Indie rock-listening misfit finds true

Probably. I have a list in my current novel, so I've committed one sin for sure.

But I don't really regard any of these as *sins* per se, because I keep thinking of books I like that contain these elements. Depends on what you define as excessive, I suppose. For example, I enjoy the Princess Diaries (for the fluffy read that it is, not as high literature) and that includes a lot of lists, and a lot of pop culture references.

dahlfan said:

The YA market it saturated with books like this. These same books tend to include: 1. Lists, 2. Excessive snark, and 3. Excessive pop cultural references. Are any of you guilty of these sins?

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No lists, no true love, although we have some snark, and very few pop culture references.

But yeah, she likes indie rock.

So...maybe this is why I'm not selling?

*adds in true love and lists, some random mentions of youtube, then sits back and waits for the editor calls*

Obviously.

Oh dear.

I hope this "genre" so to speak is the same as it is for vampires; always room for one more if it's well-written.

And hoping mine's one of 'em.

Man. Well, at least I don't have lists. I don't think.

this thread is getting amusing

All right - I'm going in:

Huh?

Sorry, did I say something offensive, or miss sarcasm, not clarify myself, or misinterpret something? I get the feeling I stepped on a toe there, Dahl, but I'm not sure how...could you upack this for me? Alienating...AW posters? Potential future readers? I'm really confused.

FTJoshua said:

All right - I'm going in:

Huh?

Sorry, did I say something offensive, or miss sarcasm, not clarify myself, or misinterpret something? I get the feeling I stepped on a toe there, Dahl, but I'm not sure how...could you upack this for me? Alienating...AW posters? Potential future readers? I'm really confused.

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Yeah uhh I don't feel alienated... what's up dahl?


As for me... no mis-fits, no lists, lots of snark, some pop culture. I'm doing okay I guess

I refuse to have pop culture references.

I WILL have obscure nerd references.

Muahahahahahaha!

dahlfan said:

3. Excessive pop cultural references. Are any of you guilty of these sins?

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Answer to second question, no. Since my world is alternate. I do have my MC commenting that GMC, the global music channel, doesn't play music anymore. lol

About the first, if you have too many, then it'll be dated fast. Immortal Secrets of Flamel likes to use pop culture references to show how young and hip and normal his characters are. One problem. He used games and ipods to show this.

Fact of the matter is that phones will probably replace iPods in a few years. Also I think his book came out a few years after the games he mentioned, which leads me to believe he did a google search for 'what games teens like to play'. One more thing, the boy in the story uses lycos to search. He could as well be using some other dead (or almost) search engine no one uses (except for a few million >_>).

So yeah, don't date your work. Doesn't make for good reading. You can mention playstations (JK Rowling used it just fine, but not for characterization, but showing how Harry had to sneak to play Dudley's games), Nikes, iPod (not for characterization!!!). Just don't take it overboard, unless you want to seem like an old person doing his or her best at being hip and cool. Not to mention the reader may get the perception that you are being paid to do so...

BIZARRO!

Bonus advice- Do not create dumb sounding slang names you think kids use. Made-up slang is okay, but control it and say it out loud to see how it sounds.

Use slang you know kids use, not ones you think kids use.
The YA writer combing urbandictionary is just bad.
I use some slang, but not in a way that will make my work date.

As for dating... we can go around and around with this one. Whatever you may think about it, too much is always too bad, whatever it is

Ah, I used to use fake slang.

Then i went through and replaced it with shit and fuck and it all worked out pretty good.

Zoombie said:

Ah, I used to use fake slang.

Then i went through and replaced it with shit and fuck and it all worked out pretty good.

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LOL With those, you can't go wrong in any decade

I've never seen anything by Diablo so I can't say anything except... well I watch United States of Tara and I rather like it.

As long as there are snarky indie rock-listening misfits searching for true love, there will be room for more books using those tropes.

I've got a mention of The Stranglers in my WIP. It's very specifically the MC's Dad's music and it's in the context of a scene where the MC's best friend is flirting with MC's Dad.

I think the most recent pop-culture reference in my first novel would be to Doctor Who, and that's if you think she's referring to the revival series (she mentions as a joke that her knowledge of English history comes from Doctor Who and Blackadder). If she's not, there's a few Buffy mentions tossed about.

As for music references, I believe the most recent one would be one about Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, and that's not recent at all (Delia dreams of Broadway and instead is stuck working in a hotel for vampires). After that the most recent one is a mention of how she's embarrassed that she used to listen to the Spice Girls. And then the last music reference is David Bowie. So.

Most of my references are actually older stuff that is still around, having proved its longevity.

Of my other WIPs, LH takes place in another world, so our pop cultural references won't work, and TCG (NaNo) is Victorian Era. And Bones's references are comic book related, and I think the most recent one that gets mentioned in passing is the Gargoyles series. The main/most common mentions I'd say would be Black Canary and Green Arrow, and they're not exactly new.