Sunday 12 January 2014

#novelties

So I guess if I'm gonna be talking about my novel here, I better let you know actually, like, what it is. I'll totally make some posts about it soon, but for now, here's its tag on tumblr! A lot of it is kind of an inspiration board, just quotes and pictures that remind me of my characters and their story. But if you dig kinda deep (like around page 30), you'll be able to see some actual writing -- stuff I wrote for fun as well as actual excerpts! Wow! This is starting to feel real.

http://paperstar.tumblr.com/tagged/novelties

Saturday 11 January 2014

New Year, New Adult

Well, here I am, almost two years later! Since I'm finally working really really hard on my novel, like typing up the very last draft that's gonna be sent out to agents!!!!!!! My goal is to have the full thing completed, and queries sent out, by the start of next semester -- so September. !!!!!!!!!

Re-reading the only post that was on this blog before this one, nothing has changed, except that now I'm in school for Music Theatre and own a pair -- but just one!!! -- of yoga pants. They're from Wal-Mart, though, I didn't go crazy on 'em. I'm still a Baggy Sweatpants kinda girl. I also still am not used to Capital Letters and will try to figure them out on this journey.

And I will use this blog! To document this journey!

Currently I'm trying to work on a Chapter Two that's as clean and shiny and pretty as my Chapter One. I hate Chapter Twos.

Actually, one thing that I know about now that I didn't know about in 2012 -- New Adult Fiction. I think it's definitely where I belong, as my main characters range from age 18-26, which is actually the exact age bracket for main characters in New Adult. I'm very intrigued by the genre, as I think it's a really important time in someone's life! I may just be saying that because that's the time of my life I'm experiencing right now, but it really has been important.

I'm 22 now, and in the past few years I have really figured out who I am, want I want, how I can maybe try getting it -- of course, it's not like I'm ever going to stop learning, but I feel like since I've been 18 or 19, I've really discovered myself. And I think the cool thing about being 18 or 19 or 22 is being able to really start making changes in your life! On your own! As your own person! And if that's not a cool thing to explore in a book, I don't know what is.

I'm wary of the genre, though. I've "Looked Inside" many books, courtesy of Amazon, and I feel that as a whole the writing is not very strong. Like, I've read YA with much stronger and more captivating writing. And of course, as I've found out through my research of the genre, there is this stereotype that New Adult is really porny, or just YA with explicit sex. And that's not my book. There will be sex, I think, if I'm brave enough to write it, but it's not like that's what's exciting about the book -- it's certainly not something that I'll be mentioning in my queries, or that will be on the back cover of the published version (we can pray!!), because it's just not as important to the story as it seems it is in a lot of others.

I'm not trying to hate, though. I'm currently reading "Slammed" by Colleen Hoover, which was the one book whose Amazon preview I was really impressed by, and I'm loving it. Nice, simple writing, really good pacing, realistic characters I'm really connecting to. Awesome.

But I'm curious! How do people feel about the New Adult genre? I've heard it's just a fad, or a marketing ploy. But it's getting popular, and a lot of the books seem to have a lot of potential! And I think my book fits in really well with that genre, when before I didn't have a clue where I could place it. It's kind of a mix between Chick Lit and Literary Fiction. But I wonder if it's too literary for New Adult? Is there room for New Adult Literary? We'll see, I guess!

Let me know if you've read any New Adult and how you feel about it. Anything you think I should read? I'd love to! Thank you so much for hanging out here, guys!

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Overture

This is my writing blog.

It could also be seen as the one place on the internet, outside of school correspondence, I use capital letters. (I just don't find them attractive, same as with yoga pants.)

This is going to be the start of Very Big Things!
(I'm still figuring out the rules of Capitalization on the Internet, maybe.)

Being my first post, this post is very special, so I'm going to talk about something Very Special to me! Speak has been in my life since I was, I'm pretty sure, nine years old. I have known this book longer than I've known any of my closest friends, and for many years, if someone asked me my favourite book, I'd say this one.

I just read it for the first time in a while. The first time since I've been in college, anyway. And on almost every page, I found something incredible like this:
I think the Merryweather cheerleaders confuse me because I missed out on Sunday School. It has to be a miracle. There is no other explanation. How else could they sleep with the football team on Saturday night and be reincarnated as virginal goddesses on Monday?
which, strangely, reminded me of Katy Perry, but also made me think, I would never have understood this when I was nine years old. Or twelve or fifteen. And in a way, I still kind of don't understand it, or I want to explore it further. Why is it that, if everyone knows these girls sleep with the football players, the school chooses to see them as virginal goddesses? Is this the ideal femininity in high school (yes, of course, because otherwise you're a slut)? Why are the cheerleaders forgiven and worshipped and adored when other girls are branded as sluts?

Questions like these are traffic-jamming all up in my brain, just because this one sentence fascinates me! This sentence from a book I first read when I was nine. A book that is actually crammed with questions about how we create our own identities -- the topic, perhaps, I'm Most Passionate about (besides my homegurl Britney Spears)! A book that I'm going to read again and again and again when I'm twenty-five and thirty and really, really old. Because it gets me thinking about something new every time. It makes me ask questions, of my world and of myself! Plus, the writing is so gorgeous it makes you shiver, and so raw it feels like it's snapping your bones in half. (I have really weak bones, though, my arms have broken three times.) IF YOU HAVEN'T READ SPEAK YOU SHOULD OKAY.

Sorry, too many capitals.

Anyway, that's my idea of an amazing book, the kind I'd like to write. What's yours?

I'd love to get to know you.