Tag Archives: young adult

If only I could write as quickly as I could come up with ideas

I managed to wrangle some free time Sunday night to sit down and look over my “to finish” list and figure out what’s going on with my writing folder. The short answer seems to be that there’s a whole hell of a lot going on. Let’s have a look, shall we?

Book #1. Book #1 is written to the end of chapter seven and hasn’t been touched in a few months. I haven’t touched it because I realized during the writing of chapter 7 that Book #1 is not a standalone book. It appears to be the first part of a trilogy, and it takes me time to get the gears in my head to switch over to be prepared for that. Writing a single book takes a lot of effort; suddenly realizing it’s the first of three requires even more effort. I am determined to get back to Book #1. It’s an idea I’ve been working on since 2009, and I would love to finally have a draft I can show people by the end of 2012. Three years is enough lolly-gagging.

Book #2 & Book #3. I’m counting these as a single entity because so far they’re only in my head right now. They will be the sequels to Book #1. There may even be a fourth book from a different perspective, but I refuse to say more about that until I have to.

Novella about lighthouses and secretary birds. I don’t have a shorter name for it than that right now. All I’m certain about is that it will likely be over 10,000 words, but it may not be novel-length. This one needs some research before I can sink into it. I’ve been browsing books at the library trying to figure out where to start, and I think I’ll just have to jump in at a place that seems like a good place and go from there. It might be a romance novella. I don’t know, and that would be weird because I’m not great at romance novels (I’ve tried. It was painful. Be happy you have never seen it).

Steampunk Novel. This one comes out of this past year’s NaNo. I wrote some steampunk-ish scenes amongst everything else and really liked them, and then the idea sort of blew up on me, and I went, “Oh, crap.” If these ever get down on paper in coherent form, they will also probably be a trilogy. So, that makes six books that are taking up space in my head right now. Also, these are spy novels, I think. Or, at least, they are right now.

Steampunk #2 & Steampunk #3. See above.

YA Novel. I know what it’s going to be about, but it’s going to take some research. I pitched this one to myself completely by accident. I needed to create a fake novel to pitch to a fake publishing house (one of the activities you do if you’re in the Ooligan Publishing program), and I liked the idea so much it took root. The research side of things is daunting, but I am happy knowing for certain it’s a single-story book. No sequels or trilogies here (I win!).

Zombie Comic, non-apocalyptic. This is one of those ideas that came to me way back, and I’m finally at the point I think I’m ready to tackle it. I have the beginning, and I have the end. I just have to find the middle. And an artist. I can’t draw for beans.

Zombie Rom-Com Comic. That would be a romantic comedy with zombies. It’d also be a comic. It would not be associated with the first zombie comic except for the fact that there are zombies. The rules for zombies in this comic are very different from the zombies in the other book (Yes, I have the rules set out for the types already).

Comic #3. Not a zombie comic. This one’s a great deal more literary and much closer to my heart than the others. It’s a little painful, actually, and I have the first five pages scripted, but I’m not sure I actually want to finish scripting the rest because the subject matter is very difficult. Five pages of comic script is as far as I’ve gotten into properly discussing the topic, so I may push forward just to see if I can tell the whole thing.

Short stories. The unfinished count right now stands at seven. Most of those are in dire need of a lot more work, and the others are barely more than the first few sentences. I think I need to find time this coming weekend to sit down, fire up the computer and iTunes, and push myself to get something on the page. That usually resolves a story or two at a time and feels really damned good.

Tiny Nothing Poems. This is a book project I’ve been contemplating. I’ve got a collection of micro poems that are goofy little things that I’d like to lay out with some illustrations. I know who I want as an illustrator, as well, but I have to get all the pieces laid out before I even get that far. I want about 20 poems, and I think I only have 12 or 13. I think I’d do the whole thing as a handmade book, something I could give away for fun or use for giveaways or something similar.

That Play. Or, as I’m also calling it, “Sorry, Ernest Hemingway.” It started as a pile of dialogue, and the more I work on it, the more it takes the form of a stage show. I haven’t written a play in ages, so it’s very strange, but I think it could be really good, so it’s in the queue.

What’s everyone else working on? Anyone able to beat my numbers?

A Weekend of Accomplishments

Two–count ‘em, two–submissions sent out this weekend! One was a short story I’ve been shopping around for awhile that just needed a new market, and the other was a set of poems. I know I said a while ago I wasn’t submitting poetry anymore, but these three sound really good together, and my general response to failure has always been, “Okay, fine. But what about this?” Which is to say that I will sometimes decide I’m going to stop doing something, and then decide to hell with it and give it another shot.

I also read two–count ‘em two–books this weekend. I have always loved <i>The Face on the Milk Carton</i>, which I read again last year, and I read the next two books in the series (<i>Whatever Happened to Janie?</i> and <i>The Voice on the Radio</i>) on Saturday. There’s one more book in the series (<i>What Janie Found</i>), and I think I may knock it out next weekend. On of the reasons I really adore YA is because you can find great stories that you can read quickly. Given my usual schedule of work/class/homework/death, YA is a great fit for me.

I’ve also made the decision to keep track of my comics on Goodreads this year. I chose not to do it last year, but I want to see what the book-to-comic ratio is. I’m only counting trades, as that’s the only real way to keep track, and I look forward to seeing the numbers. My final book count last year without comics was 24, and I’m pretty proud of that. I’m very curious to see what my book numbers look like after I graduate in June and will only have work and general life stuff keeping me busy.

I didn’t write anything new this weekend, but I have been editing. I’ve got a short story I can’t figure out exactly what to do with (it’s either finished or needs to be way, way longer), and I poked at it some. I’ve yet to come to a conclusion about what to do with it, but I think I’m getting closer, and I need that.

In non-writing/reading news, I also got into Fitocracy, which is an exercise assistant that turns exercise into a game. You get points for every exercise you do, and you level up after a certain number of points. There’s also a social aspect, but I probably won’t do that much. It’s an invite-only situation at the moment because it’s still in beta. So far, it’s gotten me to find excuses to walk around a little more and gotten me to do push-ups, so I’m liking it. I read a very good blog post (the link for which I’ve lost, of course) that was a list of things writers needed to stop doing, and one of them was to stop treating your body like a junk food pyramid. It’s good advice, and it gives me extra incentive to really take the steps to take care of myself. I’ve got a very busy academic term coming up that needs to include some job hunting, and I want to keep writing. I need my brain in top form, and one of the best ways to do that is to get my body there, too.

 

So, that was my weekend. What’d you do on yours?

The New Huckleberry Finn: Now with “Improved” Language!

Short version: A new version of Huckleberry Finn is being published replacing the n-word with the word “slave.”

Related reading: Robert Ebert’s response to the matter and his unintended battle after some admitted insensitivity

And now, me: Huckleberry Finn hasn’t been getting taught in schools because Huck routinely uses the N-word when referring to Jim, the escaped slave he is traveling down the Mississippi with. To try and get it taught, a new edition of the book is coming out, replacing the N-word with the word “slave.”

I read this news, and my first response was conflict. Huckleberry Finn should be able to be taught as it was originally printed. Teachers and parents should be able to explain to their students and children how words change as culture changes. Huckleberry Finn could use the N-word because, at the time was book was written (and the time it was set), it was still a word that wasn’t considered taboo in polite society. Thanks to a greater understanding of humanity and education, the N-word and its connotations have become taboo. Because the N-word and its connotations are so taboo, Huckleberry Finn isn’t getting taught.

But changing the word removes it from the discussion and removes the lesson from Huck Finn–that a man is a man and should be respected for his thoughts. Changing to word to “slave” doesn’t work the same. “Slave” doesn’t hold the same connotations of the N-word. You can still say “slave” in society and not be censured. But to put in the word “slave,” the book gets taught.

I’ve been mulling this over for the last couple of days, trying to settle on a side on this thing, and I’ve come to the side of leaving it as it was. Huckleberry Finn is a book about how being willing to learn from your mistakes will make you a stronger, more intelligent person. The lesson revolves around Huck’s use of insulting language. “Slave” is not the same as the N-word. It’s nowhere close, and that brings up the real possibility that the lessons from the novel will be nowhere close as well. You want to teach children to learn from their mistakes? Show them ones that were actually made.