Work in Progress?

Or, Is there a book or author that changed your world view?

 

I thought about this for a while. I wish there was one moment, one writer that provided the spark for me to write. I've wanted to write ever since I was a kid, unlike every other author in the universe... :) It was a steady stream of movies, TV shows, and books that gave me the enthusiasm to pursue writing.  

Amy Heckerling - Clueless

I've watched tons of movies and am known as somewhat of a movie buff. Clueless, however, will always be my favorite movie. Even though it is loved the world over, I still feel that it's underrated. The screenplay is one of the best in modern movie times. It's true! If any aspiring screenwriters are reading this, Clueless is a paragon of voiceover usage, and its dialogue is flawless - revealing, true to character, doesn't try to be cutesy (cough *Juno* cough), and darn funny. I've watched this movie around 13242 times, and I can probably quote it start to finish for you, if you'd like. The spirit of Clueless hangs over everything I write, and I aspire to write something 1/26th as good as Heckerling's movie.

Caroline B. Cooney - The Face on the Milk Carton

Lois Duncan - Killing Mr. Griffin, I Know What You Did Last Summer

My comments section blew up when I posted about I Know What You Did Last Summer the book. For good reason. I was a couch potato in middle school, but when I did read for fun, I read Cooney's and Duncan's books. Their hooks drew me in - what if you received mysterious letters taunting you about a deadly secret, what if you saw your face on a missing child poster, what if some students plotted to kill their nasty English teacher. They made reading fun for me, and their twisty, suspenseful novels provided the spark for many of my early short stories. Even today, these books still hold up. 

Cecily von Ziegesar - Gossip Girl

On a 2004 flight from London to New York, I needed a book to read to pass the time. I had heard about this hot new young adult series and decided to give it a shot. It would be a fun read for the flight. And I was hooked. I read five books in this addictive series about spoiled New York teens. (I stopped when the plots got too ridiculous and repetitive) This series inspired me to write YA. I read it and thought, "Hey I can totally write something like this." It was sharp, snarky, risque, fresh -- a notable difference from the YA of my childhood. Gossip Girl seems passe now, its references to the Hilton sisters and brand-name labels a quaint reminder of Bush-era excess. But YA had grown up, and I wanted to ride the wave. 

James Frey - A Million Little Pieces

Say what you will about the veracity of the story, but this is a compelling, well-written book. I read A Million Little Pieces post-scandal, when I suddenly found myself unemployed and didn't know when I'd get back on my feet. It was fall 2007, and I was trying to make a career writing in television with no luck. The book gave me hope and reassured me that no matter what happens, it will be ok. I reexamined the type of writing I wanted to pursue after reading it, and a few weeks later, I began my first attempt at writing a novel.

Kody Keplinger - The DUFF
I'm just not that into paranormal romance. I have full respect for writers and readers of those books, but I am simply not one of them. My genre of choice is regular contemporary. It can difficult for me to find the kind of books out there that I want to write. The Duff restored my faith in the genre. I count is as my "I wish I wrote that" novel. It gave me hope that these issue-with-a-lowercase-i books can get published and find an audience - in TV terms, a Dawson Leery can survive in a world of Edward Cullens.

All of these authors inspire me in some way, their influence molding together to give me a swift kick in the butt with my writing. Who inspires you?

***p.s. Follow me on Twitter --> @FillupSeagull ***

Maybe the Plot UNthickens: Upending Cliches

It’s so easy to resort to clichés. Many times, we don’t even realize we’re using them. The popular girl? Let’s make her blond, pretty, wealthy, and mean. The jock? Let’s make him dumb. Where will the big confrontation happen? The prom, of course! Clichés are rooted in truth; they had to have happened so many times to become a cliché. It’s difficult to surprise the reader nowadays; they know all the familiar plot twists. I tend to write a lot of clichés when I begin outlining a novel. I lean on them when I can’t figure my way through a plot point or when I want to make my story flow in a certain direction. Many times, I don’t even realize I’m using them until someone points them out.

Once I spot them, I try to flip it and reverse it, to quote Missy Elliot. Take the familiar character or plot point and go in the opposite direction; see if your story can weather the change. As storytellers, we should aim to defy readers’ expectations. Not too much, though. Just enough to keep them on their toes. The first Pirates of the Caribbean took a familiar story – pirates stealing treasure – and flipped it: the pirates had to RETURN a stolen treasure. Here are some other examples:


The Silence of the Lambs. When Clarice Starling travels to the jail to meet Hannibal Lector for the first time, she’s led into the dungeon where the worst criminals are housed. The warden gives her a horrific description of Hannibal eating a census taker. We pan down the row of inmates, all of them scary, menacing, psychotic (Miggs!), taunting Clarice and the viewer.  Hannibal is the last cell. We’re expecting him to be just as terrifying as the rest of the block. But what does Clarice find when she reaches the end? A gentleman. Hannibal is clean, courteous, and calm. The audience’s expectation of a deranged cannibal serial killer has just been flipped. And the fact that Hannibal acts so well-mannered despite having committed those heinous crimes makes him much creepier. (I couldn't upload the clip, so watch the classic scene here.)

The Hunger Games upended our expectations from the beginning. People picking up the novel knew it was about Katniss playing in the titular games. The first chapter describes the reaping, where we expect Katniss to get chosen. But then twist! [mild spoiler alert] Her younger sister Prim is chosen instead, and Katniss volunteers to take her place. Suzanne Collins could’ve just began the story with Katniss on her way to Panem. Throwing in that surprise spoke volumes about her character. Also, having an innocent 12-year-old girl picked to fight to her death showed the reader what kind of dystopian, dangerous world they were entering.

On a lighter note, Kody Keplinger did a great job defying the aforementioned popular girl stereotype in The Duff. (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) Bianca, the eponymous main character, is best friends with two pretty, blonde, popular cheerleaders. Their friendship is supportive and genuine, not based on lies or putting each other down. It was a nice change of pace from so many YA novels where battle lines are drawn between the popular and not popular.

I know when writing, it’s easy to go for familiar beats. But when rewriting, do a read-through to check for clichés with your genre, and try to tweak it just a little.  What are some of your favorite examples of flipped and reversed clichés?

The Difference Between Teen Books and Teen Shows/Movies

When I showed my friends and beta readers the first YA manuscript I ever wrote (which shall remain in a drawer hibernating), the main criticism they had was that the MC seemed too mature and too sexual. Within the first half dozen chapters, she had already been in bed with two different guys, and she was well aware and comfortable with the friends w/ benefits status. I kept telling my critics that-

1. This book was aimed at a 16 and up audience.
2. Just look at the Gossip Girl series!

The Gossip Girl book series, of which I admit I leafed through a few volumes, contains sex and drugs, all told in a salacious, fun, and well, gossipy tone. And the Gossip Girl TV series also had a healthy dose of sex, drugs, drinking, partying. My friends, who admitted they were not well-versed in YA today, maybe just didn't understand.

But after a long talk with one of my friends, I realized that maybe they had a point. When I thought back on the storylines of the GG book series, they were not as X-rated as I remember. In the first few books I read, Blair was anxiously waiting to give her virginity to her long-term boyfriend Nate, Chuck tried to force a move on Little J but was stopped before anything happened, and Nate and Little J were caught quasi-but-not-really fooling around on a faux sex tape. While the books were by no means G-rated, they were not as jaded and overtly sexual as I remembered. The TV series, though, got into serious drugs and threesomes and teenage characters acting like adults.

TV series focused around young adults are much different than books marketed to young adults. Although most shows on the CW revolve around teenagers, they are aimed at an adult audience. The target demographic for the CW is Women 18-34. Same for ABC Family. MTV's most popular demographic is Person 12-34, teens lumped in with people old enough to be their parents. That's right -- networks aren't creating programming for teens, even if they know teens watch their shows. In order to make money, networks have to reach large audiences, even in niche targets. Millions of teens may watch Glee or 90210, but those shows ideally want to reach 20- and 30-something adults, hence the  mature characters and storylines.

Movies also want to reach large audiences because the goal of releasing movies is to make as much money as possible. That's one reason why many animated films like Shrek have jokes meant for parents that go over the kids' heads. They want to entertain the parents and they also want cross-demographic appeal. Hollywood does a better job of making product geared for teens, but they also count on adults buying tickets as well. Studios have divided all moviegoing audiences into four quadrants: men and women 25-and-under, and men and women 26-and-over. A "four-quadrant" film like Pirates of the Caribbean appealed to all audiences, theoretically. Even in these quadrants, teens are grouped in with 20-somethings. And I can tell you from personal experiences, me at 25 was vastly different from me at 15.

Movies nowadays are so expensive to make and market that it's hard to financially justify targeting a film solely to teenagers. Compared to $200M blockbusters, movies like Mean Girls and Easy A were super cheap to make. Mean Girls had a negative cost of $17M and Easy A only cost $8M, according to Box Office Mojo. However, each movie probably spent another $15-25M on prints and advertising. So that's on average $30-35M to release a teen film. Can you imagine if a publisher spent that money to release one YA novel? (A boy can dream...) The inevitably high cost means the movie studio can't rely on just teens to turn a profit.

Now, YA novels, those are aimed squarely at teens. I don't have publishing data, but I'm assuming that it costs far less to publish and release a YA novel than it does to air a TV show or release a movie. The publisher can target a sliver of the population, sell a couple thousand copies, and still make a profit. They don't have to consider pulling in different audience segments (although that's always welcome). The authors have the freedom to write specifically for -- and only for -- teen readers. Mass-market aside, books aren't trying to appeal to a broad audience; that's what makes them so special. Books are the most personal medium; all of the excitement happens in your head.

There are several YA books that deal with very mature, serious topics, but those are written through the viewpoint of a teen. (And contrary to the Wall Street Journal, they are an essential part of the YA market.) They never take on a preachy tone or step back to comment about what a struggle the MC is going through. The authors take into account their readers' limited perspective. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire dealt with grave issues seen through the eyes of a teen, but that was marketed to adults.

Was my MC too sexual? Not necessarily. I think that the issue was in how she handled it and her attitude towards sex. Life isn't like a TV show.  And from now on, I won't be comparing what I write to what I watch.

What do you think? What differences do you notice between YA books and teen shows and movies?