Hello again, I'm back! I've been so involved in getting my middle six chapters finished for my historical novel, that I'm near hysterical. Anyway, I don't know where the time has gone, but I guess I was having too much fun to remember about my blog...NOT.
I've got so much on my mind these days that i seem to be turning in circles without finding an exit. I'm doing research on both agents and editors, but I think I am going to try to find representation rather than going straight to a publishing house. You know what that means? Mostly it means my head is spinning, to be cliche-ish.
For one thing, I have yet to figure out what "juvenile" means in terms of genre for agents. I have spent 4 hours going through the 2011 edition of Guide to Literary Agents, and all it has gotten me is confusion. Some agents specify that they represent MG and/or YA books. Some say children's books but do not specify what age limit, other than perhaps saying they don't want Picture Books. And then...we have those who ONLY specify "juvenile." That's a new one for me. If you know what "juvenile" means in terms of...PBs, early reader,
chapter books, MG or YA, would you please post a comment and let me know?
Seriously.
Then there is my first novel that I am once again...and hopefully for the very last time...editing. I had a professional critique of my first three chapters, which I was very glad to receive. The lady who did it was complimentary, but also very clear in what she thought should be changed, eliminated, or reworded entirely. A lot of work to be done on those first chapters, but now I've begun going through every page of the remaining 15 chapters to apply the suggestions and comments she made to everywhere that it would be pertinent. It's a lot of work, and I'm not even half way through the 18 chapters, but in the long run, I feel it will make the manuscript better.
Speaking of that novel...how did you come by the ideas for the stories or novels you write or have written? My main character, AJ, woke me up in the middle of the night. Now my husband...non-writer that he is...insists I merely dreamed the whold thing. But...even he cannot explain the hand-written, only partially legible notes that I found on my desk the following moring. And considering my handwriting these days, after so many years on the computer, those notes could only have been written when I was only half awake!
So...AJ wakes me up and says I need to write her story about cheerleading. Excuse me? Cheerleading? What I know about that subject you could write on the head of a pin. But she was SO insistent. The next morning, I went to the library and checked out 7 books on cheerleading, 6 were fiction and 1 was NF. I spent days and weeks reading and doing research on the Internet about cheerleading. When I told my daughter, she thought I'd really lost it. She hadn't even wanted to be a cheerer ( is that a word? ) when she was in school, and thought the girls who were were all a bunch of snobs.
Nevertheless, after 2 weeks of straight research, I began the novel, Almost immediately, I decided I needed help, so I signed up for the ICL novel course. Over the next 16 months, I wrote, edited, revised, wrote, edited, revised, wrote...well, you know. As it turns out, AJ is a 13 year old girl who has a lot more going for her than she realizes. She becomes a cheerleader, although not the Senior Captain that she expected to be. And the reason for that comes in the form of the new girl in town, Celine, who for some strange reason is out to destroy all of AJ's friendships and ruin her chances to even be on the cheerleading squad. The story evolved into much more than a "cheerleading saga." Being a horse person, I could hardly be expected to write a novel without horses in it, so AJ lives in a western Colorado town, and has a championship mare. She fights ( literally) with Celine, learns that there is a mysterious connection between Celine ( who is not who or what she claims to be) and AJ's father, faces the death of one of her BFFs, learns that she will be getting a stepmother soon who has been in her father's life for much longer than she should have been, and...
Hopefully, before too much longer, you all will be able to read the entire novel by buying it from Amazon or your local bookstore!
And then, there's my hysterical...umm, I mean... historical...novel...but thats a story for another day.
Until next time, that's a wrap.
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Monday, July 26, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Books, Books, and More Books
How many "how to write" books do you have? Writing for children, writing for adults, just writing in general?
The first writing books I had were sent to me by my daughter, with a note that basically said, Get off your butt and start writing! And those 5 books were actually what started me writing with the intention ( and hope) of someday being published.
The best of those books were Crafting Stories for Children, by Nancy Lamb, and The Children's Writer's Word Book, by Alijandra Mogilner. I've kinda gotten beyond the Writer's Word Book, but I still refer to Nancy Lamb's book.
Then there is Writing it Right by Sandy Asher, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown and Dave King; Finding Your Voice by Les Edgerton; Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass; The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman; Characters, Emotion and Viewpoint by Nancy Kress; and last but certainly not least, Word Magic for Writers by Cindy Rogers.
These all grace my bookshelves, as well as the requisite 2010 editions of Writer's Guide to 2010, The Children's Writers and Illustrators Market, Book Markets for Children's Writers, Magazine Markets for Children's Writers, The Children's Writers' Guide ( 2009 edition), and just received, the 2011 Guide to Literary Agents. Whew!
Have I read all of these books, cover to cover? No, of course not. I probably should, but instead, I pick and choose the chapters that seem to be the most pertinent to my current WIP.
Now, all of these books are wonderful. Each offers something the others don't have. I think they should all be on every children' writer's desk or bookshelf. But! Do you realize how confused you can get by reading all these books? Each offers a different perspective to writing. It may differ only slightly from one or more of the others, but it is just enough to cause you ( me, anyway) to say HUH? But I just read something the opposite of this in Writing it Right !
One might say that exposition is necessary, another might say you should have very little. One might explain that backstory should be brought in early on in the story, another will say backstory should be dropped by bits and pieces throughout the story. One will say using adverbs is a BIG No No, another will say adverbs spice up the story if used judiciously. And on and on.
What to believe? How to write? Sometimes the books are more confusing than they are helpful! I'm in my third course with ICL, and one instructor has said my novel should begin with action, another has said no, let's establish the relationships first. Aaghh!
I suppose that all this confusion serves a purpose, however. First, if we follow all of these books, we will be doing a mountainous amount of writing and no story will be like another LOL Second, it does give us experience when we get to the point in writing that I'm in at the moment...looking for an agent. Because the truth of the matter is: there are no two agents in this entire universe who want exactly the same thing in a query letter ! !
Consequently, if you have experience in writing in different modes ( not genres, necessarily), you will have experience in writing a mulitude of query letters...and not any one will be anything like another.
All joking aside...umm, I wasn't entirely joking...the above mentioned books are a tremendous asset to any writer, and I seriously recommend them.
Until later, that's a wrap.
The first writing books I had were sent to me by my daughter, with a note that basically said, Get off your butt and start writing! And those 5 books were actually what started me writing with the intention ( and hope) of someday being published.
The best of those books were Crafting Stories for Children, by Nancy Lamb, and The Children's Writer's Word Book, by Alijandra Mogilner. I've kinda gotten beyond the Writer's Word Book, but I still refer to Nancy Lamb's book.
Then there is Writing it Right by Sandy Asher, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown and Dave King; Finding Your Voice by Les Edgerton; Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass; The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman; Characters, Emotion and Viewpoint by Nancy Kress; and last but certainly not least, Word Magic for Writers by Cindy Rogers.
These all grace my bookshelves, as well as the requisite 2010 editions of Writer's Guide to 2010, The Children's Writers and Illustrators Market, Book Markets for Children's Writers, Magazine Markets for Children's Writers, The Children's Writers' Guide ( 2009 edition), and just received, the 2011 Guide to Literary Agents. Whew!
Have I read all of these books, cover to cover? No, of course not. I probably should, but instead, I pick and choose the chapters that seem to be the most pertinent to my current WIP.
Now, all of these books are wonderful. Each offers something the others don't have. I think they should all be on every children' writer's desk or bookshelf. But! Do you realize how confused you can get by reading all these books? Each offers a different perspective to writing. It may differ only slightly from one or more of the others, but it is just enough to cause you ( me, anyway) to say HUH? But I just read something the opposite of this in Writing it Right !
One might say that exposition is necessary, another might say you should have very little. One might explain that backstory should be brought in early on in the story, another will say backstory should be dropped by bits and pieces throughout the story. One will say using adverbs is a BIG No No, another will say adverbs spice up the story if used judiciously. And on and on.
What to believe? How to write? Sometimes the books are more confusing than they are helpful! I'm in my third course with ICL, and one instructor has said my novel should begin with action, another has said no, let's establish the relationships first. Aaghh!
I suppose that all this confusion serves a purpose, however. First, if we follow all of these books, we will be doing a mountainous amount of writing and no story will be like another LOL Second, it does give us experience when we get to the point in writing that I'm in at the moment...looking for an agent. Because the truth of the matter is: there are no two agents in this entire universe who want exactly the same thing in a query letter ! !
Consequently, if you have experience in writing in different modes ( not genres, necessarily), you will have experience in writing a mulitude of query letters...and not any one will be anything like another.
All joking aside...umm, I wasn't entirely joking...the above mentioned books are a tremendous asset to any writer, and I seriously recommend them.
Until later, that's a wrap.
Friday, June 18, 2010
The Three Paragraph Rule
Have you heard of the "3 paragraph" rule for queries? You know, where you're supposed to tell everything that's important about your manuscript and you in just 3 paragraphs? That's a laugh, isn't it !
I'm going to talk about what I've been taught about this rule. You might find it handy, or you might not. Anyway, supposedly the first paragraph is actually no more than a one or two sentence introduction. This is to try to make the reason why you're querying this particular agent a personal one, i.e. to let him know that you've done your homework and know something about him. For example, if you can start this first paragraph off by saying...I am seeking your representation because you represented TITLE OF BOOK by AUTHOR'S NAME, and I think my manuscript is similar. However, before you say this, you need to make sure you've read this book and your book actually IS similar. Nothing will put an agent off more than to ask for your manuscript based on this kind of statement in your query, and then find that your story doesn't even faintly resemble the one you mentioned.
The second paragraph should be a short and concise description of your plot/storyline. By short I mean only a few sentences, maybe 4 or 5. You don't want to try to work in subplots or characters' names. Although, not mentioning even the MC's name seems to be something that agents disagree on, because I've seen some agents who want to know right away who they will be reading about. So there seems to be some disagreement on that. What you do need is tight and concise writing: instead of "My novel is about a tragedy that happened at a high school," you should say "My novel is about the 12 students who were shot at XXX high school." The second thing you need is the location of your story. Not "It takes place in a large metropolitan city," but "It takes place in Chicago, Illinois." And the third thing is the time period.
If you are abiding by the "write tight and specific" rule, then you want your time period to be tight and specific too. Instead of saying "My novel takes place over a short span of time" you can say "My novel takes place during the month of August," or "over 10 days in December." This gives the agent some idea of the structure and time line of your work, and the knowledge that you've done your homework and the story isn't just something you've thrown together.
The third paragraph, which should be the final one in your query, is your biography. And this is also the one which probably causes the writer the most difficulty. People are always asking What should I put in my bio? How much is too much or not enough? Is it long enough, or short enough? Again, this paragraph needs to be short.
You don't need to, and probably shouldn't, mention "minor' credits, like being published in a local newspaper or magazine...anything that seems "amateurish" should be left out, even if you were delighted that you were published in something local. Anything major, like a children's national magazine, is a great publishing credit. Any major award, like the Newbury Honor Award, or the William C. Morris Debut Award, should of course be listed. Anything that tells the agent what accomplishments you already have behind you needs to be included. Any extra schooling related specifically to writing, such as an MFA or writing education courses, such as the Institute of Children's Literature, is a bonus.
Another couple of things not to do: Don't get personal, about how you started writing in middle school; what your hobbies are, how you write the office newsletter and everyone thinks you're great, and so on. Don't include information that simply is not relevant to your writing, just "talking to be talking." Don't embellish your bios by talking about how everyone thinks your writing is great, your daughter's 5th grade class loved your last story, and so on. Be specific, concise and relevant in all that you say.
That's a wrap. Let me know what you think.
I'm going to talk about what I've been taught about this rule. You might find it handy, or you might not. Anyway, supposedly the first paragraph is actually no more than a one or two sentence introduction. This is to try to make the reason why you're querying this particular agent a personal one, i.e. to let him know that you've done your homework and know something about him. For example, if you can start this first paragraph off by saying...I am seeking your representation because you represented TITLE OF BOOK by AUTHOR'S NAME, and I think my manuscript is similar. However, before you say this, you need to make sure you've read this book and your book actually IS similar. Nothing will put an agent off more than to ask for your manuscript based on this kind of statement in your query, and then find that your story doesn't even faintly resemble the one you mentioned.
The second paragraph should be a short and concise description of your plot/storyline. By short I mean only a few sentences, maybe 4 or 5. You don't want to try to work in subplots or characters' names. Although, not mentioning even the MC's name seems to be something that agents disagree on, because I've seen some agents who want to know right away who they will be reading about. So there seems to be some disagreement on that. What you do need is tight and concise writing: instead of "My novel is about a tragedy that happened at a high school," you should say "My novel is about the 12 students who were shot at XXX high school." The second thing you need is the location of your story. Not "It takes place in a large metropolitan city," but "It takes place in Chicago, Illinois." And the third thing is the time period.
If you are abiding by the "write tight and specific" rule, then you want your time period to be tight and specific too. Instead of saying "My novel takes place over a short span of time" you can say "My novel takes place during the month of August," or "over 10 days in December." This gives the agent some idea of the structure and time line of your work, and the knowledge that you've done your homework and the story isn't just something you've thrown together.
The third paragraph, which should be the final one in your query, is your biography. And this is also the one which probably causes the writer the most difficulty. People are always asking What should I put in my bio? How much is too much or not enough? Is it long enough, or short enough? Again, this paragraph needs to be short.
You don't need to, and probably shouldn't, mention "minor' credits, like being published in a local newspaper or magazine...anything that seems "amateurish" should be left out, even if you were delighted that you were published in something local. Anything major, like a children's national magazine, is a great publishing credit. Any major award, like the Newbury Honor Award, or the William C. Morris Debut Award, should of course be listed. Anything that tells the agent what accomplishments you already have behind you needs to be included. Any extra schooling related specifically to writing, such as an MFA or writing education courses, such as the Institute of Children's Literature, is a bonus.
Another couple of things not to do: Don't get personal, about how you started writing in middle school; what your hobbies are, how you write the office newsletter and everyone thinks you're great, and so on. Don't include information that simply is not relevant to your writing, just "talking to be talking." Don't embellish your bios by talking about how everyone thinks your writing is great, your daughter's 5th grade class loved your last story, and so on. Be specific, concise and relevant in all that you say.
That's a wrap. Let me know what you think.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
New Blog, Queries, and more
I know, I know, it's been more than a week since my last post. Between getting my first 1/3 of my novel ready to send off, and therapy 3 times a week, I don't have much time for blogging.
As you can see, I've changed my blog somewhat. Well, actually, a lot. I'm trying out one of Blogger's new designer templates to see if I like it or not. It's a little more complicated than the old template, so it and me may not get along too well.
I've been doing a lot of research the past couple of weeks on writing query letters. About all it's done is to confuse me more than usual. We all have to write them, though, so let's talk about queries for a moment.
When you decide to write one, do you spend hours and days getting it just right? Or do you just sit down and spin it off the top of your head? Queries are the first thing that either an editor or an agent sees about us, and it is upon that query that they base what kind of a writer we are. Many times their rejections are simply because they feel the query is so badly written, the manuscript must also be a mess. Sometimes that's true, but often it isn't.
I've heard so many writers say it isn't fair for our writing skills, abilities, and the quality of our craft to be judged on the basis of one short letter. You know, I think that's true. But we have to remember what a query is...it is a marketing tool. We are marketing ourselves to that editor or agent, and if we have not sold ourselves, they are definitely not going to buy our product.
The first thing we have to be sure of is the agency we send the query to. For one thing, we need to have done enough research to know the name of the agent we're querying. NO agent wants to open a letter addressed to "Dear Agent", "Dear Sir or Madam," or worse yet, "To Whom It May Concern." Next, we have to make sure that this particular agent handles picture books, or middle grade novels, or mysteries, or fantasy, or whatever else we're writing. If we get everything right in the letter, name of the agent, short and concise summary of the story, good bio and writing clips, and then send the query to Ms. X for our science fiction YA novel, and she doesn't handle any client who writes sci-fi OR YA, not only is our effort a waste of our time but we're probably going to get a bad name among agents.
I am sure I don't even have to mention this, but I will. ALWAYS print the letter out on the best WHITE paper you can find, and don't mess around with colored paper or some kind of fancy paper like onion skin or something like that. It should be the same kind of paper, with the same font, as you have written and printed out your manuscript on. As for the font, 12 pt Times New Roman is the best, so don't get crazy with something wild and weird.
That's all for now, but more on query letters later. It may be about a week, as my daughter/fellow writer and my son-in-law will be here tomorrow for 5 days. YIPPEE!
And that's a wrap.
As you can see, I've changed my blog somewhat. Well, actually, a lot. I'm trying out one of Blogger's new designer templates to see if I like it or not. It's a little more complicated than the old template, so it and me may not get along too well.
I've been doing a lot of research the past couple of weeks on writing query letters. About all it's done is to confuse me more than usual. We all have to write them, though, so let's talk about queries for a moment.
When you decide to write one, do you spend hours and days getting it just right? Or do you just sit down and spin it off the top of your head? Queries are the first thing that either an editor or an agent sees about us, and it is upon that query that they base what kind of a writer we are. Many times their rejections are simply because they feel the query is so badly written, the manuscript must also be a mess. Sometimes that's true, but often it isn't.
I've heard so many writers say it isn't fair for our writing skills, abilities, and the quality of our craft to be judged on the basis of one short letter. You know, I think that's true. But we have to remember what a query is...it is a marketing tool. We are marketing ourselves to that editor or agent, and if we have not sold ourselves, they are definitely not going to buy our product.
The first thing we have to be sure of is the agency we send the query to. For one thing, we need to have done enough research to know the name of the agent we're querying. NO agent wants to open a letter addressed to "Dear Agent", "Dear Sir or Madam," or worse yet, "To Whom It May Concern." Next, we have to make sure that this particular agent handles picture books, or middle grade novels, or mysteries, or fantasy, or whatever else we're writing. If we get everything right in the letter, name of the agent, short and concise summary of the story, good bio and writing clips, and then send the query to Ms. X for our science fiction YA novel, and she doesn't handle any client who writes sci-fi OR YA, not only is our effort a waste of our time but we're probably going to get a bad name among agents.
I am sure I don't even have to mention this, but I will. ALWAYS print the letter out on the best WHITE paper you can find, and don't mess around with colored paper or some kind of fancy paper like onion skin or something like that. It should be the same kind of paper, with the same font, as you have written and printed out your manuscript on. As for the font, 12 pt Times New Roman is the best, so don't get crazy with something wild and weird.
That's all for now, but more on query letters later. It may be about a week, as my daughter/fellow writer and my son-in-law will be here tomorrow for 5 days. YIPPEE!
And that's a wrap.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Book Review: Speak
I'm back from my surgery/recuperation hiatus, although still definitely not recouperated entirely. I have a lot of ideas to write about, but thought I would begin today with another book review. Another great book by Laurie Halse Anderson...Speak, like Wintergirls, is one which touches close to home as it is, unfortunately, true to life for many teens.
Melinda Sordino begins her first day as a high-school freshman as a social outcast. Her best friends from junior high have deserted her, and no one wants to have anything to do with her. During a summer party, Melinda gets drunk, along with all of the other kids, and is raped by a popular high school "jock." She calls 911, but is so traumatized that even when the police get there, she can't "speak" to them about what happened. In fact, she doesn't tell anyone, even her parents, so all of her friends figure she called the police just to break up the party. Consequently, they turn against her for ruining the party and their good time.
Not only does Melinda not tell anyone about the rape, but she withdraws into herself so much that she barely speaks to anyone for any reason. She skips classes, doesn't do assignments, and in general becomes totally estranged from her world and everyone in it. The only person with whom she has any interaction or rapport at all is Mr. Freeman, her art teacher. Although he doesn't know what has happened, he is astute enough to realize that she has been traumatized in some way...something that her parents seem to have no clue about. Through Mr. Freeman, Melinda struggles within herself to express in her art all of her deeply repressed feelings.
When the boy who raped her accosts her again, she finds enough physical and emotional strength to fight him off, to scream and say NO! This new-found strength helps her to become whole again, and the book ends with her sitting down with her art teacher, and saying: Let me tell you about it.
It is not until almost the end of the book that readers know for sure that Melinda has been raped at the summer party, but there are clues throughout which make the reader believe that this is what happened. For most of the story, the senior is not seen or heard, but then one day in the hallway, Melinda sees him and is frightend all over again: "I see IT in the hallway...IT sees me. IT smiles and winks." And when her former best friend begins dating this boy, Melinda feels that somehow she must find her voice and speak out.
Personally, I thought the part where the boy tries to rape her again a little contrived. This is supposedly what gives her the strength to tell him NO, and then to talk to her art teacher. But she has already decided that she must tell someone what happened to her when she finds out that her best friend is dating this boy, so why isn't that enough to make her "speak out?" Hmm...just my opinion.
Anderson does a beautiful job, once again, of finding the innermost secret pains of today's teens and writing about them with honesty, poignancy, and compelling realism. Teen readers will empathize with Melinda, and adults will cringe at the cruelty that kids heap upon one another. No matter what, this is a powerfully written book that no one will want to put down.
Read it, and let me know what you think.
Melinda Sordino begins her first day as a high-school freshman as a social outcast. Her best friends from junior high have deserted her, and no one wants to have anything to do with her. During a summer party, Melinda gets drunk, along with all of the other kids, and is raped by a popular high school "jock." She calls 911, but is so traumatized that even when the police get there, she can't "speak" to them about what happened. In fact, she doesn't tell anyone, even her parents, so all of her friends figure she called the police just to break up the party. Consequently, they turn against her for ruining the party and their good time.
Not only does Melinda not tell anyone about the rape, but she withdraws into herself so much that she barely speaks to anyone for any reason. She skips classes, doesn't do assignments, and in general becomes totally estranged from her world and everyone in it. The only person with whom she has any interaction or rapport at all is Mr. Freeman, her art teacher. Although he doesn't know what has happened, he is astute enough to realize that she has been traumatized in some way...something that her parents seem to have no clue about. Through Mr. Freeman, Melinda struggles within herself to express in her art all of her deeply repressed feelings.
When the boy who raped her accosts her again, she finds enough physical and emotional strength to fight him off, to scream and say NO! This new-found strength helps her to become whole again, and the book ends with her sitting down with her art teacher, and saying: Let me tell you about it.
It is not until almost the end of the book that readers know for sure that Melinda has been raped at the summer party, but there are clues throughout which make the reader believe that this is what happened. For most of the story, the senior is not seen or heard, but then one day in the hallway, Melinda sees him and is frightend all over again: "I see IT in the hallway...IT sees me. IT smiles and winks." And when her former best friend begins dating this boy, Melinda feels that somehow she must find her voice and speak out.
Personally, I thought the part where the boy tries to rape her again a little contrived. This is supposedly what gives her the strength to tell him NO, and then to talk to her art teacher. But she has already decided that she must tell someone what happened to her when she finds out that her best friend is dating this boy, so why isn't that enough to make her "speak out?" Hmm...just my opinion.
Anderson does a beautiful job, once again, of finding the innermost secret pains of today's teens and writing about them with honesty, poignancy, and compelling realism. Teen readers will empathize with Melinda, and adults will cringe at the cruelty that kids heap upon one another. No matter what, this is a powerfully written book that no one will want to put down.
Read it, and let me know what you think.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
BooK Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
I'm back with another book review. I've heard so much about the Percy Jackson books I decided to buy the first one, The Lightning Thief. Umm. Well, I read it all the way through, and then went back and read parts of it over again. It is one of those books I didn't like but had to finish to see how it ends. I didn't like it for several reasons;
First, I'm not into this kind of fantasy. Actually, I'm not much into fantasy at all...I mostly like things like The Bridge of Terabithia, where there is at least some realism in it.
Second, I've never been too impressed by the Gods of Olympia ( ducks head and waits for thunder) or by Greek mythology in any form.
Third, well, let me tell you what the book is about before I go further. Percy Jackson is a 12 year old 6th grader who is dyslexic and ADHD, is a terrible student and is about to get expelled from his fifth or sixth school, most of them specifically for 'troubled kids.' He's never known his father, and his stepfather is a lout who regular does nothing but play poker and beat on Percy's mother.
Suddenly, he becomes the star player in a world of Greek gods and mythical monsters, all of whom seem to be out to get him for no reason he can figure out. His best friend in school turns out to be a satyr, his Latin teacher is really a centaur, and worst of all, Percy discovers he is a Half-Blood...the son of a god, Poisidan, and his mortal mother. To make matters even more complicated, he is sent to a half-blood camp to be trained by others like himself, and there manages to anger the gods and then is accused of stealing Zeus' master lightning bolt. He and his two friends have just 10 days to find the bolt, return it to Zeus, and get Percy off the hook.
The concept of this book is great, and I'm sure a lot of kids love it. I'm even more confident that those who see the movie, and DON'T read the book, will like it even more.
BUT: being a children's writer myself, there were a lot of things that struck me wrong. One of the main things was that Percy's character came off as someone a lot older than 12. He just overcame his problems and obstacles too easily. He handled his new-found sword as though he'd been practicing with it for years. He defeats one monster after another with little thought or effort. He always seems to know where danger lurks. He goes one on one with Ares, the God of War, and defeats him. Really? Hmmm. Hopefully, the Gods aren't reading this book, or we all might have some 'splaining to do ! The result of that was that a lot of the excitement was lost, because if Percy can defeat the God of War so easily, there doesn't seem like much is left to the imagination as to what he can or cannot do in the rest of the book.
The second thing I couldn't relate to is the voice. Percy just doesn't 'sound' like a 12 year old, nor do the other kids. They all, but especially Percy, sound like an adult who's trying to sound like a 12 year old. I didn't feel there was much distinction between the voices, either.
And then...there is the resemblance to the Harry Potter books.
1) Percy, like Harry, is half mortal and half-god ( half-wizard.)
2) Percy has two friends, Annabeth and Grover ( Hermoine and Ron.)
3) Percy and his friends have a method of invisibility, Annabeth's cap ( cloak of invisibility)
4. Percy is sent away to a "summer camp" where there are other 'half bloods' like him ( Hogwarts Academy)
5. The camp has individual cabins ( Houses) which compete against each other in strange games.
6. The winner of the famous Capture the Flag ( Quittich) gets to hang their cabin banners all over camp.
7. One of the cabins house the "mean kids" that Percy gets into trouble with ( Slytherin.)
Okay, the kids that love Harry will most likely love Percy almost as much, and they won't care about these little things I listed above, and in fact, I seriously doubt that they will even recognize them. I guess it takes another kids' writer to pick up on things like that, but it really grated on me. The funny thing is...I don't usually "analyze" books while I'm reading them. I prefer just getting into the book and letting it take me away from my reality. But the elements in this one were so obvious, it didn't take any real analysis to discover them.
There are 6 or 7 more of the Percy Jackson books, but I won't be reading them. This kind of fantasy is enough for me in one book. However...I am wondering if the other books are clones of Harry Potter, too...
If you read the book, let me know what you think.
First, I'm not into this kind of fantasy. Actually, I'm not much into fantasy at all...I mostly like things like The Bridge of Terabithia, where there is at least some realism in it.
Second, I've never been too impressed by the Gods of Olympia ( ducks head and waits for thunder) or by Greek mythology in any form.
Third, well, let me tell you what the book is about before I go further. Percy Jackson is a 12 year old 6th grader who is dyslexic and ADHD, is a terrible student and is about to get expelled from his fifth or sixth school, most of them specifically for 'troubled kids.' He's never known his father, and his stepfather is a lout who regular does nothing but play poker and beat on Percy's mother.
Suddenly, he becomes the star player in a world of Greek gods and mythical monsters, all of whom seem to be out to get him for no reason he can figure out. His best friend in school turns out to be a satyr, his Latin teacher is really a centaur, and worst of all, Percy discovers he is a Half-Blood...the son of a god, Poisidan, and his mortal mother. To make matters even more complicated, he is sent to a half-blood camp to be trained by others like himself, and there manages to anger the gods and then is accused of stealing Zeus' master lightning bolt. He and his two friends have just 10 days to find the bolt, return it to Zeus, and get Percy off the hook.
The concept of this book is great, and I'm sure a lot of kids love it. I'm even more confident that those who see the movie, and DON'T read the book, will like it even more.
BUT: being a children's writer myself, there were a lot of things that struck me wrong. One of the main things was that Percy's character came off as someone a lot older than 12. He just overcame his problems and obstacles too easily. He handled his new-found sword as though he'd been practicing with it for years. He defeats one monster after another with little thought or effort. He always seems to know where danger lurks. He goes one on one with Ares, the God of War, and defeats him. Really? Hmmm. Hopefully, the Gods aren't reading this book, or we all might have some 'splaining to do ! The result of that was that a lot of the excitement was lost, because if Percy can defeat the God of War so easily, there doesn't seem like much is left to the imagination as to what he can or cannot do in the rest of the book.
The second thing I couldn't relate to is the voice. Percy just doesn't 'sound' like a 12 year old, nor do the other kids. They all, but especially Percy, sound like an adult who's trying to sound like a 12 year old. I didn't feel there was much distinction between the voices, either.
And then...there is the resemblance to the Harry Potter books.
1) Percy, like Harry, is half mortal and half-god ( half-wizard.)
2) Percy has two friends, Annabeth and Grover ( Hermoine and Ron.)
3) Percy and his friends have a method of invisibility, Annabeth's cap ( cloak of invisibility)
4. Percy is sent away to a "summer camp" where there are other 'half bloods' like him ( Hogwarts Academy)
5. The camp has individual cabins ( Houses) which compete against each other in strange games.
6. The winner of the famous Capture the Flag ( Quittich) gets to hang their cabin banners all over camp.
7. One of the cabins house the "mean kids" that Percy gets into trouble with ( Slytherin.)
Okay, the kids that love Harry will most likely love Percy almost as much, and they won't care about these little things I listed above, and in fact, I seriously doubt that they will even recognize them. I guess it takes another kids' writer to pick up on things like that, but it really grated on me. The funny thing is...I don't usually "analyze" books while I'm reading them. I prefer just getting into the book and letting it take me away from my reality. But the elements in this one were so obvious, it didn't take any real analysis to discover them.
There are 6 or 7 more of the Percy Jackson books, but I won't be reading them. This kind of fantasy is enough for me in one book. However...I am wondering if the other books are clones of Harry Potter, too...
If you read the book, let me know what you think.
Friday, May 21, 2010
The Hero's Journey
So okay, I said I wouldn't be back for about a month. But I'm so bored that I'm going to brave the one-handed writing and try to do this post...even if it takes me all day.
Have you heard of the writing concept, The Hero's Journey? It's a concept that came to life many years ago, but has been renewed recently by Christopher Vogler. It was written primarily for fantasy stories that are character driven, as opposed to being plot driven. However, I discovered that if your story is character driven, you can fit your main character into the Acts, Stages and Character Arcs that compose the Hero's Journey, even if it is a contempory or even an historical novel. I've just done that with Ben, my 'hero' in my historical fiction novel, and it's working out very well.
The Hero's Journey is divided into three "acts" which correspond to our beginning, middle and end. Acts One and Two have five stages, Act Three has two stages, and all have character arcs to correspond with each stage.
Act One begins with the hero realizing that some problem exists in his sphere of life, but has very limited knowledge or awareness of it. As the stages of Act One continue, the hero progresses from having increased awareness and knowledge of the problem to being reluctant to attempt to change or rectify the problem to finally overcoming his reluctance and being commited to trying to change things.
Act Two continues with the hero going through stages where he decides gradually to try different things to change the problem, then prepares for his final decision, faces his drawbacks and all the things that seem designed specifically to prevent him from achieving his goal of change, and finally sees him as totally committed to making the change or achieving his goal.
Act Three is the climax, where he finally accomplishes the change or the goal that he set out to do.
Look, we all know that there are NO new stories. Every story in the history of mankind has already been told. As writers, all we can hope to do is to put a different spin on an old story, to make it unique because of our voice, our characters, our settings, our dialogue, and etc. But this way of looking at our main character(s) makes things easier. What is it we are always told about writing fiction?
1. Our mc wants something.
2. There are forces ( situations, experiences, people) who are going to try to keep the MC from getting what she wants or achieving her goal.
3. How does she deal with these forces?
4. She either gets what she wants or achieves her goal, or she doesn't.
5. How does #4 affect her in the long run.
The hero's journey addresses all these points, but in a more concise way. I guess you can call it a type of outline, but for someone like me...who absolutely hates to outline...it just works better.
I'm going to give you two websites to check out. The first is the one I printed out originally, and worked Ben ( my historical fiction MC) into. The second is one I found recently, which has a good explanation of each of the Three Acts.
For the "questionnaire":
www.darkcloudpress.com/blog_files/Death_Percept_Heroes_Jrny_Quest.pdf
This is where you will find the outline of Acts, Stages, and Character Arcs.
www.hotnottowrite.com/big-huge-book-reviews/the-writers-journey-by-Christopher-Vogler/
This is a good explanation of each act, although it is written a bit differently than the 'questionnaire' above. Still worth reading, however.
Take a look, and see if you can't use it in your own work. If you want to see how I worked Ben into each act and stage, let me know and I'll email a copy to you.
Hope it works for you. Let me know.
Have you heard of the writing concept, The Hero's Journey? It's a concept that came to life many years ago, but has been renewed recently by Christopher Vogler. It was written primarily for fantasy stories that are character driven, as opposed to being plot driven. However, I discovered that if your story is character driven, you can fit your main character into the Acts, Stages and Character Arcs that compose the Hero's Journey, even if it is a contempory or even an historical novel. I've just done that with Ben, my 'hero' in my historical fiction novel, and it's working out very well.
The Hero's Journey is divided into three "acts" which correspond to our beginning, middle and end. Acts One and Two have five stages, Act Three has two stages, and all have character arcs to correspond with each stage.
Act One begins with the hero realizing that some problem exists in his sphere of life, but has very limited knowledge or awareness of it. As the stages of Act One continue, the hero progresses from having increased awareness and knowledge of the problem to being reluctant to attempt to change or rectify the problem to finally overcoming his reluctance and being commited to trying to change things.
Act Two continues with the hero going through stages where he decides gradually to try different things to change the problem, then prepares for his final decision, faces his drawbacks and all the things that seem designed specifically to prevent him from achieving his goal of change, and finally sees him as totally committed to making the change or achieving his goal.
Act Three is the climax, where he finally accomplishes the change or the goal that he set out to do.
Look, we all know that there are NO new stories. Every story in the history of mankind has already been told. As writers, all we can hope to do is to put a different spin on an old story, to make it unique because of our voice, our characters, our settings, our dialogue, and etc. But this way of looking at our main character(s) makes things easier. What is it we are always told about writing fiction?
1. Our mc wants something.
2. There are forces ( situations, experiences, people) who are going to try to keep the MC from getting what she wants or achieving her goal.
3. How does she deal with these forces?
4. She either gets what she wants or achieves her goal, or she doesn't.
5. How does #4 affect her in the long run.
The hero's journey addresses all these points, but in a more concise way. I guess you can call it a type of outline, but for someone like me...who absolutely hates to outline...it just works better.
I'm going to give you two websites to check out. The first is the one I printed out originally, and worked Ben ( my historical fiction MC) into. The second is one I found recently, which has a good explanation of each of the Three Acts.
For the "questionnaire":
www.darkcloudpress.com/blog_files/Death_Percept_Heroes_Jrny_Quest.pdf
This is where you will find the outline of Acts, Stages, and Character Arcs.
www.hotnottowrite.com/big-huge-book-reviews/the-writers-journey-by-Christopher-Vogler/
This is a good explanation of each act, although it is written a bit differently than the 'questionnaire' above. Still worth reading, however.
Take a look, and see if you can't use it in your own work. If you want to see how I worked Ben into each act and stage, let me know and I'll email a copy to you.
Hope it works for you. Let me know.
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