Five Writing Strengths

My friend Annika tagged me for this meme, the goal of which is to list five of my strengths as a writer. Some of my answers could just as much be considered weaknesses, I think. Here goes! Five Writing Strengths

1. Character love. When I create a protagonist, I spend a lot of time getting to know her/him and trying to see the world the way they see it. I'll go through phases where I spend more hours in my protag's head than I do in my own. I sometimes even dream in their POV. My hope is that all this time and love I put into my characters makes readers end up caring for them as much as I do. (But is that even possible?!)

2. Commitment. I used to work full-time in an office. I used to make more than twice as much money as I make now. But three years ago I decided to see if I could really do this writing thing, so I switched to working 20 hours a week instead. I'm not making any money from my writing - yet - but I work on it between 20 and 40 hours every week. I haven't given up!

3. Voice. I think the compliment I get most on my writing is usually on voice. I don't understand how it works or where it comes from, but I seem to have it. Or so people tell me.

4. Dialogue. The thing I get compliments on secondly is probably my dialogue. Again, I don't know where this stuff comes from. But I so enjoy writing it. I'm always working out dialogue in my head while I'm driving or riding the bus.

5. Research. It's been pointed out to me that I sometimes take my research a little further than other writers might. When I was writing a scene where Seth was pushed into a pool while he was fully dressed, I dressed in clothes like he would have worn and had someone push me into a pool (making sure they did it while I was distracted so I didn't know for sure when it was coming). I could have guessed what it felt like, but I didn't want to; I wanted to feel exactly what Seth would have felt. I don't do this with everything, but whenever I can, I do try to do things my characters experience in the scenes so that I know for a fact that I've written something real.

And now for the tagging. As always, no pressure. If you don't want to do this, please feel free to skip it. But, I figure everyone reading this is a writer, so many of you might enjoy it!

cocoskeeper, fabulousfrock, jengt, mandywriter, ravelda, rosefiend

I'm panicking.

I am at 56 percent with my rewrite. Which is good, I guess. I mean, it's better than not being 56 percent done, right? I have great characters. I have a good narrator/true voice in Seth. Every scene on its own has some degree of enjoyable goodness. People say this to me. And I believe it to be true when I read it for myself.

And yet... I'm freaking out. I keep finding myself analyzing the plot and the journey. I just don't see how this is going to work. It's like, my scenes are arranged in the way they are because things have to happen in a certain order. But the order of things doesn't seem to have the best flow as far as I can tell. I don't know. I just don't KNOW!

I'm having one of those urges to just (metaphorically) walk away. But I just can't do that. I've spent a year of my life working on this story, with these characters. They deserve a good ending. I deserve a good ending.

I'll be heading to Vegas for my 30th birthday this week. I hope when I come back things will be working smoother. I hope I'll be able to get this done.

Character love.

The protagonist in my first manuscript was a 15-year-old girl named Carah Greene. She was so quirky, cute, and clever that I was sure I could never write another character I'd love more. For a long time that held true. I started (and abandoned) two other manuscripts with a combined total of three protags: 15-year-old Neko, 16-year-old Cat, and 16-year-old River. I liked all of these characters. But I never loved them.

Then I started writing 16-year-old Seth McCoy. It was kind of an experiment. Can I write a boy? Can I really pull this off?

I liked Seth from the very first scene I wrote in his voice. I found his sarcasm and outlook on life so amusing... and different. And unlike Carah who was a good person with a few flawed characteristics, Seth was more like a flawed person with a few good characteristics. That made him challenging, but interesting.

Awhile back, I came to the realization that I love Seth more than I ever loved Carah. I also realized that if I knew him in real life, I probably wouldn't like him. If I'd known him in high school, I definitely wouldn't have liked him. But there is something about being in his head and knowing that the words that come out of his mouth are not the same as what he's really thinking that makes him so appealing to me.

It's kind of funny because I sometimes find myself reluctant to write the scenes with major conflict because I don't like to see Seth get hurt. I just hate it when people yell at him. But I know it's all for the good of the story, so I do it anyway. :-)

Rachel Cohn.

Over the past few years I've read several of Rachel Cohn's books: GINGERBREAD, SHRIMP, POP PRINCESS, and NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST. I just got ELI AND NAOMI'S NO-KISS LIST from the library. Yesterday it was time to start the book, and I found that I didn't want to. I did it anyway (I had a doctor's appointment and some waiting room time). And I got into it right away.

So, I was trying to figure out why the thought of reading Rachel Cohn's books exhausts me so much. I still never did read CUPCAKE to finish the Cyd Charisse series. I never read Rachel's other series THE STEPS. It's like, while I'm reading the books, I enjoy them well enough. But when I'm not reading them, I'm just never sure if I want to read another one.

Last night, halfway through NO KISS-LIST, I figured it out (again. I have made this revelation in the past, too): I just don't like her protags. I didn't like Cyd Charisse. I only sort of liked Wonder. I really didn't like Norah. And now, I don't like Naomi. (Only time will tell if I end up disliking her as much as Norah.)

Now, Naomi might just as much be David Levithan's creation as she is Rachel's. I know they wrote this one differently from INFINITE PLAYLIST. I do find it interesting though. Rachel has a voice I enjoy, and stories I usually like in some ways, too. But her main characters are too flawed for my liking. If they were real people, I wouldn't want to spend time with a single one of them.

Oh, my heart.

I just got an email from my most recent writing instructor. And it totally made me... emotional.

These are the last few paragraphs:

Your writing is very clean and so real! It surprised me in class when you said you'd had another YA manuscript passed on by a bunch of agents--I can't imagine reading your writing and not at least wanting to take you on as client, even if that specific book you were submitting had problems in itself.

I think the one remaining challenge for you here is still plot and hook--really working out the concrete beats in a way where readers feel a clear sense of story thrust, of Seth having a purpose, something he's pushing toward or being pushed toward. The writing is so strong that it's easy to get lost in these scenes, but looking at them as a whole I do want to caution you that I think once you have everything down on paper, you'll want to go back over this and give thought to some of that annoying (yet true) formulaic approach to story--the whole three act structure bit, and setting up a clear conflict that we then watch become increasingly complicated before the character can resolve.

I have utter faith that you can do this, though, and want to reiterate that the thing that can't be learned, in my opinion, is the basic talent for writing that you have--plot and structure come with time and practice, and CAN be learned.

I would love to keep in touch, and I'd love for you to give me a head's up when you've finished this book, if you feel comfortable with that, so that I can see if there's any way I could help you get it placed at the right house. You really have this in you, I promise! :)