Writers on Writing: The Writer's Process

Last week Alison Miller tagged me in the Writer's on Writing blog hop, and today's my day! You can check out her blog here. Thanks, Alison!

1. What are you working on?

My work-in-progress is a YA contemporary about a girl with a disabled father and a mother in prison. She's done a fine job taking care of herself and her dad, thank you very much, until the uncle she blames for her mom's conviction shows up to ruin everything. Again. The writing is going slow, with end of the school year activities on top of work-type editing responsibilities. But I am in love with this character. She's brave and strong and loyal, with a questionable moral compass. The family relationships are complex, and it's exciting to see how their interactions play out. I've readjusted my goal of finishing the first draft from a certain date to sometime this summer.

2. What makes your work different?

Every piece of long fiction I've written takes place mostly in the South. This didn't begin as an intentional choice, yet most pieces take place in north or central Florida, in areas where I've lived for many years. North Florida has a unique flavor, somehow both deep South and lassez-faire, diverse in culture and beliefs, and both literally and figuratively hot and steamy. I hate seeing Southerners depicted as dim-witted and close-minded on television and in movies, and though less often, also in books. I try to bring a different touch of the South to my work, something that enhances the characters without drawing too much attention to itself.

3. Why do you write what you do?

I fell in love with YA while teaching middle school. It started out as a way to stay tuned to what my students were reading. I read everything they recommended, alongside my Anita Shreve and Stephen King. One day, a student came to me and said, "Mrs. D, you have to read this! It's about a boy, and he finds out he's a wizard, and..." Suddenly I wasn't just reading children's books for them anymore. I was one of those people waiting to pick up the next Harry Potter at midnight when it came out. When I started seeking out YA books that were beyond my sixth graders for my personal reading, I knew I was hooked.

Still, when I started writing, my first novel was in the "women's" fiction camp. It took place over twenty plus years, but it began when the main character was a freshman in college. But she didn't act that way. She acted like someone in high school. And it hit me that tapping in to the potential for a life full of wonders and firsts and mistakes, was the sweet spot. The place where I wanted to write. I started reading YA almost exclusively, and writing it, and I haven't looked back since.

4. What is your writing process?

Everything starts with a character. I think about him or her for a while, and I start with jotting down everything. Likes and dislikes, quirks, family background, friends, everything. Once I have a general idea of what the problem will be, I write a rough idea of what the climax will be, usually not knowing how it will end. Next I write more back stories for more characters, and then I just dig in and let those characters take me where they will. So, in short, I'm a pantser.

For my fantasy Trespassers, I have composition books filled with the "rules" of the world, drawings, maps, sticky notes for errant thoughts, the arch of the would-be trilogy, and extensive research of the history on which my magic was based. For my magical realism Perception, everything is cataloged in Word and Excel. (I think for me, the method changes to fit the story.) I do listen to music while drafting, and when I wrote Perception, my playlists included music my MC Evan loved. I edit and revise in quiet, and now that I'm drafting again, I'm having to find new music to suit my girl.

This has been so much fun! Alison also tagged Melanie Stanford today, so please check out her answers. And I'm tagging fellow Florida girl Missy LaRae, so please stop by her blog here for her answers on Thursday, May 29th.

It's been forever since I checked in with YA Highway's Road Trip Wednesday. This week the topic is simple and perfect for what's been on my mind:

What are you reading right now?

I'm still reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. At about halfway through, that's slow reading for me.

I've been itching to talk about it, though, because I think Ms. Tartt has a secret. On top of being a best-selling, Pulitzer-winning literary powerhouse, she may secretly be a YA writer in disguise. Let's start with the premise of The Goldfinch, according to Goodreads:

Buy it here

Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.

I realize that in the course of the narrative, Theo will grow up, and I'll learn how the trials of his youth shaped him and the circumstances he faces as an adult. But for the first half of this book, Tartt creates a raw, honest picture of a teenager's life in America. Theo deals with tragedy and loss, guilt and confusion. My heart aches for him and for my real-life sons, who are edging too close for comfort to his age.

The "youth" portion of this novel may not form a complete story on it's own, but even with plot elements aside, it would hold up as a coming of age tale. My question is, then, which defines a book as YA more, the age and circumstances of the main character, or the intention of the author to write for young people? If the answer is the former, then Ms. Tartt is definitely a YA writer in addition to her other talents.

Happy reading and happy Wednesday, everyone!

Music for today: Bad Blood by Bastille

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop hosted by the lovely Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk. Please check out their blogs to join in the fun!

What I'm Reading


I just started Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch. I love Donna Tartt. To anyone exploring the realm of New Adult, I highly recommend her first novel The Secret History, about a small-town boy who becomes enthralled in a strange and exclusive group at his university. I've read some opinions that The Goldfinch won the Pulitzer because The Secret History should have won ten years ago. I haven't formed my own opinion yet. Tartt has the rare gift of beautiful, literary prose voiced through youth. The main character, in the beginning, anyway, is a thirteen-year-old boy. For someone who reads mostly YA, it's a huge shift in pace, but the emotions and the story are right there with my normal choices.


What I'm Writing

I broke the 12,000 word mark, and the fifth chapter, on my WIP. I'm in love with this story, yet I'm not nearly as far as I'd hoped to be by now. But it's all good, because I was sidetracked by The Writer's Voice. It's an amazing contest hosted by Brenda Drake, Mónica Bustamante Wagner, Kimberly P. Chase, and Elizabeth Briggs, based on NBC's The Voice. If you want to get a glimpse of a day in the life of an agent, take a look at the live blog hop on any of the sites above. There are 139 queries and first pages, and the talent is mind-blowing. I am so honored to be chosen by Kimberly Chase for her team, along with fellow WUW gal Alison Miller! 


What Inspires Me Right Now

Music has been my inspiration lately. It's funny; I tried writing this WIP to some of my Perception playlists, and it was not happening! The Lumineers are working better for this one, and the occasional Death Cab and Twin Shadow. 

What Else I've Been Up To

I'm thrilled to be leading a new SCBWI critique group in the Jacksonville area. Our first meeting is this Saturday, and we've had lots of interest online. For me, my writing life is usually compartmentalized away from my regular life with friends and family. But I'm ready for worlds to collide, and I can't wait to meet and dig in with other local writers.

And finally, I know I just wrote a post about sharing too much about my children, but I can't help myself. Son #1 had a piece of art chosen for an art show. I am so proud of him, and so excited! The show is being held at a local hotel, and afterward, the pieces will stay on display. Yay!

I can't wait to catch up with everyone else!

The Writer's Voice: PERCEPTION (YA)

Welcome, readers! I lucked out by securing a spot in "The Writer’s Voice,” a multi-blog, multi-agent contest hosted by Brenda Drake, Mónica Bustamante Wagner, Kimberly P. Chase, and Elizabeth Briggs. You can find more info on any of their websites. If you're one of the judges, thank you so much for this opportunity! This entry is for my YA novel PERCEPTION.

Query:

Evan Evans can’t decide what scares him more: keeling over from his rare liver disorder or dying a virgin. When he gets drunk to ask a girl out at a party, he ends up with disturbing dreams, a hangover, and a video of his escapades on a gossip blog.    

Now Evan’s grounded. His liver’s failing. And his secretive virtual support group is pissed that the video highlights his symptoms. Things go from bad to weird when the hangover-induced nightmares start coming true, including a make out session with the blogger and a classmate’s death.

Falling for the girl who exposed him, confronted by a specialist conducting unregulated clinical trials, and wanted by a government informant desperate to record his dreams, Evan must face his disease and its effect on everyone he cares about. Will he choose a longer life on someone else’s terms, or freedom with no hope of recovery?

PERCEPTION is a 76,000 word YA contemporary with a speculative twist. The wry humor will appeal to fans of Holly Black’s White Cat, the take on relationships resembles Jennifer Smith’s The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, and the light touch of fantasy is reminiscent of Philip K. Dick’s “Minority Report.”

First 250:

That first sip tasted like change, cool with only a hint of bitter.

No one at the party expected me to take a beer, least of all me. But after hours at the beach, alone by the fire and surrounded by couples making out, I fished a can from the cooler and cracked it open before my conscience could stop me. I’d wasted three years in the shadows. Before senior year started, I had to ask a girl out. A little liquid courage seemed like a step in the right direction.

“Oh, shit! Evan Evans has a beer! Somebody take a picture.” Jake Morgan laughed.

I flipped Jake off and walked to the shoreline. We’d snuck into Hanna Park through the woods, far from the lights of the condos farther south. Away from the bonfire, the night was all black water and white moonlight catching on the breakers. The memory of coconut sunscreen clung to the breeze, warm but welcome.

I chugged the rest of the beer, ignoring my churning stomach. Powdery dry sand weighed down my feet, and my toe caught when I crossed onto the hard-packed dampness. I pulled a thin red ribbon from beneath my foot. It slipped from my fingers and caught on the wind, twisting and swirling toward a girl hunched over alone on a rental chair.

I couldn’t tell who it was, but I started toward her. Better to talk one-on-one than to crash and burn in front of the crowd.

The Open Door

I'm often struck by the idea of privacy, and its frequent absence in our constantly media connected world. It's an underlying theme in my novel Perception, and lately I've had the opportunity to question some real life issues with our expectations of privacy.

Last year a law passed in the state of Florida that prohibits educators from discouraging a parent from bringing an outside party to an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting for his or her child. I won't unpack all the particulars, and this isn't a post about our education system in the US or our services for people with disabilities. Of course parents should be able to bring advocates to meetings. But that protection also extends to the media. If a parent chooses, she can bring the local news team, have them record the meeting, and broadcast it publicly. And the educator can't show an emotion that could be construed as discouraging.  

You may ask, "If the educators don't have anything to hide, why would they care?" My concern isn't with the educators or the parents, but for the child.

I post photos of my kids on Facebook, and I've even put a few on my blog. At some point, they may not appreciate that, and there's not anything I can do to take it back. When they're teens, molding their own Internet-public images with pictures, videos, and words, they'll have to live with the consequences of how they choose to represent themselves. Because if they act publicly, and someone else shares their information, there's nothing they can do to take that back, either.

In the past two days, five people I encountered in real life said to me, "I saw Son #2's [insert photo-worthy accomplishment]! That's great, tell him congratulations." I didn't post this information to the Internet, and neither did my husband. I didn't even get a notification through social media that I had been tagged in said event and photo album. It's a great thing, and I'm proud of him. I'm not remotely bothered that my friend chose to share this information. But what if it had been something I didn't want public? Or something he didn't?

Future employers and friends may be able to see with one click a full biography of my kids' lives, not of their making. Big Data scares me worse than Skynet.

While I was picking up my kids from school yesterday, I watched an adult yell animatedly at the child in her care. (I was in the car with my windows closed, so I did not hear what she said.) I wondered if I pulled out my phone, videoed the exchange, and showed it to her, how she would feel. Would she be proud of words and actions? Would I have been in my rights to take that video and upload it, as an example what a screaming parent looks like? And how would it affect the child, to have that moment immortalized?

Should children have a right to an expectation of privacy? For my hypothetical child with an IEP, should a parent have the right to expose her child's disability and the comments made by a team of people about her, to the world via the local news, even if her intention was to fight for that child's rights?

Like a friend of mine says weekly, I'm glad All the Things--Internet, Mobile Phones, etc.--weren't around in this capacity when we were teenagers.

Music for today: Every Breath You Take by The Police

Manuscript Music

This week the lovely Leatrice McKinney at Info Dump a la El is hosting Pitch Slam: Battle of the Bands!  In addition to pitching novels, each day this week we're rocking Pitch Slam Twitter Parties. Today we're sharing our writing playlists. 

My YA novel PERCEPTION is about a boy with a rare liver disorder who spends one wild night trying to forget his disease and exposes disturbing new neurological symptoms instead. Grounded, wanted by experimenting doctors and government informants, and falling for the girl who snitched on him, he faces treatment as a lab rat or freedom while sacrificing recovery. 

Here are some of the songs on my Perception Playlist!  

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a blog hop created and hosted by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk to connect and encourage writers. Please visit their blogs to join in the fun!

Click here to buy it locally through Indie Bound

WHAT I'M READING

This week I'm reading Cherry Money Baby by author and agent extraordinaire John M. Cusick. I'm really enjoying Cherry's distinctive voice and the authentic family relationships.

WHAT I'M WRITING

I'm 5,000 words in to the shiny, new WIP! It's taking more research than I'd expected, which has kept me from moving as quickly as I'd like. But my main character--this girl is something else. I just hope I can keep up with her. I'm even more crazy about her than I was when I started with my last MC. My goal is to have the first draft finished before my boys are out of school for the summer, and for now that seems feasible.

WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

My friend and critique partner Angelica R. Jackson has amazing news! Her book Crow's Rest sold to Spencer Hill Press, with a release date of May 15, 2015. I can't wait for this book to make it out into the world, and I am so happy for her. Seeing her take this next step on her journey inspires me to keep up my own persistence and writing fortitude. Congratulations, Angelica!

And on another front of CP news... Since I started writing seriously, I've been looking for a local critique group. I have many amazing critique partners, including Angelica, who I've met at conferences and through the Internet. But we're spread out across the country. I'm greedy, I know, but I want more. I want more CPs and betas, with an in-person perspective. The existing writing groups in Jacksonville mostly focus on adult books, so through the SCBWI, I'm starting a local children's book critique group. We're still in the planning stages, but I'm so excited about what's to come.

WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO

It's been far too long since I went to a concert, and that will be remedied tomorrow night. Local Natives are playing here on Thursday. I've been counting down the days. They have a soulful, indie style with beautiful lyrics. Here's an example of the images they create, from the song Heavy Feet:

Powder in your hair
Staples in your jeans
Fireworks in the water
You were holding
A styrofoam cup
Held between your teeth
Telling me how you're going to outlive your body

You can check out their latest album Hummingbird here.

I can't wait to see what the rest of you are up to this week!