I'm attempting to write a new synopsis, but it isn't going well. Many people have this problem. I know it. And everytime I read an entry someone else makes about how much they hate writing their synopsis, I can empathize and know that they'll get through it eventually and it will be swell.
Why don't I have that same feeling right now for my own synopsis? Because, damn. It feels like I will never finish this.
I kind of want to write a story about a teenage girl who has two serious boyfriends. Who each know about her relationship with the other. And are (mostly) okay with the situation -- or at least pretend to be okay with it. (It would probably be the pretending part that would be the beginnings of the tension.)
I've been thinking about this one for a while and even considered having this character's situation be a subplot for some other story I might someday write. Like, she'd be the protag's best friend or something. Then today, I thought, Why not just give this story a try from her point of view? It could be interesting. Right?
Naturally, I decided to make an LJ entry instead of doing anything else with it right now. I'm not sure I can imagine a scenario like this ending well for the characters. I'm not sure what I'd like to see happen or what the girl's journey might be. And I certainly wouldn't want to write something like this if it might be interpreted that I'm judging or having an agenda. Do I even have the finesse to pull it off?
I don't know why I'm so drawn to this idea. Wish fulfillment, maybe? ;-)
(P.S. Has anyone seen anything similar in YA before? I'm so very, very curious...)
I attended the Western Washington SCBWI conference this past weekend. I spent a lot of time there with ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
mandywriter who has posted some good stuff about what all went on.
The conference was useful for the networking/marketing aspect of writing. In that way, I got everything I could have wanted or expected from the event. (Well, I would have loved to meet some local YA writers around my age, actually. Not to sound ageist or anything. I just think it would be cool to make friends whom I can get together with to share and discuss our writing, and also hang out with and go to concerts with or whatever!)
I came away hungry -- starving, even -- for some instruction and focus on craft. The workshop Liesa Abrams did was a great start for me with her ideas about developing a strong hook and plot. This information shouldn't be new to me, but it felt new. Probably because I am at the starting stage right now, which is somewhere I haven't been for over a year and a half. I'm mulling everything over days later, hoping to come up with something outstanding for my new story.
I've also been researching today for some writing classes -- online or local will do -- but I'm coming up very little that appeals. I want more! I want to learn! I want someone to teach me something, damnit!
The online MB classes and the online stuff with Lauren Barnholdt a few years ago spoiled me. I adore working with instructors and writers who are focused on YA and who truly get it. In years past, I was always the only YA writer in my classes, and it made me feel like I was off in some corner of weird fiction all by myself. I'm sure I can learn some useful things from general fiction-type class, but I'm so reluctant to do that right now. Why are YA options so limited?
I got a rejection on a query (with sample pages) this morning.
So I sent out another.
I got rejection on that query plus pages.
So I sent out one more (with synopsis plus ten pages per the agent's guidelines).
Keeping on trucking. That's me. But what a cruel effing day, you know?
Then I got this note back on that last one:
That was great, Mindi. You nailed the teen voice perfectly. Please mail the entire manuscript for my consideration.
I'm feeling much better now. What a difference those three sentences made!
When writing my first YA novel, I threw in ideas that sounded interesting to me whether they fit together or not. Sometimes I made them fit just because I liked the quirkiness of a particular character trait or plot element. The result is that there were lots of divergences, and things now that would make me wonder: Why exactly is this even included in this story?
When I started my second YA, I got worse, not better. I used alternating first person viewpoints. Then one of the girls got kicked out of boarding school, there was a foreign exchange student, way too many cameos by characters from the first (loosely connected) novel, parents divorcing, an abusive boyfriend, one of the girls getting drugged at a party, one of them having to drive without a license because of Circumstances. And on and on it goes. Everything was so convoluted and overwhelming that I gave up on it.
The third YA manuscript? Well, that was the worst yet. One of the themes had to do with secrets and lies. I had at least two secrets for each of the three teen characters (cousins), as well as at least one for their three sets of parents and one set of grandparents. That's ten secrets! That's enough for at least three novels! Again, I got overwhelmed and gave up.
So, for my most recent one, I was determined to keep it as tight as possible. I spent 18 months going over it, writing and rewriting it to try to tie in every little thing and keep it on track. For the most part, I feel like I succeeded. I'm sure there were simpler ways to get from point A to point B that I didn't think of, but there wasn't much in there that didn't have an important purpose that I can think of.
Well, now I've decided I'd like to give YA #2 another shot. My new idea for this doesn't include any boarding schools or exhange students. I'm trying to work out what it should include.
I wanted to write a story where two sisters make a similar discovery. All their lives, they believed that these were their parents, but then discovered it wasn't quite like that. There are a few different ways I could go with this:
1. Mom was pregnant (by a guy she is no longer with. A one-night stand maybe?) when she met Dad. He married her, raised the daughter (Kat) as if she were his. Then Mom and Dad had the second daughter (Neko) a year or two later. Obviously, in this scenario, Dad knows Kat isn't his biological daughter from the start. For whatever reason, Mom and Dad chose not to tell Kat and Neko.
2. Mom and Dad conceived Kat, then split up at some point when she was an infant perhaps? Mom got pregnant with Neko by another man while they were apart. Then she and Dad reconciled. In this scenario, depending on the time frame I choose to go with, Dad might know from the start that Neko isn't his, or he might be kept in the dark.
3. Mom and Dad had Kat. Later, Mom had an affair and Neko was conceived. Here, if Dad doesn't know about the affair, he won't have any inkling that Neko isn't his. Or, it could be that he does know about the affair, he might have come to terms with it and feels like Neko is his anyway. Whatever.
Since I decided to write this story from the POV of Kat - the older sister - in some ways, I felt like maybe she should be the one who isn't Dad's daughter. You know, to give her that feeling of alienation and betrayal. But the thing is, I think she could still be his daughter and be blindsided by the lie. If, say, the fall out is big enough, Kat can feel (almost) as betrayed by the discovery of secret as Neko feels. Maybe Dad could leave the family as a result causing upheaval all around. Or there could be ongoing stress and tension that didn't exist in their household before. Or Neko might withdraw from everyone - including Kat - after she finds out the truth.
This isn't set in stone, but I'm thinking I want Neko to be the one to find out the truth. She is highly intelligent with an aptitiude and passion for science, particularly biology and genetics. I was thinking she'd figure it out through their blood types or DNA or something. It wouldn't necessarily come out because she's trying to find evidence, but maybe because she's working on a project and then makes the discovery. This means that there could be resentment on many different sides when it comes to light. For example: Kat blames Mom and/or Dad for what happened and Neko for being the one to reveal it.
Now, another part of the story I want to explore is Kat having a manipulative boyfriend (but not recognizing him as such). It can't be like, Oh, Kat has this paternity drama in her life and also happens to be dating this jerk. The boyfriend absolutely needs to be a result or symptom of the other issue. Like, had she not discovered this truth about her family and suffered whatever the aftermath might have been, she would not have been in a state to need or want this particular guy. It also means that through the course of the story, whatever kind of reconciliation or acceptance of circumstances she finds with her family, she needs to also make realizations about her relationship with her boyfriend that take her the opposite way.
I'm not sure about this, but right now, I'm thinking the big Who's Your Daddy Discovery should have been made off-screen. Maybe a year prior to the start of the story. Or maybe only several months? This means Kat will be involved with Boyfriend when the story starts. He'll seem harmless (but needy) to Kat and readers at the beginning, but as Whatever It Is That's Going To Happen happens, his true nature will gradually be revealed. He needs Kat to be alienated from her family to keep her with him. So, when she starts finding her way back to them, he'll have to try harder to keep her. (Which also brings me to the question of what is going to happen to change everything? But I can work that part out as I start outlining.)
Anyhow, those are the types of things I'm pondering right now. I have to make decisions about the aforementioned plot points before I can start writing because the details will make a big difference, not only in the backstory, but in how Kat will be feeling and what her life will be like in the present. I can't know what she's dealing with if I don't know exactly how she got to where she is.
