Old People Writing for Teens, IV

JKRowley said:

I agree. Write the second page, if you have to. Skip the first paragraph, or type BRILLIANT OPENING HERE and get on to the first scene you can muster to get the story off the ground and running.

I do not like Kristen Stewart's acting in the Twilight series, except in New Moon. The comatose phase is perfect for her.

Snow White and the Huntsman looks good. I am looking forward to a review here, in the old people thread.

I am 42 (and loving this stage of life). It seems "old" here is a huge umbrella. LOL.

Click to expand...

The bolded made me lol xD

Giggling a little with justbishop

Saw Snow White and the Huntsman today and really liked it. Charlize Theron does a magnificent job as the queen. I'm not sure I ever saw anyone do an evil queen so sympathetically.

Smiley, because of you, I was thinking about the power of youth and beauty being a central theme to this movie. When I talked about it to my dh, he was like, "huh?"

Should send him off with the men to fight while the women do the thinking.

Jill!!! That's so funny! I think I noticed it as a theme because I just finished writing a big paper about it (granted slightly different topic and book but still).

Okay I am determined to fix this freakin' scene! It has been almost an entire week since I have written anything!

Get on it, Smiley!

I added a sentence.

Hey, it's a start

I know, I know.

How's your own writing going?

Meh. Not much left to write at the moment. Just released the prologue I added and may or may not keep into the SYW wild, so we shall see. I like it, but I could see how some might find it superfluous.

And I finally detailed my new story idea for my husband over lunch yesterday...he was not as enthusiastic about the proposed plot as I am, and now I'm doubting myself

Don't doubt yourself!! I am sure the plot is awesome. And I'm off to SYW to see your prologue.

I wrote 100 words. Not my goal of finishing this scene, but...something.

Woohoo for 100 words! Anything is better than nothing, right?

Yup. And almost done with this scene Finally! I've been stewing on it for days. Also, left you a comment on your SYW post. Hope it's helpful.

It feels so good to finally get through a scene you've been procrastinating on

And thanks for the SYW comment! Yes, it is helpful, even if it isn't what I had hoped to hear *sigh*

Sorry! I try to be honest in my critiquing. I think if you work on your piece a little bit more (maybe less internal stuff and more action - Maye doing something, etc.) you'll get there. I think it has really lovely tones of literary fic-ness.

I got to 49,000 words! Annnnd I finally finished this stupid scene. Thank goodness. It only took 4 hours with lots of procrastination lol.

Woohoo for 49k!!!!!

And yeah, I see what you're saying about the first chapter, but I just don't know what else I can have her doing. The whole point is that she's home alone, trying to go about her normal daily home schooling routine, but keeps getting interrupted by her own anxiety over what happened.

It does pick up as far as the action goes in chapter 2, but then chapter 3 is another walk down memory lane that I am not sure how to "fix". Bleh.

And I'll admit, at risk of seeming like a complete moron, that I'm not quite sure what "literary" means. Funny that you should use the word, though...one of my recent 2 betas did as well.

ETA: No need to be sorry about your comment, by the way! If no one ever said the stuff that's tough to hear, I wouldn't ever improve

I am celebrating 49k by moving on with editing/revising

Literary is...hard to explain. "The style of literary fiction is often described as "elegantly written, lyrical, and ... layered" (thank you Wikipedia). A YA example is Jellico0e R0ad. An adult example is At0nemen+.

Well geez, what a compliment! Thank you!

Literary fiction also tends to be character driven rather than plot driven. Think of commerical lit (ex: Gossip Girl) is plot driven and not character/internal struggle kind of stuff.

And you're welcome

Smiley, glad you got past that scene and writing again. I bet that feels good. 49,000 words is nothing to sneeze at.

justbishop. good luck with your critiques. It is scary to put stuff out there for people to read. (Although I send my critique group any old crap, then I ask them, what can I do to save this crap?) They know and love me anyway.

Writing is going well, but the devil is on my shoulder asking me if I have enough ideas. I am midway through rewrites on a MG book with another YA needing some writing. What if I have nothing else after that?

And yes, I do worry a lot about needless things. It may take me years to perfect those two books I have in my head. LOL.

Thanks, Jill. This novel was originally queried at 46,000 words so for me to be at 49k is I'm hoping to get to 50,000 or more by the end of these revisions.

I feel you on the 'enough ideas' thing. I used to have a bunch, but nothing sticks. I wrote 2 novels in 1 year and then after that...nada. Sigh. I just hope I can write something else full fledged (vs short stories).

What is your MG about?

My MG is about bipolar disorder, but it is adapted to make it lighter. Friends laugh at me about trying to lighten up a topic like bipolar, but I think it is quite brilliant.

The main character is a 10 year old boy. His mother has bipolar disorder, and strange things happen with her while the disorder manifests in him as a sudden ability to fly. He cannot control his flights. They mirror the ups and downs of bipolar with greater consequences at school and beyond. Flying gets you in real trouble. Not being able to fly when it counts causes problems too.

Interesting. So it's a superhero-ish type of book? Or sci-fi? How do you 'classify' it? I also like that you are taking a tough subject (one that isn't really written/talked about in MG) and putting in that age group.

You guys should not be worried about ideas. They will come

I don't know how to classify it, so I'll just write it and worry about that later.

The only books I could find on bipolar disorder were memoirs, and definitely not for children.

justbishop, I hope you are right about that. I haven't had a new idea in awhile. It takes me a very long time to develop the ones I do get.

Thanks, Ashley

Guys, I am 20 words from making it to 50,000 in this novel!! Oh man.... That was my goal in the beginning and I'm almost there. Plus I finished revision #2, which means I now get to add scenes

Yay, Smiley! That's great! I'm glad to hear good news today. It's dreary and miserable and my car died Friday while I was in another city, so I get to drive back in the rental today and pick it up.